4
The next morning, Spencer awoke early and headed downstairs to get coffee, as he normally did. He noticed the door to Marie's room was still shut, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
As he arrived in the kitchen, he found Caroline sitting there, sipping coffee and reading a book.
"Hi," he said, still embarrassed about the previous night.
"Morning. Sleep well?"
"Uh…yeah."
Caroline chuckled. "Don't worry, I don't bite." She sipped her coffee again. "Unless you hurt her. Then I'll kill you."
"So noted." Spencer started making coffee – one for him, one for Stella. "You're exactly like her."
Caroline smiled. "Yeah well, I'm lucky."
Spencer got the milk out and poured some into Stella's mug. "Who was Louis?"
The younger woman got a mischievous grin on her face. "Stella's boyfriend when she was sixteen. Mum had gone away for the night and Stella was supposed to be baby-sitting me. She told her boyfriend that mum was away and gave him a time when she thought I'd be asleep."
"But you weren't?"
"Nope. I caught them – and at least you had all your clothes on. Louis was wearing boxers and socks. Not pretty." She grinned and drank more of her coffee. "Stella paid me two weeks allowance for keeping that one quiet."
With the amusing story in mind, Spencer took the coffees upstairs. He put them down and climbed onto the bed, and pressing a kiss to her lips. Then he whispered in her ear. "Louis left his socks on?"
Stella's eyes shot open. "What?"
Spence grinned. "Your sister told me that he left his socks on. Aren't you glad I take mine off?"
"I'll kill her!"
"You'll be late for work," he reminded her.
He listened in amusement as she swore in French. "Done? Do you want your coffee now?"
She glared at him. "I'm done. And yes."
He handed the mug over and sat down beside her, drinking from his own mug.
"And Spence?"
"Yeah?"
She looked at him over her mug. "I'm glad you take your socks off."
"Who was that young man that Stella snuck out of the house this morning?"
Caroline froze and stared at her mother. "What are you talking about?"
Marie smiled softly. "I'm not an idiot, dear. Your sister had a friend over last night."
Caroline said nothing, hoping her mother would stick with the friend idea.
"A male friend."
Or maybe not. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"How long has she been seeing him?"
"I'm not answering that." Caroline stared her mother down. "If you want to know about anything to do with Stella's personal life, you have to ask her. My lips are sealed."
"All I want to know is if he's good to her."
Her daughter faltered. "He seems to be."
"See? Was that so hard?" Marie smiled.
"Sarcasm duly noted, Mum."
Jennifer Starr projected a wisdom beyond her twelve years. She stared straight back at Grace and Boyd, her gaze unwavering. Jennifer's parents sat outside – they would be talked to later.
"Jennifer, my name is Dr Grace Foley. This is Chief Superintendent Boyd."
Her eyes narrowed. "Are you a shrink?"
"I'm a psychologist."
"So basically, you're a shrink."
Boyd tried not to laugh as he waited for Grace's reply.
"Yes, I suppose I am."
Boyd decided to dive straight in. "Jennifer, do you remember the afternoon that Eva went missing?"
Jennifer sent him a "duh" look and said nothing. This time it was Grace's turn to try not to laugh.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"I've told it all before, you know."
Grace nodded. "We know. But we'd like you to tell us. Please."
"Whatever. I went over to Eva's to play. Her nanny was watching us. Eva wanted to play hide and seek, but Maria told us to stay inside."
"Her nanny?"
"Yeah. The phone rang and Maria went to answer it. Eva went outside. I told her we weren't supposed to, but she did anyway. It was my turn to count. When I finished, I tried to find her, but she wasn't there. I looked everywhere, and then when I couldn't find her, I told Maria. She grabbed hold of me and looked everywhere too."
"In the report, you told the police at the time that the front gate was open," Boyd said.
"Yeah, but that could have been from when I came over, or anything. I don't remember hearing it."
"What happened when Maria realised Eva was missing?" Grace asked the girl.
"We went back inside and Maria told me to stay sitting in the kitchen. She called the police and then Eva's parents." Jennifer shrugged. "Then the police came and they interviewed me. Then someone suggested they call my parents. They came and I went home."
