Maureen received a text at nine the following morning.
Hope you had a good night. Too excited to sleep much myself. Would it be possible to come and see you at eleven? Have to return to London earlier than expected and I don’t want to leave without seeing you. There’s still so much to catch up on. Love Penny/Michelle.
After reading it Andee handed the phone back to her mother. ‘Interesting that she’s asking to come when I won’t be here,’ she commented.
Maureen looked startled. ‘But how on earth would she know that you’re going to the shop this morning?’
Having no sensible answer for that, Andee said, ‘Let’s put it down to paranoia, and I’ll change my plans.’ The fact that she’d arranged to see DI Gould wasn’t one she’d shared with her mother, and wouldn’t until she’d heard what he had to say.
Clearly relieved not to have to deal with Penny alone, Maureen mumbled, ‘Thank you,’ and sat quietly staring at the table, blinking only when Andee put some toast in front of her. ‘Are you going to ask her if she stayed at the Royal?’ she ventured.
‘If I get the chance, but there are other questions I’d like answers to first. I’m sure you would too?’
Maureen simply sighed. She was looking tired this morning and distracted, which was hardly surprising when her mind, her thoughts, were running around in jumbled and difficult circles.
‘Would you like me to see her on my own?’ Andee offered.
‘No, no, I should be here. I want to be here.’ Maureen’s eyes came up, and her face seemed pinched and sallow as she said, ‘If you can, I‘d like you to find out where she went when she left all those years ago. I know she says it’s painful for her, but it was painful for us too.’
‘Of course,’ Andee replied softly. ‘Do you happen to have any theories you’d like to share with me before I go there?’ she asked.
To her surprise Maureen said, ‘Yes, I do, but I’d rather hear what she has to say first.’
Andee sat down slowly, keeping a hand on her mother’s shoulder as she controlled her frustration. ‘Let me get this straight,’ she began, ‘yesterday you said you thought there might be men involved, and now you’re saying that you had an idea where she might have gone?’
Maureen looked so uncomfortable and apprehensive that Andee might have backed off if it weren’t so important.
‘Did Daddy know where she went?’ Andee pressed.
Maureen shook her head.
Not sure if that was a no, or please don’t ask, Andee said, ‘Did he know that you had suspicions of where she might be?’
Maureen stared down at her plate; her hand was shaking. ‘Yes, he did,’ she mumbled, ‘but nothing ever came of it.’
‘So he followed up on your suspicions?’
Maureen nodded.
‘Where are we talking about?’
‘I don’t know. I mean, it wasn’t … It was who … I was afraid of who she was with.’
Andee sat back in her chair, needing some time to assimilate the enormity of this. Probably the hardest part of it was the fact that nothing like this had shown up in the police files, which could only mean that her parents – her father, whose integrity she’d never doubted – had held things back from the investigation. ‘So who are we talking about?’ she asked carefully.
Her mother didn’t answer.
‘Pimps? Traffickers?’
‘No, no, nothing like that.’
Unable to think of anything else, though realising that her mind was coloured by experiences in the force, Andee stared hard at her mother.
‘I know that look,’ Maureen told her, ‘but I’m not going any further with this until after we’ve heard what Penny has to say. It could be I’m wrong, and if I am … Well, I’d rather … I’d rather not speak ill of the dead.’
Andee reeled. ‘Are we talking about Daddy?’ she demanded incredulously.
‘No, of course not. It’s just … Well, I think I’ve said enough. I’d like to have some breakfast now.’
Andee’s eyes didn’t let go of her mother’s face. Were it anyone else in the world she’d never have backed down, not that she was doing so now, but she was reluctant to try and force answers out of her mother when she looked about ready to fall apart.
‘What on earth does she mean she doesn’t want to speak ill of the dead?’ she cried down the line to Graeme, with the bathroom door closed and shower running to drown out her voice. ‘Who the heck’s she talking about? She says it’s not my father, but I can’t think of anyone else.’
