Harriet was up like a shot. She ran through to the kitchen and started rummaging through her enormous, state-of-the-art fridge freezer. Reid followed her and pulled a black bin bag from his pocket as Serena joined them.
‘If there is anything suspicious I need to take it for forensics,’ he said, opening the bin bag.
‘Amy never did any cooking while she was here. I never precook meals or keep leftovers as I don’t believe in reheating cold food,’ Mrs Newman said, going through the fridge and checking every item.
Reid asked if anyone else in the house had been ill and Mrs Newman replied that they were all well and their GP had confirmed Serena had had a virus. Examining the items in the freezer one by one, she said that there was nothing that she couldn’t account for or that would have been there since the Saturday Amy disappeared. All at once there was a loud scream and yells from upstairs. Hurriedly setting down the frozen meals on the counter top, Mrs Newman explained the nanny had a night off and she would have to go and settle down her two boys, who were having a bath. As she left the kitchen, wiping her hands, he thanked her for her time and said he’d be on his way. As he moved towards the door Serena suddenly spoke in a low voice.
‘She was over-friendly with Miss Polka, you know, and I think they had a thing going on.’
Reid, knowing the truth, acted surprised. ‘Really? What makes you say that?’
‘Amy used to visit her on Sundays when she came back to school, and it created quite a lot of jealousy because we all liked Miss Polka.’
‘But are you saying that Amy was in some kind of relationship with her?’
‘One time she became really nasty because we’d suspected that there was something going on and they were lesbians but she denied it.’
‘Did she threaten you when you asked her about it?’
Serena nodded and leaned closer to him again. ‘She said she would cause trouble for anyone who gossiped about it.’
‘You don’t like her, do you?’ he asked quietly, and was surprised by her vehement reaction.
‘Nobody did, and I am really very sorry for what has happened, but she was very difficult to get to know, best at everything, first in everything, and what was so annoying was she never even seemed to have to swot up. She was little Miss Perfect, but I think the truth will come out.’
‘What do you think the truth is, Serena?’
‘That she wasn’t perfect at all. That she was liar and a showoff. If you ever said anything against her it was treated as jealousy, just because…’
He finished the sentence for her. ‘Amy was exceptionally beautiful.’
Yet again Serena’s reaction surprised him. Her eyes welled with tears and she nodded. ‘Yes, maybe that was the problem for all of us, because she was, and I can’t sleep for thinking about what might have happened to her.’
‘Did you say the nasty things about Amy on Facebook?’
‘Yes and a couple of the other girls in my year did as well. I really regret it now, but like I said I wasn’t the only one.’
As Mrs Newman returned, Serena hurried from the kitchen, saying she was going to her bedroom.
‘Poor thing, she’s really been very upset,’ Harriet said.
‘It’s affected a lot of people,’ Reid observed as Mrs Newman walked him to the front door.
‘We do take this food thing very seriously, and thank you for coming to see us about it, I really appreciate it. It’s hard to live with the fact we were the last people to ever see Amy and she was such a lovely girl.’
He disliked the fact she used the past tense, and he would have liked to tell her that Serena might indirectly have had something to do with Amy’s disappearance by writing some of the vicious diatribe on her so-called friend’s Facebook page.
Harriet was about to open the front door for Reid when a key turned in the outside lock and her husband Bill walked in. There was a look of displeasure on his face as he wondered who on earth Reid was.
‘Don’t worry, that’s Bill’s possessive look, Detective Inspector Reid,’ she said somewhat sarcastically and her husband frowned.
‘Is it about Amy Fulford again?’ he asked.
‘Yes, sir, your wife’s been very helpful.’
‘Shame about her mental problems.’
Reid was taken aback. ‘Can I ask what you mean by that remark, Mr Newman?’
He pulled the Evening Standard out of his pocket, unfolded it and held up the front-page headline for Reid to see: MISSING TEENAGER SUSPECTED OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER.
Chapter 32
On the way back to the station Reid used the hands-free phone and ordered that two uniform officers be assigned to the Fulfords’ house to keep the journalists back from the property. He then rang the Fulfords and was as conciliatory as possible on the phone to Marcus, explaining why DCI Jackson had told the press about Amy’s personality disorder. He had to lie, claiming it was as a result of having no further development in tracing their daughter. The truth was, he felt appalled by the way DCI Jackson had called the press conference without forewarning and protecting the Fulfords.
The aftermath was explosive, not just from the intrusiveness of the press but also the television coverage that now became a daily matter of interest. Interviews with Professor Cornwall were on most channels as he explained the diagnosis; this then spiralled into further interviews with people who suffered from DID. Breakfast television, the morning shows and news bulletins all repeatedly showed photographs of Amy, and then there was the day when the CCTV footage of her in her school uniform purportedly approaching a man for sex created further excitement. It was relentless and the police were inundated with possible sightings. Every call had to be traced and verified and checked out; Jackson had brought in more clerical staff to deal with the barrage of calls.
Lena and Marcus felt marooned in the house. The gates were kept locked and there were so many reporters and photographers positioned outside from morning to night that they couldn’t go outside without facing a battery of questions. Both had refused to give interviews and the pressure on them was appalling. They had resorted to ordering food deliveries to the house and a uniformed officer would accept them at the gates. Reid had arranged for a civilian worker from the independent Victim Support charity to be with them as a quiet and calming presence in the house. The uniformed officers were on duty twenty-four seven, switching over shifts every eight hours.
Agnes had her own key to the padlock and she arrived promptly every morning at nine, and although she was harassed and questioned by the journalists, she always refused to answer any of their questions. Even so she was taken aback when they gained access to her mobile phone number, yet again requesting an exclusive interview, only now they offered money.
Agnes’s daughter Natalie was ringing her mother regularly, eager to know what was going on. Agnes whispered that a journalist had offered five, then ten thousand pounds for an interview, but she had refused because she had signed a confidentiality contract with Lena when she was first employed. Natalie could sense the confidentiality clause irritated her mother and told her that she should hold out for as much as possible, and that the contract was meaningless.
‘Listen, Mum, you know more about that girl and her family than anyone else; if they want to pay you then do an interview.’
Agnes was very unsure, but the truth was, she had started to rather enjoy the notoriety.
‘What are they doing in the house?’ Natalie asked.
Agnes knew that Lena was hardly touching any food, and cried a lot, while Marcus was very protective of her, but was finding it all very difficult to deal with.