Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Duncan Edwards’ ex-fiancée, Angela Totley, lives in a new-build house in Milton Keynes. She was surprised to see Jennie and Zuri on her doorstep when she answered the door, but she invited them in, if a little hesitantly. Now they’re sitting, each with a mug of Earl Grey, in a front room tastefully decorated in various shades of white and off-white. Jennie’s mouth is dry, but she’s reluctant to take a sip. Earl Grey always tastes like used dishwater.

‘Thank you for agreeing to talk with us today,’ says Jennie. On the baby grand piano behind the sofa where Angela is sitting, a clutch of silver-framed photographs shows Angela and a man who Jennie assumes is her husband posing with two blonde girls, chronicling the years from babyhood to graduation. The family group look happy and glamorous; a far cry from Duncan Edwards and his lonely studio flat. ‘As I mentioned earlier, we’re investigating the murder of Hannah Jennings.’

Angela Totley nods. A petite, stylish brunette in her late fifties, she looks every inch the top private school headmistress that she now is. ‘I’m happy to help. I assume you want to ask me some questions about Duncan Edwards?’

‘We do,’ says Jennie, a little surprised at how direct Angela is being. ‘And also to get your sense of Hannah Jennings herself.’

Angela frowns. ‘Now, I would have thought you could answer that question for yourself, Jennifer?’

Heat spreads across Jennie’s cheeks, as if she’s a naughty schoolgirl who has been caught out. It’s clear Angela Totley recognises her. And although Jennie had always been a well-behaved pupil she’d never especially clicked with the rather prim English teacher. Jennie injects a stronger air of authority into her tone. She’s not one of Miss Totley’s pupils now. ‘Of course, but we’re looking for other people’s perspectives.’

‘Understood,’ replies Angela, stiffly. ‘It’s hard for me to have an objective view on Hannah Jennings. I didn’t know her particularly well – as you know, she wasn’t in my class for English – but she seemed like an energetic child who was well liked by teachers and her peers.’

There’s something about the way Angela talks about Hannah that makes Jennie think there’s more to her reticence than purely not having been one of Hannah’s teachers. But she parks the feeling for now, not wanting to push the witness too much before they’ve discussed her fiancé.

‘You were engaged to Duncan Edwards at the time that Hannah Jennings went missing, is that right?’

‘Yes, that’s correct,’ says Angela. She takes a dainty sip of her Earl Grey. ‘Duncan and I had been together several years. We were living together at that time, and had been due to get married the following summer.’

‘But that didn’t happen?’ interjects Zuri.

‘No. It did not.’ Angela picks up her mug of Earl Grey again and takes another sip. ‘I broke off our engagement about a month after the investigation into Hannah’s disappearance concluded she had run away.’

‘And why was that?’ asks Zuri, making a note on her scratchpad.

‘I didn’t want to marry him any more.’ Angela Totley’s tone implies that’s as much as she’s willing to say.

‘Why?’ asks Jennie.

Angela says nothing but it’s clear from her expression that she’s struggling to contain her emotions. ‘As I said, I ended our relationship shortly after the investigation was closed. I left the White Cross Academy, took up a position as head of English at Campbell Park High in the new school year, and I haven’t seen him since.’

Jennie watches the previously composed woman start to tear up. There’s a lot more going on here than they’d first supposed. She glances at Zuri.

‘Have you had any contact with Duncan Edwards since your split?’ asks Zuri, gently.

At first Angela doesn’t reply. She puts her mug down on the side table, then nods. ‘He has tried to contact me.’

‘When?’ asks Jennie, leaning forward in her chair.

‘All the time,’ says Angela, starting to speak faster. ‘At first it was the odd email or text, but I blocked his number and email address and that stopped. Then, it was Friends Reunited. Even all these years later, any platform I join, I get a friend request or a new follow from him. I decline and block, of course, but then he puts together a fake account for a friend of a friend and I don’t realise. He’ll comment on every photo I put up, every thought I share.’ She shudders, tearful now. ‘Then he bombards me with DMs: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. He comments on my Strava runs. This year he followed me on Threads. As soon as I block him in one place, he finds another. And it doesn’t stop, he won’t give up. He’s been cyberstalking me for nearly thirty years.’

