Cross Her Heart(82)

‘Let her go,’ I mumble again. ‘You said you’d let her go.’

‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.’ She smiles, her eyes bright and sparkling. Katie in full game mode. She pushes the table she’s sitting on and it slides in half, the coffin cut through the middle. Not a coffin at all. An illusionist’s trick.

‘I never liked him, if you remember. God, he was dull. An old desiccated dying man. But I can respect his meticulous mind now. I’ve learned to have an eye for detail myself. It was hard work persuading my mother not to sell this house. But then I had years to stay on top of her, didn’t I?’ She looks at me, something like fondness in her eyes. Regret? ‘We were going to come here,’ she says softly. ‘Weren’t we?’ Her voice hardens: ‘If you hadn’t ruined everything.’ She takes a deep breath. A controlling breath. ‘But we’re here now. I can hardly believe it. I’ve waited such a long time for this.’

The world is spinning again. Is it the concussion, or the pill she gave me? As the darkness closes in again, I realise it’s irrelevant. Whichever it is, I’m going to pass out. My head, too heavy to hold, drops forward. Katie starts to fade.

‘Charlotte?’ Her words come at me from under water. ‘Charlotte? Oh goddammit, you used to be better than this.’

And then I’m gone again.





70


MARILYN

‘Thank you. That’s great.’ He hangs up the phone. ‘We’ve got it.’

I sit up straight, all tiredness and frustration falling away. ‘You’re shitting me.’

‘Grandfather on her mother’s side. Harold Arthur Mickleson.’ He slides the piece of paper he’s scribbled the address down on across the desk as proof. ‘Skegness.’

‘Bloody hell.’ I pick it up and stare at it. ‘Your people are good.’

‘My people are the best, but it’s time to call the police in.’ It’s hot in his office where the two of us have been holed up waiting for calls since getting back from the station, and I can see sweat at the edge of his hairline. It’s been two long hours. It feels like forever. My whole body aches with tension.

‘Lisa’s in trouble and we both know it,’ he says. ‘If this Katie woman has gone to these lengths to track her down, she’s no match for her.’

‘I agree. I’ll call Bray.’ I reach for the mobile phone he’s given me while the police have mine, but he shakes his head.

‘It can’t be you. They won’t listen to you.’

‘Fine. You do it.’ I don’t care who makes the call as long as they pay attention. He dials and my foot taps under the table as I listen in.

‘… No, this has nothing to do with Marilyn. She’s taken a pill and gone to bed. I’ve been digging into Katie Batten to satisfy my own curiosity. Yes, it is an advantage of being rich, but I’m now sharing what I’ve found so I’ve saved your resources. You should at least check the house out. It’s empty. It was going to be turned into a museum, apparently – he was some kind of famous illusionist – but it never happened. Just like the new owner never materialised. Someone’s hiding behind a lot of paperwork, Detective Bray, and whether that’s Katie or not, I think there’s a good chance Lisa will have gone there, to Skegness. It’s somewhere she and Katie would have talked about, surely? Katie’s grandfather died earlier that year and if they’d been planning to run off together, an empty house might be a good place to hide out for a day or so? What’s it going to hurt to send a couple of officers to check it out? On a case like this you could have people there in ten minutes, surely?’

There’s a long pause and our eyes meet. Finally, he nods, triumphant. ‘Thank you. Yes I will. And thank you again.’

It’s a long wait and we sit in silence, tension humming between us. I wonder if he realises he’s in love with Lisa. He thinks he’s doing all this to vindicate his own judgement, to make his attraction and flirting and dating her slightly less bad than it’s made him feel, but this is more. This is driven by something deeper, even if he doesn’t know it yet. I love Lisa too, even knowing everything about her past. That’s a truth I’m going to have to learn to reconcile too. Someone can do a terrible unforgivable thing, and yet you forgive them if you love them. The heart is such a strange thing.

Finally, Bray calls back. Simon listens, and then, after a few perfunctory minutes, the call is over. I can tell it’s not good news from the slump in his shoulders.

‘There’s no one there. The place is deserted. The only oddity was that the front door was unlocked. They’re going to try to contact the owner to get a locksmith out in the morning, but there’s no sign of anyone having been hiding there, and no sign of Ava.’

‘They’re missing something,’ I say. She has to be there. I can feel it in my gut.

‘They’re looking for a killer.’ He slumps down into his chair. ‘They’ll have been thorough. They can’t be there. We’re back to square one. Let’s hope the searches into Amelia Cousins come back with something. Until then, there’s nothing we can do. Running around like headless chickens without information isn’t doing us any good.’

I stare down at the paper I’m still holding with the address on it. I don’t care what he says, they’ve missed something. A clue at the very least. Katie drew Lisa to that house. It wouldn’t be for no reason.