Page 91 of The Unforgiven

“We think it could be. Have you had anyone from that time contact you recently?” Maybe I could be going slower with my questions; she was almost translucent now.

Sophie shook her head. “No. I haven’t heard from any one of them for years. I had some of them as friends on social media, but I deleted my account about five years ago – I was never on there much anyway. I don’t use social media – I have enough of people at work.”

I knew exactly what she meant.

“What about Kelly-Anne Marsh? What can you tell us about her? Mike said she was bullied.” Vinny spoke quietly, even though he’d opted to be blunt like me.

Sophie nodded, watching us both intently. “I told Mike about her the other day. I saw the news about Morgan and Brooke, and I remembered that summer. Kelly-Anne just wanted to fit in, but didn’t know how to. She hung around Chelsea and Dolly, wanted them to be her friends – God knows why, because they were bloody awful. But then, me, Evelyn and Brooke did the same. They seemed so grown-up and mature, I think we thought we were cool if we were with them. We weren’t very nice to Kelly-Anne.” She still looked tense, but some colour had returned to her face, at least.

“Did you keep in touch with her?” I asked, more gently now.

“No. She didn’t have a phone or anything like that, and no social media. I didn’t really think much about her at all – we were awful to her. We locked her in the cellars of an old house once. She managed to get out because I saw her the day after – after that I don’t think she left her caravan. I’ve always felt horrendous for being part of that. Is she dead too?” She rubbed at her face, elbows bent now.

“We don’t know. We can’t find her.”

Sophie gave half a laugh. “It was weird – I thought I saw her in here one evening, walking down the corridor away from A&E. Just for a second, I thought it was her, only she was really slim and pretty – like she’d had work done, fillers and a nose job, and her hair was long and straight, so really she looked nothing like Kelly-Anne. She must’ve just reminded me of her.”

“What colour was her hair?”

“A reddish-brown colour, really rich and healthy. Kelly-Anne’s was this greasy brown colour that never looked brushed. She didn’t have a chance, really.” Sophie shook her head. “We were awful to her. I hope she managed to make friends afterwards. She was there with her gran, who had no idea how to look after her. I remember my aunt saying that her gran was an alcoholic. Dolly used to tease Kelly-Anne about that too.”

More threads. A memory of someone. A dressing on a hand. Someone else who had a psychology degree.

“Sophie, we’re here to warn you to be vigilant. Don’t be on your own outside, get Mike to meet you, or have a colleague walk you to your car. It could be that someone is targeting the kids who were at Aberwyn that summer.” I stood up, itching to find out if we had the list yet of other students who’d dropped out of a psychology course at the same time as Kelly-Anne.

“You think I could be a target?”

I nodded. “I think it’s possible. You’re safe here with your colleagues, but you need to be careful when you’re on your own – even better, don’t be on your own.”

“Do you think the killer could be Kelly-Anne? I thought it was a man?” She looked from me to Vinny.

“We don’t know their identity yet. Kelly-Anne could be just as much at risk as you. Do you remember any of the boys from that summer?” We were still looking at them as possible suspects, although I was increasingly moving away from that theory. “Butit’s worth remembering that women can still be killers, even if the majority of killers are men.”

Sophie nodded, standing up. “I need to get ready for the next surgery. I’ll get Mike to meet me here after my shift and contact you if I think of anything. I’m sure it’s not Kelly-Anne. She was too timid to do anything like that. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t her I saw either. Just a weird trick of the mind.”

I gave her my card. “Call if you see anything strange and be careful, Sophie.” I liked the woman, she seemed kind and friendly, living what appeared to be a quiet life.

But then, appearances could be deceptive.

She headed out of the waiting room, leaving me with Vinny who was tapping the chair he was sitting on.

“What do you think?” He glanced at the door. “It could be her.”

“Maybe.” I didn’t want it to be. “It could also be Kelly-Anne.”

“If we can find out who she’s become, we might have half a chance of tracking her down.” He stood up, dusting off his jacket which was a weird habit of his. “Unless she’s already in a body of water somewhere in Greater Manchester.”

“I don’t think she is.” I was pretty certain of it.

Chapter Forty

When I got back to the office there was a list in my email of the seventeen people who’d dropped out of a psychology or criminology degree after the first year, the same year when Kelly-Anne had left.

I scanned through it, the name given and a reason for them leaving. Then I read it again, and again, taking in the names and wondering what it meant to see one particular name there.

“Everything okay?” Wrigley had wandered over to me. It was getting on for three o’clock, and the office was virtually empty, most of the team out speaking to people who knew the victims, or locked in with the tech squad looking through CCTV and camera footage, trying to find any glimpse of one of our victims with a person we hadn’t previously identified, only we were seeing what we knew to look for.

I looked away from my screen, the names emblazoned on my retinas now.