The Accounts

Emma arrived at her flat in Edinburgh later than she had planned. Before going to bed, she sent Sarah a copy of the strange message. She also wrote down where she had found Daniel Reid’s name. She did not want to forget which details came from documents and which came from Nora’s memory.

In the morning, Sarah called her.

“The trust says it has records from 2011,” she said. “I spoke to someone in the office. They told me that the website does not show everything.”

“Who did you speak to?” Emma asked.

“A woman called Fiona Bell. She works with the trust’s accounts. She said there are paper files in storage. But she cannot say whether the September meeting papers are among them.”

Emma opened the trust’s website. The list of meeting dates stopped just before September 2011. That looked strange, but Fiona’s answer gave another possible explanation: the website might be incomplete.

“Can I call her?” Emma asked.

“She said you could send questions by email. She wants them in writing.”

Emma wrote a short message to Fiona. She asked three things: whether the trust had held meetings in September 2011, whether the minutes still existed, and who was responsible for keeping them. She did not mention the anonymous message.

After she sent the email, she looked again at the August programme. Daniel Reid’s name was printed under ‘volunteers’. There was no photograph and no job description. She searched an old newspaper website and found a short report about the community hall’s summer repairs. The report mentioned a local driver named Daniel Reid, who had helped move equipment.

Emma felt a moment of excitement. A driver. A hall. The same name.

But the report did not say what vehicle Daniel used. It did not place him at the hall on the evening Claire disappeared. Emma underlined those missing facts in her notebook.

Then her phone rang. The number was hidden.

A man spoke quietly. “Stop asking about the minutes. Ask who signed the payments.”

“Who is this?” Emma asked.

The line went dead.

Emma stared at her notes. Someone had now pointed her towards the trust’s financial records. She could not know whether the caller was helping her or trying to lead her away from the truth.

She saved the time of the call and told Sarah exactly what had been said. This time, she wanted a record of every step before she followed the next clue.

Before bed, Emma found another envelope at her door. It had arrived by courier. The letter was signed Claire. It said: ‘Stop asking about the scholarships. If you publish anything, you will only hurt people who have already suffered.’ Emma kept the envelope and its delivery label. She did not know who had written it. The first letter had asked her to investigate; this one wanted her to stop. She sent Sarah a copy and put the two letters in separate folders.

Fiona Bell was not Fiona Kerr, the former accountant Emma had met near Inverness. Bell worked with the trust's current records.