She nodded and something passed between us. I wouldn’t let her down again.
‘It’ll be the time difference, I suppose,’ she said sleepily.
‘Huh?’
‘He’s working in New York right now, remember?’
Mum’s head immediately shot up, while I tried very hard to appear nonchalant, which isn’t easy when your heart is pounding as loud as a drum in your chest. It’s just as wellIwasn’t the one attached to the monitors, or there’d be a crash team heading towards us right now.
‘New York? Well, that’s quite a coincidence.’
Amelia shrugged, as though it hadn’t even occurred to her until this very moment that I too worked in New York. It felt as though I was playing a very dangerous game and I had absolutely no idea what the rules were. This whole thing was seriously screwed up.
‘I think maybe you two could go home now. I’m feeling really tired and I just want to go to sleep,’ Amelia said, yawning hugely, like a cat.
‘That’s a good idea, sweetheart,’ Mum said, getting to her feet to kiss her elder child goodbye. ‘You get some rest now. We’ll be back to see you again tomorrow.’
‘I was thinking I might stay at your cottage, if that’s okay with you?’ I asked as I got to my feet. ‘Mum’s sofa isn’t the comfiest bed in the world.’
Amelia nodded, her eyes already drooping to a close.
I pulled out my phone and clicked on the Notes app. ‘Is there anything from home you’d like me to bring in tomorrow?’
‘Nightclothes, hairbrush, toiletries,’ Mum suggested.
I rapidly typed up a list. ‘Is there anything else you want?’ I asked Amelia.
With a real effort, she forced her eyes back open. ‘My locket. The big silver one I got from Gran,’ she said. ‘It has my favourite photo of Sam inside it.’
‘Great. Locket,’ I said, keeping my eyes on my phone screen as I added the item to the list. Fortunately, Amelia couldn’t see the row of exclamation and question marks I put beside it.
5
Amelia’s cottage was either someone’s dream home or their worst nightmare. If you liked isolation, the constant cawing of seagulls, and a lane so narrow there was no option but to back up if something was coming the other way, then the two-hundred-year-old former fisherman’s cottage, set directly on the beach, would be your idea of heaven. But if you’d spent the last four years in the hustle and bustle of a city that proudly advertises its own insomnia, it might not have the same appeal.
Mum had insisted on filling two large carrier bags with food from her own cupboards when I’d dropped her home from the hospital.
‘I’m fairly sure Amelia will have some stuff in her fridge or freezer. And if she doesn’t, I’ll probably drive past a dozen supermarkets on my way there.’
Mum tsked in a way she had perfected to an art form over the years. ‘You’re not in the Big Apple now, remember. Shops don’t stay open twenty-four hours a day around here. And you certainly won’t be able to phone for a pizza to be delivered at two o’clock in the morning.’
I pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek warmly. ‘I think someone may have been watching too much American TV,’ I teased. ‘I’ve lived over there for four years and I’ve never once ordered takeout in the middle of the night.’
Mum looked down at the bulging carrier bags, clearly itching to add more provisions. ‘I just want to take care of you.’ There was so much maternal guilt tied up in that statement that it sliced straight into my heart. ‘This isn’t your fault, Mum. Whatever happened to Amelia isn’t because of anything you did or didn’t do.’
‘But therehasto be a reason for it.’
I sighed heavily. ‘I’m sure there is. And eventually we’ll get to the bottom of what’s happened. For a start, this Dr Vaughan guy should be able to give us some answers.’
‘Guy?’ scoffed Mum gently. ‘And you think New York hasn’t rubbed off on you?’
*
She made a good point, because I certainly felt like a lost tourist some forty-five minutes later when I left the main road and built-up suburbs behind and headed towards the coast. I’d stayed with my sister several times over the years, so the route should have been familiar, but in the dark – without the benefit of streetlamps or landmarks – it all looked different. It was more than a little unsettling. Was this how it had been for Amelia, when she’d got hopelessly lost on the beach in the middle of the night?
The thought was more jarring than the bump of the car’s tyres as they left the last section of tarmacked road and moved on to the hard-packed dirt and sand that earmarked the final leg of my journey to my sister’s front door.
My headlights picked up the outline of the cottage’s roof, and I gave a small sigh of relief. I slowed down to a crawl, pulled on to the hardstanding area beside Amelia’s own car and thankfully switched off the engine. As grateful as I was to have reached my destination, I didn’t immediately jump out of the car, but instead rolled down the driver’s window. The silence and the dark felt as alien as another planet. It was the polar opposite to my home in New York. For the first time, I realised how odd it was that Amelia and I, so alike in many ways, had chosen to live in such contrasting locations. However quietly beautiful Somerset might be, I couldn’t imagine trading living in one of the most exciting cities in the world to be here.
