Haven't They Grown(46)

‘I agree.’

‘Great. I’m glad.’

I know what’s coming.

‘You need to drop this now. Completely. No more driving to far-away places, no more hanging round schools. And don’t turn this into “My husband doesn’t understand my point of view”, because that’s not true. I do.’

‘I’ve literally never said those words, by the way.’

‘Zan told me what happened at Flora’s parents’ place. Something fucked up is going on with Lewis and Flora, big time, but it doesn’t affect us. By which I mean: it doesn’t need to, unless you keep your obsession stoked up. You’ve been lied to and fobbed off repeatedly – that means Flora and Lewis don’t want you to know what’s going on with them, they want you out of their lives. Let that happen – stop pursuing this – and we’ll never see or hear from the Braids again. And that’ll be brilliant, Beth. That’ll be the best possible outcome.’

‘For who?’

‘All of us. Me, you, Zan and Ben.’

‘And we’re the only people who matter?’

‘In this case, yes. No one’s having their life threatened or endangered, are they? Flora’s walking around, going about her normal business. She seems not to be in too terrible a state, apart from when she sees you stalking her.’

‘I’m not—’

‘So you heard her talking on the phone outside her house and she sounded upset – so what? These people haven’t been our friends for twelve years. Let them get on with their lives, whatever weirdness those lives might involve, and let’s us get on with ours. The alternative is what? Letting down more clients? Isn’t that going to harm your business? You’ve always been the one out of the two of us who cares about your job. Maybe you don’t any more, but it’s not only about you.’

Here it comes.

‘Today, Zannah should have been at home revising. Instead, she was sticking her nose into other people’s business and getting drunk. That can’t happen again, Beth.’

‘I agree. It was a one-off.’

‘Yeah, well, it should have been a none-off.’ He sounds slightly mollified.

‘I’ve made a decision. I need one more day, and then I’ll stop. At that point I’ll have done all I can. I’ve already rescheduled all the clients I cancelled. They’re all fine about it. Zannah’s got some revision sessions coming up at school, which she’ll go to. Our lives aren’t falling apart, Dom. We’re all fine.’

‘Right, and we’re going to stay fine – by accepting that other people’s lives are their business and their problem. I don’t agree that you need one more day.’

I don’t care.

‘What will this extra day involve?’

‘I’m going to go to Huntingdon and try and talk to the police there.’

‘What?’ Dom laughs. ‘Beth, no crime has been committed.’

‘I agree, there’s no proof of any crime.’

‘But you think there is one?’

‘I’ve no way of knowing, and no power to find out. I strongly suspect something is really horribly wrong. For all I know, it involves an element of crime. Generally, people don’t go to such extreme lengths to hide whatever they’re hiding unless it’s criminal. One person alone might be desperate to hide a shameful personal secret, but four? Lewis, Flora, Kevin Cater and the woman who told us she was Jeanette?’

‘Yeah, they’re four liars who all know each other. It’s hardly a huge underground network. And there’s absolutely no reason to suspect a criminal conspiracy. But … you’re not going to take my word for it, so let’s go and see the police. Maybe if you hear them say, “We don’t think there’s anything for us to investigate here”, it’ll put your mind at rest.’

‘It won’t stop me wondering what’s going on. I don’t think anything could, apart from finding out the answer. But I need to know that I’ve done everything I possibly could to help Flora and … whoever those two kids were that I saw outside her house. And the two in Florida. All of them.’

‘You said the two kids you saw outside the Wyddial Lane house last Saturday looked normal and healthy,’ says Dom.

‘They did.’

‘And it’s clear from Lewis’s Instagram that Thomas and Emily are doing great. So there’s no evidence that anyone’s harming any kids, is there?’

‘Dom, for God’s sake.’

‘What? What did I say?’

I sit up and wash off the face mask. Once it’s all gone, I say, ‘How sure are you that those four children are fine – the two in England and the two in America? Really think about it, Dom. I heard Flora call the two little ones Thomas and Emily. They were outside Kevin Cater’s house, and Lou Munday at Kimbolton Prep School told me that those are the Cater kids’ names: Thomas and Emily. That means it’s likely to be them that I saw.’

‘I know all this.’

‘The two kids I saw were absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt Flora’s children. Like teenage Thomas and Emily when they were little, they bore a strikingly strong resemblance to Flora. There’s no way they aren’t hers. So. Think about what that means.’