‘OK, this is a long shot,’ Graeme replied after giving it some thought, ‘but what about your grandparents? They’re both dead, and died after Penny went …’
Andee was shaking her head. ‘They were devastated when she disappeared. They never got over it. Grandpa even stopped speaking … It was awful, especially for my father. He’d lost his daughter, and then he was seeing his parents deteriorate in front of his eyes.’
‘Were they living in Kesterly at the time?’
‘In this very house, which is where Penny and I spent most of our school holidays until the time she vanished. I came the following year with my cousin Frank, and I think the year after that. It wasn’t the same, obviously. We were miserable and scared and Granny and Grandpa didn’t really know how to handle us. Then my parents sold up in Chiswick and moved here. No one was coping well and my father, who was probably more broken than any of us, wanted to try and hold us all together.’
Sighing, Graeme said, ‘We saw what Blake and Jenny went through when their daughter disappeared, but eventually, thanks to you, they had an answer, or closure as some would call it. For your family … So many years …’
‘But we know Penny’s alive now, which should be all our prayers coming true, except it’s starting to feel as though some kind of nightmare is just beginning.’
It was a little before eleven when the chauffeur-driven Mercedes pulled up outside Briar Lodge and Penny, looking spruce and elegant, got out of the back. She was wearing cream-coloured slacks and a matching shirt with long sleeves cut to cover her hands – she must have them made specially, Andee decided.
As Andee watched her glancing around the hamlet, taking in the scenery and sea air, she was thinking of the ghosts that could be watching too, her father, her paternal grandparents, and her mother’s mother who’d suffered along with everyone else when her youngest grandchild had disappeared without trace.
Had her grandparents known more than they’d ever told?
‘I hope the change of plan isn’t a problem?’ Penny grimaced playfully as she kissed Andee on both cheeks. She smelled of expensive perfume, and peppermints, and as she touched her hands to her cheeks Andee couldn’t help wondering if it was a deliberate gesture to show she wasn’t wearing any rings today.
Andee stood aside for her to go in, saying, ‘Mum’s in the kitchen,’ and after quickly clocking the registration number of the Mercedes she entered it into her phone and went to join them.
Finding them locked in a tearful embrace, Andee went to fetch the coffee pot and three mugs. As she poured she said to Penny, ‘Do you take yours black or white?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t drink coffee,’ Penny apologised, ‘but please don’t mind me. I’ll be very happy with water.’
‘We can make tea,’ her mother offered. ‘It won’t be any trouble.’
‘Water’s fine,’ Penny assured her.
Filling a glass from the tap, Andee put it on the table and passed her mother a coffee.
‘Lovely,’ Penny declared after taking a sip of Kesterly’s finest. Smiling at Andee she said, ‘By the way, did you work out what I took of yours when I left?’
Andee hid her irritation as she shook her head. In truth she hadn’t given it much thought, largely because she’d wanted to resist being pulled into some sort of mind game, presuming that was what it was.
Penny laughed. ‘I really thought you’d have realised, but there again I don’t suppose it was amongst your most treasured possessions.’
Maureen looked from one to the other. ‘Are you going to tell us what it was?’ she prompted Penny.
Penny seemed to consider it, then apparently decided against it as she said, ‘I didn’t stay at the Royal last night. I thought I’d try the Kingsmere opposite the marina instead. It was very comfortable, in fact quite respectable for a four star. I wouldn’t have a problem recommending it to anyone coming this way.’
Not particularly interested in her TripAdvisor review, Andee said, ‘Are we allowed to ask what’s taking you back to London so soon?’
Appearing surprised, Penny said, ‘You’re allowed to ask anything, and the answer is business, of course.’ She checked her phone even though it hadn’t rung. ‘A problem’s come up that we didn’t foresee,’ she confided. She appeared slightly strained as she added, ‘We’ll get it sorted, of course.’ At that moment her phone rang and she quickly clicked on. ‘Yes?’ she barked shortly. She listened, keeping her eyes down, until eventually she said, ‘OK, stay on it … I should be there by four.’
