The Silent Ones: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller(60)

‘What? No I didn’t!’ Her fingers tap around the bottom of her neck. ‘I mean, we’ve had the reminder, but it’s not due until…’

Her mouth is still moving but the words are failing her now. She looks so scraggy and washed out.

‘I didn’t realise… Oh God, no.’

‘Everything in there has literally gone up in smoke. It will probably totally ruin us.’

‘The new Van Dyke order,’ she says faintly.

‘Thank goodness the Van Dyke merchandise hasn’t arrived yet, so wasn’t destroyed. Beth’s going to try and rescue the order for us, and she’s going to carry out an assessment of where we stand and what we’ve lost as soon as the senior fire officer gives her the all-clear.’

‘Beth!’ Chloe’s mouth twists. ‘She always manages to worm her way in.’

‘Thank God for Beth,’ I say curtly. ‘Because we’ve nobody else to help us.’

Chloe doesn’t answer. She hasn’t even apologised for her seismic error yet, but she does look wretched.

‘Look, Chloe, I’ve been asking you for weeks, months even, what’s wrong. I know something is, so don’t bother denying it. I’ve known you long enough to tell when you’re distracted.’

I’m taken aback when her eyes suddenly swim with tears. She opens her mouth, and a strange little gasp escapes. She tries again and gets the same sound, as if she’s trying to form a word that won’t quite emerge.

‘For goodness’ sake, what is it?’ Even though I could throttle her for making such an utter balls-up, I soften my tone a little. ‘Just spit it out. Tell me now.’

A desperate look crosses her face that makes me fear what she’s about to say, and then, just as quickly as it appeared, it evaporates and her forehead creases up with undisguised scorn.

‘It’s nothing.’ She turns quickly and pulls open the door. ‘Instead of worrying about me, maybe you should focus on what’s going to happen to your daughter.’

And suddenly I find myself alone in the room as Chloe returns to the family fold next door.





Forty-Four





The police station





Dana tapped on Neary’s office door and he beckoned her in.

‘Thanks for coming in early,’ he told her, shuffling through papers on his desk. ‘The witness is on his way.’

‘Expecting to find out anything we don’t already know?’

Conor frowned and consulted a note on his desk. ‘A Mr Peter Brewer, who lives in the house opposite Bessie Wilford’s, called the appeal number last night. He said that as he opened his front door yesterday lunchtime to leave for a work trip, he spotted the girls skipping down the street and entering via the property’s gate. He watched them disappear down the side of the house before he walked to his car parked on the street.’

So now they had a witness to say the girls had entered the property together.

‘Sounds pretty conclusive to me,’ Dana murmured, replaying the facts in her mind. ‘Sadly, though, only the girls themselves know exactly what happened once they were inside the house, and they’ve still not told us everything.’

‘Well that’s just it. Apparently he has some other information he thinks we’ll be interested in, but he was a bit unclear in what he said, which is why the officer taking the call asked him to come to the station as soon as possible. We expect him to arrive within the next fifteen minutes.’



* * *



Dana grabbed herself a coffee and sat outside underneath the enormous canopy of an old oak tree.

She thought about her first disagreement with Lizzie last night, after she’d cooked dinner for the two of them. It had all started off quite innocently.

‘I feel bad that we spend so much time at your place,’ Lizzie had said.

Dana pulled a face. ‘It doesn’t matter to me. I like having you here. It sounds like you’re best out of your place for the time being anyway.’

Lizzie nodded gratefully. ‘You’re not wrong. I hate going back there. I’d willingly leave everything and put it behind me forever, but I’ll have to go through Mum’s stuff at some time.’

She had told Dana a little about the nightmare she was going through after the recent death of her mother.

‘The hospital were negligent,’ she’d said, her face patterned with grief. ‘I’ve got two witnesses to say they didn’t do anything to help her after her heart failure. It was as though they’d just written her off because of her age and condition.’

‘Sounds terrible,’ Dana said sympathetically. ‘Your poor mum.’

‘It’s one of those things that’s difficult to prove but I know in my heart of hearts they could probably have done something. If they had, Mum might still be here.’

Lizzie was such a caring person; she had a big heart.

It was ridiculously early days to even be thinking it but secretly, Dana enjoyed telling herself that Lizzie might just be the one she’d settle down with.

But maybe it wasn’t as daft as it sounded; after all, they weren’t na?ve nineteen-year-olds in the flush of a first relationship. Dana was forty-two and Lizzie had just turned thirty a few weeks ago. They both knew what they wanted from a partner.