She shrugs. ‘Meh.’ She then laughs a little and sips her hot chocolate.
I want to know more. She doesn’t like the neighbours either. I wonder if she’s had a problem with them. ‘What does meh mean?’ I’m officially being nosy, but I need to get to the bottom of what’s happening to us – for Mum.
She laughs uncomfortably and stares into the fire. The flames dance orange in the middle of her blue eyes. The only lamp in the room gives out a cosy glow. ‘They’re not welcoming to newcomers. Quinn’s okay and Dorette was nice, but Ray, Tessa and her husband – they’ve lived here forever. I don’t have much to do with Ruby.’ She pauses. ‘This house used to belong to Ray’s son, but it was repossessed because he couldn’t afford it. My husband, Sid, bought it at a bargain price, which upset Ray. Anyway, you don’t want to know all this. Just know that it takes time to be accepted onto this lane. The stalwarts have lived here for years and they don’t like change. Ray gets particularly wound up over southerners coming up north and buying the houses in the area. As for me, I’m really glad your family have moved here. You’re all a breath of fresh air, just what this old lane needs.’
I rerun the letter Zoe got through my head and what it said about Jasmine, a log and some fog. It mentioned Zoe’s dog. I think of the Jasmine book that I now have hidden in my cupboard. ‘When you and Mum were outside talking, I overheard everything – the neighbours’ letters and the one you had.’ I’ve just confessed to earwigging. Bad move or not, I’ve said it now so there’s no going back.
‘I’m sorry you had to hear all that. It must have been scary.’
I nod. ‘Do you have any ideas who might be writing them?’
‘I’ve been trying to work that one out. I’m sure we all have. I haven’t lived here as long so it’s harder. I do have a little secret though.’
I raise my brows.
‘I clean and do jobs for all the neighbours so I try to listen out and…’
‘What?’
She shakes her head. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything. If it gets out, I’ll lose my work and I need to work. Sid’s a darling in that he’d look after me if I lost my jobs, but I’m proud, do you understand? I like to be able to look after myself.’
I try to guess how old Zoe might be. Her skin is quite weathered, red threads run through her nose and cheeks. Her hair is quite a frizzy mass tonight. I feel less self-conscious about my orange streaks. I think Zoe is around sixty. Though I thought my mate’s mum was about fifty and she turned out to only be thirty-nine. I was mortified when she was talking about her mum’s big birthday and assumed it was a fiftieth. If I want to be a detective, I have to get better at this. I look for lines on her face. She has them on her head and around her eyes. They’re not too deep. ‘I get that but if you know something, it could really help my parents. Mum’s suffering because of all this and now she’s in hospital.’ It hits me again that Mum might lose the baby.
Zoe lets out a long breath. ‘Please don’t say you heard this from me.’
‘I won’t.’ I sit up rigid, hoping that this nugget of information will make everything fall into place. ‘I promise.’
‘I heard Ray talking about a hamper and I know your family received a hamper. I’d stay away from Ray.’
My heart begins to boom. ‘It’s him. Why would he be writing all those letters to the other neighbours?’
‘He wants to get everyone to hate your family. As to why, I gather his son is in a better financial position now and he was hoping that he’d be able to make an offer on Dorette’s house then you all moved in. I think he’s trying to get you to sell up so he can buy your house.’
My fists are clenched. ‘And the other letters are just to make out that we’re trouble and everyone thinks we’re writing them to ourselves too.’
She shrugs. ‘Maybe. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about all this. When the police came and took your dad for pushing Ray, I knew I had to call them to tell them the truth. Ray fell and your dad was trying to help him, but Ray would happily have let your dad get charged with assault. He’s not a nice person. Tessa, also.’
I picture Ray lurking outside the den tonight, then scaring Mum, and I hate him more than ever. He was watching Harry and me, lurking around stalking us. What a creepo. ‘It makes sense. He came out of his house with razor blades wrapped in a sheet because he put them there.’ My mind is making links and, although angry, I’m excited because I want to be the one to solve this mystery. ‘His camera had conveniently been smashed and he lied about the razor blades. Nothing else was left in anyone’s house. Ray has probably been inside all the houses at some point, which is why he knows so much about them and the people who live in them.’ I think of Harry’s dog on our balcony. ‘Someone came into ours last night and brought Quinn’s dog with them.’
‘Quinn’s dog is always digging under the fence. It escapes every week.’
‘Diggerty must have followed Ray.’
Zoe pauses and sits there looking into the fireplace before continuing. ‘Ray is a strange man and I know he’s given Quinn’s dog scraps before.’ She sips her hot chocolate and I have a gulp of mine. ‘When I first moved in, there were scratches on his car and he blamed me because I was new, that’s when he got his cameras fitted. I didn’t scratch it. Then Tessa’s car got scratched, too, and she also blamed me. Dorette knew it wasn’t me, though, and eventually the silliness stopped and they just accepted that I lived here too. I think Ray scratched both of the cars. They’re just small-minded people with an agenda.’
‘It’s getting dangerous with what they’re doing to my mum. She might lose the baby.’ The lump in my throat threatens to choke me. I’m willing Mum to be okay. I wasn’t super pleased about having another baby in our family but it’s what my parents have always wanted. ‘What do you think the letter to you meant? You haven’t lived here as long as the others.’
She scrunches her nose. ‘I haven’t the foggiest.’
Zoe is the only adult I feel I can talk to about all this. She’s been open and honest, so I get my detective hat on and quiz her more. I will push her as far as I can because I have to get to the bottom of this. Time is running out. Ray, if it’s him, is getting more dangerous. I remember watching some crime documentaries with my parents and the term is ‘escalating’ – he’s escalating. ‘Do you know who Jasmine is?’
She scrunches up her nose and shakes her head. ‘Not really. I know the name. Your aunt mentioned her to me. She told me of the teen girl who ran away from home years ago. As for that letter I got, the mention of a log and fog, I’m lost. It means absolutely nothing to me. As I said, I haven’t lived here as long as everyone else.’
I link Great-Aunt Dorette’s notebook marked up Jasmine in my head to the letter and it’s like she wrote it herself. I’m scared now that Great-Aunt Dorette knew something no one else did, but I can’t think what it might be. ‘Did my great-aunt know Jasmine well?’
‘Not as far as I know. I think she knew of her but she never said she knew her personally.’
‘Did my mum know her?’