As she rang off she looked as though she’d like to swear before her expression brightened and she was smiling again. ‘Things rarely run smoothly, do they?’ she commented wryly.
‘Is there anything we can do?’ Maureen offered.
Penny laughed as she said, ‘I’m not entirely sure what to do myself, but don’t let’s think about it now. It’s not …’ She broke off as her phone rang again. ‘Yes, I was informed last night,’ she told the caller, ‘and yes I’m coming back to London. This afternoon. Nej, naturligtvis vet jag inte var de är. Då hade jag ju inte varit här. Jag måste gå nu. (No, of course I don’t know where they are. I wouldn’t be here if I did. I have to go now),’ and she abruptly ended the call. ‘I’m sorry,’ she grimaced, ‘I’ll turn it off or this will keep happening.’
‘It sounds serious,’ Andee commented.
Penny hesitated, seemed on the brink of saying something, then appeared to change her mind. ‘It could become so, if we don’t get ahead of it,’ she declared, ‘but please let’s forget it for now and use what time we have to carry on getting to know one another.’ She gave an amused, incredulous shake of her head, using the moment, Andee felt, to refocus herself. ‘My mother and my sister. I have family. Of course, I’ve always known it, but being here, seeing you again after all these years … I should have come sooner. I wish I had, but I was so afraid you wouldn’t want to see me.’
‘We’ve always wanted to know what happened to you,’ Maureen assured her, clearly distressed that she could think otherwise. ‘It’s dominated our lives.’
Penny looked from her mother to Andee and back again. ‘Well, I can believe you were probably upset and even worried at first, after all I was only fourteen, but as time went on …’
‘Upset? Worried?’ Maureen cut in incredulously. ‘We were beside ourselves. We thought you were dead. The note you sent …’
Penny frowned.
Andee’s senses were suddenly alert.
Maureen said, ‘The note that turned up after you disappeared. The things you said …’
Penny waved a dismissive hand and sighed. ‘I remember it now,’ she said, ‘and it wasn’t my idea. I just went along with it because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. If you thought I was dead you might stop looking.’
Clearly appalled, as much by the tone as the words, Maureen could only stare at her.
Just as shocked, Andee kept her tone even as she said, ‘So you send a note, intending to make us think you were dead …’ She was finding this hard to take in. Who did something like that?
Appearing contrite and even managing to sound it in spite of her words, Penny said, ‘I’m sorry to say I’d had enough of being in this family. You were the golden girl, I was the burden, the difficult one; the one who just wouldn’t conform – at least not to the way Daddy wanted things. He might have been happier if I’d been born a boy, I couldn’t have got into so much trouble – or that’s what he told himself, I’m sure.’
‘Your father loved you,’ Maureen insisted hoarsely.
Penny’s eyebrows arched. ‘I think we both know that’s not true,’ she argued with an oddly disconcerting smile.
‘It was losing you, never knowing what had happened to you,’ Andee informed her, ‘that took him to an early grave.’
At that Penny lowered her eyes and allowed several moments to pass before she said, ‘I’m sorry that you think that.’
Momentarily lost for words of her own, Andee waited for her to elaborate on what the hell she was meaning, but Maureen was the next to speak.
‘Penny, where did you go when you left?’
Penny’s eyes rose to her mother’s. For what seemed like an eternity she simply regarded Maureen as she dealt with whatever thoughts were behind her intense, unreadable eyes. ‘Do you really want me to answer that?’ she asked finally.
Maureen visibly blanched.
‘Just tell us,’ Andee snapped.
Penny’s gaze flicked to her, and returned to her mother. ‘It’s up to you,’ she said. ‘If you want to know …’
‘Your father checked,’ Maureen broke in shakily. ‘The police, everyone … It’s not where you were.’
‘They looked in the wrong places, but Daddy found me, once. He stared right at me, then he turned around and walked away.’
‘No!’ Maureen cried. ‘He’d never have done that.’
Penny didn’t argue.
