Page 44 of In Too Deep

“Mum? What’s happened?”

“They found a girl, Jake. In the river. They found a girl and they’re saying it could be her.”

Jake walked further from the others, pressing the phone harder to his ear. “Who’s saying what?”

“Online, love. The Facebook page. It’s all over it.”

He closed his eyes. “I told you to stop looking at that bloody thing.”

“How can I? Someone’s put Robyn’s picture on there. They’re asking if it’s her.”

Fuck.

“What are they actually saying?”

“That the police haven’t identified her. That she’s a woman and no one knows who she is and—oh, Jake, what if they’ve found her? What if it’s Robyn?”

Jake rubbed hard at his forehead.

It couldn’t be.

Surely it couldn’t.

Robyn had been gone thirteen fucking years. A body didn’t just appear in a river thirteen years later.

Except—

He thought about Harrison last night. The state he’d been in when he arrived at Jake’s door. The body. The murder investigation. Harrison trying to tell him something before everything else had happened between them.

Would he have said if there was a chance?

“Mum, listen to me. No one’s identified anyone yet. Some dickhead on Facebook putting Robyn’s picture up don’t mean owt.”

“But what if it is?”

Jake shut his eyes.

“What if she’s been somewhere all this time and someone’s put her there now?”

And there it was.

The possibility Jake didn’t want anywhere near his fucking head.

“Mum—”

“How am I supposed to tell Teddy?”

He opened his eyes.

Teddy.

“Don’t.” Jake straightened. “Don’t tell him owt.”

“But if he sees it—”

“I know. Just…” Jake looked back at the half-built units, his tools, the lads finishing their break. The job he fucking needed. “Keep him off Facebook. Off every platform. Delete them from his phone. Don’t let him see owt of it.”

“How can I? He’s at school. And your dad’s gone bloody mad. I can’t—”