The sound of the kettle whistling gets Josh’s attention and he turns away from me to make the tea. I watch his body language, his rigid shoulders, his tensed jaw, and I bite back my annoyance. I get the impression he’s still cross with me for not letting him have Dorothea’s study but trying to hide it on account of everything that has happened since.
As soon as I saw Dennis lying there on the floor I tried the door, but it was locked, so I called for an ambulance straight away. Around five minutes later they arrived and managed to get into his house. I followed them inside the kitchen and tried to calm the dogs down, but it took a while to persuade Cady to leave her owner. There were bloody pawprints all over the floor. I can still spot flecks of blood on one of Solly’s paws.
‘At least I’ve got Rachel coming over later. She’ll take my mind off it,’ I say.
He hands me a mug and then sits down next to me. ‘Oh, you didn’t mention she was coming today. Is that a good idea with the security firm here?’ He once told me he thought Rachel was ‘too loud, too brash and too forthright’. He’s not entirely wrong – but she’s so much more as well. Fiercely loyal, funny, sharp and kind. Josh doesn’t seem to think we need friends. He has workmates that he never spends time with outside the office and he’s in a football WhatsApp chat with a group of mates from university, but he never makes the effort to see them.
‘We’ll make sure not to disrupt them. How are they getting on?’
‘They’re busy right now installing some at the front, but they’ll also do the back of the house – overlooking the wood. We should probably put one on the gate so that it alerts us if someone enters the property, and they’re putting a new lock on the gate. Oh, and there’s a bloke coming later to replace that flimsy door that leads to the studio with a proper back door, double glazed – so even if anyone does get into the boarded-up bit around Dorothea’s damaged studio, they won’t be able to get into the house.’
‘Thanks for organizing it all.’ I sip my tea, feeling slightly calmer now after the shock of finding Dennis like that.
Josh is on a roll. He’s always at his most animated when he feels like he’s being useful. ‘And they’re going to install an alarm system. I can’t believe that Dorothea never had one, living in a house like this.’ He rolls his eyes. ‘These old people, it’s like they don’t trust technology. Dennis wouldn’t have been attacked if he’d had security.’
‘Stop saying he was attacked. We don’t know that for definite!’
I think of his back door, locked, with no signs of forced entry. The same with the front door, and none of his windows appeared to have been broken. I’m hoping that Josh is wrong and is just understandably paranoid after what happened to Dorothea.
I gave my name and number to the paramedics in case Dennis’s daughter wanted to speak to me. She might want to take Cady, but if not, I’m determined to look after her. It’s the least I can do.
Because deep down I’m terrified that Dennis was attacked, and if he was, then it’s my fault for dragging him into all this.
‘And this is where I found the intruder yesterday,’ I finish. Since Rachel’s arrival, I’ve talked non-stop about everything that has happened, knowing that her natural inquisitiveness will mean she’s all ears. Josh, predictably, has made himself scarce. ‘And I think he was after the key to the bunker.’
‘Why? What’s so special about the bunker?’ asks Rachel, stepping into the room and surveying the shelves.
I explain about the sculpture I found. ‘Look, I took photos. They’re not very clear, so I need to go back down there.’ I lower my voice. ‘I haven’t told Josh. He’d only worry, and after Filcher and everything …’
She gives a brisk nod of understanding as she takes the phone and starts scrolling through the photos. ‘Dorothea’s sculptures are sinister. What’s with all the magpies?’
I explain about the rest of the collection that was destroyed and how I believe she’d left this one behind for me to find.
‘Is it true that Dorothea was murdered?’ she asks to my surprise as she hands me back the phone.
‘What makes you say that?’ Have the police decided to release that information to the press after all?
‘Something that came in last night about a possible arson. I’m so sorry,’ she says when she notices my expression.
I sigh. ‘I think it was because of this sculpture, Rach. I found an article published the week before she died where Dorothea was interviewed, talking about her new collection and alluding to knowing all these secrets.’
‘But if the person who set Dorothea’s studio on fire thought they’d got rid of all her artwork, why would they be looking for the bunker? How would they know about it?’
‘Hmmm. I dunno. It’s like they knew where to look.’
‘Who else knows about the bunker?’
‘Well, the neighbour, Dennis, who was with me when we got locked in. Josh knows about the bunker but not what’s in it. And a detective called DI Erica Shirley who rescued me and Dennis from the bunker, but I haven’t told her about the sculpture. I made out that it was just a load of art supplies down there.’
‘You don’t trust the police?’
‘It’s not that … it’s just …’ I try to organize my thoughts. ‘She left it for me to find for a reason. I think she knew she might have been in danger and potentially even from whom. And she didn’t go to the police herself.’
‘But you could be in danger, Immy. However, I think you’re right to keep the bunker to yourself. Don’t tell anyone else about the sculpture.’
‘I won’t.’
She moves to the study’s sash window that overlooks the edge of the woods. When she turns back to me her expression is serious. ‘Let’s take the dogs into the woods with us and I can take a proper look. No offence, butyour photos are pretty shit and I need to see this sculpture for myself.’
