Whispers (46 page)

There was no sign of either her husband or her daughter. It was too dark to see much, and Jess suddenly acknowledged the futility of what she was doing. Simon and Mel would probably be safely back at home by now, so she decided to head back.

‘Come on, Alfie.’ Despondently she retraced her steps as Alfie followed her with his tail down, and at last the lights of the house came into view.

As she stepped into the warmth of the kitchen her frozen cheeks immediately began to glow as she looked around. It was just as she had left it, and again she cursed softly. There was nothing for it but to phone the police now, so with shaking fingers she lifted the phone and dialled the number, then went to check on Jo who was thankfully fast asleep in bed.

‘Now, Mrs Beddows, are you quite sure that there is nothing else you can tell us?’ a policewoman asked almost an hour later. It was approaching midnight now and Jess was dropping with tiredness and despair.

‘That’s all I know,’ Jess told her quietly. ‘I’ve told you everything that Jo told me.’

‘Perhaps it would help if we could speak to your daughter personally,’ the young woman suggested.

Jess shook her head firmly. ‘No, I promise you there’s nothing more she could tell you and I really don’t want her disturbed at this time of night. I checked on her when I came back in after going out to look for them and she was fast asleep.’

The WPC nodded in understanding. ‘All right then. I’m going to get my colleague to radio for help now and they’ll send some men out to have a scout around, although to be honest I doubt they’ll be able to do much until it’s light.’

Jess nodded dully, wondering what the hell had brought them all to this. Moving to this house was supposed to have been the making of the family, and yet it seemed to be the cause now of its falling apart. The worst thing about it was that she was powerless to change that now. It was too late to turn back the clock.

By seven o’clock the next morning the house was teeming with police officers. Jess had been up all night and her eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep. The young policewoman, who had introduced herself as Sam, had stayed with her throughout the long dark hours, but now she was due to go off-shift and had informed Jess that someone else would take her place as the police began their search.

‘Try not to worry too much,’ she said as she squeezed Jess’s hand. ‘I’m sure the men will find them both safe and sound.’

Jess wanted to believe her but somehow she couldn’t. The terrible sense of foreboding had grown worse as the night progressed and now she was sick with fear.

Another young policewoman had entered the room now and Sam instantly introduced her. ‘This is PC Moon, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you called her Donna.’

Jess nodded distractedly in the woman’s direction before returning her gaze to the window. She could see the policemen fanning out across the lawn; it looked an eerie sight in the early-morning mist and she shivered. It had been a dreadful night, and if Mel and Simon had been out there she couldn’t believe that they could have survived the freezing temperature.

‘Jess, I was saying it might be helpful if we spoke to Josephine now before I go off-duty,’ Sam said. ‘She just might have remembered something that might help us with the search.’

‘What? Oh er . . . yes, of course. It’s time for Jo to get up now anyway.’ Jess rose painfully from the chair where she had sat huddled all night and hobbled up the stairs.

‘Jo, will you get up now, love?’ she called as she tapped at her door before opening it. And then her mouth gaped open as she saw Jo’s empty bed. It hit her like a ton of bricks: Jo had wanted to go with her to look for Mel and Simon the night before, but Jess had sent her to her room! Jo must have waited until she and Alfie had got back and checked on her, then slipped out to look for them herself. But
where
was she now? The stiffness suddenly vanished as Jess almost tumbled down the stairs in her haste before exploding into the kitchen.

‘Oh my God, my dear God . . .’ she babbled incoherently. ‘She’s not there! She must have gone out last night after I’d checked on her, to look for Simon and Mel.’ Racing past the open-mouthed officers, she flung open the door to the utility room and her hand flew to her mouth. What she had suspected must be true; Jo’s Wellington boots and her waterproof coat were gone. Jess thought of the fast-flowing swollen river. If Jo had ventured too close to that and slipped in . . . She let out a sob.

