There are two sides to every story - Carly
Carly hated Christmas.
It hadn't always been that way, she hadn't always been the Bah Humbug type. Even as a teenager who thought she was too cool for everything, Carly had loved everything about Christmas. The bright lights, the terrible songs, the rampant consumerism. (Probably that last one the most.)
But it was hard to get worked up about Christmas when she didn't have anyone to spend it with. Even when her father had been difficult and surly, he'd always put all their difficulties aside for Christmas. Something about the tradition of it all seemed to make him more of a dad than he usually was, and they always went and bought the most beautiful tree. On Christmas day she and Jonas and their dad would sit around it opening presents and drinking their coffees and everything felt - for a brief bright and shining moment - like they were all happy together.
But those Christmases were many years gone now and it was just depressing to even put up a tree for one person. She and Jonas had drifted and he'd moved north, but even their strained relationship was stellar compared to the one they both shared with their father.
So the most festive Carly got in the lead up to Christmas this year was the company mandated Christmas reindeer headband she had been given.
Christmas Day itself was spent mostly in bed, eating an entire family pack of Ferrero Rocher - past their use-by-date and thus affordable - and watching the stream of makeup tutorial videos that youtube played endlessly.
It was general dumbarse-ary that sent her back to her childhood home on Boxing Day, smoking on the other side of the street and watching the house like some sort of stalker. It was extra dumbarse-ary that sent her onto the property and through the thin gap in the hedges she always used to use when she sneaked out to parties.
The backyard was as maintained and perfect as it always was - the work of a gardener and not any of the people who lived in the house. Which was now just Elias Malec. Standing in the drizzle and looking up at the windows, she wondered if he was home. She wondered if he had a Christmas tree up.
Maybe he wouldn't be alone. Maybe he was seeing some woman now. Maybe she even had kids - ha! Good luck to them in that case. Good luck to them with Elias as their father. She ran her hands over her getting-wetter-by-the-second braids as she concocted an entire fantasy life happening inside the house: A big white dog, the kids playing with their new expensive robot toys that were both fun and educational, the girlfriend in a red dress because she loved Christmas.
But the fantasy didn't linger. Carly knew that if Elias was home he was probably home all alone, with only a glass of scotch to keep him company. Sitting in his study like the moody little troll he was.
Carly shook her head to dislodge the raindrops from her face. "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal," she muttered up at the windows before turning around to escape once more out the hedge.
-
As Carly walked down the driveway the next day on her way to work, two uniformed police officers came walking up it towards her. Police weren't a completely unusual sight around these parts, but they weren't usually at her house. "Are you Carlotta Malec?"
She managed to stop herself from asking who wants to know? because it was the cops. The cops wanted to know, and so she should probably tell them. "I am," she said, not hiding the wariness in her tone. And then she realised what this was about: her father had seen her yesterday, seen her sneaking around the property. She felt a cold slow anger in her stomach. That used to be her house! "Is this about my dad?" she asked, trying to at least partially cover how annoyed she was, although she wasn't sure it was working. Something sarcastic and bitter was trying to break free.
"Actually it's about your mother," the female officer said.
Carly could have predicted a thousand different comments to come out of the policewoman's mouth but that would not have even been one of them. When she spoke her voice was smaller, slightly shaking. "What? My mum? Do you..."
"Could you come down to the station with us, Miss Malec?" the officer asked. "We'd like to ask you a few questions."
"But... my mum? Did you- do you know where she is?"
There was a moment of silence and Carly understood, within that moment, exactly what she was about to hear.
She didn't want to hear it. When the policewoman opened her mouth Carly was already shaking her head, as though that might stop the words. There was a ringing in her ears that was growing quickly to a crescendo and Carly almost couldn't hear it when the officer said, "I'm sorry to inform you that we found your mother's body."
Everything in Carly's head turned to buzzing and she felt her legs start to give way beneath her body. The male officer moved beside her, taking hold of her arms so she didn't fall. Carly was saying something to them, but even as she said the words she forgot what they were.
Her mother was dead.
Her mother was dead.
Her mother wasn't back in Brazil, or with a new family in Kent, or sailing the Med with rich billionaires.
Her mother was dead.
The next part was an uncertain blur but at the police station they gave her a coffee she didn't think she could drink without throwing up and they reminded her that they had already called her work to explain the situation.
"How are you?" the female officer asked as she came to join her in the room. It wasn't some interrogation room like from a movie. It just looked like an office. "This must all be a terrible shock."
Carly just nodded.
"We're just trying to get a few details straight about her disappearance in 2008. Do you think you could help us?"
"What happened to her?" Carly asked quietly, hands around the coffee mug.
"Your mother's case is currently a murder investigation, but we believe she was killed around the time of her disappearance."
Carly dropped her gaze and squeezed her eyes shut. "Oh mum," she whispered.
"Miss Malec," she officer said gently. "It would help us immensely to hear anything you can remember about the last time you saw her."
"I was only a kid," Carly told them, shaking her head. "I-" she sighed and forced herself to try and focus. "We'd only been in England for about a year-"
"Where were you before that?"
"Uh, Brazil. We all lived in Brazil before that."
"Go on."
"So... she was a sad a lot, I don't know why- I mean, I didn't know why but I figure now that it was just bad marriage stuff. She came to us - me and my brother - one evening and she said that we had to pack our bags because we were leaving. She... she didn't really explain, she just said... she said we had to go and we couldn't tell dad. We were going somewhere without dad. She said that we had to pack our bags and put them under our beds and that later she would come wake us up and we would go. And-" Carly's voice cracked a little. "She never woke us up. I woke up in the morning because the sun was coming in the window and... mum was just gone. Dad said she left. That they had a fight and she took her bags and she left."
"Did you hear your parents arguing a lot?"
Carly shook her head. "Not really. Maybe they did and I just didn't notice."
"And did you think your father was acting in any way unusual after she left?"
Carly looked up at the officer quickly. "Because you think he killed her," she said, clear and with sudden realization. "He killed her."
"I'm not saying that is what happened."
"Of course he did," Carly said, feeling her chest tightening and that ringing coming back into her ears. "She was going to take us with her. She made us pack bags. She was crying. She-" Carly shook her head. "He said she left because she couldn't handle us anymore but... oh my god, she never left, did she?" Carly's hands were shaking so bad she had to take them off the cup and stabilize herself against the table. "Oh my god, he killed her. He-" The sob caught in Carly's throat but she couldn't keep it in. "He killed my mum."