Dead of Winter

Chapter 57

It was nearly six when Ebony knocked on the door. It was opened by a woman.

‘Mrs Smyth?’

‘Yes?’

Aaron’s mum Julia Tompson-Smyth was talking on the phone. Ebony had heard her laughter in the hallway as she approached the front door.

She held the phone away from her ear and looked at Ebony.

‘Yes?’

Ebony showed her warrant card.

‘A word?’

‘I’ll have to call you back,’ she said into the mouthpiece. Julia was an elegant-looking woman, expensive clothes, ex-model type: still immaculately turned out and pencil thin. She was about to go out: lipstick, cloud of perfume. She walked quickly away from the door and turned to talk to Ebony over her shoulder. The house immediately opened into a family room, with a full view onto lit up, manicured back gardens that looked like no child had ever played in them. ‘How can I help?’ She stood hand on hip, her keys resting on a work surface, her bag beside them.

‘It’s about the Alex Tapp case. Can I ask you if you’ve ever seen this woman?’

Julia Smyth took the picture from Ebony and studied it.

‘No, sorry. God. . poor family. Aaron still hasn’t got over it. It’s been four weeks now and still you haven’t found him. He must be dead by now, lying in some frozen ditch somewhere. At first I thought that must be him the other day when they found that woman. . be better if it was really. It’s the not knowing, isn’t it? A nightmare!’

‘We are still hoping to find Alex alive.’

‘Of course. Of course, well you have to say that, don’t you?’

‘Actually we have new leads and I wanted to clarify a couple of things with you.’

‘Absolutely. Whatever I am doing can wait. I’m only going to meet my friends for drinks anyway. Please ask away.’

‘Alex and Aaron? Are they best mates?’

‘Not best mates, if I’m honest. Aaron was um-ing and ah-ing whether to go with him to the Arsenal match. I wish he’d said no now. In fact I had to insist he went, he said Alex was being weird. Or he said Alex had been going through a weird patch.’

‘Weird?’

‘He’d dropped out of the squash club; he was spending a lot of his time on his own, Aaron couldn’t get hold of him, that kind of thing. He didn’t answer Aaron’s calls — moody, teenage stuff. Fourteen is a bad age for boys. I’ve got three. They start getting hormonal, throwing their weight about, flexing their muscles.’

‘What kind of a child is Alex?’

‘Sensitive. Like his mum. The dad, Michael. . different altogether; pushy dad, one of those that screams on the sideline at matches, always wanting Alex to do better. He’s a bully to Helen. She always looks so harassed, never has time or money to enjoy life. Since my divorce my life has taken off. The kids are happier without the constant rowing; the house has a happier atmosphere. But I’m lucky — it was always my money, my house. Helen is not so lucky.’

‘So you think there are problems in the marriage?’

‘God, I feel for Helen. I hope you find Alex soon. As I said, I really wish I’d never allowed Aaron to go to the Arsenal match that day. I wouldn’t have let him if I’d known that Michael had no intention of going with them.’

‘You thought he was going to watch the game?’

‘He said he was. He’d bought a ticket.’