‘No. No, I didn’t think much about it, really. After she left I’d heard that she still owned the house and was renting it out. So it’s not like anything bad had happened to her. If it had – if, I don’t know, she’d been found dead in the house or anything like that – well, then, yes, yes, I would have done as she asked, but she left, other people moved in. About ten years after she left, around 1990, I bumped into an estate agent who was looking at the house and asked him about Rose. He said she still owned it, that she rented Skelton Place out. I assumed she’d outrun the man she was so frightened of.’
God, thinks Lorna, tears blinding her vision when she thinks of her mother, alone and scared, bringing her up by herself.
‘The bodies in the garden,’ says Melissa, suddenly. ‘Do they know who they are yet?’
‘One was a journalist called Neil Lewisham. And the other, they still don’t know. But I’ve been wondering. Maybe they didn’t split up and the other body is Daphne’s.’
Melissa breathes in sharply. ‘But who would have killed her?’
Lorna looks down at her hands. ‘I’m worried the police will think it’s my mum …’
‘No, no, that’s not right,’ Melissa says emphatically. ‘Rose would never have hurt Daphne or let anyone else hurt her, not without calling the police, or doing something.’
‘Unless it wasn’t my mother who killed her,’ says Lorna, swallowing.
43
Saffy
‘What are you doing?’ asks Tom, as I get out of bed and start to dress hastily. ‘I thought we could have a lie-in.’ He raises his eyebrows suggestively. ‘What with Lorna out for a bit.’
‘I’m sorry, I want to go and see Gran. I just feel I need to see her. To spend time with her.’
‘We’re meeting up with Theo and his wife later, remember. Will you be back in time?’
‘Yes.’ I throw on a T-shirt I haven’t worn for about two years, some jogging bottoms, and scrunch my hair into a messy bun.
Tom sits up. He’s bare-chested and I feel a flicker of desire but just as quickly it’s gone. My mind is too full of other things. ‘I’ll come with you. I haven’t seen your gran for ages and –’
‘No,’ I bark, then realize I sound a bit harsh. ‘No,’ I say, more softly, ‘it’s okay. I think Gran might talk more if it’s just me.’
He stares at me, concern etched on his face. ‘I’m worried about you, Saff. This is all a lot to take in and now you’re going to hare off to Bristol.’
‘I won’t be long.’ I sit on the edge of the bed pushing my feet into trainer socks. ‘I want to ask Gran about Victor. Now that I know more. And it might be easier without …’
‘Without your mum there?’
I nod guiltily.
He takes my hand. ‘Is everything okay between the two of you? I noticed some tension yesterday when I got back. I know you’d just had an intense meet-up with Theo and found out about Victor but … there was something else, like something brewing between you.’
‘We had a bit of an argument. I said some things I shouldn’t have said.’
‘Oh, Saff.’
‘I know. It’s not my proudest moment. Mum tries her best. And I do love her, but …’
‘Hey,’ he holds up his hands, ‘you don’t have to explain it to me. I know it’s complicated between the two of you.’
‘My gran was just so much less complicated, you know? Or,’ I laugh ironically, ‘so I thought.’