And then Sam’s arm came around her shoulder and Jess allowed herself to be led back to the kitchen whilst Donna hastily put the kettle on. Meanwhile Sam was once again talking urgently into her radio as she informed the station of the latest developments. Jess rocked to and fro, her thin cardigan wrapped tightly about her, feeling guiltier by the minute. If she hadn’t gone to Karen’s, Simon and Mel wouldn’t have rowed. And if only she had checked on Jo again when the police arrived, she would have realised that she was missing too.

‘It’s all
my
fault,’ she wailed hysterically. ‘I should never have gone out and left them.’

‘Now you can just stop that nonsense this instant,’ Sam told her firmly. ‘You can’t be with all of them twenty-four hours a day. Try and relax. I’ve sent for the doctor. He’ll be able to give you something to calm you down.’

Donna was now informing the search-party that Jo was missing too as Jess slipped further and further into her worst nightmare. It had been bad enough losing her baby, but now it was beginning to look like she might lose the rest of her family as well.

More police cars were pulling into the courtyard, and two plain-clothes officers arrived and began to question Jess all over again.

‘If you can think of anything – anything at all – no matter how trivial it might have seemed at the time, it might give us a lead as to why this has happened, Mrs Beddows,’ the older of the officers said to her.

Jess had wracked her brains all through the night, but there was nothing more that she could tell them, other than what Jo had told
her
– and so now all she could do was wait. Police from Bedworth and Atherstone had now also joined in the search, and Jess watched fearfully through the window as they walked treacherously close to the edge of the swirling river looking for any signs of the three people who were missing.

A shout eventually went up outside, and Jess began to shake. And then an officer was racing back up the lawn and one of the senior officers stepped out into the courtyard for a hasty consultation with him, closing the door behind him. Jess strained her ears to try and hear what they were saying, but all she could hear was the faint mumble of voices.

Eventually, the officer came back into the room with the doctor who had just arrived.

‘Mrs Beddows, I’m afraid I have some very bad news for you,’ he told Jess grimly. ‘One of our men has just seen the body of what appears to be a young girl in the river. They are trying to get it out now.’

‘
No, no
, they must be wrong!’ Jess whispered. It couldn’t be true and yet deep down she knew that it was. But was it Mel or was it Jo they had found? Just the very thought of it being either of them was unbearable. She made to rise from her seat but Sam’s restraining hand on her shoulder kept her firmly in place as the doctor approached her with a syringe in his hand. He was a short, unassuming-looking little man with balding, wispy grey hair and heavy glasses perched on the end of his nose.

‘I’m going to give you a little sedative to calm you down,’ he told her, and when she looked up into his eyes she saw that they were full of compassion.

‘I don’t
want
to calm down,’ she said restlessly. ‘I need to get down to the river. That might be one of my girls they’ve found.’

‘Someone will come for us as soon as they’ve got them out,’ he assured her, and then she felt the sharp prick of a needle and almost instantly began to feel as if she was floating.

All around were people talking in hushed voices, but Jess felt as if she was trapped in a world of her own; a world that was never going to be the same again.

It seemed an eternity before a solemn-faced policeman arrived and murmured something into the Chief Inspector’s ear. The latter came and stood in front of her, saying quietly, ‘They’ve managed to retrieve the body from the river now, Mrs Beddows.’

‘I want to see it.’ Determined not to be stopped this time, Jess rose from her seat unsteadily and made for the door as both of the young policewomen fell into step beside her. Sam, the kindly young woman who had sat with her all through the long night, had stayed on duty to offer support, and in that moment Jess was grateful of her company.

It was a dark drab day with scudding black clouds in the leaden sky as they walked across the muddy lawn towards a small white tent that had been erected on the edge of the river.

As Jess drew near, the officers silently parted to let her through and she swallowed deeply as she wiped her hands, which were sweating despite the bitterly cold day, down the legs of her jeans.

‘Are you quite sure that you want to do this, Mrs Beddows?’ one of the officers asked.

Jess nodded numbly as he drew aside the flap of the tent and waited for her to enter. There was something on the grass, covered with a damp white sheet, and as he lifted one corner of it, Jess gasped. It was Jo, still wearing her bright Wellington boots and her outdoor coat and looking for all the world as if she was fast asleep and might wake up at any moment.

