The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

61

September 2018

POLICE TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH AMELIA BOO RHODES

8 September 2018

Manton Police Station

In attendance:

DI Dominic McCoy

DCI Aisha Butt

DI McCoy:Amelia, or would you prefer Mimi?

Amelia Rhodes: Mimi. Please.

DM:OK, Mimi. Thank you for coming in, of your own volition.

AR:I’ve been wanting to say something for ages. For months. So long. But … I was too scared.

DM:Scared of what, Mimi?

AR:Scared of … It’s hard. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s Scarlett. She’s got this kind of … power?

DM:Can you explain a little what you mean by that?

AR:I just mean … I don’t know. She just has this way of making you think that you’d be nothing without her. It’s like, being with her is amazing and exciting, but there’s always the threat that she would cut you out, just like that, if you displeased her. So you just never wanted to displease her.

DM:When did you first meet Scarlett Jacques?

AR:At Maypole House. When I was sixteen. We were both doing Art A level. And Textile Design. So we were in a lot of the same lesson groups.

DM:And had you known her before that?

AR:[doesn’t reply]

DM:Could you say yes or no, please? For the recording?

AR:No. I’d never met her before. But we hit it off, like, immediately. She was just, kind of, exciting to be around. Everyone wanted to be friends with her, and she chose me. And once Scarlett had chosen you, you were hers for life. Or that’s what it felt like. I mean – all of us, me, Ruby, Jayden, Rocky – we all followed her to Manton. We could have gone to other colleges. Especially Jayden and Rocky – they were, like, geniuses, Jayden could have got into the Royal College and Rocky got a place at the London College of Fashion. They were so talented. But they went to Manton. Because that’s where Scarlett went. It’s kind of lame, really, when you think about it. When you look back on it. But she just had this way of making you feel as if your life would be meaningless without her. Not in anything she did. She never did anything bad. Just in the way she made you feel … I can’t explain it. It’s weird. Like she needed you. But also like you needed her more.

DM:And so, going back to the night of 16 June 2017. Please can you tell me, in your own words, exactly what happened.

AR:Erm, from, like, the pub?

DM:Yes. Start at the pub.

AR:It was a Friday. We all met up at the Swan & Ducks. In the village. Just a fun, normal night. The whole crew. Plus Scarlett’s ex, Liam. We all sat outside, had a few drinks. Then Scarlett went in to get a round and she didn’t come back. So we went in to find her and she was sitting with them. With Tallulah and her boyfriend. Really weird atmosphere. Really tense.

DM:As far as you were aware, was there anything going on between Scarlett and Tallulah?

AR:Kind of. Yeah. We used to talk about it, their friendship. It seemed strange. Like, I don’t want to sound horrible, but Tallulah just wasn’t like … us. You know? She was very quiet, dressed very, like, ordinary. She was nice and everything, but I never really understood why Scarlett wanted to hang out with her. Then Ruby said she saw something, in the college grounds, the two of them holding hands when they thought no one was looking and then after that we assumed that something was going on, or something had gone on. But she never told us and we never saw anything else. So, you know …

DM:And then, at the pub?

AR:Yes. So, we all ended up sitting with them and we all got quite drunk. Then Jayden, Rocky and Roo all left; Roo’s dad was coming to pick her up and Jayden and Rocky were lodging with Roo. So it was just us and Liam, and then Lexie came over too and she drove us over to Scar’s house …

AR:[pauses]

DM:Carry on.

AR:Yeah. Sorry. So, erm … we went back to hers and we had beer and smoked some draw and played in the pool and then Zach and Tallulah went indoors and I went in a bit after, to go and charge my phone, and I could hear raised voices from the snug off the kitchen and I peered through a gap in the sliding door and I saw Zach kind of manhandling Tallulah. They were having a row. Zach was saying to Tallulah that he’d been going to ask her to marry him, I think. And then he threw the ring at her. I stopped watching then, backed away and then went to charge my phone but there were no Android chargers in the kitchen and I had one in my bag upstairs in Scar’s room, so I went up there to get it. It took me a while to find it. So then I came back down with the charger and I was still on the stairs … and I heard …

AR:[pauses]

DM:Are you OK? Do you need a minute?

