Tom Weaver - The Dead Tracks

Chapter Nine

Just before 3 p.m., Caroline Carver buzzed open the front gates of her house and watched me pull into the gravel driveway. She smiled. But, as at the restaurant a couple of days before, it was only a smile in name. Before Megan vanished, I imagined she had turned a lot of heads, but as she led me into the house, gaunt and drained, I realized she was only a partial reflection of that woman now.

We moved through to the kitchen, where Leigh was sitting cross-legged on the floor, pushing cars across the lino.

'Would you like something to drink?' she asked.

'Just water would be great.'

She nodded but made no effort to say anything else, and as she filled a glass from the tap, I realized I was finding it difficult to get a handle on her. Normally I was pretty effective at reading people. I could see through to what made them tick. I wasn't sure whether it was a natural talent, or a skill cultivated through years of watching politicians lie through their teeth. But, either way, Caroline Carver was different. She wore herself the way you'd expect a grieving parent to: distant, fragile, the disappearance pulling at the seams. But sometimes I saw someone else. A woman of strength and steel who could bury her feelings as deep as they needed to go.

'How are things going?' she asked finally, as she led me into the living room. She touched Leigh's head on the way through and got no reaction in return.

I seated myself opposite her. 'At the moment I'm just following the same leads as the police. I need to make sure they haven't missed anything.'

I placed my pad down on the table between us and flipped it open. She looked down at it, back at me and nodded, seeing I was ready to start.

'Maybe you could tell me about those last few weeks.'

She paused, shrugged. 'I'm not sure there's a lot to tell. Jim was on a job up in Enfield, at a new contract there, so I took Meg into school for most of that last fortnight. Certainly the morning she disappeared.'

'She seemed all right to you that day?'

'Yes,' she said. 'perfectly fine. She was always such a positive force. I'm not sure where she got it from, because both Jim and I can be a bit… well, temperamental, I suppose.' She smiled a little — a proper smile for the first time since I'd met her. Then it vanished again. 'That was why she was such a good student, I think. She just maintained an even keel the whole time. Never got over-excited or depressed. She was just an amazing girl.'

'What can you tell me about Charles Bryant?'

Caroline glanced at me. I wasn't sure whether she was telling me she never liked him, or was surprised I had brought him up in the first place.

'Megan dated him for a while.'

'Did you meet him?'

'Only once.'

'How long did they go out for?'

'Not long. Maybe two or three months.'

'What was he like?'

She shrugged. 'He seemed okay. It was a tough time for him.'

'Megan didn't love him?'

'Definitely not,' she said, shaking her head. 'I think that was the problem. She went out with him because she felt sorry for him. Felt sorry that he had lost his mother like that. And also because she was a good person. She looked at him and saw that he needed someone to help him through the grieving process.'

'How did he take the split?'

'What do you mean?'

I looked at her. She wasn't playing ball with me, even though she could see where I was trying to drive the conversation. Perhaps the idea of her daughter dating someone wasn't one she liked to think about, especially if it had somehow initiated her disappearance. 'I mean, I'm trying to work the angles here,' I said to her.

'He was upset.'

'Did he try to talk her round?'

'Not really. I think, in his heart of hearts, he knew the relationship wasn't built to last. He knew why Meg was around for him. He definitely had a thing for her, a very strong affection, but he seemed a level-headed boy. I think…' She paused, looked at me. 'I think if you're heading down that road with Charlie Bryant in mind… well, it's the wrong direction.'

'The police talked to him?'

'Yes. I think they had a similar theory to you.'

'Did she start seeing anyone else after that?'

A slight hesitation. 'No,' she said, but didn't look at me.

'Jim and I talked to her about it and suggested it might be better if she concentrated on her studies. She was three good grades away from getting a place at Cambridge. That was worth a little sacrifice.'

I nodded, but didn't write anything down.

Something was definitely up.

'What about the names Anthony Grant, or A. J. Grant — do they mean anything?'

She shook her head. 'No.'

I reached into my pocket and took out a printout of the photograph I'd found on Megan's camera. I'd blown it up on the computer.

'Do you recognize this photo?'

She took the printout. 'Yes. It's on her camera.'

'Right. Any idea where she is there?'

She brought the picture in closer to her. 'No. I remember this is one of the photos we looked at right back at the start, because Jamie Hart asked us the same thing.'

'Did he find anything out?'

'No. The police went through all her photos, all her friends' photos, everything they could lay their hands on.' She paused, a flash of a tear in one of her eyes. 'But they got nowhere.'

'So they never found out who took this one?'

She glanced at the photo again, then back up. 'No. Why?'

'Don't you think her face looks different there?'

'Her face?'

I pointed to Megan. 'Her smile.'

'In what way?'

'I don't know. You know her best. But this smile, and the smile in some of the other photos… they seem different to me.'

'Different how?'

I shrugged. 'I'm not sure. Maybe it's nothing. I just think it would be helpful to find out who took this, that's all.'

Something passed across her face.

'Are you okay?' I asked.

She frowned at me. 'Of course. Why?'

Because something’s up with you. You just seem a little… distracted, I guess.'

'I'm fine.'

I let it go. 'Just backtracking for a second, she definitely never made mention of being in any relationship after Charles Bryant?'

Another small hesitation.

'Caroline?'

'No.'

'She never made mention of one?'

Movement in her eyes. 'No, she definitely -'

'Caroline.'

She stopped. Looked at me.

'Do you want your daughter found?'

'Of course. What sort of question is that?'

I glanced at a photograph of Megan, in a frame on a small glass table at the end of one of the sofas. 'I'm just asking because I get the feeling I might be missing something here.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, I'm not sure you're being totally honest with me. I need you to tell me everything. Even if it's just a suspicion, a hunch.'

She paused, looked down at my pad, then dabbed a finger against her eye. If I was wrong, I'd have to apologize to her - but I had to be sure. I couldn't be working the case if one of the two people in the world who knew Megan the best wasn't prepared to give me everything she had.

Finally, after what seemed like minutes, Caroline looked up, sadness and disappointment in her eyes. She turned and faced the photograph of Megan I had been looking at a few moments before. Then, determination back in her voice, she said quietly, 'I think you should leave now.'

Chapter Ten

By the time I got home it was almost dark. Autumn was moving in quickly now: once the sun faded from the sky, the night washed in and the temperature went with it. I put the football on in the living room, then turned the radio on in the kitchen. One of the things you dread the most when you've been left on your own is the silence.