Pretty Little Things: 2018’s most nail-biting serial killer thriller with an unbelievable twist. T.M.E. Walsh
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have called as soon as we heard the news. Whatever must Ruth think of me, not being there right away at a time like this?
‘It’s not like this wasn’t at the back of her mind,’ Savannah continues. ‘I think it’s come as more of a shock for Mike. Ruth seemed to have come to terms with the fact that, as they hadn’t found Caroline within the first few days after she went missing, well . . .’ She looks pained. She swallows it down, looks to me and pulls a faint smile.
‘Are you going over to see her?’
‘I offered but . . . they need some space right now. They have officers helping them. It’s going to be hard in work today. For all of us.’
A sense of guilt hits me, and I wish I weren’t so helpless. I wish I could be there too. So much has changed in the last six months.
I see Savannah survey me and just want to change the subject.
‘I wasn’t expecting you,’ I say and pull my cardigan tighter around me. I glance at the kitchen clock on the wall behind her. ‘Are you on a different shift?’
Savannah’s hazel-coloured eyes narrow and she frowns. ‘Didn’t you get my text last night?’
I shake my head.
‘Here,’ she says, her demeanour more jovial. Eager to move the conversation on as much as I am, I suppose.
She whips out her phone, unlocks the screen. ‘See, I sent it about eight last night, saying I’d drop some bits off for the charity fete before my shift.’ She glances at her watch. ‘Although, I’m late.’
I see some bags beside Elle on the floor. I don’t remember reading this text, but then again, it’s not the first time I’ve forgotten things lately.
‘I remember now,’ I say.
Elle stares at me and then rolls her eyes.
‘Don’t you have coursework?’ I say.
Savannah gives Elle a wink as she huffs out of the room, then she smiles at me, but she must see the doubt in my eyes as I stare at the bags on the floor.
‘Oh, Ruth has said she wants us to go ahead with this.’
I look at her as she gestures to the bags. She looks so sure, but I’m not.
When Caroline first went missing, there was very little press coverage. But when two more girls vanished in as many weeks, everyone started pulling together.
When a fourth disappeared, too, we knew we had to do this event to raise money for the families so they could use the extra resources to help bring the girls home. I’d set up a funding page with Savannah and we decided to organise a charity street fete, to be held on the green opposite our house in the cul-de-sac.
Some people thought the police hadn’t been doing enough to find the girls.
But this was different.
They were missing then, and hope remained, slim though it was.
But now they’re no longer missing.
‘Ruth’s OK with it?’ I say. Savannah nods. ‘Really? I mean, that’s great but I worry it might look . . . insensitive.’
‘Hardly. This is what we do as a community. We band together and Ruth said we have her blessing. It can be like a celebration of their lives.’
‘I don’t know.’ I shake my head as my eyes sweep over the bags again. ‘It’s different now.’
Savannah comes closer to me, puts her hands on both my shoulders. ‘Look, if the other families don’t want this, we can do something just for Ruth and Mike.’
I’m not convinced. ‘I should call Ruth.’
‘Leave it with me,’ she says. ‘You’ve got enough to be getting on with.’
A look of confusion passes over my face.
‘For Elle’s party?’ she says, as if that’s something I shouldn’t forget.
I hadn’t forgotten but I’ve been in two minds about whether to cancel it, or at least scale it down. Now this has happened, those teens found, somehow it doesn’t feel right to be throwing a party for my daughter, when these mothers will no longer be able to do the same for their girls.
Savannah sees the look on my face. ‘Want to talk about it?’
‘Have you got time for a coffee?’
Savannah glances at her watch again. ‘Yeah, sure, just a quick one.’
*
‘Why can’t she have a party?’ Savannah sips her coffee. ‘I’m confused.’
And I’m frustrated she’s just not getting it.
‘I never said she couldn’t. Not exactly.’ I sigh, rub my forehead.
‘You’ve booked a DJ already, and the community hall.’
‘Yes but—’
‘You’d lose your money.’
‘The deposit.’
‘But still . . .’
I let her words hang in the air a moment before I speak. ‘I was thinking maybe we could still have a celebration for Elle but not on such a large scale.’
‘Like what?’
‘Maybe joint with the charity fete?’
She scoffs. ‘Not sure Elle-Belle’s going to like that.’
‘Well, maybe a meal out with just a few of us?’
‘What about her friends?’
I pause, think. ‘They can come to the charity fete. It’s an open event for ours and the surrounding villages, after all. I’ll leave the kitchen open for them to drop presents off.’
Savannah chews her bottom lip, mulling it over. ‘Slight problem.’
I look at her.
‘Isn’t there a party Elle’s been invited to this Friday? You mentioned it the other day.’
I nod and see her point before she spells it out.
‘You can’t say yes to letting her go to that and then take away her own birthday party.’ She pauses, sips her drink. ‘You are letting her go to that, aren’t you?’
She sets her mug down and folds her arms on the kitchen table in front of her.
I look at her well-defined, arched eyebrow, her expertly applied makeup and feel self-conscious about my own face. I realise I’m staring and inwardly shake myself.
I shrug. ‘I don’t know. I’m torn. I mean, Iain…’ I say and clasp my hands around my own mug. ‘He thinks we should let her go to this party and he’ll take her and pick her up . . .’
‘But?’
‘But I can’t help thinking about what happened before.’
‘That was under different circumstances, though,’ Savannah says, shifting in her seat. She’s dancing around saying it out loud, I know.
‘True, but still . . . Once that trust is broken, it’s hard to get back.’
‘Maybe that’s the way forward with Elle. Start giving her a little more rope to play with, so to speak, and let her see you’re trying to give her the chance to prove herself. Maybe you could just postpone her party. Give it a few weeks for things to settle down here?’ She pauses. ‘You don’t want to let her down, not when you’ve been trying to make headway with her.’
I remain silent.
‘She is nearly seventeen, after all,’ she adds.
Savannah’s my age