Lying in Wait(89)

‘So why are you still helping them?’ I asked recently.

‘For the house!’ she said triumphantly.

She admitted that she had had papers drawn up. About ten years ago, she came to an arrangement with Lydia. She got Lydia to make a will, leaving the house to her, as long as Helen comes once a week with shopping and anything they might need. The arrangement is that Lydia can stay there until she dies. Lydia and Laurence never leave the house at all. Helen says Avalon is worth millions now, even though it’s in bad repair, and I don’t doubt it.

I feel sorry for myself a lot of the time, and I really need to stop drinking soon, but the person I feel most sorry for is Lydia. How must it feel to be the mother and full-time carer of a killer? She must be well over eighty years old. Helen says she has dementia now. I think that must be a blessing.





28


Lydia


I can’t remember if I fed Laurence today. He is crying a lot and we are very cold.

When those boys came and threw stones at our windows and smashed them, when was that? I went to call that man, the one who adores me, but I don’t think the telephone is working. Daddy will be very cross when he comes home and finds glass everywhere.

I lie on the sofa under a rug, but the broken spring is hurting my ribs.

The girl … Helen … that’s her name, I remember! She’s not a girl any more, but her, the one who always came. She brings coal sometimes when she comes with shopping in her car. But today we are very cold and I cannot find the matches. Diana took them from me. She says we mustn’t play with matches.

Andrew says I must stop Laurence from crying. Maybe he is teething. I have pushed him out into the garden and tied him to the drainpipe to stop him wandering.

Mummy is calling me to come in for dinner. I love the smell of her perfume. I follow it indoors.

It is dark outside. I can still hear him crying.





Acknowledgements


Thank you to my agents: Marianne Gunn O’Connor for her loyalty and loveliness, and Vicki Satlow for carefully placing me into the best international hands.

Thank you to my editor, Patricia Deevy, for her sound judgement and for steering me away from the cliff edge. Thank you to my homies at Penguin Ireland – Michael McLoughlin, Cliona Lewis, Patricia McVeigh, Brian Walker, Carrie Anderson and Aimée Johnston – who all ensured that this book made it into your hands.

Thank you to the amazing team at Penguin UK – Stephenie Naulls, Rose Poole, Keith Taylor, Holly Kate Donmall and Sam Fanaken – who made me look literate and for making sure you heard about the book. Thank you to Caroline Pretty for her gimlet eye to detail and chronology. Thank you to Leo Nickolls for the stunning cover design. Thank you to Catherine Ryan Howard for being my social media maven.

Sincere thanks to the Irish Writers’ Centre and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre for support in the form of the Jack Harte Bursary, which afforded me the time and space to work on this novel. A royal thank you also to Judith Gantley at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco for treating me in the manner to which I would like to be accustomed.

For specialist help, many thanks to: Dr Marie Cassidy, state pathologist, for advice on a decomposing corpse(!); Anne O’Neill, pharmacist, for medicinal advice; my sister Dr Mary Nugent, educational psychologist, and my brothers Peter Nugent and Michael Nugent, solicitors, for information on dyslexia and legal matters respectively; Eileen Conway, PhD, who wrote the book (thesis) on adoption; Yvonne Woods, communications officer at the Free Legal Aid Centre; Richard Walsh, consultant neurologist; Peter Daly, FCA, accountant, and Joe McGloin at the Department of Social Protection; and finally Barry McGovern and Donna Dent for bringing Oliver and Moya to life.

For their expertise in other areas: Gillian Comyn, Benjamin Dreyer, Rachel O’Flanagan, Isibéal O’Connell, Declan Paul Reynolds, Finian Reilly and Donald Clarke.

For their professional encouragement: Sam Eades, Rhian Davies, Rick O’Shea, Maureen Kennelly, Sophie Hannah, Marian Keyes, Sinead Gleeson, Sinead Desmond, Sue Leonard, Martina Devlin, Claire Hennessy, Aifric McGlinchey, Victoria Kennefick, Bert Wright, David Torrans, Frank McGuinness, Ryan Tubridy, Sarah Webb, Vanessa O’Loughlin, Declan Burke, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Roundstone Culture Night, Belfast Book Festival, Mountains to Sea Festival, Airfield Writers Group, Dromineer Literary Festival, Sunday Miscellany, Skibbereen Arts Festival, Dalkey Book Festival, Hay Festival Kells, International Literature Festival of Dublin.

For having to listen to all this endless guff about me: Mum, Dad, Peter, Grainne, Michael, Lucy, Paddy, Monica, Mary, Matt, James, Fiona, Jennifer, Gary, Elaine, Colm, Joanne, Alan, Davy, Jennifer, Julie, Patrick, Julie and John.

Also, big love to my ever expanding coven, which includes but is not limited to: Brid, Maria, Rachel, Olivia, Grainne, Mike, Susie, Al, Aingeala, Frank, Philip, Margaret, Anne O’, Anne M, Beta, Katherine, Susan, Nuala, Deirdre, Claudia, Clelia, Vanessa, Sinead M, Sinead C, Jane, Karen, Paul, Donna, Marian, Tara, Louise, Kate, Martina, Hilary, Lise-Ann, Jen, Angie, Alexia, Gillian, Megan, Fiona, Paraic, Donal, Tania and Grace.

For their warmth and welcome, thanks to the fantastic community of readers, writers, librarians, booksellers and bloggers who know that there will always, always be room for more stories.

Last, but by no means least, to the writers of the future: Sophie Nugent, Robert Nugent and Mia Creamer.