The Scent of Death

Seven

Plot reminder: Jennifer has paid a visit to Kayleigh Harrison's mother, Cheryl, who recounted the mystery of a toy horse presented to her daugher shortly before her disappearance by someone name Gary.

*

As we said our goodbyes at the front door, Cheryl was able to inform me that the headmistress of Church Road Primary was still Heather Robins -  the name mentioned in Ben's Echo reports from a decade earlier. The twins, Daryl and Kevin, had finished their final year only the previous July.

After driving the short distance back to the school, I saw that a smattering of waiting parents had by this point started to gather outside the gates. I wondered if I hung around for a few minutes that I might get the chance to exchange a few words with Ms Robins in person as she made her way out to the staff car park. With a swing of the steering wheel, I pulled into the first available space along the street. There was a newsagent’s just a little further up, I saw. Leaving Dudley a slit of air at the top of the rear window, I nipped out and got myself a copy of that day's Echo to help pass the time.

That the Meghan Shaw case had by now been demoted to page four rather than front page headline - this instead devoted to a drink-driving offence by one of the players of Wynmouth United FC - was as heart-breaking as it was demoralising. Just nine days had passed - little more than two hundred hours - and already that cute, dimple-cheeked little girl was starting to slip from the public consciousness.

Dudley and I meanwhile featured on page twelve, the article headlined UNSUNG HEROES. It was strange to see my name in print like that, my own reflection frowning back at me from the accompanying photo alongside Dudley. Whilst it would be a lie to say I didn't experience a guilty tingle of satisfaction, the fact of finding myself thrust so suddenly into the public domain like that was also a little unsettling.

Returning my attention to the school gates, I saw that the crowds had  begun to disperse a little, just a handful of parents now guiding their charges along the street, ushering them into the backs of cars.

I shuffled the Echo onto the passenger seat, turned Dudley a smile: "Come on boy."

It had stopped raining by this point, the playground shiny in the emerging sun. The silvery reflections of the puddles were occasionally disturbed by the running feet of cloakroom dawdlers.

The headmistress was approaching retirement age, Cheryl Harrison had told me - a petite, bespectacled figure with short grey hair. The first five or six women to emerge from the entrance and make their way over to the car park at the side of the main building were either too young or too corpulent to spark my interest. Ten minutes went by. Fifteen. After spending the majority of the afternoon cooped up in the Renault, Dudley was starting to get a little restless. A few minutes off his leash in a local park, I thought, then back home to Littleford. Perhaps Ms Robins had spent the afternoon away somewhere - some regional headteachers' meeting or some such. I could always just call the school, I reasoned, make an appointment.

It was just as I was about to turn back towards the car that a figure matching Cheryl's description finally emerged from the entrance. A pile of folders bundled in her arms, she was in deep conversation with another woman, their progress across the playground slow and stuttering. At my sudden appearance in front of them, the headmistress shot me a glare over the top rim of her glasses - the sort I imagined could put the fear of God into most under-twelves, and quite a few over-twelves as well.

"I'm sorry but dogs aren't allowed in the school premises."

Unperturbed, I took a couple more steps towards her.

"Heather Robins?"

The glare shifted to an expression of mild curiosity. "Yes, that's me."

After offering her a brief explanation of who Dudley and I were, she struggled for a moment to find any words. The other woman too stood in mute open-mouthed surprise.

"Well, I, er... It's good to make your acquaintance, Miss Hulse. Thank you for helping to bring some closure. The Harrisons. The local community as a whole." An inquisitive frown then tautened her brow. "How may I help you exactly?"