He stops and turns back to me, his stare boring right through me so I look away. It was such a mistake coming back here because Ray is playing a game with me, but I don’t know why. I do know it has nothing to do with bad parking and everything to do with Jasmine. That fingers-to-eyes gesture told me what I need to know. I’m sure he sent us that hamper and wrote those letters. He’s waiting for me to crack.
Eleven
Morgan
‘Dad,’ I mumble, half asleep. Harry’s mum is standing at our kitchen window. Cora stirs and then starts to cry.
She sleepily toddles towards me on the settee, so I pick her up and hug her, but she wriggles until I put her down. ‘Mumma.’ She runs towards Harry’s mum, Quinn, mistaking her for our mum. Quinn picks her up and shows her the snowflakes carpeting the windowsill.
I glance at the clock. It’s almost eight and it’s pitch black. I was meant to go over to see Harry, but Dad has been arrested so I think that maybe I have no choice but to stay in. He’ll understand. Actually, I need to see him. Maybe Harry knows who’s behind this. ‘Where’s Mum?’
Quinn turns to face me. ‘She ran downstairs. A car has just pulled up but I can’t see who got out.’
I run to the door and down the stairs leaving Quinn with my baby sister.
‘Dad,’ I yell as I run towards Mum at the end of the drive. She’s hugging herself. The light from a streetlamp glints from her damp eyes as she watches the angry red-nosed man across the road walking off down his drive. I look down. She’s wearing cloth slippers and they’re soaked through. I place my arms around her and she’s freezing.
‘I thought it was Dad.’ She’s holding her phone. ‘He hasn’t called. I called the police but they won’t tell me anything.’
I don’t know what to say. I want Dad home too but we can’t stand in the cold all night. A door slams shut and we both flinch. One of the women who’d been standing amongst the crowd earlier walks on the opposite side with a basset hound on a lead. The dog drags her towards a lamppost and pees in the snow. On any other day, I’d smile at the dog’s knitted stripey jumper.
‘Evening,’ she says as she gives her dog’s harness a little pull and carries on walking down the path.
Mum lets out a long, deep breath. She’s trembling like mad but her gaze follows the woman.
‘Do you know her?’ I ask.
‘No, I saw her going into Quinn’s house with a vacuum earlier.’
Now that’s something I could quiz Harry about. ‘Mum, I was hanging out with Quinn’s son, Harry, earlier and he asked me if I wanted a game of pool at his tonight. Is it okay if I still go?’
She tilts her head. ‘After what happened today. No. I need you. Cora needs us.’
Now I feel bad and I only wanted to see if I could find out who sent the letters, but I can’t tell Mum that. My shoulders slump. ‘Okay. We need to go inside before we freeze to death out here.’ I glance back. The main door is still open and Cora’s cries are travelling through the stairwell and outside.
It’s like Mum clicks back into herself. ‘Cora. Who’s with her?’
‘It’s okay. Your friend Quinn is looking after her.’ I assume they were friends because while Mum had been staring vacantly at her phone Quinn had tried to distract her with talks of their adventures in the woods as kids, the same woods that Mum wants me to stay out of. From the look on Mum’s face now, it’s obvious that she didn’t want Quinn to be left all alone with Cora.
The crying stops dead. ‘Cora,’ Mum shouts as she runs back to the house.
I breathlessly follow her up the stairs but stop halfway up as I catch a glimpse of movement in an old cracked mirror on the other side of the landing. Mum hurries in and I hear shouting. The more I stare at the mirror, the less I see. There was nothing there. It was my imagination playing tricks on me after hearing that bang earlier. The reflection was just Quinn pacing in front of the open door with Cora.
I go into the apartment and Quinn is rocking Cora in her arms.
Mum’s fingers tremble as she holds her hands out to take Cora.
‘Are you okay, Gemma?’ Quinn asks. ‘She woke up and seemed hungry so I gave her some milk and she fell back asleep.’ Quinn frowns as she passes my sleeping sister to Mum.
I can’t help but hear Mum’s deep breaths as she hugs Cora closely. ‘Sorry, it’s this place. I’m feeling all out of sorts at the moment.’
No shit, I want to say.
Quinn’s phone rings. She immediately pulls it from her pocket, mouthing the word ‘Sorry’ before answering.
‘Harry,’ she says. ‘I don’t know, son… okay… I will.’
‘I’ll be okay,’ Mum says, knowing that Quinn needs to get home.
