‘I don’t think Julia will ever forgive me. She won’t speak to me. Will you have a word with her?’ His eyes are so desperate, so sad, that I find myself saying yes. ‘Selena said she was sick,’ he continues. ‘She’s so thin. And – and small for her age?’
I squeeze his hand and lean in closer so that our noses are almost touching, but I can’t risk Janice hearing. ‘Julia was looking into Ruby’s medical history. She thinks that Selena was maybe …’ I fumble for the right words ‘… exaggerating Ruby’s illness.’
He lifts his chin a fraction and I know I have his full attention. ‘What? Like Munchausen syndrome by proxy?’
I nod.
He makes a noise through his teeth. ‘Shit. She wouldn’t do that, would she?’
I take my hand away. ‘I thought the same initially, but since Selena’s death, Ruby is steadier on her feet. She can walk without leg braces and a wheelchair. She’s eating things that Selena said were bad for her. She’s got a healthy appetite, in fact. She’s just wolfed down two eggs and toast. Julia said there is no evidence of any allergies to wheat, dairy or anything else.’ The idea makes me feel queasy but I have to face the possibility that Julia is right. I can’t disbelieve something just because it sounds unpleasant, sick even.
‘But that’s child abuse.’ He slumps back in his chair. ‘Fucking hell. I can’t take all this in right now.’
Janice swivels around in her chair. ‘Everything okay?’
I mouth an apology to Nathan. I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that. I get up, go over to Janice and plaster a smile on my face. ‘All good. More tea?’
Adrian is with Rachel and DS Middleton in the front room when I walk in. They are midway through a conversation about the most recent delivery of dead flowers. I notice Rachel’s holding a wedge of papers in her hand. Adrian must have got them from the kitchen drawer while I was with Nathan. We were supposed to ask Nancy about it before we said anything to the police. We’d agreed.
DS Middleton’s face is grave as he listens to Adrian. I sit next to him on the sofa. A united front.
When he’s finished speaking DS Middleton clears his throat. ‘What time are you expecting the cleaner?’
I look at my watch. ‘In the next ten minutes or so.’
‘Great. I think we need to talk to her. Find out if she had anything to do with the papers. But the dead flowers and the note, are you saying you think they’re from Dean?’
‘Who else would send them?’ I ask. ‘You still haven’t caught him?’
DS Middleton shakes his head regretfully. ‘No. But we’re doing everything we can. There’s something else too. We’ve managed to notify Selena’s mother about her daughter’s death. There’s no sign of her father, though. Do you know where,’ he consults his notebook, ‘a Mr Owen Hughes now resides?’
I glance at Adrian. He knows nothing about what really happened and I can never tell him. It’ll be a secret that will always lie between us, which makes me sad. Especially after our recent vow to be honest with each other from here on in.
‘I haven’t seen Uncle Owen in years,’ I say truthfully. ‘The last I heard he’d walked out on Selena and Aunt Bess …’ I pretend to think ‘… over fifteen years ago.’
‘Didn’t you say your mother kept in touch with him?’
I swallow. ‘Er … I thought she did but when I asked her about it she said she didn’t. That she hasn’t heard from him in years either.’ I’m babbling. I do that when I’m lying.
He scribbles something in his book. ‘Right. Okay. I don’t know if Rachel told you, but we found some letters in Selena’s bag. They’re from Dean and they allude to a secret he shared with her. He wanted money.’
So the letter I found was from Dean. Why had Selena put it in my drawer? Did she suspect he was going to kill her and wanted evidence for me to find?
Had he been in love with her? She’d said he wanted to run away with her. Was that another of her lies?
I gulp. ‘No. I have no idea.’
Silence hovers between us. I maintain eye contact. I can’t be the first to look away or it might show I’m guilty.
I almost breathe a sigh of relief when he says, ‘Okay. Let’s wait for Nancy to turn up so we can find out more about this.’ He indicates the papers which Rachel has given him.
I smile in response, still unnerved by having to lie to two police officers. I was the sort of child at school who felt instantly guilty when the teacher accused someone in the class of misbehaving, even if it wasn’t me (which it never was: Selena was right – I had been a square).
Adrian offers to make Rachel and DS Middleton a cup of tea and I glance out of the window to the mountains, the mist obscuring the summits like icing on a cake. My chest tightens. They still haven’t caught Dean. How can he be near enough to plant dead flowers and threatening cards but far enough away that the police can’t find him?
34
Nancy stares at the four of us, her mouth open in mock horror. She’s a terrible actress. I can tell straight away she’s lying.
