There Is More Light Than Dark

Chapter Forty Six

Monday Aug 15

Doug Prosser saw Detective McCoy's number appear on his screen and lost a second or two in thought as to why he would be phoning.

It was 7:30 am on a Monday morning – just over a month since his daughter had been found dead.

He'd confronted Georgina after too many scotches on Thursday night but didn't think that would be any concern of theirs. And she wouldn't make a complaint anyway – that would mean she would have to admit why he had gone there.

But he still couldn't help but feel that stabbing guilt at what might have pushed Avery away. He still hoped McCoy wouldn't know what only he, Georgina and Vincent did, as far as he knew.

'Detective McCoy. How are you going?'

'I'm well thanks Doug, thanks for asking.' McCoy paused just momentarily as he tried to get the words out in a way that wouldn't alarm Prosser.

'Doug, my reason for phoning is that we are going to re-open the case regarding Avery and I thought you would like to know.'

Doug Prosser felt his anxiety grow.

'Re-open? But why? I thought the coroner was satisfied – you told us......' He wasn't angry, more just reassuring himself what had transpired. The weeks since had been a nasty mixture of heavy guilt, unbridled grief and litres of alcohol.

'Yes, Doug, I know. The cause of death isn't what we're looking at, just whether.... She did it on her own.' He couldn't release any of the new evidence that had come to light.

'What, you mean that bastard might have done this to her?' Prosser rose quickly to a fever pitch.

'I don't know, Doug. Look, I can't tell you much other than we are looking at all possibilities. I am just seeing if there is anything else you can tell me, anything else at all you remember that might have come to you since we last spoke.'

Doug Prosser thought hard about what he might be able to tell McCoy but just couldn't get some of it out. His love was strong for his daughter but his pragmatic assessment of what might have changed things for her he had decided was a moot point. Avery was gone and whether she knew or not no longer mattered. What was still alive was the dignity of himself and Georgina, despite their separation.

Or so he thought.

McCoy had him on speaker and was looking at Lewis as they waited for him to answer. After what she had witnessed at Georgina's apartment last week she hoped they'd get some truth from him.

He did think of something that he had meant to say to McCoy on the phone call weeks ago that had until right now been their last communication.

'Well, the only thing I have thought since we last spoke, you know the time you said Avery was being released for the funeral, was to do with the night I told you about – the night she seemed to have changed.'

'Yes, you thought it was around your birthday?' McCoy could picture his time line on the file clearly.

'That's right Detective - well, it's more about the thought I had that morning when I saw the missed call from her.' Doug Prosser gave McCoy a chance to catch up.

'Thought?'

'Yes, the thought that she might have had an accident in my car?'

McCoy pricked his ears and turned away from his PC screen on which he'd been trawling through Avery's Facebook page again, looking for anything else in the photos of the night Prosser was referring to that might help him out. 'Yes?'

'Well, I didn't notice it for a couple of days because, as I said, she got home late and I didn't go to work until the Tuesday.'

'Notice what, Doug?' He felt something more coming and he almost rejoiced.

'Well, she was so upset that I didn't ever get around to asking her what had happened because I didn't want to set her off again.'

'Didn't think it was what, Doug?' McCoy was pissed now – Prosser needed to get to the point.

Lewis hoped he still might admit something about Georgina, as much as she wished it wasn't true.

'Well she had hit something with the car – the front bumper was cracked and the bonnet had a decent ding in the front and top of it. And mud all up under the guards – I have no idea what the hell happened that night. And she never told me.'

'Jesus Christ, Doug – you didn't think that was important?'

Prosser sighed and rotated the coffee that, by early afternoon, would become a glass of whisky and ice. 'Detective, do you have children?'

'No, Doug, I don't.'

'Well the way she was so upset, so distant with me, I.... I just didn't want to push things, you know?'

The lack of dialogue between Avery and himself had in fact suited Doug Prosser in case it was because his daughter had found out about Georgina and Vincent. Not communicating at least meant he didn't have to deal with any of it; face up to whatever part he'd played in facilitating the failure of his marriage. Doug Prosser's wilful ignorance would have eventually given and he might have realised that his wife's straying had nothing to do with why his daughter changed.

But he'd always figured there'd be another day in which he could bring it up; search without asking whether Avery knew. No father, no matter how conservative or weak, expects to lose the chance to make something up to their own daughter.

And that same guilt and ineptitude at dealing with things informed the way he'd approached his conversations with McCoy.

He couldn't say any of that to him right now. Hell, he hardly realised it himself.

'Doug – I understand what you mean but this fucking around – it might have just cost us all a chance to find out what the hell really happened to your daughter. Now I'm sorry but if you have anything, anything else you think I need to know, you tell me right now.' Dean McCoy had already lost his careful stepping – this case had been dicked around enough.

If he cared more than the family – what the hell did that say?

And Doug Prosser hung up shortly after, only a latent thanks and parting pleasantries having been exchanged, still hoping that he had divulged all that might be important.

And though the rest of it maybe didn't matter as much as what he had just told McCoy, the time in between when he had poured whisky over his guilt and grief had sent Mason Stepper free to Italy on another mission to deal with Vincent's runaway hopes.