The Silent Appeal #2
Don’t.
11:46 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
I can’t help it.
11:48 p.m. Unknown Number wrote:
It’s ok. You can let me go again.
Lockwood Murder Case WhatsApp group, February 17, 2026:
Charlotte Holroyd
The judge said her confession should have been seen as unsafe from the start. Sentencing to be adjusted at a later date.
Sharon Collins
Congratulations to both of you. I’ll tell Mr. Tanner when I see him this afternoon.
Femi Hassan
Perhaps once he’s recovered from his bypass we can add him back into this group?
Charlotte Holroyd
He’ll definitely want us to.
Sharon Collins
We’ll see. What he wants and what’s best for him are two entirely different things.
Femi Hassan
When it’s appropriate, please could you show him the feature linked here. It’s a more immediately satisfying outcome from the whole case.
Internet news story dated February 15, 2026:
MISSING WOMAN FOUND
Missing Florida woman Tiffany Ramirez, who disappeared from the Voyager Eclipse cruise ship in 2024 and was thought to have died by suicide, has been found alive in the Dominican Republic.
She was discovered working in a jungle compound processing cocaine for the notorious Cabro cartel, alongside more than twenty other men and women.
The operation involved police forces from around the world. Ms. Ramirez’s father Guillermo said, “We never gave up hope of finding Tiffany alive and now she is safely back home where she belongs.”
Charlotte Holroyd
Inspector Lascelles sent it to us. If he hadn’t, we’d never know the documents we forwarded contributed to Tiffany being found and reunited with her estranged family.
Femi Hassan
We should also send the link to Isabel Beck. When she stole those documents from Nicky-Rose’s envelope she ultimately helped trace and rescue a woman who had been abducted.
Sharon Collins
A drug dealer who ended up working for the cartel who “abducted” her!
Femi Hassan
Tiffany always portrayed herself as similar to whoever she was talking to: Nicky-Rose, Lily, Isla—all of them identified with something she said.
Charlotte Holroyd
It was what they wanted to hear. When she was kidnapped by her rival drug dealers, that quality probably saved her.
Sharon Collins
She’s a criminal.
Charlotte Holroyd
She’s a survivor.
Article in the Bookseller dated August 28, 2026:
NEWS brIEF
Also publishing next year is Ocean of Lies, the true story of Tiffany Ramirez who, while working as a dancer on a cruise ship (a job she had talked her way into), was abducted by a drug dealer in Bridgetown, Barbados.
There followed a nail-biting journey into the heart of the Central American drug industry, where Tiffany had to use every acting trick at her disposal to survive.
She was eventually employed as a coordinator for a ruthless cartel in a remote jungle outpost, processing more than 3.
5 tons of cocaine per week. After she was rescued, the district attorney cited the manner in which Ms. Ramirez had immersed herself with the cartel and recommended she be charged with drug offenses, until she successfully argued her case in court.
A dramatic tale of horror, deception, and ultimately, redemption.
Film rights have been sold, with the script to be written by Ms. Ramirez.
Ana de Armas is attached and Ms. Ramirez slated to star as one of the lawyers who argued for the charges against her to be dropped.
She said today: “This is my tale of survival against all odds and there is no one better to tell it than me.”
Lockwood Murder Case WhatsApp group, September 1, 2026:
Roderick Tanner, KC
Hello both.
Femi Hassan
Hello Mr. Tanner. Are you well?
Roderick Tanner, KC
Very.
Charlotte Holroyd
Good to hear. Is anything wrong?
Roderick Tanner, KC
My colleague works with a family in Lockwood. He has a strange story to tell. I’ve copied and pasted below.
Hello, Rodders! Visited my Lockwood client again last week and think you’ll be amused by this little tale.
Stayed later than intended. Pitch dark and freezing when finally toddled back to car.
Narrow little lane, barely noticed it in the day, streetlights few and far between and just my own footsteps for company.
Know all the muggers in Lockwood personally, so why feel on edge?
Like I wasn’t alone. Can’t explain it. Carried on through pools of light, swathes of darkness until finally, end of the lane in sight, eyes focused on the blessed gap when fuck me if a HUGE black shadow didn’t appear ahead.
Tried—and failed—to focus on its face, and at that very moment, it flitted across the path, solid and yet not somehow.
Stopped dead in my brogues. What the…? Thinks: must be a gate or opening in the wall each side and someone just ran from one to the other.
Toddled on, breath turning to mist until reached the place the figure had been.
Church hall one side, vicarage the other—both in darkness.
Nowhere for this thing to have come from or gone to.
But that wasn’t all. As I watched the shadow, it was as if all sound fell away until it wasn’t just the quiet of the night that surrounded me. This was a silence so profound it was as loud and disturbing as any noise.
Ran like stink ’til emerged back out on the road. Shaking like the proverbial indisposed dog. Looked back and the lane was empty. Nothing. Imagination, or something, playing tricks on me. What do you think, eh?
Francesca Elroy-Jones
c/o HMP Colney Marsh
September 1, 2026
Dear Issy,