‘What is going on?’ Andee demanded of them both. ‘Where were you, Penny? Who hid you? Someone, others, had to have been involved …’
‘Oh, someone was,’ Penny confirmed. ‘His name was John.’
Maureen flinched, and clasped her hands to her face.
‘John who?’ Andee pressed.
Getting to her feet, Penny said, ‘I’ll leave Mum to tell you. Oh look,’ she exclaimed, gazing out of the window, ‘you have a cat. How lovely.’
‘It belongs to next door,’ Andee informed her.
Penny nodded. ‘That makes sense. I don’t suppose you’d ever want another after what happened to Smoky.’
Maureen looked as though she’d been struck. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked desperately. ‘I thought … I’ve made some lunch.’
‘I need to go,’ Penny told her. ‘You two have things to discuss. I’ll be in touch,’ and moments later the door closed behind her.
Andee regarded her mother’s ashen face. The air in the room seemed to have contracted, as though Penny had somehow taken it with her. ‘So who is John?’ Andee demanded, trying to keep her voice even.
‘I can’t do this now,’ Maureen replied, clearly deeply upset as she got to her feet. ‘I need to think. Please don’t press me, Andee. It won’t help.’
‘Then what will?’ Andee shouted. ‘You’re going to have to tell me at some point …’
‘Just not now!’ her mother snapped, and leaving Andee staring after her she ran upstairs and shut herself in her room.
She didn’t come out for lunch, or accept a cup of tea. When Andee called out, all she would say was, ‘I’ll be fine. Please just leave me alone.’
Andee was so angry she wanted to beat the door down, but knowing it would only stress her mother more to be terrorised she kept herself in check and waited.
Eventually, still pale and visibly shaken, Maureen appeared downstairs and announced she had to hurry or she’d be late for one of her regular WI teas at Kesterly town hall.
‘And you think that’s more important than what’s going on here?’ Andee queried tersely.
‘I’m not arguing about it,’ Maureen replied, picking up her keys and handbag.
‘So when will you be back?’
‘In time for dinner, but I won’t want much. There’s some fresh pasta in the fridge if you’d like that.’
More worried now than frustrated, Andee said, ‘Mum, I’m not sure you should go anywhere while …’
‘Don’t fuss, Andee. I need to get out of the house and do something … normal. So please let me be.’
‘Then let me drive you.’
‘I’m not an invalid. I’m capable of driving myself.’
If it had been possible, Andee would have stopped her, but without getting physical there was nothing she could do. Nor was she able to go and see DI Gould, for he’d texted to say he was at a conference somewhere in Devon this afternoon, not due back until tomorrow.
Deciding to call Penny, Andee found herself bumped through to voicemail. Abruptly she said, ‘I don’t know what you were hoping to achieve this morning, but Mum’s very upset and I need to know what’s going on. Call me when you get this.’
Two hours passed with no response.
In the end, in need of some air, Andee took herself over to the pub where she sat at an outside table with a shandy, barely aware of the world going by as she tried to deal with the unsettling, even alarming turn events were taking. Her past, and all the perceptions she’d had of people and things that had happened, the beliefs in those she loved, the guilt that had weighted her for years over Penny, the longing she’d felt for a sister she’d wanted so desperately to share things with, none of it seemed rooted in reality any more. And why was her mother so reluctant to talk to her, when it was clear that she needed to lean on her now more than she ever had? For some reason Maureen wasn’t allowing herself to do that.
Becoming vaguely aware of a car slowing as it passed, Andee watched it absently, registering a young couple in the front who seemed to be staring at her. Were they friends of Luke’s or Alayna’s? She didn’t recognise them, and when they didn’t wave she simply assumed they were tourists and tracked the red Corsa round to the other side of the green, where it came to a stop a few yards from the entrance to the Smugglers’ Cave. No one got out, and Brigand Bob, all kitted out in his usual scary smuggler’s gear, was too busy seeing in a tour group to move the car on. Bob was very strict about parking, and the area around the green, especially outside the cave, was strictly off limits to anyone, except the disabled.
Maybe there was a badge in the car that she hadn’t seen.
