left, but we’ve never seen a death certificate. Unfortunately, Ellie isn’t convinced. She was always the sort of girl who believed in fairies, and she has it in her head that our father will, as if by magic, reappear now his hideous wife is dead.’
Tom looked at Leo’s serious face.
‘I take it you don’t believe in fairies, or in reincarnated fathers either?’ he asked gently.
‘Do you know, Tom, I don’t actually care if he’s alive or dead. He didn’t really give a damn about either of us, but there’s no telling Ellie that. I’ve tried to check it out, but I haven’t got enough information. To do a search, it seems I need at least an approximate date and place of death, and I have neither. I’ve got the date our stepmother provided, but that’s yielded nothing. One of the reasons Ellie’s moved back to Willow Farm is in case he miraculously decides to seek her out. I think Max has been supportive, but against his better judgement, and if I could only prove one way or the other what happened to him, it might help Ellie.’
Tom sat quietly and thought about Leo’s problem.
‘Would you like me to see if I can help? I can’t use any official channels, of course, but I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve after years of tracking people down.’
‘That would be brilliant, Tom. Thank you.’
Leo seemed to sag with relief, as if one burden had been lightened. Tom couldn’t help feeling good about that. She shared the limited facts she had with him, and promised to email her thin file of information over as soon as she got back tonight.
‘There’s another strange thing. We were all out on Sunday, although not for very long, but Ellie’s convinced somebody had been in the house. We told her she was imagining things, but I’m not so sure.’
Leo explained about her laptop and the files.
‘Did you call the police?’ Tom asked,
‘No. There were no signs of a break-in and nothing was missing. Maybe I should have spoken up at the time, but Ellie was blaming Max for leaving the back door open, he was swearing he didn’t, and I just thought my evidence was too flimsy and I would be stirring things up unnecessarily if I voiced any doubts. What should we do, do you think?’
‘If Max really is adamant that he didn’t leave the door open, as a minimum I think you should have the locks changed and you should report it.’
‘Not much chance of that, I’m afraid. Max thought Ellie was dreaming. With hindsight, I should have backed her up.’
‘If you want, you can call the police now,’ Tom said, ‘and I’ll come over too to make sure they take you seriously. But as it was a couple of days ago, it makes it a bit more difficult. Get Max to change the locks, and if it’s making Ellie nervous, get some CCTV set up.’
Leo pulled a face.
‘At the moment, everything seems to be making Ellie nervous. Let’s hope that Max’s romantic dinner calms her down a bit. He’s been trying really hard to please her, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Ever since I arrived, things seem to have been going crazy round here. I had to fend off one of the village gossips earlier who wanted to talk about Abbie Campbell. I couldn’t believe it when I heard that she had been abducted. That poor child.’
Mindful of Steve’s request to pick up any chit-chat, Tom was keen to know what was being said, but wasn’t quite sure how to get the most out of Leo. At the first sign of interrogation, she would back off. He was sure of that. He had to help her to volunteer the information.
‘In a small, quiet village where everybody seems to know everybody else, it must come as a shock when something like this happens,’ he said without looking at Leo, concentrating on topping up her wine glass.
‘They’ve had Charles down at the station. Did you know about that?’
‘I’m not a policeman anymore, Leo,’ he answered, avoiding a direct answer.
‘Did you know that Charles has decided to stay in Cheshire this week? From what I can gather, that’s very out of character at short notice.’
Tom gave a noncommittal grunt, which appeared to satisfy Leo as she carried on talking with barely a break.
‘They said that Pat was questioned too. Well, I presume it was Pat because they said a deputy head. He’s not the only