Chapter 12 Chapter Eleven

Tom couldn't ignore the alarm bells blaring loudly in his head.Tom is sure Robert won't admit that there is a problem with his marriage to Olivia-whether there is a problem-is the key-but Tom has to try to understand Olivia's state of mind to gauge whether she left voluntarily, or He was brutally murdered. Robert eventually regained his composure and answered questions about Olivia's mental health, saying he was concerned but she was simply forgetful at times.He said they've been trying to come up with strategies to make it easier for her to remember what to do.Does that mean she might have taken the baby somewhere and got lost, or forgotten where she was going?Tom knew the police in Manchester and Cheshire were looking, all the hospitals had been checked, and if that was the case then they might be found soon.

Tom could see that Robert hadn't listened at all to Becky's gentle inquiry, for his eyes were glazed and it was evident that he was not thinking at all. There was one more thing that bothered Tom.The house is immaculately clean, which seems a little unreasonable given that there are three children living here.Everything seems to be positioned according to the word "taste", but it is morbidly perfect.If Olivia had been home until this morning, why was every piece of furniture covered in dust? Not having photos is a big problem.It would make sense if they were a family that didn't take pictures at all, but it's hard to explain that they actually took some pictures and they're all gone now.Tom needed someone to look at the two laptops, and he could arrange that as soon as Constable Michel finished speaking with the landlady.

As soon as the thought crossed Tom's mind the door opened, and Constable Michelle beckoned him to the kitchen.The constable seemed a little nervous, which Tom guessed was because it was not long before he was on duty alone.poor lad.It wasn't the kind of case that was obvious at a glance. "Sir, I have spoken to the landlady in Wales. She confirmed that Mrs. Brooks and her three children had been there for a week and left last Saturday. She said they all seemed well and were looking forward to their summer Go on vacation again." "Okay, thanks," Tom replied, his attention drawn to a large cork notice board on the wall.The board was several meters long and had nothing on it but a few thumbtacks.

Constable Michelle was talking again, and Tom turned to him. "Sorry, what did you just say?" "I was saying that the landlady said that Mr. Brooks visited his wife once when she was there. She said," he checked his notebook, "'I'm sorry I didn't see Mr. Brooks when he came to visit. He. Of course, we talked on the phone, but I regret that he didn't knock on the door to say hello. He was gone when I got up in the morning.'” Tom looked at the officer. "Are you sure she said that?" Tom regretted the words as soon as he uttered them, because the young policeman looked terrified. He straightened up a little, and his too thin arms hung stiffly the sides of the body.

"Yes, sir, I'm sure. I wrote the whole thing down." "So what the hell is going on?" asked Tom, talking to himself only. "Well, we need to get the local Anglesey police to visit the landlady, but as soon as possible, tomorrow. Morning. Let them ask her, jog her memory, as many details as they can, no matter how trivial. I'm going to go back and talk to Mr. Brooks and find out why he's doing this to us Lie. We're going to start investigating the neighbors early tomorrow morning, before they go out for the weekend. You know the procedure?" Constable Michelle nodded slowly.

"Great job, lad. If you're stuck with anything, just ask us, okay? We're all new to this case, too, you know. Better to ask than to make a mess." Tom walked toward the board, Stare intently for a moment, then turn and say, "Come and see this, and tell me what you see." Officer Mitchell looked bewildered for a second, then pointed to the upper left corner of the board and said, "There's a scrap of paper on one of the pins, it looks like something has been torn off." "Good observation." Tom lowered his head and pointed to the ground. "There is also a thumbtack on the floor. There is something wrong here. So what are you going to do next?"

"Check the trash can?" Officer Michel asked for Tom's opinion. Tom nodded. "Put on your gloves and see what you can find. I'm interested in trash cans anyway. If Olivia Brooks and the kids are home until Friday morning, then I wonder what you can find. Tom nodded trustingly to the officer, then turned sharply back and pushed open the kitchen door into the living room. Becky was still asking questions, but she was exhausted.Tom took up the conversation, not intending to ask Robert about his trip to Anglesey yet.He had a feeling that as long as Robert realized that they had a lot of information, he would not speak at all.

"Mr. Brooks, we really want to check your wife's computer, can we? Maybe we can find some clues on it that lead us to where your wife may be. We want to see yours too, so we can check your FaceTime recording." "What's the point of doing that? It just shows when I was on video with her, I didn't record the call." "We can find out where she made the video call with you." Robert shook his head in frustration. "She's at home. Do you think I won't recognize my bedroom when I see it on a computer screen?" "Actually, that will help us set a time frame. According to your neighbor who spoke to the principal, Olivia hasn't been seen for a whole week. You're on camera with her What exactly is it that she sees here, is it just the pillow she rests on the back of her head, or is there something else?"