‘No . . . NO . . . NOOOOOO!!’
The men bowed their heads as Jess screamed in anguish and dropped to her knees beside her daughter. She wiped the wet dripping hair from the girl’s pale face and planted kisses on her cold cheeks, but there was no response. There would never be a response again.

Eventually, someone helped her to her feet and led her back towards the house. Jess went unresistingly, too deep in shock to do any other.

Pictures of Jo at different stages of her life were flashing before her eyes. The moment the midwife had placed her in her arms, seconds after her birth. She could still feel the maternal love that had flooded through her and the way Jo had stared up at her trustingly as if she somehow knew that this would be the start of a very special relationship. Jo taking her first robotic steps, her chubby hands held out in front of her. The day she had started school. The day she had managed to ride her first bicycle unaided and the look of triumph on her face. The day she had lost her first tooth. Jo making sandcastles on the beach. Jess was oblivious to everything else but there would be no more memories now. The very last one would be of Jo lying on the sodden ground staring sightlessly up at her, devoid of life, no more than an empty shell now.

They were halfway back to the house when another officer came haring towards them from the direction of Caldecote.

‘Sir, we’ve found another body,’ Jess heard him say to the Chief Inspector. She supposed she should ask whose it was, but she was too numb to care now. It was as if she had already accepted that all of her family were gone from her.

The two men continued to talk, their heads bent close together until Inspector Flynn turned and told Sam briskly, ‘Take Mrs Beddows back to the house, would you, please?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Back in the warmth of the kitchen, Donna quickly pushed another mug of tea into Jess’s hand but she merely stared down into it, wishing she could drown in it there and then and go to be with Jo.

The Inspector eventually reappeared, looking harassed. ‘Mrs Beddows, the body of a man has been retrieved from the river down by the stone bridge,’ he informed her. ‘We believe it to be that of your husband. He was found amongst the floating debris. It was that which had stopped his body being swept downstream.’

Jess stared up at him silently for a time before asking, ‘And Mel?’

He shook his head, looking away from the pain reflected in her eyes.

‘As yet there has been no sign of your daughter. My men are still searching now. Do you feel up to identifying him?’

He had expected tears and tantrums, but the pain Jess was feeling went beyond tears. Simon was gone from her too, and even though she had not seen the body, every instinct she had told her that it was his. She rose, and before she knew it she was walking across the lawn again in the direction of the stone bridge, flanked on either side by solemn-faced police officers.

In the distance yet another tent had been erected and Jess took a deep breath before entering. This time Inspector Flynn came in with her and it was he that drew the covering back from the man’s face.

Jess stared down at him for a long time before whispering. ‘That’s him . . . That’s my husband, Simon.’

The Inspector sighed. His heart was aching for the woman but he didn’t know what to say to her. Words seemed so inadequate in these situations.

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Jess. She sat silently in the small lounge with Alfie’s head in her lap, oblivious to all the hustle and bustle that was going on around her. The door seemed to be constantly opening and closing. Policemen bobbed in and out but it all went over her head as she waited for news of Mel. Mel was all she had left in the world now, and Jess knew that if anything had happened to her, she would have nothing left to live for.

It was tea-time when the door was suddenly slammed open yet again and a weary officer almost fell into the room.

‘We’ve found the other girl, sir.’

Jess’s eyes snapped towards him as she held her breath.

‘Is she alive?’ Inspector Flynn asked, and when the man nodded Jess felt tears of gratitude sting at the back of her eyes.

‘Yes, but she’s in a pretty bad way. She’s been out in the cold all night and she seems to be in shock. She was lying in some bushes not far from the river and one of the dogs found her. They’re putting her into the ambulance now and taking her to the George Eliot Hospital.’

The Inspector instantly turned to Jess to ask, ‘Do you want to be there to meet her, Mrs Beddows?’

His words were unnecessary. Jess was already out of the chair. All the way to the hospital in the back of the police car she silently prayed as she had never prayed before.
Please, God, let her live. Please, please, please!