AR:No. It’s OK. I heard Tallulah shouting. What have you done? And Scarlett saying something like, You wanted this, you said you wanted him to disappear. And I nearly went into the kitchen. But I didn’t. I don’t know why. But it was like – it was Scarlett. Something bad had happened and I was scared for Scarlett to know that I’d seen it. I was scared of Scarlett. You know? So I ran back up the stairs and was going to grab my clothes and my overnight bag and run. But then I heard her coming up the stairs so I flung myself under the covers on her bed and pretended to be asleep. I lay there like that for hours. I kept expecting to hear sirens or something, or for Scarlett to come up and tell me what was going on. I kept expecting something to happen. But it just didn’t. It was silent. Like nothing had ever happened. I saw the sun come up and then, at about six o’clock, I shoved all my stuff in my bag and came downstairs. I went into the kitchen. It was empty. I looked in the snug and Scarlett was out cold on the sofa in there. I tried to wake her, but it was like she was unconscious. I shook her so hard and she didn’t wake up. And then I saw this little black box. It was a ring. On the floor. It was the one Zach had thrown at Tallulah. And I picked it up and shoved it in my bag. I don’t know why. I just thought …

AR:[pauses]

DM:It’s OK. Carry on.

AR:I know I shouldn’t have. But I wanted to protect Scarlett from whatever it was she’d done the night before. And I knew the ring was evidence – of something. Of some kind. I … I’m really, really sorry. I should have handed it to the police. I should have told them what I heard her saying in the kitchen. I know I should. It’s so bad that I didn’t. I know that. I really do know that.

DM:So what happened after you picked up the ring?

AR:I left. I walked down the driveway and my mum picked me up from the gates and drove me home. And that was that.

DM:Did you hear from Scarlett again? After you left her house?

AR:Yeah. She called about lunchtime, said she’d just woken up, asked where I was. I told her I was at home. Then she called again a few minutes later and said that Tallulah’s mum wanted to talk to me because Tallulah hadn’t come home. She gave me her number and asked me to call her. And I … I didn’t ask Scarlett the right question. I didn’t ask any questions. I just said yes. She said, Are you OK? And I said I was just tired. And that was that. That was basically the only conversation Scar and me ever had about it. About any of it. I didn’t talk to her again really after that. I went to London to live with my dad for the summer. And by the time I got back to Manton that September, Scarlett and her family were gone.

DM:So you didn’t talk to Scarlett at all over the whole of that summer?

AR:No. Not once. She didn’t call me. I didn’t call her.

DM:And what about the rest of your friendship group?

AR:Yeah, I mean, we messaged and stuff, but never about that night. We never talked about that night. Which is kind of weird, when you think about it.

DM:So, Mimi, earlier you told us that you gave the ring to Lexie a few weeks ago. Could you tell us about that please?

AR:Yes. Sure. So … I had the ring all this time and I’ve wanted to do something about it since forever. I’ve wanted to come forward and tell someone what I heard. Or what I thought I heard. Because, you know, I’d been drinking that night. I’d been taking drugs. What I saw, what I heard, it was all so fleeting. Just a glimmer of a thing. But I just kept thinking that the police would find some kind of evidence of whatever the hell happened that night, or that Scarlett would come back or Tallulah would come back, or even that Zach would come back … like, maybe I’d imagined the whole thing. I just thought the whole thing would sort itself out without me having to do anything or get involved, but then months and months and months went by and nothing happened and then the girl’s mum did that candlelit vigil for the year anniversary and still nobody knew anything and I saw her mum once, in Manton, pushing Tallulah’s baby in a pram and she looked so sad and so broken and I felt so bad. And I’ve been … I’ve been in hell. In actual hell. So last month I went to see Lexie and I finally told her what I saw through the door of the snug that night, Zach and Tallulah fighting, Zach throwing the ring box at her. And then I told her what I heard afterwards, Tallulah shouting what have you done. And Scarlett shouting but you said you wanted him to disappear. And then, Lexie told me …

AR:[pauses]

DM:Take your time. It’s OK.

AR:[crying]

AR:Lexie told me … she told me that she’d heard from Scarlett, that Scarlett was on a boat, with her mum and her brother. She said that Scarlett’s mum was making them go on a round-the-world trip for a year and that she wanted complete anonymity. Something to do with the father. Apparently, he’d been violent. I don’t know. It didn’t sound right to me. I mean, the father was never even with them. And they were still missing. Zach and Tallulah. And there was just this huge gaping hole in everything. And so I gave Lexie the ring last month, just before she went to Florida and she said, I’ll sort this out. OK. I’ll sort this out.