The Couple at No. 9(79)

‘Oh, my God,’ gasps Lorna. She hadn’t been expecting that. ‘Did she say why?’

‘It was after I told her that someone had come into the café looking for her. She asked who but I didn’t know the man’s name – at that time I’d never seen him before. But I did see him a few times after Rose moved away, just around the village but then he must have left too, because I never saw him again. Anyway, she said she had done something and she was scared they’d take you away from her. She was in a bit of a state, to be honest. It was all really strange. I tried to calm her down but she was so cagey, so worried about telling me anything.’

Was it Victor she was so scared of? Lorna picks at one of her gel nails. Had he found her and that was why she’d left in such a hurry? Without saying goodbye to anyone?

‘Did the man give his name?’

Melissa shakes her head. ‘No … not that I can recall …’

‘And did my mum mention the name Victor to you?’

Melissa frowns. ‘I don’t know … maybe. It was all such a long time ago. I just remember her being really scared after I told her someone was looking for her. Why? Who is Victor?’

‘I think he’s my father. And she was running away from him.’

‘Oh, that’s awful. It makes sense now. She seemed very scared that night. Like I said before, we just assumed she was a widow when she first arrived in the village.’

Lorna shuffles in her seat. ‘It can’t be a coincidence, can it? She finds out someone is looking for her and then runs away.’ She sighs. ‘I don’t remember much about living here, or Daphne,’ she says. ‘So they must have parted ways at some point when I was still young. Me and my mum, we lived in Bristol after moving away from here.’

‘They seemed so close.’

‘As much as I love her, my mother is a funny one. In all the years I can remember she never had a relationship. With a man or a woman. She concentrated on me and then, when I left home, on my daughter.’

‘Something really seemed to scare her on Bonfire Night, though,’ says Melissa, wistfully. ‘She said …’ she looks towards her fireplace and frowns ‘… something really odd.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She said, “If anything bad happens to me, look in the fireplace.”’

Lorna frowns. ‘The fireplace? Which one? Yours?’

She laughs. ‘No. I don’t think mine. I assumed hers. But I don’t know …’

Lorna’s heart starts to race. The fireplace. She must be talking about the evidence that Victor has been so desperate to find. Is that where it’s been all this time? ‘And …’ she can barely contain her excitement ‘… did you ever look?’

‘No. No, I didn’t think much about it, really. After she left I’d heard that she still owned the house and was renting it out. So it’s not like anything bad had happened to her. If it had – if, I don’t know, she’d been found dead in the house or anything like that – well, then, yes, yes, I would have done as she asked, but she left, other people moved in. About ten years after she left, around 1990, I bumped into an estate agent who was looking at the house and asked him about Rose. He said she still owned it, that she rented Skelton Place out. I assumed she’d outrun the man she was so frightened of.’

God, thinks Lorna, tears blinding her vision when she thinks of her mother, alone and scared, bringing her up by herself.

‘The bodies in the garden,’ says Melissa, suddenly. ‘Do they know who they are yet?’

‘One was a journalist called Neil Lewisham. And the other, they still don’t know. But I’ve been wondering. Maybe they didn’t split up and the other body is Daphne’s.’

Melissa breathes in sharply. ‘But who would have killed her?’

Lorna looks down at her hands. ‘I’m worried the police will think it’s my mum …’

‘No, no, that’s not right,’ Melissa says emphatically. ‘Rose would never have hurt Daphne or let anyone else hurt her, not without calling the police, or doing something.’

‘Unless it wasn’t my mother who killed her,’ says Lorna, swallowing.





43


Saffy





‘What are you doing?’ asks Tom, as I get out of bed and start to dress hastily. ‘I thought we could have a lie-in.’ He raises his eyebrows suggestively. ‘What with Lorna out for a bit.’

‘I’m sorry, I want to go and see Gran. I just feel I need to see her. To spend time with her.’

‘We’re meeting up with Theo and his wife later, remember. Will you be back in time?’

‘Yes.’ I throw on a T-shirt I haven’t worn for about two years, some jogging bottoms, and scrunch my hair into a messy bun.

Tom sits up. He’s bare-chested and I feel a flicker of desire but just as quickly it’s gone. My mind is too full of other things. ‘I’ll come with you. I haven’t seen your gran for ages and –’

‘No,’ I bark, then realize I sound a bit harsh. ‘No,’ I say, more softly, ‘it’s okay. I think Gran might talk more if it’s just me.’

He stares at me, concern etched on his face. ‘I’m worried about you, Saff. This is all a lot to take in and now you’re going to hare off to Bristol.’