style="font-size:15px;"> There was an empty bottle of water rolling around the car and we’d been eating snacks on the way up from Megève so I drove past the toilet block and down to the end of the car park where there was a rubbish bin, so that I could get rid of the wrappers. I – I should have just parked outside the toilet and walked down. If I had, then I would have been nearer. I should have been nearer.
Layla was asleep – she’d fallen asleep as soon as we’d hit the motorway, and I didn’t want to wake her so I sat for a while, just to relax a bit. She woke up when I started gathering up the stuff to throw away. She didn’t want to use the toilet there, she said she’d rather wait until we stopped at a proper service station, so as I got out of the car I told her to lock the doors behind me, because I didn’t like leaving her there in the dark. She really hates the dark, you see.
On my way into the toilets, I passed a man coming out and a minute or so later, I heard a car drive off. He was shorter than me, maybe six foot? I think he had dark hair, he definitely had a beard. I was quick in the toilet, I didn’t like being in there, I felt unnerved, as if someone was watching. Maybe it was because one of the stall doors was closed.
As I made my way back to the car, I heard a lorry pull out of the parking bay and I watched it as it headed along the slip road to the motorway. He was driving fast, as if he was in a hurry, but I honestly didn’t think anything of it at the time. In the distance I could see the silhouette of our car, it was the only one left because the other one, the one that had been parked in front of the toilet block, had gone. It was only when I got closer that I realised Layla wasn’t in the car and I thought she must have changed her mind about going to the toilet. I remember looking behind me, expecting to see her hurrying after me – I knew she’d be as creeped out by the whole place as I was – but she wasn’t there, so I got into the car to wait. But the darkness began to get to me so I started up the engine and moved it in front of the toilet block, where there was at least a modicum of light, so that Layla wouldn’t have to walk all the way back in the dark.
It must have only been a couple of minutes before I began to worry. It didn’t feel right that she hadn’t appeared yet so I got out of the car and went into the ladies’ side of the block to look for her. There were three stalls, two were empty but the other one had the door closed so I presumed she was in there. I called to her and when there was no answer I put my hand on the door and pushed against it. It swung open easily and when I saw that Layla wasn’t there I hurried back outside and began calling for her, thinking that maybe, after I left the car, she’d decided to go for a short walk to stretch her legs or get some fresh air. But even as I was thinking it, I knew she would never have wandered off, not at night, not when it was pitch-black because, as I said, she hated the dark.
I ran round to the back of the block, in case she was there, and when I couldn’t find her I got a torch from the boot and widened my search, taking in the whole picnic area, shouting her name. There was still one lorry in the bay so I went over and called out, hoping to find someone to help me look for her. But there was no one in the driver’s cabin and when I hammered on the door no one answered, so I assumed the driver was asleep in the back. I tried hammering on that door too but nobody came and when I took out my phone and realised that I didn’t have a signal, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to leave in case Layla had fallen and was lying injured somewhere, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to find her with only the light from my torch. So I got back into the car and drove as fast as I could to the next petrol station and ran in shouting for someone to help me. It wasn’t easy to get them to understand me because my French isn’t very good but they finally agreed to phone the local police. And then you came and you spoke good English and you took me back to the picnic area to help me look for Layla, because I really needed to find her.
That was the statement I gave to the police, sitting in the police station somewhere off the A1 in France. It was the truth. But not quite the whole truth.
Now
My phone rings as I’m walking through the glass-walled foyer of Harry’s impressive offices on London Wall. I turn and check the time on the digital display above the receptionist’s desk; it’s only four thirty, but I’m impatient to get home. It’s taken months of perseverance to get Grant James, the famous business magnate, to invest fifty million pounds in Harry’s new fund and I’m ready for a celebration. As a thank you, Harry has booked dinner for me and Ellen tonight at The Hideout, the best restaurant in Cheltenham, and I know she’s going to love it.
I glance impatiently at my phone, hoping it’s a call I don’t have to take. The caller name comes up as Tony Heddon, a police detective based in Exeter. We first met twelve years ago when I was arrested on suspicion of Layla’s murder, and we’ve become good friends since. There’s a curved steel bench to the left of the reception area so I walk over and put my briefcase down on its metallic seat.
‘Tony,’ I say, taking the call. ‘Good to hear from you.’
‘I’m not disturbing you, am I?’
‘Not at all,’ I say, noting that he sounds serious, the way he always does when he calls to tell me that an unidentified woman’s body has been found by the French authorities. Guessing how awkward he must feel, I decide to plough straight in. ‘Has another body been found?’
‘No, nothing like that,’ he says reassuringly in his soft Devonshire accent. ‘Thomas Winter – you know, your ex-neighbour from St Mary’s – came into the station yesterday.’
‘Thomas?’ I say, surprised. ‘I didn’t think he’d still be alive after all these years. How’s he doing?’
‘Physically he’s pretty good, but he’s quite elderly now. Which is why we don’t want to give too much importance to what he said,’ he adds, pausing. I wait for him to carry on and while I wait, my mind analyses what Thomas could have told them. But then I remember that before Layla and I left for our holiday in France, before she disappeared, Thomas only knew us as the happiest of couples.
‘Why, what has he said?’ I ask.
‘That yesterday, he saw Layla.’
My heart misses a beat. I lean my free hand on the cold metal back of the bench, trying to process what he’s just told me. I know he’s waiting for me to say something, but I can’t, so I leave him to fill the silence.
‘He said he saw her standing outside the cottage and that when he went to speak to her, she ran off,’ he goes on.
‘Because it wasn’t her,’ I say, my voice neutral.
‘That’s what I suggested. I reminded him that twelve years have passed since he last saw her but he said he’d know her after fifty. She was wearing a hood thing over her head but he was adamant it was Layla. Something about the way she was standing, apparently.’
‘But he didn’t speak to her.’
‘No. He said, and I quote, “I called her name and she turned her head, but when she saw me, she ran off.” He said she went towards the station but the ticket office was closed at that time and we can’t find anyone who saw a woman waiting for a train. There’s no CCTV so we’re none the wiser.’
I search for the right response. ‘You don’t really think it was Layla, do you? Not after all these years.’
Tony
