young visitor.
The woman trundled back up the path, ‘He says to go on down. I’ll bring you a pot of tea.’
Brodie thanked her and made her way towards the greenhouse along the neatly bordered path. The garden was immaculate and precisely laid out. Rows of vegetables grew in orderly ranks, each perfectly labelled and standing to attention. Not a flower or a leaf dared to dip its head or sag. It didn’t strike Brodie as the domain of a man who missed the fine details.
Having reached the greenhouse she hovered in the doorway, watching as the man she sought carefully planted seedlings from a big tray into individual pots. ‘Pull up a crate, I’ll be with you in a sec. These won’t survive long if I don’t get them done now.’ He hadn’t even looked up at that point.
She stepped in and sat down on an upturned wooden crate and watched as he carefully handled the tiny plants.
‘So, you’re a Miller are you? My wife tells me you want to talk to me about Mandy,’ he said, finally turning towards her.
Brodie swallowed, he had the kind of eyes that could bore right into you and they were topped with a pair of impressively bushy eyebrows. ‘Yes, I wanted to ask you about the investigation and why no one ever found anything.’
Jack Pearson wiped his hands on a cloth and pulled up another crate. He lowered himself onto it with and puffed out a sigh of weariness. ‘We didn’t find anything because there was nothing to find. It was like she vanished into thin air.’ He paused and took a good look at her. ‘You have the look of your sister. Not Mandy – Fern. You’re skinnier though.’
Brodie grimaced, Fern was not her favourite person, ‘Thanks,’ she said in a manner that caused him to laugh and slap a hand on his thigh.
‘Not much gets past you does it kid? I take it Fern’s health and temper hasn’t improved with the passage of time.’
‘I don’t see much of her, thank God.’ Brodie muttered, trying to avoid his gaze.
Pearson chuckled again, ‘What about your mother, she coping these days?’
Brodie fiddled with the zip of her jacket, Shirley was always a sore subject. ‘She’s in Woodlawn, she took an overdose.’ She was ashamed to admit what a fuck-up her family was, especially to this man who clearly had prior experience of the Miller clan.
Jack shook his head slowly, ‘I’m sorry to hear that, I hoped she’d learn to get past it in time. Poor woman. So, what did you want to know specifically? It’s a long time ago mind and I’m an old man with a rusty memory.’
Brodie supposed that was his way of telling her that there were things he couldn’t discuss, she had already discovered that Mandy’s case was cold but still open. ‘The cardigan, I want you to tell me about the cardigan.’
Jack rubbed his hand over his face and sighed, ‘Rosemary Tyler found it, in a hut her brother used as some kind of den. He was a bugger for poaching on the estate and had all sorts of junk in there. But nothing else that connected him to Mandy. We had to arrest him, but we got nowhere. The poor bloke was terrified and we could barely get word out of him. We had to call in a psychiatrist in the end and he confirmed that it was unlikely that Derek Tyler had had anything to do with Mandy’s disappearance. Besides, the sister swore blind that he was at home all day.’
‘How come she found it?’
Jack leaned forward. ‘The world and his wife were out looking for Mandy, not an inch of that area wasn’t covered. Rosemary had got wind that people were pointing the finger at Derek. They weren’t well liked as a family and Derek got blamed for a lot for things that happened around there, so she said she knew someone would try and set him up. She looked in his hut and saw the cardigan, knew it couldn’t be connected to him because he’d been with her that day. So she called us. In her own skewed way, I think she was trying to protect him.’
‘How come you believed her when she said he was at
The woman trundled back up the path, ‘He says to go on down. I’ll bring you a pot of tea.’
Brodie thanked her and made her way towards the greenhouse along the neatly bordered path. The garden was immaculate and precisely laid out. Rows of vegetables grew in orderly ranks, each perfectly labelled and standing to attention. Not a flower or a leaf dared to dip its head or sag. It didn’t strike Brodie as the domain of a man who missed the fine details.
Having reached the greenhouse she hovered in the doorway, watching as the man she sought carefully planted seedlings from a big tray into individual pots. ‘Pull up a crate, I’ll be with you in a sec. These won’t survive long if I don’t get them done now.’ He hadn’t even looked up at that point.
She stepped in and sat down on an upturned wooden crate and watched as he carefully handled the tiny plants.
‘So, you’re a Miller are you? My wife tells me you want to talk to me about Mandy,’ he said, finally turning towards her.
Brodie swallowed, he had the kind of eyes that could bore right into you and they were topped with a pair of impressively bushy eyebrows. ‘Yes, I wanted to ask you about the investigation and why no one ever found anything.’
Jack Pearson wiped his hands on a cloth and pulled up another crate. He lowered himself onto it with and puffed out a sigh of weariness. ‘We didn’t find anything because there was nothing to find. It was like she vanished into thin air.’ He paused and took a good look at her. ‘You have the look of your sister. Not Mandy – Fern. You’re skinnier though.’
Brodie grimaced, Fern was not her favourite person, ‘Thanks,’ she said in a manner that caused him to laugh and slap a hand on his thigh.
‘Not much gets past you does it kid? I take it Fern’s health and temper hasn’t improved with the passage of time.’
‘I don’t see much of her, thank God.’ Brodie muttered, trying to avoid his gaze.
Pearson chuckled again, ‘What about your mother, she coping these days?’
Brodie fiddled with the zip of her jacket, Shirley was always a sore subject. ‘She’s in Woodlawn, she took an overdose.’ She was ashamed to admit what a fuck-up her family was, especially to this man who clearly had prior experience of the Miller clan.
Jack shook his head slowly, ‘I’m sorry to hear that, I hoped she’d learn to get past it in time. Poor woman. So, what did you want to know specifically? It’s a long time ago mind and I’m an old man with a rusty memory.’
Brodie supposed that was his way of telling her that there were things he couldn’t discuss, she had already discovered that Mandy’s case was cold but still open. ‘The cardigan, I want you to tell me about the cardigan.’
Jack rubbed his hand over his face and sighed, ‘Rosemary Tyler found it, in a hut her brother used as some kind of den. He was a bugger for poaching on the estate and had all sorts of junk in there. But nothing else that connected him to Mandy. We had to arrest him, but we got nowhere. The poor bloke was terrified and we could barely get word out of him. We had to call in a psychiatrist in the end and he confirmed that it was unlikely that Derek Tyler had had anything to do with Mandy’s disappearance. Besides, the sister swore blind that he was at home all day.’
‘How come she found it?’
Jack leaned forward. ‘The world and his wife were out looking for Mandy, not an inch of that area wasn’t covered. Rosemary had got wind that people were pointing the finger at Derek. They weren’t well liked as a family and Derek got blamed for a lot for things that happened around there, so she said she knew someone would try and set him up. She looked in his hut and saw the cardigan, knew it couldn’t be connected to him because he’d been with her that day. So she called us. In her own skewed way, I think she was trying to protect him.’
‘How come you believed her when she said he was at
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