‘Why do you have a gun, Aunty Rose?’ she asks.
‘I thought you said that was somewhere safe?’ Lily says.
Rose sighs at Lily. ‘It was, but after everything that has happened, I feel safer having it with me.’ She turns back to Trixie. ‘Sometimes vets need guns. They probably look a lot like the guns you see on TV – because they are – but vets use them for different reasons. It’s very sad, but if an animal is seriously poorly, then—’
‘You shoot it?’ Trixie asks.
‘Sometimes. But only if that’s the only option . . . if the animal is in lots of pain.’
‘Would you shoot one of us if we were in pain?’ my niece asks without a hint of irony.
‘You should try to get some rest. We’ll all leave as soon as the tide lets us. You’re going to be okay, I promise.’
Trixie’s face attempts a smile, but it doesn’t take. She’s old enough, and clever enough, to know that we haven’t told her everything about what has happened here tonight.
Rose goes to leave the lounge.
‘Where are you going?’ Lily asks, sounding afraid.
‘I’ll be back in less than a minute. I just want to check something.’
‘Do you want me to come with you?’ Conor offers.
Rose stares at him for a long time, but leaves without giving a reply, which I suppose is an answer in itself. The rest of us sit in silence as the fire spits and crackles. Shadows dance around the walls and across our faces, the thoughts inside our individual heads so loud that I can almost hear them. Conor gets up to leave the room a few minutes later. I follow him, watch from the doorway, and see him standing too close to Rose out in the hall.
‘Are you okay?’ he asks her.
‘No. Of course not,’ Rose whispers back. ‘I came to get the key from the cupboard door,’ she says, patting the pocket of her jeans. ‘I think it’s a master key. If I’m right, we can lock ourselves in the lounge until the tide goes out. Someone here tried to kill Trixie, and I don’t think this is over.’
‘I think you’re right. But who? And why?’
‘I don’t know. But until we figure this out, we’re all in danger,’ Rose says.
‘It started with Nana, so it has to have been someone who was upset with her. I don’t think it was just about the will either. Somebody trashed her studio looking for something, so my guess is it’s someone who didn’t like the idea of her writing one last novel about this family. Someone with a secret.’
‘We all have secrets,’ says Rose.
‘Yes, but we don’t all go around killing people in order to keep them.’
Rose stares at him when he says that, but Conor is too lost in thought to notice.
‘Who had a motive to kill Frank?’ he continues. ‘And why would someone try to kill Trixie? Did she see something she shouldn’t have last night when she came downstairs and discovered Nana’s body? Something which might identify the killer?’
‘Whoever it is, they’re someone who likes to tidy things away, out of sight,’ Rose says, staring at the cupboard under the stairs.
Conor opens the cupboard door a little wider. It still has all of our names and ages, and a ladder of a line with our heights written inside it. I read the top three.
Daisy, aged 13 – 5 feet, 1 inch
Rose, aged 10 – 4 feet, 7 inches
Lily, aged 9 – 4 feet, 2 inches
It’s the only place in space and time where I was ever taller than them.
‘At least we know where the missing bodies are,’ Conor says. ‘And that explains why Poppins was scratching at the cupboard door. That dog could never bear to be away from Nana for more than a minute.’
Rose closes the cupboard door and locks it. ‘I don’t want to see what’s in there anymore. And I don’t want to talk about it.’
They start walking back towards the lounge, and I retreat inside the room. I’m not sure why, but I’m glad they didn’t see me. I feel like I’m missing a piece of the puzzle, and it’s increasingly difficult to know who to trust.
Everyone is afraid now and they are right to be.
Someone is killing the Darker family one by one.
And I fear it’s only a matter of time until it happens again.
Twenty-three
31 October 2:40 a.m.
less than four hours until low tide
Back in the lounge, Lily and Trixie are still sitting huddled together on the sofa, trying to keep warm. Rose slots the cupboard key into the lounge door, and she’s right: it is a master key.