‘I’ve been reading one of those detective books you bought me,’ Mum tells me. ‘I haven’t got very far, I’m afraid. As soon as I read a couple of pages I start to feel sleepy. But it’s very good. Thank you for thinking of me.’
‘I’m glad, I know how you like solving the mysteries.’ I smile at Mum then notice that her eyes are already closing.
‘Are you tired, Mum?’
‘I am. I think it’s all the fresh air, and the chatting. I’d better go and lie down for a little while.’
Alison is at her side immediately. ‘Let me help you.’
‘Thank you, dear. See you soon, Lizzie. Love to the kiddies,’ Mum says.
I watch as Alison helps her up. On one hand she really seems to care for Mum, but she’s very possessive over her too.
‘We’d better go too,’ Sheila says. ‘Leave Alison to get on.’
‘It’s lucky that you can share a lift. How far away from each other do you live?’ I ask them.
‘We live together,’ Sheila says. ‘George moved in with me when Carol died, so I could help look after Alison and Kenny.’
I’m surprised to hear this, but it isn’t until I get back home that a memory pops into my mind. George’s customer said that George had money problems and had been about to sell his shop when he met Mum. I’d thought she meant that now he was living with Mum he was selling his house to solve his money problems. But it seems it’s Sheila’s house.
So how has moving in with Mum solved his money problems?
And why does Mum think that George owns the house, not Sheila?
My mind is whirling. George was struggling to make ends meet when he met Mum. Within a couple of months she has a mini stroke and he moves in with her. Then the very day they get married Mum goes dizzy and has a fall.
An image of Mum’s open document folder flashes into my mind. Someone’s been looking at her will and personal papers. Was it George?
42
NICK
I’m in the canteen having my break at work when I hear someone say loudly, ‘Nick Williams, well I’ll be damned. It’s been years! What’s brought you here?’
I spin around to see Ian Skilmore standing behind me. He was an apprentice at Arthur’s company at the same time I was. He was a skinny thing back then with a mop of fair hair. He’s put on some weight since and lost most of his hair. I never really took to him, he sneaked around tattling about everyone. He left the company years ago and I haven’t seen him since. He must be working for the contractors we’ve hired.
‘Hello there, Ian. How are you doing?’
‘Good. Good.’ He puffs out his chest. ‘I live up in Leeds now and I’m the supervisor of the building firm.’ He looks me up and down. ‘How about you?’
‘Still at AT. I’m the Construction Manager, I’ve been sent to sort out the problem here.’
‘I see. Construction Manager, eh? Well, you’ve done well for yourself.’
‘It’s been a lot of graft but I didn’t want the company to go under when Arthur died, for Judith and Lizzie’s sakes. They suffered enough.’
Too late I see the gleam in his eyes. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have let on that I had any connection to Judith and Lizzie.
‘Friends of theirs, are you? I didn’t know you were so close to our dear departed boss. Or to his wife and daughter.’
I don’t like the sneer on his lips and calculating look in his eyes. He knows nothing, he wasn’t even at work on that day, I remind myself.
‘I wasn’t. But I was the one who found him and called for an ambulance. Gradually Lizzie and I became close, we got married a few years ago and have two children now.’
‘Lucky you,’ Ian retorts. ‘That worked out well for you, didn’t it?’
‘A man died, Ian, and in horrible circumstances,’ I say icily. ‘I don’t think that’s any call for a celebration.’
