[2022 Wattys shortlisted story]
A missing family. A twenty year old murder. An old ghost story. And a private detective from London. But what do they all have in common? It's the job of DCI Neo Denzel to figure it all out.
In the quiet town of Mart...
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Palmer closed the door after they'd seen the Phillips couple out, now accompanied by Charlotte Hoggins.
'That's a new one for the books. A private investigator.' Palmer shook her head in wonder but Neo wasn't so forgiving.
The last thing he needed was an outsider mucking around in his case. Charlotte Hoggins would prove to be annoying at best and a hindrance at worst.
'Suppose I can't blame Jerry. The Inspector in charge of Lucy's case rather bungled it,' Palmer said.
'Enough that he's felt the need to hire someone outside the force?' Neo asked, folding himself into his chair, already making a list of the information he needed.
'When Lucy, her boyfriend, and Jack went missing, the inspector believed they were just teenage runaways. Neither Jack nor Lucy were strangers to a bit of rule breaking, so it wasn't too far a stretch. It took the families two weeks to convince him to get a search team in the area. In the third week, they found two bodies in the pond. Poor kids had been strangled to death.'
Neo whistled through his teeth.
'Exactly,' Palmer agreed. 'Course the press had a field day. And then we never managed to apprehend their killer. Well, you can imagine how they dragged the force through the mud after that one.'
And Neo could. In Mr Phillips' eyes, the force was partially responsible for his daughter's death, whether they could have prevented it or not.
'What about Charlotte Hoggins? You seem to know her?'
Neo looked up as Palmer sighed.
'I haven't seen Charlotte since she left Marton to go to college. She was there the night that Lucy Phillips and her boyfriend were murdered. If you ask me, she couldn't stand to live in the same town where she'd lost three of her best friends.'
Dragging a hand through his hair, Neo really wished he hadn't given up his cigarettes now.
'You mean to tell me that woman is friends not just with my missing person but was connected to her sister's murder?'
There was coincidence, and then there were glaring neon signs that were screaming out to be investigated. Charlotte Hoggins was one of them. One of the few people who was connected to both cases.
'Charlotte Hoggins was just as much a troublemaker as Lucy or Jack. They were a right little gang, the three of them, but Charlotte was always the brains. Add in Lucy's boyfriend, George, and Jane, who were slightly more reserved, and you had the closest group of kids I've ever known.'
'Was she ever a suspect?' The gears in Neo's brain were whirling with the new information.
But Palmer shook her head. 'Apparently, she had an upset stomach and left with Jane. Her parents could corroborate her story as they stayed up with her the whole night as she vomited. Classic case of too much stolen alcohol and virgin drinkers. Besides, they were able to pull Jack's fingerprints off the bodies so they weren't looking for other suspects.'
