‘Well you did the right thing.’
Tilly began tapping her feet on the floor, depositing flecks of dried mud all over the threadbare carpet tiles. ‘I pulled the string, the one that dangled over the tree. It had some sort of bell attached but it didn’t make a dinging noise. When it came out of the ground, it was red on the end.’ Gina could see that the girl had since washed her hands and she was glad but the cut on Tilly’s finger left her with a shiver.
‘Did you touch it?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so, I just dangled it in front of me and dropped it on the ground.’
Gina read through a few of the notes that had been taken by PC Kapoor. ‘Tell me a little bit about where you were going?’
The girl glanced at her father, then back at Gina. ‘We were taking a shortcut to school. There was a Halloween disco. We were going to get the bus but we thought it would be okay to walk as the rain had stopped.’
‘And which school do you attend?’
‘Cleevesford High.’
‘Did you notice anything unusual while you were walking through the woods?’
Tilly shook her head. ‘We heard a noise in the bushes.’
Gina sat up. ‘And?’
‘It was just a fox. It scared us to death.’ Tilly paused. ‘Whoops. I shouldn’t have said that, not after we found a dead person. I didn’t think.’ The girl glanced at her dad and he patted her shoulder.
‘It’s okay, Tilly. Just tell us everything in your own words, however weird it feels to speak them.’
The girl took a deep breath and shifted a clump of hair away from her eyes, revealing a streak of mud on the side of her face. ‘We were walking quite slowly. I had stupid shoes on and I remember bickering with Katie about it, then I knocked her phone out of her hand. She’d been telling me creepy stories about ghosts. She freaked me out so I lost it. I accidentally smashed the screen on her phone. Sorry, Dad.’
‘Don’t worry about that, Tilly. We’ll deal with it later.’
‘Anyway, we ended up searching for the battery. It had come apart from the phone. That’s when I saw the bell and the string hanging from a branch.’ The girl paused and wiped her left eye, which was going a little red from rubbing it too much.
‘And after that?’
‘We saw the outline of a person just back of the clearing. They came, walked around for a few minutes, then left. That’s when we called you.’ The girl yawned again, this time more vocally.
This was the bit Gina was interested in more than anything. ‘You’re doing really well. I know you’re tired but this is really helping. Can you tell me anything at all about the person you saw? Height? Did it look like a man or a woman? Larger or thinner in build?’
‘We couldn’t see. We just stayed hidden, holding our breath. It was dark and I didn’t want to flash my phone and show whoever was lurking about where we were, not after just finding the hand in the box. We then began to think there really was a murderer so we sat together, holding hands, in silence. I’ve never been so scared, Dad.’
The man placed an arm around his daughter. ‘You’re doing really well, my love.’
‘You are. This is really helping us, Tilly.’ Gina smiled a little, just enough to try and put Tilly at ease a little. ‘You’re safe now.’
She wiped her nose on her arm. ‘The only thing I saw is their eyes as the clouds moved and the moon lit up the clearing. Whoever it was seemed to be looking at me. I remember toppling a little as we stooped and my dress was getting tangled around my waist. My legs started to burn and shake, then I slipped, making a noise. Then the creepy person ran away.’ Tilly paused and stared open-mouthed at the grain in the table.
‘What is it, Tilly?’
‘It looked like they were wearing a long black coat with a hood. I could see an outline of the person’s legs under as they lifted it to stop it brushing in the mud. That’s all I remember. Maybe they were wearing cycle bottoms or leggings, either way, they were wearing something tight.’ She shrugged. ‘We were just so glad to get out of those woods. I want to go home, Dad…’ The girl began poking her finger through a hole in her dress, tearing a bigger hole in it.
Gina glanced over at O’Connor. ‘Tilly, what you’ve told us has been so helpful. And thank you for staying here to talk to us again. Just as a precaution, I’d like you to pop to the hospital. I know you say that you didn’t touch the blood on the string, but I wouldn’t be doing my job or looking after you properly if we didn’t get you checked out. I know it all sounds scary but it doesn’t take a moment.’
The girl’s bottom lip began to quiver. She buried her head into her father’s chest and sobbed. ‘They’ll make me have an injection, won’t they?’
‘But she didn’t touch the blood,’ Mr Holden said. ‘Does she need to go through this?’
‘Tilly, I’m definitely not saying you have anything. This is just a precaution and I’m sure you’ll be fine. We’d also like someone to tend to the cut on your finger. It looks sore. We need to make sure it doesn’t get infected.’ Gina paused and glanced at O’Connor’s notes. ‘Tilly, will you be okay sitting in the waiting room with DC O’Connor? You can call him Harry by the way.’
O’Connor placed his chewed pen on the table, stood and smiled. ‘I think Katie will be there too. Maybe she can go with you for support, if you’d like that.’
Tilly nodded.
‘Is that okay, Mr Holden?’
‘What?’
‘If Tilly goes with DC O’Connor so that we can talk for a moment?’
The man nodded. ‘Yes, of course.’
After Tilly left with O’Connor to meet up with her friend, Gina leaned in. ‘I know it sounds like we’re going over the top but Tilly has a cut to her finger. We can’t be too careful and I’d like her to be examined as a precaution. I know it’s been a distressing night for you as well as your daughter, but all I can say is she’s been so brave and we’d be failing in our duties if we didn’t get her looked at.’
He shook his head and clasped his hands on his head of thinning hair. ‘I know. I just don’t know what I’ll do if anything comes back bad. What if she touched the blood and it got into the cut on her finger? I know how these things work, I used to be a nurse in another life.’
‘So you also know how important it is to be checked out.’
He nodded. ‘You’re right, thank you.’ He went to stand. ‘Why did it have to be my daughter who found the body?’
Gina had no answer for that. She was glad someone had found the body but it did choke her a little that it happened to be two fifteen-year-old girls. She only hoped that they’d soon forget the incident and not let it affect their lives.
He scratched his head, grabbed his phone from the table and left.
Gina tried to imagine herself standing by where they’d found the body. She imagined the rain trickling through the gaps in the coffin and, in her mind’s eye, she crouched by the tree and peered out at the figure wearing a long dark coat and tight trousers. Why had they come back if they’d buried the body? Maybe they’d come back to check that their victim was dead or maybe something else brought them. Had they cycled? She felt slightly light-headed, heart racing as she thought of how close those girls had come to a potential murderer. Someone had been there, lurking in the bushes. She only hoped that whoever it was hadn’t seen the girls, which might make them a target. A cold tingle reached up the back of her neck and she did up her jacket as she imagined the girls being watched. She made a note to discuss keeping an eye on their houses.