Alice May

Alice May is a friend of Josie Trott and a worker at Adler’s Furnishings whose conversations and quick reports give the investigation a civilian vantage point. She follows the crimes through newspaper coverage, voices unease about Martin Smith’s apparent fascination with The Phantom, and distinguishes the Briggs twins’ disappearance from the abduction of an adult woman. When news emerges that the latest victim was picked up in a fake black taxi, Alice carries the information into the shop, where it abruptly unsettles Martin.

Identity and Introduction

Alice first appears in the everyday routine of Adler’s Furnishings. Josie is waiting by the front door when Alice approaches; Alice lets her in, and they move through the back-shop area into the staffroom. The setting establishes Alice as part of the shop’s working community, alongside Josie, Martin Smith, and delivery driver Ken Carlton. Later scenes place Alice and Josie together at lunch in a nearby cafe, confirming a friendship that extends beyond their shared workplace.

The morning paper is already part of Alice’s day: she says she read it on the bus. Its coverage of the abductions gives her and Josie a common subject of concern, but the newspaper is not merely background. It supplies the language through which people outside the investigation identify the crimes and debate whether apparently different disappearances might be connected. Alice’s role is modest in institutional terms, but she is repeatedly shown interpreting and passing on information as it reaches ordinary readers.

Work, Friendship, and Unease About Martin

Alice and Josie discuss the murders at the shop and later over lunch. Their conversation is grounded in familiarity: Alice tells Josie what Martin has been saying, and she characterizes his response to the killer as creepy, as though he were The Phantom’s greatest admirer. Josie agrees with the concern and adds that she has noticed Martin watching people. The exchange makes Alice a witness to an unsettling atmosphere around a colleague, though the evidence does not establish that she knows Martin’s significance to the case or that her suspicion leads to action by the police.

The contrast between the shop’s ordinary social life and the subject of their talk gives these scenes their tension. Staff share tea, take lunch, and discuss the news, while the murders have begun to shape how they interpret one another’s behavior. Alice’s reaction does not amount to a formal accusation. Instead, her choice to tell Josie what Martin has said, and her frank assessment of his apparent interest, records a growing unease within their workplace.

Reading the Cases as Different or Connected

As the newspaper raises the possibility that The Phantom may be responsible for more than one disappearance, Alice resists treating every case as interchangeable. She doubts that the same man took Felicity Wanless and the Briggs twins, reasoning that two school-age girls who may have run away are in a different situation from a working woman taken from the street. Her distinction reflects what she has encountered in public reporting, not privileged knowledge of the investigation; she does not claim to know what happened to the twins.

That distinction sits against the varied circumstances being discussed by the investigators. Becky Allsopp disappeared after travelling from Newcastle Central Station toward Sunderland and leaving the reach of CCTV; Cath Caslaw left after arguing with her boyfriend; Louise Usher sometimes walked home or took a bus or taxi after the gym; and Felicity left a pub before her friends and did not get home. Investigators consider whether victims may have been taken into a vehicle without attracting attention. Alice’s view that the twins’ case differs from an adult woman’s abduction therefore registers one public response to a developing pattern: readers are asked to compare cases, while also confronting how little is known about each disappearance.

The Fake-Taxi Report and Narrative Role

Alice’s most direct contribution to the unfolding story comes when she rushes into the staffroom waving her smartphone. She tells those present that an image has been released showing The Phantom picking up the latest woman in a fake black taxi. Martin, who had been seated in the staffroom, sits back down abruptly at the news. The scene gives Alice the role of messenger rather than investigator: she brings a public update into the workplace, and Martin’s immediate reaction makes the announcement more than another item in the news cycle.

The report has a concrete connection to the investigation’s concern with transport and opportunity. CCTV showed Jill Richards walking from the supermarket past McDonald’s toward Roker Avenue, then appearing at a bus stop outside the Salvation Army. She checked the timetable and flagged down a vehicle that looked like a black cab, but had no sign on its roof. Eve Strong recognized the significance because police had warned people to hail only white cars bearing a taxi sign. Alice does not discover or interpret that footage herself; her scene shows the warning and the evidence entering public circulation as news of the false cab reaches the shop.

Across these appearances, Alice helps connect the private conversations of coworkers to the wider uncertainty surrounding the crimes. She is attentive to what newspapers report, alert to behavior that troubles her, and willing to bring urgent news to others. The story does not give her a resolution to the cases or a later investigative role. Her significance lies in the way she makes the unfolding pattern visible at street level: through the bus ride, the staffroom conversation, the lunch with Josie, and the phone in her hand carrying the latest report.