“You can choose whatever you’d like, Mia. It’s my treat. If you don’t want to fill yourself up with chocolate like Heidi then why don’t you try a cupcake or ice cream.” Romy looked at me. “Amelie makes her own ice cream as well and it’s delicious. You should definitely try that.”
“I haven’t had ice cream for ages.” It’d been a long time ago, probably on a weekend away with Bryony that I’d last eaten ice cream, back when my marriage had still been healthy.
A teenager whose Saturday job was waiting on came over to take our order, Romy encouraging Mia to pick what she wanted from the pictures in the kids’ menu. Heidi had no problems ordering her death by chocolate and a strawberry milkshake that was apparently made with ice cream and fruit; Romy chose a strawberry sundae, and I opted for honeycomb cake and coffee ice cream, taking the uproar about the weird combination with a grin. There was coffee and tea as well, and more talk about beaches and horses and then school.
For the next hour I was introduced to people in my new town as they came over, wanting to see Mia and check if Romy needed anything.
Word had gotten round already that Cara was missing, although it was obvious that no one was surprised in the way they acted.
Heidi was scraping her bowl clean and looking at her mum as if she was weighing up her chances of being allowed to lick the sides when two other girls from her class came over.
“Do you want to play out with us?” one of them who I remembered was called Jessamyn looked at Mia and Heidi hopefully.
“You can play for fifteen minutes,” Romy said, looking out of the window we were sitting by. Outside was a small children’s play area, swings and some bars and seats. “No going upside down.”
Heidi looked pleased, pulling Mia off the seats with her and escaping outside, leaving me alone with their mother.
“How worried are you about Cara?” I asked, conscious that there were a lot of people around who might be listening in.
Romy sighed, stirring her second cup of coffee. “I don’t know. I’m worried about Mia, because I can’t see social care letting her go back home with Cara if she comes back.”
“She could face charges for leaving her.” I’d seen similar circumstances before when I first started teaching.
“Which is why I wonder if something’s happened, or she’s poorly somewhere.” Romy shrugged, looking out of the window where Mia and Heidi were on the swings. “What are your thoughts of Puffin Bay so far?”
I took the hint for a change of subject. “I like it. Good thing really, since I’m living here now.”
“Do you think you’ll be here a while?” She relaxed some in her seat. “It’s going to be a change moving here from a city.”
“I’ve not got plans for anywhere after here. I’m making things up as they go right now.” Nothing in the last few months had been planned.
“What’s happened with where you were living with your wife?” Romy said, waving at Mia who was smiling properly now. “Tell me if I’m being too personal.”
“It’s not too personal. My ex is buying me out and my ex-friend’s moving in there with her. I brought everything I wanted to take with me, so I’m pretty much starting from scratch.”
“If you mention that loudly enough, you’ll be donated all the kitchen and house chintz you could wish for.” Her smile was broad now, different to any before. “People will be dropping round offering all sorts in exchange for some dirty details about you.”
“I’m really not that interesting.”
This time she laughed. “Oh, in a small town anyone new is always interesting.”
I paid for my food and left Romy with the girls in the cakery, choosing something to take home for tomorrow. I would’ve paid for Romy too, only it would definitely go round town and neither of us needed to be gossiped about.
I found Finn Holland in the beer garden in the Puffin Inn, having lunch with his wife and infant daughter, asking him about the football team and securing an invite to the next training session.
Then I headed off, another task I wanted to tick off that afternoon about to be carried out.
FIVE
Romy
“She’s been registered as a missing person,” the social worker, Sue Samuels, said. “The police are looking for her, there are traces on her cards, so we’ll know if she spends anything or tries to use one of them, but there isn’t much money in her account.”
There was no disguising that the social worker was worried, or that she was probably telling me more than she should, because I didn’t think I should’ve known that Cara’s funds were limited. When – if – she returned, the people of Puffin Bay would know far more than she’d ever wanted them to, given how private she was.
“What about Mia?” We were on Monday afternoon. Cara had been missing since Friday morning, if Mia was telling us correctly about the last time she’d seen her.Sue sighed, looking out of the window as if all the answers lay out there, maybe somewhere in the middle of the Menai Strait.
“My manager wants to discuss making you a special guardian for her. We believe that Mia would be best staying in Puffin Baywith her friends and at her school, certainly for now. Cara’s aunt isn’t well enough to care for her and there are no other close relatives. Mia’s dad is in prison – I wasn’t sure if you know that or if Mia knows that.”