‘Fancy another one of those?’
Shading her eyes, she looked up to find Graeme’s partner, Blake Leonard, standing over her, and felt a rush of gladness to see him. If it couldn’t be Graeme himself appearing out of nowhere, then Blake was an excellent second best.
‘No more shandy,’ she replied, ‘but I’d love a glass of Sauvignon.’
‘Coming up. Crisps, nuts, scratchings?’
Realising how hungry she was, she said, ‘Nuts would be good. Thanks. You’re home early.’
‘I had to go and see a client over on Temple Rise, so I decided to call it a day rather than go back to the shop. Have you spoken to Graeme today?’
‘Briefly this morning. Everything seems to be going well in France.’
‘Will you be surprised to hear that he’s asked me to keep an eye on you?’
Andee smiled wryly. ‘I guess not, but please tell him I’m fine, and he shouldn’t worry.’
With a dubious arch of an eyebrow, he said, ‘Right, wine and nuts it is. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.’
Admiring how upbeat he managed to seem when inside she knew he was still grieving deeply for the loss of his daughter, Andee gazed across the green again. The red Corsa was still there, and the young driver was standing beside it talking to Bob. Next thing, the two men were shaking hands before the younger one returned to the car, while the smuggler ambled back to the cave.
In spite of feeling surprised that Bob was allowing the Corsa to stay where it was, Andee soon dismissed the thought as Blake returned with their drinks and settled down opposite her.
‘OK, do you want to do small talk, business talk, or some other kind of talk that might explain why you’re looking so worried?’ Blake offered after taking the top off his Guinness. He was a remarkably good-looking man with sandy brown hair, clean-cut features and eyes that were as kind as they were knowing. ‘I can also do no talk at all,’ he added generously, ‘but that doesn’t seem like much fun.’
Knowing from his tone that Jenny had told him what was going on, Andee said, ‘My sister visited again this morning.’
Blake didn’t look surprised. ‘Jenny saw the Mercedes on her way out,’ he told her. ‘So how did it go?’
Heaving a deep, uncertain sigh, Andee said, ‘I hardly know where to begin, apart from with the fact that my family has apparently been hiding something from me for years. And I don’t just mean something, I mean information that I should have been told, that probably should have been in the police files, but never was.’
Frowning, he said, ‘Do you know what it is now?’
She shook her head. ‘My mother still won’t tell me, and Penny isn’t returning my calls.’
Clearly understanding how upsetting this was for her, he sat back in his chair and regarded her steadily. ‘So do you have any theories?’ he prompted.
‘Not really. Penny mentioned someone called John. How many Johns do you think there are …’ She broke off suddenly and stared at Blake. ‘My mother had a brother called John,’ she stated, only just remembering. ‘We never really knew him, he was a bit of a black sheep, so no one ever talked about him, at least not in front of us children. I don’t recall him coming to visit more than a handful of times. He was into gambling, I think, or drugs, maybe both … He had a dreadful row with my father once. I don’t remember what was said, only that there was a lot of shouting and my father ended up throwing him out of the house.’
‘Did you ever ask your father about it?’
‘No, I was quite young at the time, maybe thirteen or fourteen, so I was probably afraid he’d tell me off for eavesdropping. But my mother told me later … that’s right … that he’d wanted Daddy to lend him some money, and he’d started threatening him when Daddy refused.’
‘A gambling debt?’
‘Possibly.’
‘So do you know where this villainous uncle is now?’
She shook her head. ‘As far as I know no one’s heard from him … Hang on. He died. Quite a long time ago. I must have still been in my twenties and there was something …’ Her eyes sharpened as they went to Blake’s. ‘They found his body off the coast of Carmarthen, I think it was.’
Blake’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Well, the first question that comes to mind, is did he jump, or was he pushed?’
‘I don’t know. There must have been an investigation … Maybe I need to look into it.’ She was watching the red Corsa again. It was pulling away, heading out of the hamlet. ‘Given my mother’s reaction to the name John being mentioned this morning,’ she said, ‘I’m going to guess that her brother was somehow involved in Penny’s disappearance.’
