The Road North

Daniel Reid called Emma the next morning. He agreed to meet her at the charity office. He did not want to discuss private information on the phone.

Emma arrived early. Volunteers were helping older people arrange journeys to hospital. It was a friendly place. Emma wondered what Reid was like now, fifteen years after Claire disappeared.

Reid arrived with some notes. "I wrote these after your call," he said. "They are only my memories. They are not police documents."

Emma showed him the report.

"Were you asked to check the possible sighting of Claire?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Did you speak to anyone?"

Reid was quiet for a moment. Then he answered.

"I spoke to someone. But I did not write everything I learned in my report."

"Why not?"

"I thought someone might be in danger if I wrote it down. I believed I could make that decision myself. I was wrong."

Emma looked at him. "Are you saying Claire was alive?"

"No. I'm saying I kept important information out of a missing-person investigation. I don't want to speak about another person's private life."

Emma had many questions. Had Reid helped Claire leave? Did he know where she went? But he had not said these things. She asked a different question.

"Did your decision change the investigation?"

"Perhaps. I can't be sure."

"Did you tell your manager?"

"Not then. I have now asked for advice about correcting the record."

Reid looked at Emma. "You wrote stories about Claire's family in 2011."

"Yes," she said quietly. "I published claims I could not prove."

"Then you know why I don't want people to guess what happened."

Emma asked whether they could meet again. Reid said he would think about it.

During a break in the conversation, Emma looked at Reid's hands. He was turning his empty cup without drinking. She wondered whether he was nervous or simply uncomfortable with an old story. She could not know. She returned to her prepared questions instead of asking him why he looked worried. She wanted him to describe what he had done, not what she imagined he had felt. When he paused, she waited. The silence lasted longer than she expected. A car passed outside, and Reid looked towards the window before answering. Emma wrote down his words without adding an explanation of her own.