Girl Number One: A Gripping Psychological Thriller by Jane Holland Read Free Book Online Page B

the stream. It was a bit of a
mess down there, animal tracks and so on, but the tread of your trainers
matched the prints we found exactly.’
    ‘That’s
impossible,’ I say, staring at Carrick. ‘There must have been other footprints
on that path. How else – ?’
    ‘We
checked and double-checked, Miss Blackwood.’
    Hannah slips quietly into the kitchen, still in
her pyjamas, and takes up a position near the fridge, watching me with raised
eyebrows through the pack of dark, uniformed shoulders.
    I
shake my head, looking from Carrick to Powell. Neither of the two detectives
appear to be joking.
    ‘I
don’t understand.’
    ‘There was no Path Closed sign either,’ Carrick
adds, getting out his police notebook and flicking through it. ‘You mentioned a
diversion sign in your statement this morning. We got a council worker down
there, and someone from the Forestry Commission. There have been no paths
closed in the woods today. No paths closed for
weeks , was what they said.’
    This makes no sense to me.
    ‘But
there was a diversion sign,’ I tell them, trying to stay patient, not to lose
my temper. ‘It was standing on the bend where the lower and upper paths divide.
If it’s not still there, someone must have moved it. Perhaps deliberately.’
    Carrick
shakes his head. ‘Not according to the man from the Forestry Commission. And
he’s got no reason to lie.’
    Powell
folds his arms across his chest, watching me. One of the other police officers
is looking away, smirking behind my father’s back.
    They
think I’m mad. Or a liar.
    ‘I
tell you, I saw a body down by the stream,’ I say doggedly. ‘You can’t give up.
You have to go back to the woods and look again. She can’t just have vanished.’
    ‘For God’s sake, Eleanor, stop it,’ my father
bursts out, glaring at me like he hates me. ‘It’s nearly two decades since your
mother died. When are you going to let it go?’
    I
turn, staring at him. ‘Dad?’
    ‘No,
this needs to be said. I thought you were over it, I really did. You spent all
those years in therapy, got through university, found a good job. But to have
sent the police down there again in search of a non-existent body … ’ He makes
a convulsive noise in his throat. ‘This is beyond attention-grabbing. This is
sick.’
    I don’t know what to say in reply to that
accusation. But I go through each word of his speech again in my head, weighing
it carefully against what I know and what I saw.
    When
I glance around the room, I realise that nobody is looking at me anymore.
They’ve moved on, discussing what should happen next. Powell starts flicking
through a notebook. Carrick is talking about a visit to the police station.
There’s an edge of contempt in the sergeant’s voice. He’s suggesting to my
father that I should make an admission of guilt at once, agreeing that it was a
lie. Though ‘mistaken’ is the diplomatic word he uses after a stern look from
DI Powell. A formal statement with a signature, withdrawing my previous claim. So
the police can all go home and cross ‘mad woman sees dead body’ off their list
of things to investigate.
    Hannah tries to defend me – she’s
fantastic, I owe her for that – and my father snaps round at her, tells
my friend to mind her own business.
    Sick.
    My rage clears for a moment. I force myself to
say the words I’ve been trying to repress. ‘I’m sorry, Dad, but I need you to
leave.’
    He
stares. ‘What?’
    ‘This
isn’t your house, Dad, and I want to speak to the police alone. Could you
leave, please?’
    My
father slicks back his hair in a nervous gesture, but does not move. ‘I don’t
think you know what you’re saying, Ellie.’
    DI Powell looks sympathetic. His eyes meet mine
frankly. ‘No one is saying you’ve lied, Eleanor. But maybe you thought you saw a dead body. The light
in those woods can play funny tricks on your eyes, especially ... Well, you
must admit you’re in a heightened emotional state right