Blake said nothing, only watched her as she continued trying to pull things together. It was like attempting to complete a jigsaw in a fog with no idea if she even had the right, never mind all the pieces.
‘Maybe she just assumed my father checked out her brother,’ she said, ‘but in reality it never happened. I know it sounds odd, but from some of the things she’s said lately, there didn’t seem to be a lot of proper communication going on between them at the time Penny went missing.’
‘It doesn’t sound odd to me,’ Blake responded. ‘Jenny and I all but dried up when Jessica disappeared. It’s like you’re afraid to talk in case something you say will raise hope where there is none, or stir up guilt, or blame … It’s like navigating a minefield with something blowing up in your face every other step.’
Feeling for how desperate it must have been for the Leonards during those two agonising years of not knowing, Andee said, ‘Well, whatever did or didn’t happen with my uncle, we know that Penny was never found. Except she claimed this morning that she was. She said that my father saw her once, but he left her wherever she was and walked away.’
Blake blinked in shock. ‘Do you believe that?’ he asked.
Andee shook her head. Her father had been an unflinchingly honourable man who, more than anything in the world, had wanted to find his daughter and bring her home.
‘So why would she lie?’
‘Because she’s messing with us,’ Andee declared, certain it was true. ‘Don’t ask me why, maybe she’s getting a kick out of it, but she definitely wound Mum up this morning, and I think it was intentional. In fact, I’m sure it was. The big question, though, is what is she really up to?’
Maureen couldn’t think how this had happened. One minute she’d been driving home from the WI tea, the next she’d found herself here, on the wrong side of the headland with the car hopelessly stuck in a ditch. She obviously hadn’t been paying attention when she’d reached the fork at Pollard’s farm, and had somehow managed to veer to the right instead of driving straight on towards Bourne Hollow.
There was nowhere to go from here, apart from over the cliff into the rampantly foaming sea below. Thankfully there was a barrier in place to stop such plunges from happening, or she might have done just that. Instead she’d tried to turn around on this narrow, rutted track and her back wheels had dropped into a gully, so were now spinning uselessly in thin air.
Her eyes scanned the mountainous landscape around her dotted with sheep and cattle, dissected by trees and hedgerows. Beyond there was only sky and sea, a vast swathe of perfect blue with the speck of a ship in the far distance on its way to the docks in Bristol. Seagulls screeched and dived through the air, and she could see, but not hear the merry lights of Paradise Cove curled into the hook of the bay. No matter how loudly she shouted or heartily she waved, no one there would be able to see or hear her.
What was she to do? There was no mobile phone reception here, and Pollard’s farm was at least three miles back.
She gazed along the track, feeling hopelessly daunted by the prospect of such a long walk, too exhausted to do anything more than sink on to the grassy bank beside the car and drop her head in her hands.
Everything was crowding in on her, and she just knew that the next thing she was going to learn were gruesome details of all that her daughter had suffered at the hands of her brother and his cronies. She didn’t want to go there. She simply couldn’t bear it.
How had he hidden her?
Why had the police been unable to prove that he had her?
She knew so little of what had happened during that terrible time; she’d left it to David, knowing he’d had every available resource assigned to the search, that he’d have given his life to save his girl …
Daddy found me, once. He stared right at me, then he turned around and walked away.
It wasn’t true; David would never have done that.
So why had Penny said it?
Maureen could only despise herself now for how weak she’d been back then. How could she, a mother, have allowed things to happen without asking more questions, insisting on more answers? It was no excuse that her husband had been far better placed than she was to understand, even oversee, the investigation. She shouldn’t have been so trusting, should have forced them to let her be more involved, or at the very least more informed.
She was sure David had appointed a special team to interrogate John, for she could remember the relief she’d felt when she was told that her brother wasn’t involved in Penny’s disappearance. It wasn’t that she’d ever been close to John, or cared about him enough to want him to stay in their lives, she’d simply needed to know that he hadn’t carried out the veiled threat he’d once made to David.