Robert raised his hands and put them on his head.It seemed to Tom that he was trying to hold back his anger, lest it should explode. "I don't know how many times I need to repeat. She is here, she is in our bedroom, she is on the video call with me, she is behind us on our cushions, she is at home, in this house." Robert said every word Speaking slowly and clearly, poking her finger with every word, "Not just today, but every damn day of the week. The fact that the nosy old woman across the road didn't see her doesn't mean she wasn't home. That A woman may spend a fair amount of time by the window every day, but she doesn't stay there 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

"Okay. Can you tell me if Olivia has any other computers available? Like a home computer, or do the kids have anything that can connect to the network?" Robert shook his head. "That's the only computer she uses, we don't allow children to go online at all, we don't allow them to have access to our computers." Tom was about to ask what the kids were doing when they were at school and doing their homework, but he held back, it was none of his business.His daughter, Lucy, who is only slightly older than the Brookses' oldest daughter, uses a computer all the time.He hoped that he and his ex-wife had instilled in his daughter all the right notions of safety, and that banning her from a computer would undoubtedly set her up behind her classmates academically.

"So, there aren't any other computers in the house?" Tom asked. "I still have one in my study, but she doesn't know how to use that one. A password is set on that computer." "Can you show me?" Tom asked. Robert sighed as he pushed himself up from the couch.He bent down and picked up a bunch of keys on the coffee table, leading them out of the room.As he put the key in the lock, Tom glanced at Becky, who was frowning in bewilderment. "Why did you lock the door, Mr. Brooks?" asked Becky. Robert snorted, as if the answer was obvious. "Because I work here. I don't want the kids to come in, and I don't want them to touch my computer. I opened this door for you because you are the police, but I always lock the door when I leave the room. .” "Does your wife have the key to this room?" Tom asked, suspecting he knew the answer before asking the question. "No, she doesn't have to. She cleans here when I'm home and not when I'm out." Tom nodded, as if this sort of thing was normal. "Just one last question, Mr Brooks. You say you've been in Newcastle for the past fortnight, don't you?" "Yes, exactly, I told you already." "Then can you explain why, according to the landlady of the hotel on Anglesey, you visited your wife last week?" Robert Brooks turned sharply back. "What did you say?" "I asked if you visited your wife and children when they were on holiday in Anglesey last week?" "No. I told you I didn't leave the hotel during the two weeks I was in Newcastle. I was too busy with work to leave. Ask anyone." "We will, Mr. Brooks. Thank you." It seemed to Becky that they knew a great deal, and that they knew nothing.They asked Robert Brooks questions for another half an hour, from where the meeting was and to his conversation with Olivia that morning, but apart from getting a list of people who confirmed that Robert had been in Newcastle at that time, there was nothing else. nothing. She looked over to Tom, who was exchanging contact information with Robert Brooks, and she couldn't help comparing the two men again.The tension in Robert's demeanor was accentuated by Tom's calm and relaxed demeanor.His fidgeting and blinking eyes that kept jumping from person to person and never made eye contact were disturbing enough to be casually ignored. Constable Mitchell poked his head over the door, and Becky, not wanting to disturb Tom, walked over to see what he had found. "Detective Chief Inspector Douglas asked me to check the trash can," he explained. "The kitchen trash can was empty, and judging from the smell, it seemed to have been cleaned and sanitized. So I looked at the trash can and there was only Two things: a John Lewis shopping bag, and this." Constable Michel spread a large sheet of paper on the kitchen table. "I think it used to be taped to the wall because the corner where it was torn off matched the piece of paper on the thumbtack." Becky looked at the paper and pulled out her phone, thinking it would be nice to take some pictures. "Looks like a schedule," Constable Michelle said. To say it's "schedule" is an understatement.This piece of paper is two meters wide and one meter high. It is a daily half-hour breakdown table for the past month, and the previous month is completely blank. Becky leaned over to examine it. It was marked with astonishing accuracy: "3:20pm - Pick up kids from school. 3:40pm - Return home from school with kids." Here was the paper. the last line of the .Olivia's daily schedule is written on it, but there is no timetable for the children.She noticed that the children had separate little blackboards with reminder strips neatly tucked at the bottom.The piece of paper details when Olivia left home and returned, and lists every call she received, no matter how trivial: "Call at 10:13 AM - WRONG NUMBER .” What are those? Asked about his wife's state of mind, Robert had said they worked out ways to help Olivia, suggesting there was a plan to guide her.The schedule seemed to be written from memory—either things she was going to do, or things she had actually done, but not things she planned to do.Sometimes the words "Back to Sainsbury's - forgot to buy eggs. Be back in twenty minutes." Seems like a message to someone.She also wrote on the blackboard today—or rather yesterday, because it’s well past midnight now—and she picked up the kids from school.But the kids didn't go to school at all. Becky looked more closely at the sheet. Most of it was written in pencil, red ballpoint pens, blue ballpoint pens, and even the children's colored crayons.But the past few days had been written with the same colored pen, and she wasn't entirely sure the handwriting was the same as the previous ones.She needs someone else to look at it, not that it's worth anything.Those contents may have been written by Olivia several days ago, or it may have been written by Robert.