“I just wish I knew where she was,” I say as I sip my lemonade.
“Hmm, well, you know she was on Seeley Moor and at your mother’s house,” Alistair chips in.
“Yes, pretty far from her home. But why?”
Then it hits me. Of course. She was there to find me. And suddenly I realise that the lead we have been searching for might have been under our noses all along.
I think of Palmer House and all the strange things that have been happening there over the last few weeks. Walking up to the open door with Penny. That sinking feeling that I’d forgotten to lock it behind me. The open patio doors and the missing bread rolls.
Could my twin have already found me without me realising? It would explain those prickling sensations of being watched. Could she have actually been inside my house? She’s been at my mother’s so what’s to stop her breaking into mine?
“Faye? Are you okay?” The look on my face prompts Alistair to ask.
“Not really.” I feel sick as I weigh it all up and I tell him what I’m afraid of. That my missing sister might have found me and might be lurking around my home. He listens and nods, then places an arm over my shoulder and squeezes me into him. “I think you might be right.”
There’s a very real possibility that my twin has been breaking into my house to mess with my head. And that thought scares me down to my bones. Why would she want to do that?
I can’t answer that right now.
“You all right?” Alistair says.
I nod. “Freaked out, but okay.”
“You don’t know for sure that she’s been in the house,” he says with a measured voice. “Try not to jump to conclusions.”
“Yes, you’re right…” My voice trails as mind snaps into focus. “But I know a way we can find out.”
Curiosity flashes over his face.
“I have a doorbell camera.”
I hastily pull my phone from my bag and open up the doorbell app. But before I click on anything, I pause. My fingers trembling, I take a deep breath. “Faye, you’re shaking.” Alistair grabs my hand.
“I just don’t know what’s going on anymore. This is all so crazy,” I say.
“I know,” he says.
“You don’t,” I say, not unkindly. “You don’t have any idea. It’s a total mindfuck.”
He shifts forward in his armchair and strokes my hand. “You’re right. I don’t know. But I’m right here with you, okay? You found your long-lost motherandtwin sister. You did that, Faye.”
“With your help,” I point out.
He shrugs. “It was mostly you. And you were brave enough to come here to Little Ingleby and ask questions. You are incredibly smart. Be kind to yourself,” he says.
“How?” I say, laughing. “That wasn’t a thing when I was young. We were supposed to push ourselves.”
“That’s overrated. Now, let’s take a look at this footage and see if there’s anything to even worry about. What date shall we start with?”
“Let’s start with the day the photos were taken of her on Seeley Moor, because I know she was close by then.”
It takes me a few moments to pull up the images on my phone, and check the time stamp. Then we load up the video software and open clip after clip of movement picked up by the motion sensor. It’s boring at first. There’s little more than a parade of dog walkers and the occasional fox. We diligently check each entry. And then someone approaches the house. A limping figure comes into view. And every part of my body grows cold.
Alistair raises his eyebrows and lets out a quiet gasp. We watch the person move closer, then he says quietly, “It’s really her.”
The footage is black and white, bleached by the bright nightlight on the doorbell. We watch Claire Blackburn move towards the front door of the Palmer House. Dishevelled and dirty, her mouth is slightly agape, and her eyes are wide as though she is drunk or in some sort of trance. She lifts one finger as though to press the doorbell but then backs away and walks out of view.
We are both silent as we stare at the screen, waiting to see if she reappears, but she has vanished. Lost once again.
