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‘No, she wouldn’t. You don’t know what your friendship meant to her. I think you held her together.’ Molly blows her nose on her tear-soaked tissue. ‘Sometimes I used to wish that the two of you would get together.’
Taylor shifts in his seat, and I silently make a note to question him again later. He’s told me that they never had a relationship, but now I wonder if anything physical happened between them.
‘We just didn’t see each other in that way,’ he continues.
‘I know, I know. Alice used to tell me that all the time. But you can’t blame me for hoping. So many men out there are just…no good.’
Max. And I’d always thought myself blessed to have him in my life. ‘When was the last time you saw her?’ I venture, fully aware that my question is intrusive, not to mention unethical.
Molly sighs. ‘It was on her birthday. In January. I wanted to take her out but she said she was busy. She had too many clients needing sessions and she couldn’t afford to turn them down. It was a busy time for her after Christmas. With everyone making New Year’s resolutions to get fitter and all that. You know, Alice never once asked me for money. Since she turned eighteen. She said she was determined to make her own way in life.’
These words fuel my sadness. And all I can picture is her dying alone in that hotel room.
‘Once, I left an envelope with two hundred pounds in her flat. Do you know what she did?’ Molly shakes her head. ‘She handed it right back to me the next time I saw her. It breaks my heart to think of that now.’
‘Do you mind me asking why you didn’t see more of each other?’ I’m precariously close to the line, but I need to know.
‘I think she was hiding something.’
Taylor frowns. ‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know,’ Molly says. ‘But I think she didn’t want me involved in that part of her life. It was like she didn’t want me to see what she was doing. Or what she was going through. It felt like she was cutting me out.’
‘It was the same with me,’ Taylor says. ‘Over the last few months, she seemed to be making more and more excuses not to see me. She was busy or tired, or already going out.’
Molly nods, and when I turn to Taylor, I wonder if he’s thinking what I am: that Max has got something to do with this change in Alice.
‘They’ll never find the person who did this,’ Molly says, smoothing out the pleats in her maxi skirt.
Taylor leans forward. ‘Why do you think that? We have to try to be positive.’
‘Because they have nothing. No leads. Zero. Sometimes cases aren’t solved. Look up the statistics. That’s what I’ve been doing.’ She reaches for her phone and waves it.
And all the while I sit in this grieving mother’s house, I’m harbouring a potential suspect. A wave of nausea slithers through my body. I can’t let this woman suffer like this. She needs answers. We all do. This thought is quickly overshadowed by Poppy, and how devastated she would be if Max was wrongly accused of murder. I’m torn to shreds. I need to act quickly.
‘The police will find who’s responsible,’ I say, placing my hand on Molly’s arm. ‘We have to believe that the truth will come out.’
When we leave, Molly stands by the door watching us. She lifts her arm in a semi-wave, then folds her arms once more.
Taylor and I don’t speak until we’re in the car. ‘I think it helped her,’ he says, fastening his seatbelt. ‘To have some company for a little while. Someone to talk to about Alice. It’s like it keeps her alive somehow. That’s how I feel too.’
‘But we didn’t find out anything helpful, did we?’
‘I did warn you that Alice hadn’t seen her mum for ages. Molly wouldn’t have a clue what was happening in her life right before she died.’
‘Someone must.’
Taylor starts the car and we pull away from Molly’s house. ‘Yep. Your husband.’
‘Who can’t remember anything, even if I did come right out and accuse him.’
Taylor focuses on the road. ‘Unless he’s lying.’
‘What?’
‘How do we know he’s really lost his memory?’
FOURTEEN
