The Lost Child by Ann Troup Page B

home? I mean she’s his sister, she was bound to lie for him.’ For Brodie it stood to reason, family backed family.
    ‘We didn’t, not initially, not even when the old girl, Ruby, backed it up. It was only when we caught up with Rosemary’s estranged husband that we believed it. He’d been there that day collecting some of his stuff and had argued with Rosemary; that had been what had scared Derek, he’d locked himself in his room all day. It was his statement that got Derek off the hook.’
    ‘Why would you believe Rosemary’s husband? It doesn’t make sense.’ Family by marriage was just as much family.
    Jack shook his head and gave her a sardonic smile. ‘Believe me, if you had ever met Eddie Macey or Rosemary Tyler you would know that there was no love lost there. Macey had absolutely no reason to do that family a favour, that’s why it took him so long to come forward. Besides, he was a suspect himself for a while.’
    This was news to Brodie. ‘So nothing stuck to him either?’
    ‘Nope, too many witnesses put him elsewhere, first at the village pub then at the Tylers’.’
    Brodie pondered this for a moment. ‘Did you ever search the crypt, under the chapel at Hallow’s Court?’
    Jack snorted, ‘Of course we did, and every other nook and cranny we could find. We weren’t idiots love, we covered everything we could.’
    ‘And you never found another trace, not ever?’
    Jack sighed again, ‘Nope, not one. We brought dogs in, they were able to track her scent as far as the road but that was it.’
    ‘So someone could have taken her somewhere else?’
    ‘Could have done, I really don’t know. We put out a search all across the country, but every lead we got was either a false alarm or a hoax.’
    They were interrupted by Mrs Pearson arriving with two steaming mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits. She eyed Brodie and raised an eyebrow at Jack, who winked at her to let her know he was coping with his young visitor.
    After she had gone, Brodie watched as Jack dunked a digestive into his tea. ‘Do you think she could still be alive?’ she asked.
    Jack paused, the soggy biscuit hovering precariously in front of his mouth. ‘Honestly? I’ve no idea. She could be. But there was a lot of blood on the cardigan so it’s hard to say,’ he said before plunging the sodden mess into his mouth. Mouth full, he added, ‘We did get a psychic call in, even followed it up. She said she thought Mandy had been killed and her body was buried in a field the other side of town. We dug it up, nothing was there.’ He swallowed. ‘Anyway, why are you raking all this up now? Everything I’ve told you, you must already know – it was all over the papers for long enough.’
    Brodie contemplated showing him the little dog, then thought better of it. If he saw the toy he would be obliged to report it and she might start a whole snowball of trouble that she couldn’t stop and she didn’t want Derry getting the brunt of it.
    ‘Just wanted to know from the horse’s mouth. I grew up with this stuff, it bothers me.’ She was hoping that it would be enough of an explanation to keep him happy.
    Jack frowned at her, then shrugged it off and took another biscuit.
    ‘Did you ever question anyone else? Was anyone else a suspect?’
    Jack finished chewing before answering. ‘We questioned the whole village, even the Gardiner-Hallows. Fair play, he’s a strange bugger that Albert, mad as a box of frogs. For a while I thought he might have had something to do with it, but he had too good an alibi – he was ill in bed – and besides being odd he didn’t strike me as the type.’
    ‘But Derry did?’ Brodie said it defensively, as if he was suggesting that poor mad people were far more dangerous than mad rich ones.
    ‘Can’t leave any stone unturned kid.’
    Brodie tried not to glare at him. She was sure he had done his best, but he hadn’t found the dog so there had to be more than one stone he hadn’t even looked at,