“Ma’am,” she said, leaning in and speaking quietly, “I’m sure this is inconvenient for you, but we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t urgent. A woman has died.”
She was going to say, “A woman was killed,” but changed her mind at the last moment, glancing at the kid. Children made Nikki uncomfortable. She never knew how to be around them.
Fiona gave a bitter smile. “Yes. How utterly tragic for her. For Jayston. Yes. So very fucking tragic for Jayston.”
“Who died?” asked Audrey in a small voice.
Nikki stared at the freckled face and wide eyes. Her stomach turned.
“Who died?” Audrey asked again, voice louder now. Quaking.
“Who do you think?” Fiona said with a dry, coughing sound that could have been a laugh. “Claire. Your nanny. Sneaky little cunt.”
Audrey howled. A desolate, inhuman wail.
The low rumble of conversation around them stopped as every head turned.
Sonia dropped to a knee beside Audrey’s chair.
“I’m so sorry, ma chère,” she said gently. “We thought you knew.”
The girl let out the last of her air, took a shuddering breath, and began to cry—deep, uncontrolled sobs.
“I didn’t know!” She whimpered, shaking her head. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
Fiona ground her cigarette into the ashtray. “Oh, don’t be dramatic! She was your nanny for less than a year. By the time I was your age, I’d had a dozen nannies. We’ll find you another one.”
Audrey howled again.
“That’s quite enough!” Fiona sat upright with a jerk, voice low and threatening. “I will count…. I will!”
The girl clapped hands over her mouth, but the sobbing didn’t stop.
Nikki wanted to take it all back, to somehow erase what she’d said.
No. More than that. She wanted to undo what had happened altogether—unwrite the reality of the small, bloodied form on the cold marble, and the little girl howling for her.
Fiona pushed away from the table, rising unsteadily to her feet.
“I’m counting now. One…two…”
Prickly with the sudden need to move, Nikki stepped between the woman and the child.
“Signora,” she said, “can’t you see how upsetting this is for your daughter?”
“And whose fault is that?” Fiona’s rage turned on her. “You simply had to say that stupid thing. You’re evidently too inept to do your job properly.”
“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” Nikki snapped, a rush of heat in her neck. She was vaguely aware of the pounding in her ears that seemed to drown out the screaming, and the restaurant noise. “You’re a mother. Do your job properly, for fuck’s sake. Take care of your daughter, or I’ll file a complaint against you.”
“You bitch! Don’t you dare tell me how to raise my daughter.”
Nikki opened her mouth to argue, but Sonia cut in with a firm hand on her arm.
“This is obviously a bad time, Signora Lake. We’ll be in touch to arrange another interview. We need to speak to you and your husband,and anyone else who knew Claire Sexton. In the meantime, you must stay in Naples.”
“Oh, we have no intention of leaving,” said Fiona. “Not until I retrieve my property. She pilfered from me. She was a thief!”
—
