The Things You Didn't See(68)

‘Because Ash is violent. He’s shot someone before, when he was just a boy. I have a scar to prove it.’

Holly hung up, feeling wretched. She was a coward: she knew Ash hadn’t shot Cass, but she’d kept quiet to protect Jamie. She was still protecting him, after all these years. Still running away, just like she had that night.

So Ash had taken the blame, back then, and he could be wrongly accused a second time. She owed it to him to discover who had really shot Maya, and it was Daniel she suspected. If she could only get close to him, use her synaesthesia to pick up any trace of guilt . . . Tomorrow was Hector’s bail hearing – maybe she’d have her chance then.

But tonight, she needed to forget.

After a quick change into sweat pants and a comfortable jumper, she knocked on Leif ’s door to be welcomed by the smell of cumin and a warm kiss. A selection of curry cartons were already being heated, the beers were chilled and the DVD was ready to roll. Holly was usually wary of films, knowing they’d risk intruding on her thoughts and feelings, causing what she now knew to be a mirror-touch reaction. But the films Leif showed her, they made her think and – maybe because they were in black and white – they didn’t rattle her senses. She was curious to see what he wanted to share with her this time.

She leaned into Leif on the sofa, bottle of beer in hand, and felt her breathing deepen as he placed an arm around her, her body sinking into the cushions.

‘How was your day, S?tnos?’

‘Uneventful,’ she said, taking a swig from her bottle. The microwave pinged and he jumped up to fetch their food. ‘What have you been doing?’ she called, as he dished up.

‘I wrote eight hundred and five words on this film I want to show you, so I’m quite pleased with my considerable progress.’ She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but he sounded sincere.

‘So this isn’t a date, then?’ she teased, taking the plate of food from him, and settling down to enjoy it. ‘It’s a seminar.’

‘Now, Holly, this film Gaslight is a classic. It’s important, for film history but also for its psychology. You’ll see, there is a type of abuse here that is I think very interesting.’

‘Sounds just up my street.’ She smiled, happy to be his student and for Gaslight to be her evening class assignment. If Leif filled her head with film theory and the talents of Ingrid Bergman, she didn’t have to think about Innocence Lane, which was a welcome respite. They sat together on the sofa, but he gave her enough space to curl her legs up, close enough so she could feel his warmth. This Swedish student seemed to know how to play it just right.

Gaslight was an unsettling film, and it absorbed Holly, although the monochrome somehow made the creepy sensations bearable.

The premise was that the young bride, played by Ingrid Bergman, was being persuaded by her husband that she was going mad so that he could incarcerate her in an asylum and thus have free reign over her money and assets. Gaslighting, Leif told her, is a word sometimes used to describe the process of persuading someone that they’re insane.

It was as if Leif ’s films held a dark mirror to the Innocence Lane case, where a woman was most at danger in her own home, most at risk from her own husband. But Holly wasn’t thinking about Maya, she was thinking about Cassandra, remembering how Daniel fawned over her, telling her she was unwell, telling her she was wrong about the shooting. Yet he had known all along that Cassandra was right.

The Samphire Master, who healed people, who was revered locally.

Could he be Maya’s murderer?





31

Cassandra

I’ve put the phone down on Holly. No, she’s wrong. Daniel isn’t involved, that would make no sense. He was so close to you – he saved you.

Oh, Mum, you always spoke for me, told me what to do. Now I’m having to learn, for the first time, how to stand alone.

This evening I’ll go through the motions of being okay, for Victoria’s sake. There’ll be food on the table and the fire going in the front room: it’ll look like I’m coping. When the delivery of Chinese food arrives, Daniel’s still not home and he isn’t answering his mobile. I call the Studio. Katie seems surprised when I ask for him.

‘He said he had to be with you,’ she whines, not even offering her condolences. ‘I had to cancel all his healing sessions – everyone’s so upset! You know how they depend on him.’

Everyone, it seems, needs Daniel. I wonder if he’s with Monica. I wonder if he’s going to leave me, even as I spoon the pieces of duck onto Victoria’s plate and tip a container of plum sauce over. ‘Eat up, love. I bet you don’t get anything like this at Oakfield?’

‘No.’ She lifts her fork, but just pokes around the meat, hardly touching it. ‘I miss Dawn. Can’t she come and stay?’

I know she’s sad. I know she misses her friend, but I’ve lost my mother. We need to support each other through this.

‘It wouldn’t be appropriate, love. We have Granny’s funeral to plan. I’ve booked the crematorium in Ipswich, but we need to order flowers and talk about hymns and eulogies. Do you want to read something?’

She shakes her head. ‘I’d be too nervous. But I’ll pick out some music.’

‘That would be lovely.’ I reach and squeeze her hand in mine. ‘Thank you.’