Down to Earth. Melanie Rose
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you some much needed answers.’
‘And if I don’t give my permission?’ I could feel the current tugging me forcibly out to sea.
‘It would be much easier for us and for you, if you cooperated fully.’ DI Smith crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in her chair.
I glanced at the door, remembering that I had nowhere left to run. Calum and Abigail obviously didn’t want me back, and if Calum had been telling the truth, my family home had been sold when my mother had been committed to the institution.
‘I haven’t even seen my mum yet,’ I said out loud. I was grabbing at straws, hoping to elicit their sympathy. ‘Calum told me that my father died four years ago and my mother is in some kind of nursing home.’
Dr Patel nodded, tapping the notes in front of her. ‘That is the case I’m afraid.’
‘Could I speak to Calum?’ I assumed he was still being questioned at the main police station and hoped they’d take me back there. No matter what he thought of me, I had hoped to find him by my side, being there with me even at the expense of his own safety.
‘Mr Sinclair has been allowed to leave,’ DI Smith replied. ‘We haven’t charged him with anything so he left with his daughter.’
I could see from her expression that this must have been a disappointment to her. It was a severe disappointment to me; he had left me on my own to sink or swim.
I remembered that Calum hadn’t been the only person dragged off to the police station because of me. ‘What about Matt?’ I asked in a tremulous voice.
‘Mr Matthew Treguier is still helping us with our enquiries.’
I realised with a jolt that I hadn’t even known Matt’s surname. Matt Treguier … I toyed with the name, letting it flow over my lips. Then I saw Dr Patel watching me intently and I closed my mouth with a snap. Matt was in enough trouble because of me.
But it was too late. Like the vastness of the ocean, this institution was bigger and infinitely more powerful than me. DI Smith narrowed her pale eyes behind those glasses, her expression intent. I remembered what she’d said about hostage dependency and realised I’d been swept right into her clutches.
‘Can you tell us about your feelings for Mr Treguier?’ Dr Patel asked in that deceptively soft voice. ‘Do you feel responsible for him, protective of him, perhaps?’
‘I hardly know him,’ I replied.
‘Then how do you account for the fact that the jumpsuit you were wearing when you went missing over six years ago has been found, along with a toothbrush, which we are currently testing for your DNA, in the back of Mr Treguier’s car?’
I felt as if a particularly icy wave had slapped me in the face. I’d forgotten to mention in my statement that I’d brought the jumpsuit back with me from Kent when recounting the incredible events of the previous day.
‘I put them there.’ I tried to regain some semblance of control. ‘Matt hasn’t done anything wrong. Ask Kevin – he was with us.’
‘Would that be Mr Kevin Wheeler?’
‘Yes.’
Dr Patel leaned towards me, her expression intense. ‘And what can you tell us about your relationship with Kevin?’
The DI gave a triumphant smile as I reeled backwards, shocked that every word that escaped my lips seemed to implicate someone else. ‘We were rather hoping you would mention Mr Wheeler. He’s been of interest to us for some time. He was one of the last people to see you before you disappeared, I believe?’
I nodded reluctantly. My case had been left open and now they could see a chance of solving a six-year-old mystery; a statistic to add to their end-of-year clean up rate.
‘Can you tell us why Mr Wheeler might be in possession of an unusual amount of documentation concerning your disappearance?’
‘He was interested in what happened to me, I suppose. It seems my so-called disappearance did make quite an impact on his life.’
‘ An obsessive amount of documentation,’ DI Smith declared as if I hadn’t spoken. Her eyes watched me closely for a reaction. ‘Newspaper cuttings, photos of you, computer printouts of other disappearances; the sort of collection someone with an unhealthy interest in your case might accumulate. He and Mr Treguier are friends, I believe?’
‘I think they have become friends recently – since the jump. They had never met each other prior to the day … it … happened.’
The DI leaned forward, her eyes fixed on mine. ‘Would you be surprised to learn that Mr Wheeler did know Mr Treguier before you and your other colleagues went down to the airfield that day?’
A picture of the four of us – Graham, Kevin, Ingrid and me – arriving at the airfield and being introduced to our instructor swam before my eyes. Neither Matt nor Kevin had given any indication of having already met.
‘I don’t believe it.’
‘We have records showing that Kevin Wheeler had already completed a static line jump the week before he went with you to the airfield on the day you vanished. According to the parachute company’s log book, Mr Treguier was his instructor.’
Calum had told me to fight, but the breakers just kept toppling over my head. No matter what I said, no one was going to believe me. They’d decided I’d been kidnapped by Matt or Kevin, or both. I gulped in a desperate breath of air. Hadn’t I fleetingly suspected both Matt and Kevin myself? Perhaps it was time to give up the battle and simply sink beneath the waves. Maybe DI Smith and Dr Patel’s theory was right and I had been drugged and abducted by Matt and Kevin and simply couldn’t remember anything about it. After all, it wasn’t as if I had a better explanation …
The defeated, sinking feeling lasted no more than a few minutes. Pulling myself upright, I lifted my chin and looked DI Smith in the eye. Fight, Calum, my one-time hero had said. He might not be fighting in my corner any more, but that didn’t mean I had to give up.
‘I’ve always prided myself on being a good judge of character,’ I said stubbornly. ‘Whatever happened to me during that parachute jump, I don’t think either Matt or Kevin had anything to do with it. If Kevin sneaked a surreptitious lesson before the rest of us went down, it was more likely that he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of Ingrid.’
‘Ingrid?
‘Ingrid Peters. We work … worked together. I think Kevin has … oh, for goodness sake had, a crush on her. In all likelihood he probably thought if he had already completed a jump he would be one step ahead of the rest of us.’
‘Do you think Kevin Wheeler had a fixation with Ingrid?’ Dr Patel was leafing through notes, which I assumed had been made by whichever officer had investigated the case six years ago. ‘It would have been a lot of trouble to go to, to book and complete a parachute jump only a week before the one scheduled by your office manager. Some people can become obsessed by a member of the opposite sex whom they deem unobtainable.’ She scrutinised me over the open file. ‘Did Matt Treguier indicate at any time that he had met – and in fact already trained – Kevin Wheeler prior to that day?’
I shook my head. ‘No. But he was probably being kind to Kevin and keeping his secret.’ I recalled Matt distancing himself from the flirtatious Ingrid. ‘Perhaps he didn’t want to tread on Kevin’s toes romantically speaking. I’m no psychologist, but I think Kevin is completely harmless.’
‘As you say, you are not a psychologist.’ Dr Patel closed the file with a rustle of papers and a small thud. ‘But I think you are unduly trusting of people, which is not always a wise or safe option.’
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