‘Have you reported him?’ asks Zuri.

‘What good would that do?’ says Angela, sighing. ‘You’re all so overstretched, and he hasn’t actually done anything in real life.’

‘From what you’ve said he’s exhibiting obsessive behaviour.’ She wonders if Duncan Edwards harboured a similar fixation for Hannah. He clearly has form for it. ‘Thirty years is a long time to sustain an obsession.’

‘He never wanted to accept that we were over,’ says Angela, sadly. ‘I think it stemmed from the fact that he knew it was all his fault. At first, he probably believed he could make it up to me. Then when he realised I wasn’t going to forgive him, it was as if he couldn’t let me go entirely. It’s sad, really. I pity him.’

‘You don’t think he’s dangerous?’ asks Jennie. She’s finding it hard to get a read on Angela; one moment she’s distressed over how Duncan has stalked her, the next she’s waving away their concerns and saying not to worry.

‘Duncan?’ Angela laughs. ‘He’s harmless. A fool, and a relentless one perhaps, but harmless none the less. He’d never hurt me, and I’m sure he didn’t hurt Hannah Jennings, if that’s what you’re thinking. Although I’m sure there were plenty of others who’d want to.’

Jennie frowns, not understanding. ‘Why would other people want to hurt her?’

Angela holds her gaze for a moment. ‘Because Hannah Jennings was a dirty little slut.’

Jennie raises her eyebrows. She can’t stop the shock registering on her face. Angela Totley started off prim, became emotional, and is now being provocative. Although her accusations are vague and more than a little evasive, there’s something very personal about the way she’s talking about Hannah.

Jennie pushes her a bit harder. ‘You mentioned earlier that it was hard for you to have an objective view on Hannah. Why was that?’

‘Well, like I told you, she wasn’t a student of mine, so I didn’t really know her,’ says Angela, starchily, taking another sip of tea.

Jennie holds her gaze. There’s something more; she just knows it. ‘Is that all? Because referring to her as a “dirty slut” sounds like a pretty strong view.’

Angela bites her lower lip. Puts her tea mug down with a bang. ‘Look. Okay. I didn’t like Hannah Jennings. Actually, if you must know, I hated her. That little slut was the reason I broke off my engagement to Duncan. It was why I had to get another job at a different school. The reason I couldn’t bear to stay in White Cross.’

Jennie feels her jaw clench. Her teeth start to ache.

‘Why did you hate Hannah?’ asks Zuri, her voice calm and sympathetic.

‘Because I saw them together, her and Duncan, the day she went missing. That little bitch was kissing him. Groping him right there at his desk in the art room after school, as if she had no shame, no morals. I just couldn’t …’ Angela pauses. Takes a breath. ‘Duncan was kissing her back. When I saw that, I knew our relationship was over.’

So the rumours were true. Jennie wishes Hannah had told her the truth about Duncan Edwards. She’d never confirmed or denied the rumours, and Jennie had just assumed they were fiction not fact. She knows better now. ‘There’s no mention of that in the statement you gave during the first investigation. Why is that?’

Angela shakes her head and looks contrite. ‘Because I was really embarrassed. Duncan pleaded with me not to tell the police. He said they were already looking at him as a suspect and if I told them about him and Hannah kissing just before she disappeared it would put the final nail in his coffin.’

‘So you protected him, even though he’d cheated on you and could have been responsible for Hannah going missing?’ says Zuri, clearly unimpressed.

‘I protected him because I knew there was no way he was responsible for Hannah’s disappearance,’ counters Angela. She looks at Jennie.

‘Duncan left Hannah and chased after me. We went home, arguing, in the same car, and continued to argue for the rest of the night. It was like a warzone in our apartment. The worst night of my life. Duncan insisted Hannah had provoked him, that she’d kissed him, and that he was about to push her off when I walked in. We yelled and cried and threw stuff, but neither of us left until the next morning, when we drove to school together and taught lessons for the whole day. I was with him the whole time.’

Angela fixes Jennie with a hard stare before she concludes, ‘Duncan couldn’t have had anything to do with Hannah Jennings going missing.’