Read Online Darkness, Darkness by John Harvey - Free Book Online

in the village then. Few other folk, all local. Of course, nothing come of it. Not his fault, mind, Keith, one bloke on his own, whole bloody country up in arms – what was he supposed to do?’ He shook his head. ‘Nobody gave a bugger, not then, not really, that’s the truth of it.’ He laughed, no humour in it. ‘An’ here you are, thirty years too bloody late.’
    Catherine opened her notebook, turned a page.
    ‘We’ll be talking to Haines, of course, hoping it might still be possible to look at his report. Statements that were taken at the time. But I wonder if there’s anything you might like to add to your previous statement about the circumstances in which you realised your wife had gone missing? Just to give us, perhaps, a little more to go on.’
    ‘Circumstances?’ Hardwick nodded, wiped his hand across his face. ‘Much like I said before. Friday, that’s what it was. Friday, the twenty-first. I got back off shift half-expecting Jenny to be home, half not. She was off doin’ stuff so much, round that time especially, you could never tell. Any road, instead of Jenny it were Mrs Jepson from a few doors along. Not one of the women as usually kept an eye on the kids at all, but Jenny had asked her as a favour, on account something had cropped up and she weren’t sure when she’d be back. Might be late, might not. Nothing to say what she were up to, nothing like that.
    ‘So, anyway, I get home and there’s all three kids tuckin’ into beans on toast. Mrs Jepson, she goes off and I think, well, she’ll turn up, Jenny, sooner or later. Not overfussed, you know? But then when it gets towards end of evening, like, and there’s still no sign, I leave Colin in charge and try the Welfare, but no one’s seen hide nor hair of her, not since the day before. Peter Waites, he’s off at some meeting somewhere so that’s no help.
    ‘I went round to her sister’s, just in case, like, she had any idea where she were, but she’d not seen owt of her. Gave up after that, went back home, put the kids to bed. Thought whatever’s happened, she’ll be here tomorrow, either that or get in touch, that at least.’
    He shrugged.
    ‘There was nothing. Not a thing. Four days off bloody Christmas and, far as I could tell, she’d buggered off without a word. Not so much as a phone call, some kind of explanation, not even a bloody note. Kids all in a state. Brian, crying his eyes out. Course, I know now. I know now why there was no sodding note, but then . . .’
    The breath juddered out of him and his voice was quieter when he resumed.
    ‘She’d wrapped presents for the kids already. Left them the same place as always, top drawer of the wardrobe, away from prying eyes. When I saw them, I thought then, she knew, you know, knew that she was going.’
    For a moment, he closed his eyes.
    Catherine slowly rose to her feet and Resnick followed suit.
    ‘Thanks for your time, Mr Hardwick. And for talking to us about something that’s clearly still painful. I dare say we’ll be needing to speak with you again, but for now I think that’s everything. And with regard to releasing your wife’s body, it’s for the coroner to issue a burial certificate after due consultation. The most usual thing, in cases like this, I’m afraid, is for the body to be kept so that the defence in any trial can order a post-mortem of their own. But in this instance the coroner might make an exception due to the passage of time. I’ll try to make sure you’re informed as soon as a decision’s been taken.’
    Just a few minutes later, they were back out on the street, the air damp and not without a chill.
    ‘What do you think?’ Catherine asked, once they were in the car.
    ‘Hardwick? I don’t know. He seemed genuinely upset. Whatever he thought of her, it must have been tough. And now, having to go through it all again . . . At the end there, he was close to tears.’
    ‘You don’t think that was an act? The tears?’
    Resnick