The Retreat(38)

A minute later, my phone pinged.

It was Zara, replying.

Hey Lucas. Really sorry, but I decided to head home. I wasn’t getting anywhere and I couldn’t stand being in that B&B a moment longer.

Don’t worry about my fee. I didn’t get anywhere and don’t think anyone ever will. That girl is long gone. It’s a total waste of time looking for her. Sorry again! Zara Damn. So was that it? The end of the investigation? It was hard to accept that it was all over, just like that, even though a voice in my ear whispered that it was a good thing, that I was wasting time on a wild goose chase.

The voice also reminded me that I needed to get back to the retreat, do some work. I still had over three-quarters of my novel to write, and I was never going to get it done if I didn’t buckle down to it. I’d been ignoring emails from my agent and editor, both asking when I expected to be finished. I needed to do what I’d originally come here for.

I was desperate to help Julia. But I had no idea what to do next, or who to talk to.





Chapter 19

LILY – 2014

Halfway through tea, Megan’s grandad narrowed his eyes at her and said, ‘Where do I know you from?’

Lily took a sip of orange squash. She found it hard to reply – it was like there was something stuck in her throat – and she had to take another sip before the words could get through. ‘In the park. You helped me when I fell off my bike.’

He clapped his hands together. ‘Of course! Well I never.’

‘What a coincidence,’ said Megan’s mum, smiling at Lily.

‘It is a small town,’ Megan’s grandad said. ‘We all know each other. Although I haven’t met your parents properly yet, Lily. What do they do? For a job, I mean.’

Megan’s grandad had a crumb stuck to his lower lip which wobbled when he spoke. Lily stared at it, convinced it would drop at any second, but it clung on.

‘My mum’s an illustrator and my dad does stuff with computers.’

His eyebrows arched up towards his shiny head. ‘What would you like to be when you grow up?’

She shrugged. She hated it when grown-ups asked that. ‘I haven’t figured it out yet.’

‘I want to be a pop star,’ Megan said. ‘I’m going to be in a group and I’ll be famous.’ She broke into song and her grandad beamed, his eyes shining with love and pride, until Megan’s mum told her to be quiet and eat her tea.

This meal was stretching on forever. Lily really wanted to get away from Megan’s grandad. She didn’t know why, but it was as if she were allergic to him in the same way she was allergic to lambswool, which made her skin prickle and break out in a rash. She had seen how Chesney reacted when a dog walked past, his back going up and his tail getting fat. That’s how Megan’s grandad made her feel, even though he’d helped her in the park and he was being nice to her now and Megan clearly thought he was the bee’s knees.

Megan’s mum’s phone rang. She took it over to the back door to talk to whoever it was. When the call ended, she came back and said, ‘Lily, that was your mum. She’s not going to be able to pick you up.’

‘Sleepover!’ yelled Megan.

Lily ignored her. ‘Why not? Has something happened?’

Megan’s mum put a hand on Lily’s arm. ‘Relax. It’s nothing bad. There’s something wrong with the car, that’s all. She asked if I can run you home.’

‘Sleepover?’ Megan tried again.

‘Megan, Lily hasn’t got any of her stuff with her. And we have to go out first thing tomorrow.’ She looked at Jake, whose face was covered in jam and peanut butter, his clothes like the ‘before’ in an advert for washing powder.

‘I can take her home,’ Megan’s grandad said.

No no no!

‘Oh, could you? That would be so helpful.’

‘It’s no bother.’ He grinned at Lily with his mouthful of crooked teeth. ‘No bother at all.’



Megan’s grandad had a grey car that was spotless inside, cleaner than her parents’ car had ever been. Lily sat in the front passenger seat on Megan’s booster. It was incredibly annoying that she still had to sit on a booster despite being eight. She wound down the window to say goodbye.

‘I really wanted to have a sleepover,’ Megan said.

‘Next time,’ said her mum.

‘So you live at Nyth Bran?’ Megan’s grandad said once they were on the main road. It was still bright and warm outside, the summer evening stretching on forever. But it was hot and stuffy in the car and Lily felt sick.

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Do you know what Nyth Bran means, Lily?’

‘Nest of the crow.’

‘That’s right. I’m impressed.’

‘My mum told me.’

He kept looking at her instead of the road. He mainly concentrated on her face, but sometimes his gaze slipped further down to her bare legs. It filled her with a peculiar sensation, like millions of little worms wriggling under her skin.

‘Did you have fun today, with Megan? She told me you were playing her new computer game.’

She nodded.

‘I don’t understand the appeal of those things, myself. Give me a game of chess any day. Do you play chess, Lily?’