Chapter Twenty-Eight
Judith’s bike cut through traffic and she was the first to reach the Anderson house.
She ran up the steps and knocked on the door, then rang the doorbell.
There was a narrow window to the right of the door.
Judith peered through the glass but saw no sign of movement inside the house.
She rang the doorbell again, then heard the screeching of brakes and turned to see Rocky and Lucy Phillips pull up in a highway patrol unit, lights flashing.
Rocky hurried up the steps towards Judith.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked. Before Judith had a chance to answer, Nathan Anderson pulled into the driveway.
His older daughter was sitting in the back of the car, still clutching the rabbit plushie from the night before.
Nathan got out of his car. He didn’t look like he was expecting to find patrol cars at his house, and two detectives on his doorstop.
‘Mr Anderson, your au pair, have you seen her today?’
Nathan looked confused. ‘Celine? I saw her this morning, before I went back to the hospital.’
‘Where’s your younger daughter?’
‘She’s still on the ward. They think she might be improving, thank god, but she’s still too sick to come home. Look, what’s this about?’
‘I’ll explain. I’m happy to explain, but for now, can I ask you to give your keys to Detective Jansen, and to take your daughter further down the street? We need to search your house immediately, if you’ll give us permission to do so.’
‘What are you saying? Are you saying it’s not safe? That someone might be in there?’ The tension in his face ratcheted up a notch.
‘Please. I’m happy to explain after we’ve searched the house.’
Nathan handed over his keys. He took his daughter from her seat, and walked rapidly away, crossing the street towards a neighbour’s property.
‘We need to be careful,’ Judith said. ‘She could be armed.’
Rocky nodded. He drew his weapon. ‘I’m point,’ he said.
Judith took out her gun and tucked in behind him, with Lucy behind her. As soon as Rocky had the front door open, he was moving.
They followed standard police procedure and cleared each room downstairs before moving up to the first floor and clearing that space, bedroom by bedroom.
They reached the third floor. The house was empty.
All of the bedrooms were untidy, with unmade beds and kids’ toys strewn about, but the smallest bedroom, tucked away at the end of the house, looked like it had been stripped.
The wardrobe was empty. There were no clothes, no books, no personal belongings.
‘She’s gone,’ Judith said. ‘Goddamn it.’
Rocky holstered his gun. ‘Who, exactly, is gone?’
‘Ruth Hall, otherwise known as Alexis Turner, otherwise known as Celine. I think Ruth took a job working for the Andersons as their au pair. She adopted a French accent, a whole persona.’ She’d been so smooth, so confident.
She’d been right there, in this house, right in front of Judith, and Judith hadn’t recognised her.
Judith had been distracted, of course, by the little girl’s illness, by the urgency of the situation, and looking back, Celine/Ruth had kept her head bent and turned away.
But my god, the confidence. The gall of the girl.
‘How do you know? How do you know that Celine is Ruth Hall?’
‘Because I found this in an apartment rented in Alexis Hall’s name.
’ Judith fumbled in her pocket and took out the pink iPhone she’d taken from the flat.
The phone was inside a clear plastic evidence bag.
Judith hit the button on the side of the phone and woke the screen.
‘It’s password-protected, but look at the photo.
The girls are the Andersons’ little girls.
I think the brunette is their last au pair.
Elsa said that Celine had only been with them a short time. ’
Rocky examined the phone. He nodded to Lucy Phillips. ‘Take that to Anderson. Ask him if recognises the young woman in the photo.’
Judith handed the phone to Lucy, and she left the room.
‘You think Ruth Hall killed this girl so that she could take her place?’ Rocky asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Judith said. ‘I think it’s possible.’
‘You don’t know. It seems to me that you wouldn’t have come chasing over here if you weren’t pretty damn sure.’
‘I spoke to a psychologist who met Ruth when she was a kid. He said that Ruth could be charming. That she liked to put on an act, to draw people in. And her mother, Anita, was French.’
‘And you think she’s been living in this house, working with their kids, getting up with them in the morning, feeding them, wiping their arses. Why the hell would she do that?’
‘Because she likes to watch. Because she likes to see the result of what she does, up close and personal.’
‘She was the one who told the team about the marshmallows. Why would she do that, if she was the one who poisoned them?’