Keep playing things my way, David, and I’ll make sure everyone stays safe.
Oh Andee, Andee, she wailed desperately inside. She so badly needed to reach out to her elder daughter, and she would, because she had to, even though she knew Andee would never understand her mother’s weakness, because Andee simply wasn’t the sort of woman Maureen had been all those years ago. She was someone who took control, who wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself and those she loved. If she wanted answers she’d get them, and Maureen was in no doubt that Andee would be expecting them now.
‘Hello. Are you all right? Is there anything I can do?’
Maureen looked up, and her heart gave a twist of shock as her mouth opened and closed. ‘Penny, what are you doing here?’ she asked hoarsely. She wanted to pull away from the hand on her shoulder, but her limbs were like liquid, the world seemed to be spinning. ‘Did you follow me? Why did you follow me?’ she asked.
Penny looked confused and concerned. ‘Have you had some sort of accident?’ she said.
‘It’s proper stuck,’ someone grunted from behind her. There was a man, with a beard and long hair inspecting the car.
‘How did you know I was here?’ Maureen asked Penny. ‘I thought you were going to London.’
‘Have you hit your head?’ Penny enquired, coming down to her level.
Maureen drew back. ‘Why did you go with him?’ she asked. ‘Did he force you?’
‘We need to get help,’ the man decided. ‘Stay with her, I’ll go and rustle some up.’
Maureen watched him start down the track, then turned back to the woman beside her. She could see now that it wasn’t Penny, and felt a surge of bile rush to her throat.
‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, trying to dab away her tears. ‘I’m not … I got confused.’
‘It’s OK,’ the woman soothed. ‘It seems like you’ve had a bit of a shock. It’s lucky we were passing, you could have been stranded here for hours. What happened? Did you get lost?’
‘I took a wrong turn,’ Maureen told her. ‘Silly, because I live up this way, in Bourne Hollow, with my daughter, Andee. I should call her. She’ll be worried.’
‘Give me her number and I’ll run after Simon. He can ring as soon as he’s able. Will you be all right for a minute if I leave you alone?’
‘Yes,’ Maureen assured her, and after giving the woman Andee’s number she lay down on the bank and closed her eyes.
Never, in all the years since Penny had disappeared, had she imagined herself one day wishing that she’d never come back, but it seemed that day had arrived, and she couldn’t have felt more racked with guilt and remorse if she’d tried.
‘Mum, wake up,’ Andee urged gently.
Maureen’s eyelids flickered as she rose slowly from the depths of a strangely dark sleep back to the sunlit world. ‘Andee?’ she said faintly, seeing Andee’s face swimming about before her.
Easing her up, Andee said, ‘Come on, let’s get you home.’
Maureen looked around. ‘Where are we?’ she asked.
‘Bearing Drop. You took a wrong turn and managed to get stuck.’
It was coming back to Maureen now, in slow, horrible waves. John, Penny, the search, the suicide note that hadn’t been a suicide note at all, just a way of trying to get away from them all …
‘We’ll leave them to it,’ Andee said, referring to Blake and the others who were helping him to bounce the Punto out of the ditch. ‘Blake will drive your car back. I don’t think there’s any damage.’
Minutes later, as they were navigating the bumpy track back to the main road, Maureen mumbled, ‘Why did she come? I don’t understand it. After all these years … Why has it taken her so long?’
‘Only she knows the answer to that,’ Andee replied, ‘but I intend to find out what it is, whether she’s willing to tell us or not. Have you heard any more from her today?’
Maureen shook her head. ‘Have you?’
‘No, I tried calling, but she hasn’t responded.’
Maureen gazed out at the passing hedgerows and hidden gates. ‘We need to talk,’ she stated, as Andee turned on to the road home.
‘Yes, we do,’ Andee agreed. ‘And I need you to be honest and hold nothing back. Can you do that?’
Maureen nodded. ‘Yes, I can,’ she promised. ‘We’ll start as soon as we get home. And then I think we should go to the police.’