on Sun, Jan 13, 2019, Joseph Knox [email protected] wrote:
EVEning—apologies for my lateness, (but never for my puns). Yes, sorry, I’m shit. Buried in writing. It’s interesting stuff. I guess the question is, does the rest of it add up to a book? You said what you sent me before is the first third? How long have you been interviewing these people? Not sure I have a total grip on the main players atm (except that Andrew = sleazebag), though I’m sure I will. Do you think you’ll keep going? Not being a dick but, w/ my commercial hat on, you might want to consider just starting with Zoe’s disappearance…
J
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Finally! Okay, so Zoe’s dad was the first person I got hold of in late 2017. This was obviously before the recent allegations against him, and he opened a lot of doors in terms of access to the others. From him I got Fintan and Sally Nolan, from Fintan I got Jai and Liu, and from Sally I got Kim. No one was speaking to Andrew so I found him through Facebook. Kim was the toughest nut to crack, which I guess makes sense considering what she’s been through. We talked on the phone (off the record) for weeks and weeks, then started meeting in early 2018. I’ve spent most of the last year interviewing them all and assembling the story but Kim’s really the backbone. Obviously she was always gonna have some unique insights into her twin sister, but there was WEIRDNESS between them and it went to some insane places. Some you’ll have seen already in the press, but some, I’m afraid, are gonna cost you the price of a hardback book ;)
I have at least half the book done plus a lot more recorded material but things are STILL happening. Most of the taped conversations were done in person over multiple meetings and then assembled into the best order afterward. Some of them, like Zoe’s parents, can be quite rigid. They’ve gone over it so many times in their heads and with the press that it’s all a bit rote. The others are much more at pains to argue a point or try and say it how they saw it, and I think that’s where the truth starts to come out.
You’ve got someone like Andrew, a man with a BAG of chips on his shoulder, who says whatever sounds good to him at the time and constantly gets tripped up by it after. I wouldn’t agree that he’s sleazy necessarily (u jealous?), he has his charms, a gorgeous private school accent for one, but he had no compunction asking me out for a drink while I was interviewing him about the missing girl a lot of people think he murdered…
(I let him down gently.)
Jai’s a sad story. A hotty when he was 18, artistic but ballsy and just how I like ’em, now missing most of his teeth(!) and looking about ten years older than he actually is. He’s had a sad life I think. They all have, in different ways, but where the rest of them just have emotional scars, Jai’s are physical as well. Weirdly, he seems like the most well-adjusted now. I guess you need some inner peace if you’re gonna kick junk. Mos’ def has an axe to grind against Andrew though…
Liu Wai’s a funny one. Made-up to the hilt and trying to give ME advice on which Max Factor Facefinity three-in-one foundation would “go with” my eyes. Can be a bit performative, slips into these mundane conversations forgetting she’s supposed to be crying her eyes out, but I think she has a good heart. You’d like her, she fans herself with one hand when she gets emotional.
Fintan seems to think about it, and about everyone else, the most seriously. It’ll be clearer going forward but he’s very dedicated, he’s basically given his life up for Zoe’s cause. He’d never say it but I’m not sure he always pats himself on the back about that now. He’s not bitter, I’m not sure he knows the meaning of the word, maybe just rueful? Like, he wonders what could have been? He speaks very slowly and usually for a long time. I can listen to an Irish accent all day but I do wonder if he might be lonely.
Anyway, the idea now is that I’ll start the book off with what you just read and generally introduce the key players. Kim’s van stuff coming out has clarified a few things and has ramifications through the rest of the text. I didn’t even know about it until she sold the story.
Then in part one I give some background on Kim and Zoe’s childhood (troubling, infuriating, RELEVANT). From there I work my way forward to their first term in Manchester and the events leading up to Zoe’s disappearance. I knew, knew, KNEW you’d say I should just open with the night she went missing, but cool your crime writing jets, Knoxy. Weird shit was happening WAY before December 17th, and I’m sitting on a pile of it.
You have to see it play out to properly understand, but it’s as much about them as it is about Zoe. It’s as much about prejudices, ours and theirs. You have to SEE why Zoe could never be the “perfect” victim for the press to latch on to and turn into a big story. She was too messy, too complicated.
I’d say there were four or five DIFFERENT dark forces circling her before she even went missing, and those are just the ones we know about. I don’t believe in victim blaming but I do think some people are like shit magnets through no fault of their own. Sometimes I think I even know the feeling (a lone violin plays). But cancer can’t compare to going missing, I don’t think. I mean, obviously it’s a fucker, but at least we understand it on some level.
My goal is that by the end of this book you’ll understand Zoe. I don’t want to wince away from what made her too messy for the press.
Let me know if I need to re-send the first third again. It’s all from interviews conducted last year but like I said, I’m still talking to them. You could even take me for a drink and blow some royalties if you want to hear about it firsthand. I could be your muse, Knoxy. I’ve read your stuff and believe me you need one…
(KIDDING, love to XXXXXX. Hope to see you soon.)
Ex
Part One
Zoe Nolan Was Here
1.
“Separate Ways”
Zoe originally intended to specialize at the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Kim, meanwhile, was eager to strike out on her own, studying English at the nearby University of Manchester. An unfortunate event, however, would permanently alter the course of both their lives.
LIU WAI:
The first thing that really struck me about Zoe was her voice. I’ll never forget the sound of her singing on our first night living at Owens Park. Manchester felt like a long way from Essex, and I think where a lot of people my age were dying to break out and get into trouble—to find themselves or whatever—that was all quite alien to me? I always felt like I already knew who I was. Who else would I be? And I didn’t want to get into trouble. So sitting in my room on my own, yet to make a new friend—wondering if I even could—to hear this voice was really comforting. I actually moved my chair so it was closer to the wall, and I left it there for the whole term. That probably sums up my friendship with Zoe at first. She was just there, and I got as close to her as I could.