I glanced at my phone again and frowned.What if?
I called Dawn for the third time and said, ‘Call me back, I’m concerned.’
I phoned Tracey again, and this time she took my call. ‘She’s probably just out with Shelley or something,’ she told me.
‘I’m worried about her,’ I admitted. ‘Especially with all this Covid-19 stuff going on.’
‘I know what you mean,’ Tracey said. ‘It’s terrifying. But Dawn’s fine, I’m sure of it. Don’t worry. If she phones me I’ll tell her to call you.’
I called Blanche for her supper – she didn’t come – and then noticed Dawn had left her a massive bowl of crunchies. We only ever did that when we went away for a few days.
‘Oh,’ I said, out loud. ‘OK.’
I didn’t know what it all meant, but I felt pretty sure it wasn’t good news.
TWELVE
BILLY II (BY DAWN)
On leaving the Aroads, and after an endless series of twists and turns, I found myself on a long, narrow country lane that ran along Salcombe Estuary. The road weaved in and out, providing beautiful glimpses of the water through the trees.
Dotted along the way at regular intervals were houses, but none of them looked grand enough to be the sort of place where Kate Bush might live or high up enough to potentially crumble into the sea. So I wondered pretty much the whole way if I was going in the right direction.
Eventually, just after 3p.m., Google Maps announced that I’d arrived. The nearest house was another thirty yards in front of me, so I continued until I was next to it, then pulled up at the roadside and phoned.
As the road ran above and behind the property it was impossible to see the actual building. The only things that were at street level were the grey doors to a garage, but you could guess, all the same, that the view over the estuary was going to be a good one.
Though I’d phoned Billy’s personal number, it was Joanna who answered the call. ‘Just park up in the garage,’ she said. ‘I’ll be right up.’ That surprised me, and I wondered if perhaps Joanna was more than Billy’s PA. It was something I should have perhaps considered, and asked about, before coming.
The line clicked dead and I wasn’t even sure if I was outside the right house, but then one of the garage doors began to roll smoothly up. ‘Fancy, fancy,’ I murmured and I began to manoeuvre the car so that I could drive in.
It was a triple garage, but there were already two cars parked up, a mid-size Kia and an absurdly massive Porsche SUV, so it was lucky I only had a Polo. Fitting anything bigger between them would have been just about impossible.
A challenge, too, was extracting myself from the car once I’d parked, and I was glad Billy wasn’t there to see me do it.
‘Sorry, it’s a bit of a squeeze,’ Joanna said, surprising me as I closed the door. ‘I always ask him to park further over, but you know Billy!’
I threaded my way past the cars to the corner of the garage where she’d appeared from behind a metal door. ‘Joanna,’ she said, offering a jingly-bangled hand. ‘I’m assuming you must be Dawn?’
She was young – late twenties, at a guess – and brunette. She was pretty but had that austere PA vibe of efficiency about her. I noted the wedding ring on her left hand and suddenly wondered whether I should have removed mine, and then hated myself for even considering it.
Joanna was squinting at me, studying my face, and that made me wonder how much Billy had told her. What would Billy’s uncensored take on Dawn be?
‘Oh, I’m leaving,’ Joanna said, as if I’d asked her a question. ‘Don’t worry, you’ve got him all to yourself!’
She pulled her keys from her bag and beeped the Kia, then squeezed past me and opened its door. But then she paused and made a little shooing gesture at me. ‘Go on!’ she said. ‘Don’t be scared! Billy’s waiting!’ And then she slid into the car and started the engine.
I pushed open the door and found myself at the top of a concrete spiral staircase.
Billy’s waiting!I thought, repeating the words in my head as I descended.Heaven forbid we keep Billy waiting!
The staircase led directly to a wide modern lounge and the first thing that struck me was the view. The entire far wall was taken up by a huge picture window that offered a 180-degree view of the cove.
I glanced around the room to check it was indeed empty and then, because the window seemed to draw me to it magnetically, I crossed the marble floor to look out. A couple of small sailing boats were bobbing on the water just outside.
‘Nice, huh?’ I spun to find Billy leaning nonchalantly in a doorway.
‘Huh! You made me jump!’ I said.
