‘Oh, well, it looked like her car, you see.’
I really don’t see. ‘Hang on, Jo. I’m missing an episode. So, you’re saying that a driver that looked like Yvonne was driving a car that looked like Iris’s?’
‘No. Yvonne was driving her SUV. When I realized we weren’t going anywhere any time soon, I got out of my car – loads of us did – and went to see what the problem was. There are only about ten cars in front of me and then there’s the one that crashed. It has somehow ended up right in the middle of the road, upside down, with bits of it – metal and glass and rubber – all over both sides of the road. It’s a really bad crash. The car has folded like an omelette. And, oh God, I thought it was Iris. There were people everywhere, trying to help, I think, and I couldn’t get any closer. I was a bit scared to see any more, to be honest, so I came back to my own car to …’ I can hear sirens through the phone and the last part of what Jo says is drowned out by the din. ‘The police and ambulance have arrived,’ Jo says then, a little unnecessarily, if you ask me.
The noise quietens, but doesn’t disappear completely. ‘What made you think it was Iris’s car?’ I ask Jo.
‘It just looked like her car, that’s all. A light-blue Twingo, the same car and the same colour.’
‘Powder blue,’ I say. ‘There’s quite a few of them on the road.’ I’ve realized this since Ash bought the car for Iris.
‘And it had that green “P” plate on the back.’
‘What?’ My legs buckle under me and I grab the worktop to stop myself from falling to the floor.
‘You know, that magnetic sticker with the green “P” for drivers who have just passed their test. There was one stuck on the boot of the car.’
Blood rushes through my ears and I can hardly make out a word Jo’s saying. The same make, model and colour. That could be a coincidence. But the probationary plates, too? I drop my phone to the floor as fear paralyses my whole body. It’s Iris’s car. It has to be.
But Olly was the one driving it. He was taking it to the garage in Barnstaple.
Chapter 42
Ash
NOW
He has made headway in the loo slash bathroom downstairs and he’s feeling proud of himself – conceited, really, if he’s honest – when he peels off his filthy DIY clothes and goes upstairs to take a shower. He has no idea what time it is, but he must have worked most of the afternoon. He checks the red digits of the alarm clock in his bedroom. It’s nearly 6 p.m. Shouldn’t Olly be home by now? Ash could have sworn Olly said he’d be home by five. Once he has pulled on some clean clothes, he goes back down to the kitchen, where he has left his mobile charging, to give Olly a ring and find out where he’s got to. It would be just like his son to change his plans and forget to tell him.
He has three missed calls and a voicemail. All from Carla. He listens to the message, but it’s garbled and he can’t make out much of it. Something about a car accident on the link road. Carla mentions Iris, Olly, Jo and, strangely, Yvonne, and so he can’t work out who – if any of them – is involved in the crash. Carla sounds absolutely frantic, which makes him panic, although he tells himself not to get worked up until he knows what has happened. He tries to ring her, but he can’t get through. Maybe she’s on the phone to someone else.
He puts on his shoes, jumps into his car and drives – much faster than usual – to Crooked Oak Cottage, hoping that’s where she is. On the way, he instructs Siri to call Olly. But Olly isn’t answering either, which does nothing to calm Ash’s nerves. He reasons with himself, aloud. Olly spends that much time on his mobile, you’d think his hands were surgically attached to the damn thing, and yet he hardly ever answers when Ash calls him. Carla’s always whingeing about that, too. So if Ash can’t get hold of Olly, it’s not necessarily a cause for alarm.
He skids to a halt in the driveway of Crooked Oak Cottage and flings off his seatbelt. Carla opens the front door before he reaches it. She’s ashen and her eyes are red-rimmed, as if she’s been crying. She holds open the door for him to come inside.
‘What’s going on?’ Ash asks, kicking the door closed behind him.
‘There’s been a car accident on the link road. I think it’s Olly,’ Carla gushes, ‘in Iris’s car.’
Ash frowns. Olly left his place with Liv, in her car. ‘Carla, I don’t think—’
‘I asked him to take Iris’s car to the garage. And then Jo rang to say a car, just like Iris’s, had been involved in a bad crash.’
‘LikeIris’s?’ Ash echoes.
‘Yes. A powder blue Twingo.’
‘Loads of people have—’
‘With green “P” plates.’
‘Oh. Oh God.’ That does sounds like Iris’s car. Ash tries to come up with an alternative scenario, as much for himself as for Carla. ‘Are you sure Olly took the car in?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you see him drive off in it? Only, he left my place with Liv. In her car. At around lunchtime.’
But even before Carla answers, Ash remembers why Olly left. He had to run some errands. Ash thought it was an excuse, but it looks like Olly was telling the truth after all.
