‘Hey, it’s me. DI Reid just finished here and I thought I’d check in. Any news?’ Marcus’s voice sounded weary.
‘No, I’m still reading the journal. There’s more to it than I thought but I haven’t found anything that might give us a clue to where she is or who she could be with. It’s quite upsetting though… I don’t think she loves us, Marcus. Some of the things in here are just cruel. It’s like I don’t even know her.’
‘Don’t think that. Of course she loves us; all teenagers write horrible things in their journals – it doesn’t mean anything.’
‘I pray you’re right,’ Lena said, the tears welling up again. She hung up the phone and opened the drawer in her bedside cabinet and plucked a tissue from the box inside. Beneath the box were a few birthday cards that she had kept, a Valentine’s card and a list Amy had written of what she wanted for Christmas. Puzzled, she took out the list, studying the handwriting, and then she opened the birthday card from Amy to her a couple of years ago: ‘To my darling beautiful Mother, from her daughter who would hope to be as beautiful when the same age.’ It was a cartoon card with a funny monkey inside that stuck out its tongue… but it was the handwriting that interested Lena, because it was spidery, looped and uneven. When she compared the handwriting from the cards and gift list against the overtly neat tightly written pages of the journal she saw it was totally different.
Lena placed the list against one of the pages of the journal. It was impossible to believe that the same person had written both. She flicked through page after page of the journal until she came to the entry she had been about to continue reading… ‘Daddy’.
Chapter 7
Lena had not moved from her bedroom. The unfinished journal lay discarded beside her as she sank back in a state of utter despair and confusion. She could hardly believe the pages and pages of what she had to accept were Amy’s hidden thoughts about how she really felt about virtually everyone she knew. First and foremost was the vicious depiction of herself and Marcus. This had shocked her to such an extent she had felt sick to her stomach. It appeared that, unbeknown to Marcus, Amy had not only made nasty character studies of his women friends, but also described his sexual exploits in disgusting pornographic detail, such detail that Lena began to think that she must have witnessed her father having sex. Could he have allowed this to occur? Another scenario that sickened her was the possibility he had encouraged her to watch him. This made her wonder if Marcus was abusing Amy sexually and if this was correct, she would have to face him with it and also, obviously, report it to DI Reid.
She forced herself to think carefully about what she should do with this information. As angry as she felt towards Marcus, she really could not believe that he would abuse his own daughter. The references to herself had been cruel, at times vicious in their description of how she behaved, dressed and put her obsession with her business above everything else. Apparently she was a cold unloving determined woman who cared for no one but herself, and looked upon her daughter as a clinging appendage that had neither her looks nor personality. Amy had listed how she was forced to behave around this obsessive woman so as not to create any emotional conflict, and it had manifested itself in never showing any personality traits that would contradict her mother’s careful image of the perfect offspring.
Lena moved to sit in front of her dressing-table mirror and moisturized her whole body, soothing and rubbing, and then used another facial moisturizer for her neck. She sat staring at her reflection before beginning to carefully apply her usual makeup. Eventually she chose from her massive walk-in wardrobe a cashmere sweater, grey flannel trousers, and grey boots, and from her underwear drawers took out panties and bra. She put on her underwear, pulled on the sweater, dabbed her favourite rose musk perfume to her inner wrists and neck, and yet again stood staring at her reflection. She was the same weight and size she had been at twenty, and she admired herself, even while carefully replacing every tube and bottle she had used in its exact same spot on her glass-topped dressing table. The rage came unexpectedly, consuming her as she swiped with right hand through everything in front of her, but she refused to cry. Gritting her teeth she kicked over the velvet-covered stool that matched the drapes and bedspread. She wanted to exhaust the anguish she felt, and she continued hurling objects around the bedroom until she was panting with the exertion. Only when her breathing had returned to normal did she return to her walk-in wardrobe and chose a grey cashmere fitted coat, dragging it on as she walked out.
Usually if Lena was wearing her grey outfit she would have chosen a grey soft leather clutch bag, but she was in such a tense state of mind, she snatched up the handbag she had carried earlier from the kitchen. Quickly she searched for her set of car keys and headed out towards the garage. Even though she had not deliberately thought about where she was going, as if on automatic pilot she was going to have it out with Marcus.
It was after eight when Reid finished his report at the station, but he was in no hurry to leave as he was waiting for DS James and DC Wey to return from enquiries at the school. He would instigate a press release the following morning and ask for more staff to assist in the investigation. They would require CCTV footage from the different routes Amy might have taken from Fulham to her father’s Mayfair address. The bus company would also be questioned in case any drivers had seen Amy. As of that evening she had been missing for three full days and nights and Reid was now considering the possibility she had been abducted. He ran a computer search for any recent abductions, rapes or murders in the Fulham and Mayfair areas, but there was nothing unsolved or linked to his case.
DC Wey and DS James returned at nine fifteen. They had brought in takeaway hamburgers and French fries, and joined Reid in his office. Wey placed Amy’s overnight bag on Reid’s desk and told him that Serena had taken it back to the school on Sunday, anticipating that Amy would be there. While Wey continued, and gave a rundown on the visit to the Newmans, Reid put on some protective latex gloves and started checking through the overnight bag. The fact the bag was left at Serena’s suggested that Amy had intended returning to stay with her friend. It was also confirmation that discovering what had occurred after Amy left the Newmans’ property was now urgent. They could not be sure if she did in actual fact go to her father’s flat, but either way the clock was ticking.
The bag contained her school uniform, tights, black slip-on loafers and clean underwear. There was also a nightdress in white cotton, folded neatly, along with a plastic bag containing toothpaste, battery toothbrush and a hairbrush. There was no makeup, perfume or trinkets, but underneath the clothes they found a paperback of Sheridan’s play, The Rivals. Serena had told the officers she and Amy were intending doing some homework as they were going to audition for one of the roles in the school’s production. She said that Amy was her usual self and not upset about anything, and asked her to accompany her to her father’s flat, but she had refused because she wanted to wash her hair. They asked if this had upset Amy in any way and Serena had said that it didn’t worry her, as Amy would be back in time for them to go to the cinema together.
Flicking through his notebook, Wey said he had asked why Serena had not been concerned when Amy had not turned up at her home or met them at the cinema. She had called her friend on her mobile, but it was left on voicemail; she admitted that she had been irritated when Amy sent her a text ‘bailing on her’, as she had done it once before. Apparently it had been some time ago, when Amy had gone to stay with her father and promised to meet up with her for a Chinese. That time she had not even called and when they returned to school Amy had said she had been taken to see a movie with her father and suggested that it had not been a firmed-up date but just a casual possibility they would meet up.