“Was that also fourteen years ago?”
“Yes,” Annie replied. Then, “No. Less than that. Ten years, roughly.”
The DI nodded and made another note. “Well,” she said, “we’ll have to look into that. But in the meantime, with or without your husband and your son, we’ll need to access your property. We can get a warrant if necessary. Or you could just allow us. I have colleagues waiting around the corner.”
Annie tuts. “My goodness,” she said. “I’d have thought you’d have more important things to worry about in the middle of a pandemic than this bizarre cat-and-mouse chase.”
“Could I allow them to come in, or will you be demanding a warrant?”
“I’ll be demanding a warrant, of course.”
DI Brooks’s jaw tensed. “Fine,” she said. “We’ll be back tomorrow.But in the meantime, I’m going to request, very politely, that you do not touch anything or remove anything from the property. A police officer will be stationed outside your house, and he will be reporting back any signs of abnormal activity. OK?”
“Oh, really,” said Annie. “This is quite ridiculous. I’ll of course be consulting with a lawyer, to make sure this is all aboveboard, because I cannot see for a moment how a bag full of guitar strings could possibly give you any reason to come onto my property and touch anything. It’s completely ridiculous.”
“Well,” said DI Brooks, gathering her things and getting to her feet. “That remains to be seen. We have more than just a bag of guitar strings, Mrs. Black. Much more than a bag of guitar strings. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you for your time and have a good day.”
The atmosphere after the DI left was fraught. Annie immediately called her lawyer and made an appointment to talk to him over Zoom later that day. She then disappeared into her study for an hour, and I heard the sound of her small fingers frantically tapping the keyboard as she searched the internet for clues about her legal standing.
I kept away from her, lurking in the shadows. From the front window I could see the lone policer officer standing outside his squad car, his face turned toward the sun. I headed out and asked him if he’d like a glass of water. He said he was fine and waved a plastic bottle at me.
When I came back in a few minutes later, Annie was on her hands and knees in the study, pulling papers out of drawers. “What did she mean,” she barked at me, “?‘more than a bag of strings’—what did she mean by that?”
“What are you looking for, Annie?”
She looked at me frantically. “Nothing,” she said. “I don’t know. I just… what did she mean by that?”
“I guess we’ll find out when she comes with the warrant tomorrow.”
“But she can’t possibly. I mean, this is insane. What on earth are they looking for?”
I sighed and smiled. “The same thing you’re looking for, I suppose.”
“Which is what?”
“I have no idea. You tell me, Annie? I’ve always known there was something suspect about this house. About your setup. And now,” I said calmly, “maybe I’m about to find out exactly what it is.”
chapter sixty-one
So,” says Jane, now staring wide-eyed at Stuart. “What happened?”
Stuart places his pint glass on the coaster in front of him and leans back. “Well,” he says. “DI Brooks got her warrant and they came back the next day. Four cars parked outside our house, neighbors’ eyes on stalks. The works. They were there for four hours. Annie’s lawyer was present. They found nothing. Literally nothing. The DI’s face was a picture. She was devastated, you could tell; she’d been one hundred percent convinced she’d nailed it. She’d thought they’d be digging bodies out of the back garden. But no: cops back in their cars, DI’s paperwork back in a drawer, that was that. But still, I knew. I knew they’d missed something. After that I was on a mission, a total fucking mission, to find whatever the police had missed.”
“And? Did you?”
Stuart puts his hand around his pint glass and caresses it thoughtfully. “Listen,” he says. “I promised Daisy I’d protect her, always, and I don’t know you two from Adam. I get a good feeling about you both, I really do—I’m sure your intentions are sound—but I’m really not sure I want to talk much more about all of this.”
“I’m here for the same reasons you are, Stuart. I’m here to protect Daisy. We want the same thing.”
“I hear you. I know. But in protecting Daisy, we might just lob a grenade into the middle of everything.”
“With all due respect, Stuart, I’m not sure what could actually be worse than Daisy being abused by a pervert dressed up as a clown. Annie and Jessamine are grown women. Whatever secrets they’re hiding, they’ve been hiding them for a long time. Maybe it’s time for it to happen? For the sake of Claire’s family?”
“But I don’t know anything about Claire Connolly,” Stuart protests. “As far as I’m aware, she never entered the property.”
Jane throws Stuart a pointed look. “But you think she did?”
He sighs heavily. “I really don’t know.”
