I'll Find You by Liz Lawler

Author:Liz Lawler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

Chapter Twenty-Four

Geraldine banged the front door with the flat of her hand. How loud did these people have their telly? She could hear Holly Willoughby talking from outside. She banged again and stood still on the only clean spot she could find on the short path, which consisted of two square slabs of concrete, half covered by bin bags which seagulls or foxes had attacked. Buttered bread and cans leaking baked bean juices smeared the ground.

Finally she heard someone behind the door. ‘You better not be a fucking salesman.’

Doreen Jacobs opened the door. With barely a change in her expression, she greeted Geraldine. ‘Oh, it’s you. I should have known it was Old Bill by the knock. What brings you here, DI Sutton?’ She said Old Bill as if she were an old con, but as far as Geraldine was aware she’d never come under the radar of the police before Zoe went missing. Maybe she just didn’t like the police or blamed them for failing to find her daughter.

The woman had changed little over the last year. With her short fair hair, she reminded Geraldine of a lot of women she’d met in her career. They were hardened and mean-faced, with features pinched of any warmth or charity. She was short and fat with big beefy arms that could probably crush you in an embrace. Her daughters got their height and dark hair from their father. She made no attempt to invite her visitor in. Geraldine was tempted to toy with her, to tell her they had new information on the whereabouts of their missing daughter, just to see if she got a reaction, but she was a professional and would not lower herself to such behaviour. She found Doreen Jacobs a hard and callous woman, a conniver, whose character and manner of speaking bore little resemblance to her older daughter. It was a wonder that she had produced someone like Emily.

‘I’m here with news about Emily—’

‘We know,’ she interrupted. ‘The doctor rang last night and told us. She was meant to have been staying here by all accounts.’

Geraldine sighed inwardly. She should have anticipated that would happen. She’d had a wasted journey. ‘Oh, right. Well, it’s good that you know. I’ll leave you to it then.’

She turned to leave. The woman’s words stopped her. ‘I’m not surprised they locked her up. She was never right as a kid.’

Geraldine stared. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I said she was never right. She was never like a normal kid. She was born grown up and not in a good way. She was constantly watching you. Always lurking in doorways. Her eyes on everything you did. When Zoe were born, if she’d had her way, she’d have disappeared with her sister. I used to have to watch her and make sure she didn’t run off with her. She tried taking charge like she was the mother. Organising baby feeds and nappies and leaving me lists of when I should feed her sister, change her, as if we were simple-minded.

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