"Did you ever have any contact with Eva's family after what happened?"
Jennifer shook her head. "They never spoke to me or my parents. I never saw Maria or Eva again. After awhile, the police stopped asking questions. The only thing that changed was that my parents became REALLY overprotective."
Boyd stood up. "Right. You stay here while we talk to your parents. Stella!"
The young woman poked her head around the door. "Yes?"
"Stay here with Jennifer. We're going to talk to the parents."
Jennifer rolled her eyes as Stella came in and Boyd and Grace left. "Is he always like that?"
Stella nodded. "Yep."
"We got a call about 6pm that evening from a police officer," Jennifer's mother, Gilda Starr began. "They said that Eva had gone missing, that Jennifer was safe, and did I want to come and get her."
"At that stage, did you know any of the circumstances of Eva's disappearance?" Grace asked.
"All we did was get in the car to go and get Jennifer," her husband, Martin said. "We just wanted to see that Jennifer was safe."
"What happened when you got there?"
"The police wouldn't let us go into the house until they'd verified who we were. Then they let us in to get Jennifer. One of the police told us that Eva had gone missing."
"Were Eva's parents there?"
Martin nodded. "They were both in the living room with the nanny."
"We didn't talk to them," Gilda added. "They didn't seem to want to see anyone, so we took Jennifer and left."
"Did you ever talk to Maria after that night?"
"No. And the Snowdon's never spoke to us or Jennifer again."
"Did Jennifer ever tell you what happened that night?" Grace asked.
"The police suggested we get her grief counselling," Gilda said. "We did that, and we tried to talk to her about it, but she didn't want to talk about it. She said she hadn't seen what happened and that she didn't know where Eva was."
"Did the girl say anything useful?" Boyd asked Stella, as the Starrs left.
"She asked if your behaviour was normal," Stella said helpfully.
Boyd made a face. "Wonderful." He turned around and faced the whiteboard. "So we've spoken to everyone except Maria."
"Madison," Grace reminded him.
"Maria," Boyd said. "She needs to remember everything as Maria, not some made up name."
Grace sighed heavily and Boyd spun around to look at her.
"What?"
Grace just stared back at him. "What, what?"
Stella and Spence exchanged glances.
"Let's just go find whatever her name is," Boyd muttered.
Stella walked into her home that evening to be confronted by a concerned looking sister. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Mum knows you had a man sleep over last night." Caroline took a step back, waiting for the outburst.
"She WHAT? What did you tell her?"
"Wait! What you do mean, what did I tell her? Maybe it was you. Maybe you couldn't keep your bedroom activities down to an appropriate noise level."
Stella wrinkled her nose. "Stop talking about my bedroom activities. And they weren't loud."
"Well, it could be her secret mother's intuition. She's always had that irritating sense of knowing something you don't want her to know."
"Stella? Is that you home?"
Caroline grinned. "Good luck."
She began to leave the room, happy to escape what proved to be an interesting discussion, but Stella grabbed her arm at the last minute.
"Oh no, you don't. You're staying right here. Support and all that."
"Damn," Caroline muttered.
"Stella, is there something you're not sharing with us?" Marie appeared in the room, her eyes fixed on her eldest daughter.
Stella almost wilted under her mother's gaze. "Uh…"
"Stella has a boyfriend," Caroline said helpfully.
Her sister blinked. "Well, I wouldn't call him that…I mean, we never really…"
Marie stared at her daughter. "Well what would you call him?"
Stella shrugged. "Spence?"
Marie smiled. "As in Spencer Tracy? How lovely."
Caroline smirked and her sister elbowed her.
"You will bring your Spencer for dinner. Tomorrow. I want to meet him."
"But Mum…"
Marie stared at her daughter again. "Does your Spencer not eat dinner?"
"Danger, Will Robinson," Caroline muttered.
"No…I mean yes…I mean…"
"Good. Tomorrow night then. Dinner is on the table now, so you better come and eat it while it's hot."
Caroline watched their mother go back into the kitchen. "You know, it's nice that she has someone else's love life to focus on now instead of mine."
Stella sighed heavily and trooped into the kitchen.
TBC