Anna confessed that she hadn’t and Jack looked a bit dejected, as if she had let him down by not having watched United play. From his reactions and behaviour, Anna wondered if Jack had some form of autism spectrum or attention disorder. He began to play ‘God Save the Queen’, telling Anna it was to remind her of home, and she nodded her approval at his note-perfect ability.
As he played, Anna got out her notepad and started writing down her details and mobile number for Father O’Reilly and added that she’d like to speak with him about Mandy Anderson.
Jack suddenly stopped, got up and stood beside her, towering above her as he looked over her shoulder to see what she was writing. It didn’t feel to Anna that he was being rude but more something that was just part of his physical makeup and natural inquisitive behaviour.
‘Don’t worry, it’s just a note for Father O’Reilly,’ Anna said.
‘Why do you need to know about Mandy?’ Jack asked, causing her to stop and glance up. She noticed that there was a look of concern on his face.
‘Did you know Mandy Anderson?’
He nodded. ‘She was always nice to me and helped me with the piano and my singing,’ he said quietly.
‘Well, I’m helping to try and find her.’
‘I helped as well, everyone around here did but they never found her,’ he said with a sad expression. Anna moved closer.
‘You must miss her.’
‘We were at the same school and played piano duets in church sometimes, and we were both in the choir. She was a better singer than me, the best voice in the choir – it will never be the same again without her.’ He turned away abruptly, and sat back at the piano.
Anna nodded, although she could think of a lot more to be heartbroken about than losing the best singer in the choir. She asked him if he used to hang around with Mandy and her friends and he said that he didn’t as they never invited him and he didn’t think they liked him. He ran his big hands along the piano keys and then blinked.
‘Well everyone apart from Mandy, that is.’ Anna felt quite sorry for Jack, realizing he was probably one of those kids who was teased or bullied by others because of the way he looked and acted.
‘Would you do something special for me?’ Anna asked.
Jack instantly stopped playing the piano and looked at her inquisitively. ‘What?’
‘I need to be sure that Father O’Reilly gets this note. It’s important and could help find Mandy.’
Jack took it from her and placed it in his pocket. ‘You can count on me,’ he said with a beaming smile.
As Jack took the note, Anna noticed that the back of his hands looked red raw and scratched.
‘That looks painful.’
‘It is. My dad told me off, said I should have known better,’ he said ruefully.
‘Known better about what?’ Anna enquired.
‘I was clearing some bushes at the back of the church by the woods and forgot about the Jimson weed. The sap caused a bad rash,’ he said, pulling up his shirt sleeves and showing Anna the front and back of his hands and lower arms, which were covered in bumps and blisters. She commented that it did look very sore, and Jack told her it wasn’t that bad. Anna felt there was a sweet innocence about the young man as she reminded him to make sure the priest got her note. He gave her a thumbs-up.
As she walked down the path away from the church hall, Anna heard Jack start to play a tune that sounded familiar but she couldn’t quite place it. She wanted to stop and listen some more but knew there wasn’t the time as she had to get back. As she continued her journey towards the shopping mall it seemed increasingly unlikely that Mandy could have been openly abducted off the street from either route she might have taken that day. If she had got in a car willingly then it had to be with someone she knew and trusted.
There were no cars in the driveway of 58 Lincoln Avenue, Julie Collins’ house, but Anna could hear pop music coming from an open window. She guessed, owing to the volume, that Julie might well be in on her own. Ringing the doorbell a couple of times, she got no answer, so she waited until there was a gap in the music and held her finger down on the buzzer. The music stopped and a few seconds later the door was opened by a young girl in bare feet, with heavy makeup and short brown hair, dressed in a loose T-shirt, no bra and cut-off jeans.
‘My mom and dad are out and I don’t want to buy anything or become a Jehovah’s Witness. Thanks anyway,’ she said abruptly, and started to close the door.
Anna introduced herself, showed her FBI card, and said that she wanted to speak with Julie Collins about Mandy Anderson.
‘I’m Julie. Have they found Mandy?’ the girl asked excitedly.
‘I’m sorry, she hasn’t been found. I’m helping on the case and was told that you were her best friend.’
Julie invited Anna into the house, which was very similar to the Andersons’, though slightly bigger and with minimal religious artefacts. She took Anna through to the kitchen, got herself a can of Diet Coke and sat down with Anna at the kitchen table. Anna asked her to go over the day she last saw Mandy and in particular if there was anything strange or different about Mandy’s behaviour. Julie said that Mandy was her normal self and that they had gone to the mall at about ten, and were just hanging out looking in the shops, and talking to other friends they ran into while there. It was about two p.m. when Mandy left, claiming she had choir practice.
‘You said that you went into the shops – did Mandy buy anything that day?’ Anna asked.
Julie frowned, looking up at the ceiling, deep in thought, trying to remember an incident that was by now two years old. Anna waited, but Julie said nothing and tapped her fingers on the Coke can.
‘It doesn’t matter how inconsequential it might seem, anything you remember might just be useful.’
‘There was something she was looking at, but it was just a cheap little camera gadget, a sort of secret agent spy thing.’
‘Tell me what you remember about it?’ Anna asked.
‘Okay, she said she wanted to go to Prezzies to have a look round. It’s a kind of gift and gadget shop, and she picked up a key ring that had this tiny little camera that took real pictures.’
‘Did she buy it?’ Anna asked.
‘I remember she showed it to me. For fun I grabbed it and took a photograph of her.’
Anna couldn’t recall having read about the camera in the case file. Julie finished her Coke, crushed the can in her hand and threw it into the kitchen bin.
‘Slam dunk,’ she said.
Anna was trying to be patient, but knew that the purchase of the camera could be vital new evidence.
‘Julie, I really need to know: did Mandy buy the camera?’
Julie sighed and shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but she bought a birthday card in another shop.’
‘Did she say who for?’
‘No, and I didn’t ask.’
‘Could she have had a boyfriend you didn’t know about?’
‘You kidding? Around here you can’t fart without someone noticing. We tried to set her up with a boy once at the church disco, but it was a disaster.’
‘It wasn’t Jack Brennan, by any chance?’ Anna asked.
Julie burst into laughter. ‘You gotta be kidding, even Mandy wasn’t that desperate.’
‘I got the impression they were friends, she helped him with the piano and singing.’
‘Yeah, but only ’cause she felt sorry for him. He’s kind of weird, comes and stands next to you and listens in on conversations, then starts talking about something completely different.’
Anna wondered if Julie simply resented Jack because she saw him as ‘different’.
‘He seemed pleasant enough to me when I met him earlier,’ Anna remarked in the boy’s defence.
‘Oh, he’s harmless but he’s got no friends as such. Apparently, he’s got some form of ADHD.’
Anna’s earlier suspicions about Jack were right. She knew that the reality was that many kids would never give the likes of Jack Brennan a chance, or make an effort to be friends with him.