‘I don’t bloody know, Rocky. Maybe she wanted to save the kid.’
‘There was no antidote. Knowing what the poison was didn’t make a difference.’
‘Then maybe telling the team was all part of the game.’
Judith turned and walked away. There was no point in standing there, trying to convince him.
Either she was right, or she was wrong. They’d soon find out.
Downstairs, the front door was wide open.
She hurried across the road, and caught up with Lucy Phillips as she crossed the road to the neighbour’s house.
They found Nathan Anderson with his neighbour in the kitchen. Lucy showed Nathan the photo.
‘Do you know this woman?’
‘Yes,’ Nathan said. ‘That’s Maggie. She worked for us, up until about six weeks ago.’
‘Was it planned, her finishing up?’ Judith asked. ‘Was she supposed to leave you?’
‘No. Not at all. She was supposed to stay with us for another six months, until her visa ran out. But she left without notice. We went to Byron one weekend. When we came back, Maggie was gone. Cleared out all her stuff. She sent Elsa an email saying she’d met an old boyfriend and they were going to travel together. ’
‘And you haven’t heard from her since?’ Lucy asked.
He shook his head. Judith swore under her breath.
‘You didn’t follow up?’ Rocky asked. ‘You didn’t call her?’
‘The email she sent . . . It was . . . We thought it was rude. We were pissed off. So we didn’t call her. Look, what does this mean?’ Nathan asked. He looked exhausted, and more than a little freaked-out.
‘Your au pair, Celine, may not be who she appears to be,’ Judith said. ‘She’s packed up and left the house, but if she contacts you at any stage, let us know. If you see her, stay away from her.’
Nathan looked at her like he didn’t quite understand what she was saying. ‘But what about Cameron?’ he said.
‘Cameron?’ Judith had forgotten all about him.
‘I left him with her this morning, when I took Lola to the hospital to see Doris. I left Cameron with Celine. She was supposed to take him to school. Where is he now? Is he okay?’
* * *
When Judith got to the station there was press outside; two journalists holding mics and looking hopefully at anyone approaching, and a few loitering cameramen.
Judith ignored them and went inside. A uniformed officer was standing just inside the door, his arms crossed, keeping a close eye on the situation. Judith didn’t recognise him.
Inside the building, Judith quickly discovered the reason for the media outside.
The Luke Fraser arrest had finally hit the papers.
It seemed that there’d been no mention of her involvement.
Judith was glad of that, but she gave the matter no more thought.
It seemed so unimportant in the circumstances.
By the time she got to the squad room, the team was already gathering.
Rocky had ordered forensics to go over Ruth Hall’s apartment with a fine-tooth comb.
He’d also sent two officers to camp outside the building, and two more to the Anderson house, in case she came back.
‘Celine brought the boy to school this morning,’ Rocky said.
Judith looked at him in hope and surprise, but he shook his head.
‘She picked him up again at eleven fifty-five. Told the school he had an appointment.’
Judith looked at her watch. It was coming up on four p.m. Ruth had a head start of four hours.
‘I don’t like that,’ she said. ‘Why did she drop him to school at all? Why not leave first thing this morning?’
‘Maybe she was planning to leave him behind and then she changed her mind.’
‘Maybe.’ Judith wasn’t convinced. Everything else about Ruth’s plan seemed to have been carefully orchestrated in advance. ‘Or maybe she was always going to take him, and she needed a few hours this morning to do something else.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know. I just . . . have a bad feeling.’
‘You’re the one who always tells me that feelings aren’t facts, Jude. You don’t know what she was thinking.’
Judith shook her head. She didn’t know, she couldn’t know for sure, but she was sure all the same.
Ruth Hall had planned all of this out meticulously, and taking Cameron was her endgame.
She’d targeted everyone she felt had betrayed her sister.
She’d murdered Robert Walker and Elsa Anderson.
Sending Jack Miller to prison clearly wasn’t punishment enough.
‘She’s going to kill Cameron,’ Judith said. ‘She knows that’s the worst possible thing she can do to Jack Miller, and she’s going to do it.’
Rocky’s jaw tightened. ‘I don’t want to hear that out of you or anyone else on this team. Our job is to find that boy and bring him home safely, not to stand around and act like there’s nothing we can do. Get to work, Jude. Get to work now.’