Chapter Forty-Three
‘Wow,’ Connor murmured quietly as they began driving in convoy along the winding lane, the Defender in front, the BMW that had come to collect Meier next, and them bringing up the rear. ‘That’s some exclusive we have on our hands. So why aren’t I feeling good about it?’
Cristy was equally sobered by the past hour, especially the last few minutes before Meier joined his lawyer in the car.
She said, ‘I guess nothing good was ever going to come out of two children disappearing the way they did. Much as I wanted to believe it would,’ she added, wondering how Meier was feeling now, leaving behind his children’s and grandparents’ grave and knowing it would soon be dug up by strangers to verify that the twins were actually there.
After a while, asserting her inner journalist – the practical, conscientious woman who needed to act on all they’d just learned – Cristy checked the time and said, ‘There are still a couple of hours to go before tonight’s upload, so we should send something over now.
Not the interview, obviously, but the fact that we know the twins are dead. ’
By the time she was ready to record, they were passing the farmhouse. The Defender turned in, the BMW kept going, and she realized they’d probably be following it most of the way to Bristol.
‘I wonder who’s going to run Bryn Helyg now?’ she mused as they left the place behind.
‘My guess is the trusty Maggi and Johan will keep things going,’ Connor replied, ‘until the lord and master returns. Whenever that might be.’
Deciding to leave that for another time, she pressed to record.
CRISTY: ‘Hi, it’s Cristy.’
CONNOR: ‘And it’s Connor.’
CRISTY: ‘It’s not often we bring you breaking news on this podcast, but that’s what we’re doing in this episode.
By the time it reaches you, an arrest will almost certainly have been made in the case of the missing Ivorson twins.
I really hate having to say this, but we can confirm that they are no longer alive, and the man who is about to hand himself in to the police in connection with their deaths is their biological father, Swiss national Jean-Claude Meier. ’
CONNOR: ‘We’ll be telling you more about how and exactly when they died later in the episode, and you can also listen to the interviews we did with both Nicole Ivorson and Jean-Claude Meier, prior to these new developments.
It’s probably going to be quite different to what you’re expecting, but who knows?
Have a listen and let us know what you think. ’
After checking it had recorded, Cristy sent the file to Clove and Jacks, and no more than five minutes later, both researchers were on the car speakerphone.
‘I’ll spare you our shock and how sick we feel about those poor kids,’ Clove said, ‘or maybe I won’t. I actually feel devastated.’
‘Don’t we all,’ Cristy responded quietly.
‘So how did they die?’
‘We’ll play everything for you when we get back,’ Connor told her, ‘but today’s interview isn’t for public consumption until it’s been vetted by lawyers.
Jacks, first thing you need to do is take the age-enhanced images of the twins off the whiteboard and make sure they’re erased on all devices.
Cristy and I have already done it on our phones.
No one needs to see them now – absolutely no one.
Then can you deal with the link we just sent?
Obviously it’s tonight’s episode opener, so over to you to get the edit sorted. ’
‘Clove,’ Cristy said, ‘we need you to go over to Patchway – Meier’s being taken there now – to get a recording of the press descending when news of his arrest breaks on mainstream.’
‘Does anyone else have the story yet?’ Clove asked.
‘No,’ Cristy assured her, thinking of Molly Terrance and how she was going to respond to this exclusive. They could offer it to her, of course, but they wouldn’t.
‘Why don’t we give it to Matthew?’ Connor suggested. ‘He’ll put one of his top reporters on it, I’m sure, and in exchange, we’ll have access to all the News Agenda reports going forward.’
Deciding this was a good idea, Cristy said to Clove, ‘Can you make the call? Tell Matthew we’re on our way back from Wales and I’ll speak to him later if he wants to discuss, but for now, he needs to put Judith Evans on the story.
With any luck, she’ll turn up at Patchway around the same time as you, so you can record her breaking it on live TV. ’
‘Jacks,’ Connor said, ‘try to time the upload to hit all platforms ten minutes before the scheduled broadcast. I get we’re not a news outfit, but no harm making out like we are when we have something like this.’
‘Call us if you need to,’ Cristy said. ‘We should be back in a couple of hours. I’m going to try and contact Honey now to give her a heads up.’
After leaving Honey a message asking her to get in touch asap, Cristy checked the recorder and was pleased, although surprised, to see it was still running. The last few minutes would provide some great input for a future episode.
Connor said, ‘There’s a good chance Honey already knows Meier was going to reveal everything today. I mean, if she’s spoken to Nicole since the weekend.’
Cristy nodded and let her head fall back against the seat, trying to assimilate all that had happened and was about to unfold. Meier would be arrested, questioned, probably remanded …
Connor said, ‘There are still a lot of unanswered questions, but I guess you know that.’
‘Talk me through your thinking,’ she said.
‘OK, Nicole’s phone records for a start. We need to check with Honey, but I don’t recall any mention of them, do you?’
Cristy shook her head. ‘She obviously told the police she didn’t have a mobile, not unusual for the time, but the fact that she did means she must have hidden it quite well, given it was never found.’
‘We can ask her where she put it, if she grants our request for a visit.’ After a beat he added, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen to her now?’
Sighing, Cristy said, ‘My guess is that she’ll have to serve at least the rest of her sentence, and maybe more will be added for having conspired to cover up the crime for so long.
’ Her eyes were once again fixed on the car ahead as she wondered what Meier might be discussing with his lawyer, what charges they were expecting to face, how much Meier was actually prepared for.
He must have thought it through – obviously, he had – and she could only begin to imagine how sick and fearful he was feeling inside.
He probably wouldn’t show it – in fact, there was no doubt he was a master at disguising his feelings – but did that mean he was equally good at ignoring them?
‘You think you read people so well, don’t you?’ she said, almost to herself. ‘You tell yourself you have them all figured out because you have this great insight and belief in your instincts … Then you find out you’ve read them all wrong, and you realize you don’t know them at all.’
Glancing at her, Connor said, ‘Are we still talking about Meier?’
She nodded. ‘But I guess it stands for most people.’ She was thinking of David now and how different he was seeming to her after these two weeks apart.
She still loved him, there was no doubt in her mind about that, but how he felt about her, how he saw their future now …
Whatever, she couldn’t let things run on the way they were.
If his feelings for her had changed she needed to deal with it.
For God’s sake, if Meier could find the courage to face what was ahead of him, she could find it to make a call to David.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Connor said, ‘I reckon Meier’s a decent guy who panicked and made a seriously bad decision.
It’s even possible he was still traumatized by his parents’ death.
No doubt, he’ll be called all sorts of things when this comes out, but the truth is that none of us ever knows for certain how we’d react in a situation until we’re actually in it. And boy can we get it wrong.’
‘Isn’t that the truth?’
‘Plus, in his own way, he’s been paying for it ever since – not the way Nicole has, obviously, but you can’t tell me that he hasn’t suffered too.’
‘And now he’ll suffer even more.’ Cristy sighed.
‘Not that he doesn’t deserve it – he should have got her out of that sentence a long time ago.
I just wish I could believe that locking him up would do some good, but it’s hard to see how it will.
Unless you call satisfying the law a good thing, and I suppose we do. ’