Beautiful Liars. Isabel Ashdown

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СКАЧАТЬ as completely as Juliet had. Later, it was discovered that on that same morning a large sum had been withdrawn from the Crowns’ joint savings account, and when Mrs. Crown searched their home, she found a number of his personal belongings missing—his passport, a suitcase, and several items of clothing. And that’s why the police concluded that Juliet and David had been in some kind of a relationship and had planned the whole thing, with her going into hiding the night before and him following once he’d gathered his money and belongings. The investigation continued for a few weeks longer, but with the emphasis on finding a missing ‘couple’ rather than searching for a teenager abducted by a man.”

      “How much money did David Crown withdraw?” asks Toby.

      “Fifty grand. According to Mrs. Crown, it was their life savings.”

      There are intakes of breath around the table, everyone breaking out into their own thoughts.

      “It sounds fairly viable to me,” offers Toby. “I mean, we’ve all heard about these cases, haven’t we—teacher falls in love with pupil and they go on the run? This sounds similar, except that Juliet was a bit older. I mean, while David Crown wasn’t a teacher, he was an authority figure as far as she would’ve been concerned.” Toby glances around, looking for nods of approval, which he receives.

      “That’s all fine,” Martha replies, wondering how on earth she’s going to tolerate working with him. “Until you take into consideration Juliet’s track record and the responses of every single person who knew her. Juliet was, for want of a better expression, a goodie-goodie. She was a straight-A student, hardworking, diligent—a rule-follower. She put me and Liv to shame. She was committed to her volunteer work. She loved her parents and had a great relationship with them both.”

      “It says here that they split up within a year of Juliet going missing,” Toby interrupts, as if this fact makes a difference.

      “She had a great relationship with both her parents,” Martha repeats, ignoring him. “And to be perfectly honest she never really seemed that bothered about boys. She was a beautiful girl, and I remember she was always being asked out, but she just wasn’t interested.”

      “In boys, perhaps not,” says Toby. “But this was a man—David Crown was what, midforties? Was he good-looking? Perhaps she saw something in him that she hadn’t seen in the lads of her own age? Perhaps she was attracted to his maturity. Girls often go for older men, don’t they?”

      Martha feels a rush of anger, hating Toby for what he’s suggesting about her friend—and more specifically what he’s saying about her. She knew he wouldn’t be able to resist a dig at some point or other, and she avoids looking up to see who else around the room has understood his meaning. She fingers through her papers and then slides another photograph into the center of the table. Backsides lift out of seats to lean in for a closer look, and noises of assent rise up into the room.

      “Thanks for that pearl of wisdom, Toby,” she says, delivering her best patronizing smile. “But, for the record, just being OK-looking doesn’t automatically make a man irresistible to every woman.”

      A ripple of laughter travels the room, which Toby deftly disregards as he brings his finger down on David Crown’s face. “Ladies, correct me if I’m wrong—but I’d say our Mr. Crown is a bit more than OK-looking, wouldn’t you?”

      And to Martha’s irritation there’s not a person in the room who disagrees. Yes, Martha thinks, David Crown was attractive—but she and her friends had soon got over that, she’s certain, once they’d come to know him better. After Martha’s first few encounters with him, he had been just David, hadn’t he? They’d stopped noticing how handsome he was, because—well, just because. He was just David.

      Glen Gavin reaches out and pulls the photograph toward himself, holding it up high, gaining the attention of all.

      “OK, OK, so we’re agreed he’s an attractive man. But Martha, I think it’s fair to say you’re not convinced that your friend ran off with this man?”

      Thank God for Glen Gavin and his brooding presence. “No, I’m not. Speaking as someone who knew Juliet better than most, I am absolutely convinced that she came to harm that night. Now, I don’t know if David Crown is behind it—up until that night I had always thought him to be a good guy too—but Juliet just running away like that, with no note, taking nothing, leaving her bike abandoned on the edge of the towpath? It’s out of the question. And even if they had run away together, surely someone would have heard from them or seen them together in the years that have passed. David Crown never made another withdrawal from his account, and his passport was never used, so it’s as if he vanished from the planet too.”

      “Of course it’s possible there’s no sign of him because he’s dead, right? I mean, it has been eighteen years,” Toby says, prodding away. He gives a shrug. “Just playing devil’s advocate.”

      Martha wants so badly for all these people to be on her side. Not just to make this documentary—but to at last find out what happened to Juliet. To find Juliet.

      “No, it’s a fair question,” she says, maintaining her calm, tucking a strand of auburn hair behind her ear. “According to the original interviews, his wife believed that he ran away after the pressure of the police questioning—which she made a formal complaint about, by the way—because it brought back memories of a previous false allegation. It turns out that many years earlier he had lost his job as a teacher in Bedfordshire after a sexual assault claim from a female pupil. The girl’s claim was retracted completely, so no charges were ever brought against him, but Mrs. Crown believes this later suspicion relating to Juliet pushed him into taking flight. She said he was fearful that the police would wrongly put the two events together and try to pin Juliet’s disappearance on him. The last time his wife was interviewed was, what, five years ago?” Martha consults her notes. “Yes, five years ago—it was a local reporter doing a history piece on the Regent’s Canal. At that time, Mrs. Crown said she continued to believe her husband had simply run away—by himself—and was afraid to return. She still lives alone in the same house, and it seems she’s never quite got over her husband’s disappearance. In the interview she said she lives in hope that he’ll one day come home.”

      “So he was a teacher,” Toby says.

      Glen waves away Toby’s comment. “If he’s alive, surely someone would have heard from him over the years?”

      “Perhaps they have? It seems Mrs. Crown is fiercely protective over her husband’s reputation. If she still loves him, I doubt she would let on that he’s been in touch. Especially if in reality she suspects he did kill Juliet.”

      “But if she thinks her husband is a killer, surely she would have turned him in?” says Toby.

      Martha shakes her head, irked by his naivety. “People make all manner of bad choices in the name of love. She may have been in denial initially. Or she may have come to accept that he did kill Juliet but justified it in her own mind. Whatever the truth is, I suspect she knows more than she’s let on up to now.”

      “And what about the schoolgirl who made the allegation?” asks Juney. “Do you think David Crown was guilty of that assault?”

      Martha glances toward Glen, who is already familiar with her theory. She looks around the room, taking in the eight earnest faces—the researchers and assistants, Jay and Sally, the camera crew—and she says a silent prayer. Please, Liv, please answer my letter so I’m not alone in this. She nods in reply. “Yes. I think David Crown was guilty of assaulting that schoolgirl—and I think he was guilty СКАЧАТЬ