The Valley of Longing 12

The first thing Melissa did upon her return to the police station at Doring Draad, was put the kettle on. While she waited for it to boil, she made her way along the passage to the cell that held Ollie. ‘I hear you’ve been behaving yourself,’ she said as she peered through the small viewing window in the door of the cell. ‘What’s wrong? You ill?’ When more that half a minute passed without a response from the normally loudly vocal Ollie, Melissa changed tack ticks. ‘DO you want something to drink?’ Another half a minute ticked by before Ollie finally spoke, ‘Stella.’ It didn’t surprise Melissa that Ollie would ask for something like that, it was in his nature to be a pain. She sighed and resisted the urge to swear. ‘You know I can’t get you that, Ollie; you can’t have alcohol in here. I can do you a cup of tea or coffee, or water - I think there might be a can of coke in the fridge, if you’d rather have that.’ Oliver was tempted to tell Melissa where to go, and to hell with her offer of a drink. He knew, however, that if he did it would be hours before he was offered anything to drink again, and since he was already a little thirsty, he preferred not to give Melissa, or any of the other cops, a reason to leave him without refreshment. ‘Coke then, and make sure it’s cold,’ he couldn’t resist adding. ‘I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything.’ Melissa told him. The kettle had boiled by the time she returned to the kitchen, and quickly she filled the three mugs she had prepared. Two of the mugs, she delivered to Mitchell and Constable Heath, while the third, she kept for herself. With the mug in one hand, and the last can of coke from the fridge in the other, Melissa headed back to Oliver. ‘I’m very sorry, Ollie,’ she said sincerely when she had unlocked the cell and handed over the can. ‘Sergeant Mitchell and I have just come back from taking your Father to town, he’s confirmed that the body found this morning is your sister, Lynne.’ ‘NO!’ Oliver launched himself off the bed with a howl of anguish. Coke fountained from the can in his hand as he crushed it in his hand and then threw it aside. His eyes flashed angrily, his nostrils flared, and his hands clenched and unclenched themselves into fists as though they ached to be smashed into something or someone. Melissa had always been frightened of Oliver - not so much of him as a person, but of the violence he was capable of when angry. She stood her ground, though, determined not to show what she was thinking of feeling, and sipped at her coffee in an outward show of calm that was almost betrayed by the minor trembling of her hand. ‘It’s okay, everything’s fine, there’s no need to panic,’ Melissa told her colleagues when they hurried along the passage to find out what was going on. ‘You sure?’ Mitchell asked, looking past Melissa and into the cell, where Ollie was pacing up and down, and swearing under his breath. Melissa nodded. ‘It’s fine, Ollie’s just blowing off some steam, aren’t you, Ollie?’ she said with a quick glance over at her shoulder at the pacing prisoner.’ I just gave him the news about Lynne, and he’s a little upset.’ ‘Okay, well I’m just along the passage if you need me,’ Mitchell said. ‘You behave yourself, Oliver.’ Melissa was trying to decide what to say next, and how to say it, when Oliver surprised her with a question. ‘Have you arrested him yet?’ he asked as he stopped his frantic pacing to face Melissa with his hands balled into fists at his sides. Perplexed, the mug in Melissa’s hand froze on its way to her lips. ’Arrested who?’ she asked, though she realised straight away who he must be talking about. ‘That psycho prick, Wright, who d’you think I mean?’ ‘No, we haven’t arrested him, we have no reason to. What’ve you got against Kerwin Wright?’ Melissa wanted to know. ’I know you think he’s a prick, but I’ve never heard anyone else say anything bad about him, other than that he can be a bit full of himself, and you’re just as bad there. Personally, I’d pick you as a murderer ahead of Kerwin, especially after earlier.’ ‘If you guys hadn’t come, I’d have finished that asshole.’ ‘Exactly. But why? You must have a reason for hating Kerwin so much, and for thinking he killed your sister. If you know something, you have to tell us,’ Melissa insisted. ’This isn’t just about Lynne, Ollie, Lily’s missing as well.’ ‘What’re you talking about?’ Oliver surged to his feet again. ’Why hasn’t anyone told my Lily’s missing? How long’s she been gone? What’s happened to her?’ ‘If you hadn’t acted like such an idiot earlier, racing off to attack Kerwin the moment you were told about Lynne, you’d have found out then. It’s part of what we wanted to talk to you about,’ Melissa told him. ’Her mum reported her missing last night, Of course, we couldn’t do anything then because she’s sixteen, but her mum still hadn’t seen or heard from her by this morning. ‘After Lynne was discovered, we realised we had to take her absence seriously; so far we’ve discovered that the last time she was seen yesterday afternoon, about two…’ ‘Let me guess, by Wright!’ Oliver spat the name. ’Can’t you see, you should be arresting him, not standing here talking to me like it’s any other time you’ve got me banged up. That sick bastard killed Lynne, and he’s probably killed Lily by now as well. I don’t even wanna think about what he did to them before he killed them, the sick FUCK!’ ‘What is your problem with him? Come on, what is it? There must be a reason for you to hate him so much.’ ‘You wanna know what my problem with that asshole is. He’s a rapist, that’s my problem with the bastard, he’s a fuckin’ rapist!’ ‘Are you saying Kerwin raped Lynne? When did this happen?’ ‘NO, I don’t know, maybe; she never said anything if he did. I’d’ve killed him already if she told me something like that.’ ‘Then what are you talking about?’ ‘Lily.’ ‘Kerwin raped Lily?’ ‘As good as. He sure as hell tried to.’ Oliver’s face darkened, and he punched one fist into the other palm, hard enough to make Melissa wince. ’That’s why she dumped his ass. He got her one night, up at the picnic area, when they were seeing each other. He tried it on, and when she said no, he attacked her. ‘If she hadn’t managed to get away, he’d’ve raped her.’ He saw the look on Melissa’s face. ’You don’t believe Lily would be seeing someone and not sleeping with them.’ ‘Her reputation does make it difficult to accept.’ Oliver gave her a look of amused bemusement. ’Don’t ask me to understand women, especially Lily. She were with Wright for months, and wouldn’t let him go further than a feel, but she jumped me the first night.’ ‘Did she tell you Kerwin tried to rape her? She never reported it to us. At least not that I heard, and I’m pretty sure I’d have heard about it if she had.’ ‘Yeah, she told me, she told me after he attacked her the second time.’ As she spoke, Oliver rhythmically slammed his fist into his palm; a smacking sound gave testimony to the strength with which he did so. ’He was seeing Lynne by then, but that didn’t stop him when he saw Lily walking home after he dropped Lynne off one night. He grabbed her, and tried to rape her again. ‘She got away and bumped into me. I took her back to my place to calm her down, that’s where she told me what happened, and that it weren’t the first time.’ ‘And that’s when you attacked him.’ Melissa recalled the incident easily, she had gotten a black eye while trying to break up the fight. ’Why didn’t she tell her parents, or report it to us, the first time he attacked her?’ ‘Would you have believed her? You already mentioned her rep; you know what people think of her. I doubt anyone’s believe her over Wright. They’d just assume she was lying to cause trouble.’ ‘So instead, she told you.’ ‘Yeah. We’d hooked up a few times and started seeing each other when it happened, if that’s what you want to call what we do. SO, when I took her back to my place and calmed her down, she told me. She needed to tell someone, and knew her parents wouldn’t listen, and you guys wouldn’t believe her.’ ‘And you decided the best way to deal with the situation was find Kerwin and attack him.’ Oliver shrugged, as if it was what anyone else would have done in his place. ‘I knew it weren’t worth looking for him that night, he would’ve been home by the time I got to him, and attacking him there were a stupid idea. He’s got a shotgun, and so’s his dad. I did it the next time I saw him in the Dorpie. ‘He were just coming out of the Bar when I nailed him, and I nailed him good,’ he said, his satisfaction evident in his face and voice. ‘I would’ve finished the job if you guys hadn’t come along and dragged me off him.’ ‘It’s just as well we did, if we hadn’t, you’d be in jail now for murder.’ ‘Better that than leaving him alive to do whatever he did to Lynne and Lily. I’d have gone to jail happily, if it kept Lynne alive. So, are you gonna arrest that bastard now?’ ‘That’s not up to me,’ Melissa told him. ‘It’s up to sergeant Mitchell. I’ll tell him what you’ve said. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you about it later. I know he was planning on talking to you anyway. He’ll be the one who decides who we arrest.’ ‘If you don’t arrest that prick for what he’s done, I swear to God, I’ll fucking kill him the next time I see him.’ ‘So, you don’t think we should pay any attention to what Oliver said.’ Melissa’s voice was disapproving. ‘You think we should just ignore him.’ ‘I didn’t say that,’ Mitchell said, pausing in the act of getting out of the car. ‘I just don’t think we can do anything, when all we have are the suspicions of a guy we know has a problem with Kerwin. We have absolutely no reason for thinking Kerwin’s responsible for Lynne’s murder, other than Oliver’s accusation. It’s not like Kerwin has a history of violence, nor has anyone complained to us about his behaviour. ‘If Lily had come to us, or even told her parents what Kerwin supposedly did, or tried to do, we might be able to do something with it, but it’s an accusation made by someone we know has no problem lying to us, against someone we know he can’t stand. For all we know. Oliver could be trying to cause trouble for Kerwin, just to be a pain in the ass.’ ‘Maybe,’ Melissa agreed. ‘But it could also explain why Ollie’s attacked Kerwin three times in the last month, when he’s barely paid any attention to him before. And Ollie explained why Lily didn’t come to us or tell her parents, she didn’t think she’d be believed or that we’d do anything about it, though I’d like to think we’d have looked into it, even if we weren’t convinced she was telling the truth.’ ‘Of course we would,’ Mitchell said quickly. ‘We’d investigate any accusation, no matter what it was, or who made it.’ With that he got out of the car and started up the path, signalling that he was done discussing the matter. Jack was showering when the doorbell rang. He cursed briefly, and hoped that whoever was at the door would go away. A second chime from the doorbell told him the person on his doorstep was not going to leave so easily, and it was that he remembered his neighbour telling him about the police looking for him. Stepping out of the shower, he crossed to the window so he could poke his head out. ‘I’ll be right there,’ he called out, before returning to the shower long enough to rinse himself off. He toweled himself off vigorously as he made his way along the passage and down the stairs. He wrapped the towel around his waist when he reached the foot of the stairs. Answering the door wearing just a towel was not something he would do usually, he didn’t consider it decent, but on that occasion, he thought it better to let the police in and then get dressed. ‘Forgive my appearance,’ he said one he had greeted the two officers on his doorstep. ‘You caught me in the shower. IF you’ll wait in the living room, I’ll get dressed and be right down.’ Melissa took a seat on the sofa, while Mitchell stood near the fireplace so he could see the whole room and get some idea of what sort of person Jack Wild was, and whether he could be the killer he suspected he was. Jack was back in under five minutes, having swapped the towel for a pair of well - worn blue jeans and a dark blue T-shirt. ‘Can I get either of you anything to drink?’ he asked from the doorway. ‘No thank you. ‘Mitchell said before Melissa had a chance to say anything. ‘Okay, in that case, I guess we should get down to your reason for being here. ‘Jack left the doorway and took the armchair. ‘I assume this visit has something to do with the body I found this morning.’ Mitchell nodded. ‘Yes. We have some more questions we need to ask you about Lynne, and about another matter that has come up. DO you have the time to talk?’ he asked. He was ready to arrest the writer if he answered in the negative, but he didn’t want to do that without good cause; he suspected it would cause problems. ‘Sure, I Haven’t got anything else I need to do today.’ ‘Okay, well, first off, you said earlier that you normally follow the road through the Dorpie and head out towards town when on one of your runs, have you ever gone down by the river before today?’ ‘I’ve been that way before, only the once, though. I’ve explored most of the Dorpie, and the countryside around it - not in any great depth, but well enough to get around.’ ‘When was it you explored the riverbank along from the Bar?’ A shrug was Jack’s immediate response. ‘Not sure exactly, It was a while ago, back around the time I first moved here.’ ‘So you haven’t been that way in the past week or so? You wouldn’t know if there had been anyone hanging around the area where you found Lynne Hendricks?’ ‘No, afraid not.’ Mitchell showed no sign of being bothered by that answer, though he did react when he was posed a question in return. ‘Do I take it you’ve been able to identify the girl I found?’ Jack asked. ‘Yes. Did you know her?’ Mitchell wished he was better at reading body language. ‘I’ve heard the name around the Dorpie,’ Jack admitted. ‘As I understand it, she was missing for about a week, but I don’t think I ever met her - in passing maybe, but not properly.’ Mitchell responded to that by taking out the photo of Lynne that had been provided by her mother when she was reported missing. “This is Lynne,’ he said. ‘Do you remember meeting her now?’ Jack took the photo so he could look at it more closely but soon shook his head. ‘Sorry, never met her; I did see her around the Dorpie a couple of times, in the shop or something, I never spoke to her, though.’ ‘When did you last see her?’ Mitchell asked. ‘No idea.’ That was not the answer Mitchell was after, and he had to stop himself grinding his teeth in frustration. Once he had the impulse under control, he said, ‘So you didn’t see her last Friday evening? Only we have a report that she was seen heading up the road outside on her way to the Wright Farm.’ ‘I wish I could help, but I didn’t see anyone last Friday,’ Jack told him. ‘You’re sure about that?’ Mitchell asked, glancing at Melissa to be sure she was taking down everything that was being said. It had only just occurred to him that he should have told her to take notes, and he was pleased to see that she was already doing what was necessary. When Jack nodded, he said. ‘Where were you last Friday evening, from about six?’ ‘At home, all evening.’ ‘And you definitely didn’t see Lynne, or anyone who could be responsible for what happened to her?’ Jack shook his head, ‘Like I said, I didn’t see anyone.’ ‘So you were at home all evening and you didn’t see anyone,’ Mitchell said dubiously. ‘What were you doing?’ ‘This and that, nothing special, mostly just pottering around, keeping myself busy.’ Mitchell couldn’t conceal what a hard time he was having believing the author. ‘Is there anyone who can confirm where you were, and what you were doing?’ A rueful smile touched Jack’s lips. ‘I wish I could say yes, but I can’t, I was on my own. I did speak to my daughter for about half an hour, and you’ll probably be able to find time stamps for things of Facebook and on the emails I sent out.’ Mitchell had no choice but to accept that, for the time being at least - he would have to ask someone, he realized, whether what the author had said could be used as an alibi. Since that was the case he moved on. ‘Do you know Lily Potgieter?’ he asked, and immediately wondered If Jack Wild’s lack of surprise meant anything. ‘I wouldn’t say I know her,’ Jack said. ‘She turned up on my doorsteps yesterday afternoon.’ Such an open admission was the last thing Mitchell had expected. He had expected to have to reveal there was a witness who had seen Lily enter the house, before Jack Wild admitted to knowing her. ‘She came to see you? What time was that?’ he asked. ‘A little after two; I’m not sure of the exact time,’ Jack answered. ‘Has something happened to her?’ Mitchell ignored the question. ‘How long was she here for? Why was she here?’ Melissa thought the second question a little pointless, given what they had discovered while searching Lily’s room - it seemed obvious to her why Lily had visited the author - but supposed it had to be asked, for the sake of thoroughness. ‘She was here for about an hour, something like that. She got here not long after two, and it was getting on for half three when she left. I wasn’t looking at the clock, so I can’t give you exact times, sorry.’ Even to his own ears. Jack’s apology did not sound very sincere. ‘Why was she here for that long?’ Jack ignored both the suspicion in the sergeant’s voice and the question, and repeated the question he had asked previously. ‘Has something happened to Lily?’ ‘We’re not sure.’ Mitchell made the admission reluctantly. ‘She hasn’t been seen since yesterday afternoon, and, so far, you’re the last person to have seen her. Now, why was Lily Potgieter here? What time did she leave, and is there anyone who can confirm that she actually did leave?’ ‘Yes, my neighbour, Mrs Hawkins, she was pottering around her garden for most of the afternoon; I’m sure she’d be able to give you a rough idea of when Lily left. The moment he heard the front door close, Jack turned to the constable on his sofa. ‘Now he’s out of the way, how about a drink? I don’t know about you, but I could do with a coffee.’ ‘Sure, a coffee would be good,’ Melissa agreed. She had been annoyed by Mitchell’s dismissal of the offer of a drink on her behalf, and was happy to take advantage of the second offer. ‘How do you like it?’ Jack asked as he made for the doorway. ‘White, three sugars,’ Melissa said, flashing an apologetic, and slightly embarrassed, smile when Jack paused to look back at her. ‘I’ve got a really sweet tooth. Everyone’s always saying I should be really fat, probably diabetic, and missing at least a few teeth, don’t ask me how I’m not, I guess I must have a super fast metabolism or something.’ ‘You should consider yourself lucky, there’s plenty of people who’d kill for a metabolism like that. I’d be happy with one half as good,’ Jack commented. ‘it seem like since I hit thirty, my metabolism’s hit the brakes.’ He left the room then and headed down the passage to the kitchen. Almost the moment he was out of the living room, Jack heard stealthy footsteps; he guessed that Melissa was looking around to satisfy her curiosity, either about him personally, or about his visit from Lily. He knew he should be offended, but he didn’t care; no matter how hard she searched, he knew the constable would not find anything that would suggest he had anything to do with either Lily’s disappearance or Lynne’s murder. ‘Here you go.’ Jack returned after a couple of minutes with the coffees, and found that the curious constable was seated on the sofa, as if she hadn’t moved. ‘Thanks.’ Melissa lifted the mug she was handed straight to her lips, and let out a satisfied sigh after taking a sip. ‘Oh, that’s good. Strong and sweet, just the way I like. This isn’t cheap coffee, is it; it’s much better than I’m used to.’ Jack smiled. ‘I’m glad you like it. And no, it’s not cheap coffee. I spent years living on cheap coffee when I was a detective, and longer putting up with the fancy teas my wife insisted on. She’d go out of her way to buy the nastiest - smelling teas because they were the latest fad, but would just get whatever coffee came to hand for me. The only time I got good coffee was when I bought it myself; now I’m doing all my own shopping, I make sure I always have good quality coffee.’ ‘I can see why; after this, I’m going to be reluctant to go back to the cheap stuff,’ Melissa said. ‘I want to ask how much this stuff costs, but I’m sure the price’ll scare me.’ ‘Why don’t you asked the question that’s been on your mind since you got here instead,’ Jack suggested. He had not missed the way the constable’s gaze kept straying to his chest, and it was not hard for him to work out why. ‘You want to know about my scars don’t you.’ Melissa’s cheeks reddened, but she did not deny that she did want to know about them. She took several long swallows of her coffee to give herself time to collect her thoughts, only then did she speak. ‘They are pretty nasty looking, and definitely hard to miss. How did you get them?’ ‘I was young, and I was stupid,’ Jack answered without hesitation. ‘I got them in a bar fight.’ It was not something he was proud of, but neither did he shy away and try to pretend it had not happened. He saw the constable’s curiosity was not satisfied, so he expanded. ‘I was having a drink in a Bar, I was celebrating an arrest and drank a few too many; there was a group of lads there, they’d had way too much to drink, and were giving the barmaids, and pretty much every other woman in there, a lot of hassle. There was four of them, and I was on my own, but I was feeling pretty cocky, so I confronted them.’ Jack watched the constable as he related his story, and was amused to see that she was hanging on his words as though he was telling a spellbinding story. ‘It started off as just words, but soon enough one of them pulled a knife, and another was smashing a bottle to attack me with. By the time it was all over, me ant the two guys who attacked me were on our way to hospital, and I was left with the scars you saw. They got lucky on the scars front, but not so lucky on the staying out of jail side of things - they both went down for attempted murder, eight years a piece,’ ‘Wow, you must be a really good fighter to beat four guys in a fight,’ Melissa said admiringly. ‘Not really,’ Jack said with a shake of his head. ‘I got lucky. Besides, lonely two of them were actually fighting, the other two backed off when things got physical, and they were so drunk they didn’t really know what they were doing. Even so I was lucky to get away with just a few scars.’ HE was all too aware of exactly how lucky he had been - he had been left with a punctured lung that cost him over a month in hospital. ‘Since we’ve broached the subject of your curiosity when it comes to me, why don’t you go ahead and ask me whatever else it is you want to know,’ he invited the constable. Melissa was a little taken aback by the offer, just as she had been by Jack Wild’s ready admission that he had been involved in a Bar fight - the incident had been mentioned in the summary of his personnel file, but she had not expected him to admit it or explain it. She couldn’t let the opportunity pass. ‘How did you go from being a detective to being an author? A pretty successful one as well, from what I’ve discovered.’ Jack was sure that was not all the constable had discovered about him, though he doubted she had found out anything that was likely to be a problem for him. ‘I guess you could say it’s something I fell into,’ he said. ‘I was assigned to help CID with research, when I was a young constable, and I stumbled on a cold case that got stuck in my mind - I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I went over the file, and learned everything there was to know, then I investigated on my own time. It turns out that I’m a better than average investigator, because before long I’d solved a thirty - year - old murder.’ He made it sound as if it was no big deal. ‘The story got in the paper, I got promoted to sergeant for solving the case, and a friend of my ex-wife’s came knocking - she works for a publishing company, and thought the story of how I solved the case would make a good true crime book. ‘I wasn’t sure, either that it would make a good book, or that I wanted to write one, but Paula can be pretty convincing when she wants to be; she talked me into doing the book, talked to her boss, with a small advance, and she helped show me how to structure the narrative and everything. When I started the book, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. The book did surprisingly well, much better than any of us expected, and Paula’s boss offered me a deal for a second cold case I was working on in my spare time - that time I had a better idea of what I was doing, so my notes were easier to turn into a book.’ His coffee was all but cold by then, but his throat was dry, so he drank it anyway. ‘Paula’s boss wanted a third book when the second did even better than the first, but I didn’t have another cold case to write about, I did have an idea for a fiction novel, though, a detective novel with a character I created - he liked the idea and gave me the contract. ‘Paula had a falling out with my ex-wife around that time, and wasn’t able to help me after that; fortunately, she had taught me enough to write the book without her help. I wrote several more books after that, some fiction and some true crime; each one did better than the others, and when I got divorced, I decided to make several changes in my life. The biggest change was to resign from the police and take up writing full time.’ ‘You must be doing pretty well at it,’ Melissa said, ‘to be able to afford a new house and a fancy vehicle, that Latest Mercedes must have cost you a pretty penny, after getting divorced.’ Jack shrugged. ‘Probably not as well as you might think, not yet anyway. I’m doing alright, but royalty payments are always at least six months behind, so I’ve got a while to go before my bank account looks healthy again, especially after the number Cathy did on it during the divorce. When the money comes in I’ll be able to get myself sorted, until then I’m only getting by.’ Mitchell was not sure what to think as he walked down the path and made his way around to the house next door, where he knocked loudly. It was typical, he thought, that this should be the one time that Louise was not to be found pottering in her garden. He had to knock three times, and wait for a couple of minutes, before he got a response. ‘Venter,’ Louise Hawkins greeting her visitor when she opened the door. ‘What can I do for you? There’s a problem, is there?’ ‘Hello, Louise,’ Mitchell returned the greeting. ‘Have you got a minute, I need to ask you a few questions about your neighbour.’ ‘Mr Wild?’ Louise had never been slow on the uptake, and she quickly put together the sergeant’s earlier visit in search of Jack Wild with his presence on her doorstep. ‘That’s right. DO you mind?’ Mitchell made a gesture intended to suggest they go inside. ‘I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable if we do this in the living room, where you can sit down.’ ‘Okay, Venter, what is it you want to ask me?’ Louise asked once the two of them were seated in the living room. ‘Firstly, and I know I already asked you this last weekend, do you remember seeing Lynne a week ago yesterday on Friday evening, after six o’clock?’ Louise responded immediately with a firm shake of her head. ‘You’re certain about that?’ Mitchell held firm against the glare prompted by the question. ‘Of course I’m certain,’ Louise said. ‘I have my dinner at six o’clock, and after that I was in front of the television.’ Mitchell accepted that, there was no reason for Louise to lie. ‘Okay, let’s move on to your neighbour. Did you see Lily Potgieter pay a visit to Mr Wild yesterday afternoon?’ ‘Yes, it must have been around two o’clock when she walked past, wearing an outfit that was positively indecent.’ Louise sniffed disapprovingly at the memory of what Lily had been wearing. ‘I thought at first she must be going up to the Wright’s, but then she stopped next door. She was on the doorstep for a short while, talking to Mr Wild; I couldn’t hear what was being said, but he let her in. I was surprised by that, I’ve spoken to Mr Wild a number of times since he moved here, and I wouldn’t have thought him the sort of person to let a scantily clad young girl into his home - he seemed more sensible than that.’ ‘I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but Mr Wild is an author.’ Mitchell saw Louise nod. “Well, apparently, Lily is a fan of his books, and a budding author herself; she went there to get copies of his books autographed, and to get some advice on writing, that’s why he let her in. Mr Wild claims that Lily left after about an hour, between three and three - thirty, did you see her go?’ Louise nodded, ‘yes, I was still pottering around in the garden when she came back out. I have to admit; I did wonder what Lily was doing there for so long,’ Mitchell was still wondering he did not believe that Lily had visited Jack Wild, dressed the way she was, and all they had done was talk about writing. ‘Did you see where Lily went after she left Mr Wild’s?’ He asked. ‘Of course I did,’ Louise said sharply. ‘She headed back down the road to the Dorpie. If she had gone to the Wrights’, you’d have heard about it when you were up there earlier, and the only other place she could have gone is the old Matthews’ place. Why Don’t you ask Mr Wild where she went, he followed her down the road.’ That surprised Mitchell. ‘He never said anything about that to me. When you say he followed her down the road, do you mean on foot or in his car?’ ‘In his car,’ Louise said. ‘He drove down the road no more than a minute after Lily walked past me. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, I just thought he was going out somewhere, but now; you said yesterday afternoon is the last time Lily was seen?’ ‘As far as we’re aware, ‘Mitchell said. ‘From what we’ve been able to find out, she disappeared between leaving Mr Wild’s and reaching the Dorpie. Please don’t be offended, Louise, but are you certain it was Mr Wild you saw heading down the road after Lily? I’m not trying to suggest you’re wrong, I just need to be certain before I do anything.’ ‘I’m certain. I see that car of his outside of next door every day, and I can’t imagine anyone else would have been driving down the road then.’ ‘And you didn’t see anyone else around, either before or just after Lily headed down the road?’ Louise shook her head, ‘No-one. Until Lily came along. I hadn’t seen anyone since Amelia and Tara went off to school yesterday morning, and after Lily left, the only person I saw was Mr Wild. You know how quiet the road is here.’ ‘I do.’ Mitchell was aware that it was not unusual for over a day to pass with no-one going either up or down the road. ‘Anyway, thank you. Louise, you’ve been very helpful, now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’d better go speak to Mr Wild again.’ ‘You’re welcome, Venter, I’m glad I could help.’ ‘Why didn’t you say you followed Lily down the road after she left?’ Mitchell asked the moment Jack opened the door to let him back in. Jack looked surprised by the question, and didn’t answer until he had closed the door behind the sergeant. ‘Because I didn’t’ ‘Mrs Hawkins says differently; she says she saw you drive down the road just a minute after Lily left your house. She’s very definite about it. Now, why don’t you tell me why you were following Lily, and where she is,’ Mitchell said as he trailed his suspect into the living room. ‘I don’t have a clue,’ Jack said, ‘Where Lily is that is, because I didn’t leave the house.’ ‘Are you saying that Mrs Hawkins is lying? Because she is known to be a very honest and trustworthy person.’ ‘I’m sure she is, but on this occasion, she’s mistaken.’ Jack scratched absently at his arm as he spoke. ‘After Lily left, I got back to the book I’m writing, I was in a bit of a zone when Lily rang the bell, and I wanted to get back to it, unfortunately, I couldn’t find my zone, so I gave up and went out into the garden out back to wrestle with the jungle there. I was out there for most of the afternoon - I didn’t come in till my stomach started grumbling, and it was time to make dinner. I didn’t leave the house until I went for my run this morning.’ ‘I take it you have no - one who can confirm that,’ Mitchell said, his eyes on Jack’s arm; when he stopped worrying at it with his fingernails, Mitchell saw that the author had a series of fresh scratches. No more that a day old, midway up the back of his arm. ‘Where did you…” before he could finish, his phone went off in his pocket. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, before hurrying from the room. ‘Hello, sir, how’s everything going with the search?’ He answered the phone when he got to the kitchen. ‘I guess that depends on your point of view,’ Stevens said. ‘We’re found Lily, but her parents are not going to be happy about it. I’m not happy about it.’ Mitchell felt his heart sink into his stomach. ‘She’s dead.’ IT was a statement, not a question. ‘Is it - was she killed the same way as Lynne?’ he asked, wanting to hear that she hadn’t been killed, that she had died as a result of an accident. ‘I didn’t see Lynne, so I can’t say for certain,’ Stevens said. ‘But based on how you described her body, I think so, yes. I’d say she was killed by the same person, but what he did to her was worse, much worse, and I wouldn’t have thought that possible when you described what was done to Lynne.’ Mitchell wanted to ask what was different about Lily’s murder, but wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. Instead he asked, ‘Where did you find her?’ ‘In the woods,’ Stevens told him. ‘Her body is not far from where Lynne was found.’ ‘Have you found anything that might tell us who killed her? Or which might tell us if what happened to her an to Lynne are definitely linked?’ ‘No,’ Stevens said regretfully. ‘We’ve found some partial footprints near to where Lynne was found, but that’s it, and they’re no help to us right now; the rain we’ve had in the past week has washed most of them away so we can’t follow them anywhere. It would take a Bush Tracker to stand any chance of finding out where they lead. The forensics people are still working at Lynne’s scene; maybe they move on to this scene they’ll find something useful. ‘Paul said you’re with Mr Wild, have you been able to find out anything from him?’ he asked, changing the subject. ‘He claims he didn’t see Lynne at all the night she disappeared, and that he never spoke to her, though he did know the name, and he was aware that she was missing.’ ‘What about Lily, has he been able to tell you anything on that front?’ ‘Things are a little confusing and conflicted on that front,’ Mitchell said. He kept his voice low, so it didn’t carry down the passage to the living room. ‘Mr Wild has admitted that he saw Lily yesterday, that she paid him a visit, he also claims that she left after about an hour, and that he didn’t see her again after that.’ ‘And you don’t believe him?’ ‘Well, I’ve been able to confirm that Lily did leave the house after about an hour, but, according to Louise, he followed her down the road in his car a minute or so after she left,’ Mitchell said. ‘He denies it, of course, claims he didn’t leave the house after Lily left until this morning, that he spent his time gardening and working on some book he’s writing. He has some scratches on his arm, though, and they don’t look more than a day old.’ ‘Are you thinking that he could be responsible for these….deaths.’ Stevens could not bring himself to say murder, it felt to him as though saying it would make it true. ‘At the moment, I think he’s our most likely suspect,’ Mitchell said. ‘He claims not to have seen Lynne the night she disappeared, yet she would have walked right past his house on the way to the Wright Farm, and he found her body in an out of the way place that just about no - one goes to. Then there’s his claim that he didn’t leave the house after Lily’s visit when he was seen doing so, and the scratches on his arm.’ ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘I want to bring him in so I can question him again, and I want to search his house and his cars for anything that might link him to all of this.’ ‘Sounds reasonable, is there anything you need me to do?’ Stevens asked, trying, and failing, to tear his eyes from the naked body on the ground near him that both fascinated and sickened him. ‘Yes, sir,’ Mitchell said, ‘I have no idea if we need a search warrant to check out Mr Wild’s house, and his Mercedes and Land Rover, so we need to find out.’ Stevens thought about things for a few moments before he said anything. ‘I think you should be alright on the search warrant front. I’ll double -check with the chief inspector, but I wouldn’t let it stop you searching the house. I’ll send you a couple of the guys from the search party to help you out, I’ll send them as soon as I’m off the phone, it shouldn’t take them long to reach you. One last thing, what are you going to do about finding Mr Wild’s Mercedes, assuming he won’t tell you where it is?’ ‘I’ve no idea,’ Mitchell admitted. ‘Hopefully we’ll find something when we search the house that will tell us where the car is.’ Once the conversation with his superior was finished, Mitchell returned to the living room, where he paused in the doorway for a moment. ‘Is everything alright?’ Melissa asked when she saw that her superior was back. Mitchell shook his head. ‘No, it’s not,’ he said. ‘Mr Wild,’ he addressed the author. ‘I’m placing you under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Lily Potgieter. We’ll be taking you to the station for questioning, and searching your house and vehicles for evidence, with that in mind, where’s your other car? Your Land Rover is outside, but not your Mercedes, where is it, we’re going to need to search it as well.’ Jack was speechless, he recovered quickly, however, for the sergeant’s announcement was not that much of a surprise, given how obvious he had been with his suspicions. He had expected it to be a little longer before he was arrested, though, and assumed that the move had been prompted by the discovery of Lily’s body - he didn’t doubt that - that was what Mitchell had been told on the phone. ‘I think that’s a question I shouldn’t answer until I’ve spoken to my lawyer,; he said. ‘Speaking of whom.’ He got to his feet so he could get his mobile phone from the desk and make the necessary call.