‘You were a frequent visitor to the Bowers’ house in Aldern Way at that time, I gather?’
She looked at him sharply. ‘Oh, I imagine you’ve been reading all the old paperwork. The details of the case against Reece.’
‘It isn’t all that old,’ said Cooper. ‘Ten years.’
‘Yes, I’m aware of that. I still think about it, of course. Almost every day I think about Annette. This latest business has brought it all back. No doubt people will be talking about it all over again, and asking questions.’
‘People like me, I’m afraid.’
‘Well, it’s your job, I suppose. At least you have an excuse. A lot of people don’t have that pretext. Their interest is just prurient.’
‘I’m aware that you were the first person to raise the alarm about your sister’s disappearance, although it was Mr Bower who actually made the phone call.’
‘That’s true.’
‘And your concern started when Annette failed to return from a run.’
‘It wasn’t like her,’ said Frances. ‘She knew we were coming. She would normally have been back at the house getting ready. When I say “normally”, I mean always. Except that one occasion.’
‘So you were sure from the start that there was something wrong.’
‘Yes, I was. Certain. Much more than certain than Reece seemed to be. That was why...’
Her voice tailed off. She had probably been over this part of the story many times, when she was questioned a decade ago. But clearly she hadn’t forgotten it. The details must still be sharp in her mind.
‘That was why you had suspicions about Reece,’ suggested Cooper.
‘I felt a little guilty about it at first. Having those suspicions seemed unworthy. He was my brother-in-law, after all. But I couldn’t keep the suspicions to myself — not once I noticed the blood.’
‘Ah, yes. A splash of blood in the kitchen.’
Mrs Swann gave a small shudder at the recollection.
‘It was hardly a splash,’ she said. ‘A speck, that’s all. But I knew it was blood.’
‘And what was your conclusion?’
She sighed. ‘It’s difficult to admit, even now. But the sight of that one speck of blood formed an absolute certainty in my mind that Reece had harmed Annette in some way. I know it doesn’t sound logical seen objectively. It probably doesn’t make any sense to you, when you’re looking from the outside and at this distance from the events. But it was very different for me. My conclusion was a culmination of several factors.’
‘What factors, Mrs Swann?’
‘A number of comments Annette had made to me about the ongoing state of her marriage, the fact that they’d been arguing recently and that Reece had been drinking more than usual. And his apparent lack of concern that afternoon about her disappearance. He kept saying she would be back soon, coming up with all kinds of unlikely explanations. I didn’t believe a single one of them.’
‘And then there was the blood,’ said Cooper.
‘And then the blood,’ she agreed. ‘And it was Annette’s blood.’
‘Yes, it was. The DNA tests proved it.’
‘So I was right,’ she said.
‘But your sister’s body was never found,’ said Cooper as gently as he could.
She was silent for several moments. He saw that her composure was beginning to break down and he didn’t want to do that to her. But sometimes there was no choice. Mrs Swann clenched her hands together.
‘No, and that’s the worst aspect of all,’ she said. ‘You can’t imagine what that’s like. No one can.’
‘I’m sorry.’
She turned away. There was nothing Frances could say to that. And nothing else he could say to make it better when ‘sorry’ just wasn’t enough.
‘I have to ask this, Mrs Swann,’ he said.
‘I know you do. Go on.’
‘At the time, did you have any ideas about where your sister’s body might be found?’
She took a deep breath. ‘Yes, when they began to search the garden, I was confident something would be found. I’d noticed that fresh digging myself. I remember one of the investigating officers seeing it... what was his name now?’
‘Detective Inspector Hitchens?’
‘That was it. And from that moment, when I saw the expression on his face, I expected a discovery. I had to leave the house then, of course, and return here. I sat waiting for the phone to ring, or a knock to come on the door. Can you imagine? I could have been waiting for a very long time, couldn’t I? Ten years or more. I might still be waiting now for a discovery that never came.’
‘They dug almost the whole garden up, but didn’t find Annette.’
‘That’s right. I thought the police would do more, you know. A lot more.’
‘What do you mean, Mrs Swann?’
‘I wanted them to start a search in Lathkill Dale,’ said Frances. ‘Reece and Annette went there often, and it seemed the sort of place Annette would head for if she wanted to be on her own for a while, to think things through. If Reece hadn’t killed her after all, it seemed likely to me that she’d gone there and met with an accident of some kind.’
‘In that case, she would have been located years ago,’ said Cooper.
‘I know, but it would have made me feel easier in my own mind.’
‘And what do you think of your father’s conviction that he had a sighting of Annette in Buxton?’
‘Oh, that.’ She sighed. ‘It’s hard to know what to think, or who to believe. Of course, I’ve always wanted to believe that Annette is alive and just doesn’t want to come home — although I don’t understand why she wouldn’t have got in touch in all these years. On the other hand...’
‘You still suspect that Reece killed her.’
‘In my heart of hearts, yes. It’s ruined my relationship with my father, you know. He’s become very cut off. He talks to Adrian more than he does to me. I think Adrian trusts him. They’re men together with a shared interest. So I doubt they talk about things like this.’
‘Mrs Swann, I take it you don’t have any of the same suspicions about the disappearance of Mr Bower?’
She laughed rather nervously. ‘Oh, no. Reece has gone somewhere. I have no idea where, and I don’t particularly want to know. There won’t be any good involved, I’m sure of that.’
‘I see. How close is your relationship with Naomi Heath?’
‘We don’t have a relationship,’ said Frances, suddenly cool.
‘And your husband?’
‘Adrian would tell you the same.’
Through an open door, Cooper glimpsed what looked like a study or workshop in an adjoining annexe. On a table stood an amazing object that caught his eye immediately. It was a carved tawny owl, almost life-sized.
‘That’s beautiful,’ said Cooper.
‘Yes, Adrian is putting it in for the show this weekend,’ said Frances.
‘What show?’
‘The Festival of Bird Art in Bakewell. The National Bird Carving Championships are held there every year.’
‘So your husband is a bird carver.’
‘A very good one,’ she said.
‘So I see.’
‘Would you like a closer look at it?’
‘Very much so. Can I touch it?’
‘I don’t think he would mind. He likes people to appreciate his work. Adrian is a member of the British Decoy and Wildfowl Carvers Association. He’s entering the Advanced Class of their competition this year for the first time. The owl is his entry for the Bird of Prey category.’
Gently, Cooper touched the perfectly carved feathers on the wings of the owl.
‘It’s wonderful.’
‘Decorative style is the most challenging. A carver is trying to recreate a lifelike depiction of the bird. A finished piece can be almost indistinguishable from the real thing. It’s very different from decoy carving, or the interpretive style.’