According to the GPS on Astrid’s mobile, the drive to the home would take twenty minutes. She didn’t mind the journey, using it to check out this bit of the town. Rows of trees looking in desperate need of water lined both sides of the street. Peeping through them was an array of shops, cafes, and small businesses. Perhaps it was too early in the afternoon, the clock on the dashboard said it was just after two, but most appeared shut.
She stopped the car at a red light, allowing an old lady pushing a trolley to crawl across the road. As she waited, she looked closer to see most shops weren’t shut, but closed for business. A broken economy was putting paid to some of small-town America as the pensioner reached the other side, and Astrid drove through the lights. She glanced at the woman in the mirror and wondered if it was a glimpse into her future.
Who’ll look after me when my mobility is shot and my memories are gone? Is that why I’m so keen to form a bond with my niece, so Olivia will care for me when I can’t do it anymore?
Her sudden concern about growing old disturbed her. She wondered if it was the sight of the woman at the lights which had triggered it. If she lived that long and stayed healthy, then she was a good fifty years away from such a thing.
The boarded-up shops alongside the road distracted her from future thoughts, so she returned to the problem at hand: hoping Eve Church could help prove her brother’s innocence. But considering Eve had voluntarily given up her freedom for the last seven years, Astrid wondered how that would be possible.
Once she got beyond the high street, where the only activity she witnessed was at a coffee shop and the book store next to it, she headed towards the lake on the other side. During her online research, she’d discovered Crystal Lake was once a thriving holiday and tourist spot inside Eureka Falls, but now had gone the way of most everything else. The only things left were the water, empty buildings, and the care home. Government promises of jobs and extra funding had been as real as unicorns and dragons.
It wasn’t a task she looked forward to, having to tell a vulnerable woman the police had accused her brother of murdering two children. Still, until Church got his lawyer, there was nothing else she could do. She hadn’t expected to get anything useful from outside the murder house, and that’s how it had turned out.
She needed a look inside, and she couldn’t do that without the lawyer. At least she’d had a glimpse at the neighbourhood and the back of the house, which led straight into thick woods. She’d surmised the girls and their killer had come from that direction and expected the police to find evidence there. But how had they entered without breaking in?
Did Adam Church take them in? Was that the incriminating proof the police had hinted at?
She pondered those questions as she parked the car at the care home. She stepped out towards the front. Would the staff even let her see Church’s sister? If not, she’d give them the details, and they could pass the message on.
Astrid entered a building that had seen better days. The dusty carpet clung to her feet as she made her way to the reception, followed by the patriarchal eyes glaring from the ancient portraits hanging on the walls. The woman at the desk was busy whispering into the phone, her shoulders all hunched and nervous as she realised Astrid was standing opposite her. She put the phone down, ran trembling fingers down her uniform and gave Astrid her best forced smile.
‘Hello, welcome to the Tranquil Waters Rest Home. My name is Jenny. How can I help you?’
Astrid returned the greeting with a grin of her own. ‘Hello, Jenny. I’m here to see Eve Church.’
Jenny’s eyes shrank into her cheeks and she suddenly looked ten years older. Astrid guessed that the whispered conversation on the phone had been about Adam Church’s current predicament.
‘I’m afraid visiting time is not until two o’clock, Ms… Ms...’
Astrid didn’t finish the sentence for her, instead leaning on the desk and increasing her smile tenfold. ‘In that case, could you pass a message on for me, Jenny?’
She hesitated for a second. ‘What would that be?’
‘Can you tell Eve her brother has been arrested for murder, and she might not get a visit from him for a while?’
That was it; she’d done what Adam had asked. The responsibility rested on Jenny to inform Eve of her brother’s predicament. Her stomach grumbled to let her know she hadn’t eaten since last night.
Was there a mini-bar in my hotel room? I never had the chance to check before Hudson and Hicks knocked on the door.
She turned to leave, but Jenny reached out to grab her arm.
‘Oh, that’s terrible. I thought what I’d heard was a rumour. Did the police put this on the news?’
Astrid wriggled from her grasp. ‘Not yet, but they will soon enough, so if you could inform his sister?’
Jenny strode from behind the desk, taking Astrid’s hand in what seemed, to her, to be a wholly unprofessional gesture.
‘This is terrible.’
‘It is for Adam Church.’
With Jenny’s fingers in hers, Astrid felt as if they were about to go on a date. Her mind drifted from her surroundings, from the Church family’s problems, from the debt she owed George, and tried to remember the last time she’d gone on one.
Jenny babbled as she pulled her along the corridor towards a set of thick doors at the end. Astrid put weight into her legs and stopped both of them from moving any further.
‘What did you say?’
‘Adam Church has never visited his sister since she’s been here. I think they might have had two or three phone calls in seven years, but that’s about it. I don’t believe he even writes to her.’
‘Well, that’s sibling love for you.’ Astrid had a brief image of the sister who’d always hated her.
‘No, I’m sure he does love her in his way. It’s just, well, this place can be very intimidating for some. But it’s Adam who pays the annual fees for residency and buys his sister all she needs.’ Jenny lifted a hand to her forehead. ‘Who’ll pay while he’s in prison?’
‘Hopefully, it won’t come to that.’ Astrid scrutinised Jenny and pondered if her concern was for Eve Church’s well-being or if her employers might not be getting any more fees from Adam in the future. ‘I’m guessing you want me to tell Eve about her brother, then?’
‘Please, would you?’ Astrid watched Jenny’s chest rise and fall against the tightness of her uniform, noticing for the first time how pretty her eyes were.
‘Sure.’ It wouldn’t take long. In and out, then something to eat while waiting for the lawyer to get in touch.
Relief seeped out of Jenny and she grasped Astrid’s hands in apparent gratitude.
‘I’ll take you to her. She’ll be in the common room now. Some of the residents do yoga in the morning, but she won’t be one of them.’ She put her hand on the door. ‘But don’t call her Eve; she hates that name. Call her Evie.’
Jenny took Astrid into an antiseptic aroma, with a smell of weak orange juice and the tang of fresh sweat. Astrid checked the room as she stood in the doorway. The yoga group was in the far corner, half a dozen in front of an instructor. None of them moved, frozen like statues. She scanned the rest of the place, seeing staff with individual residents.
Her gaze settled on the only person on their own, a woman sitting beneath a large window looking into the gardens. Her head was bowed, buried in a book, headphone wires sticking out from her straight jet-black shoulder-length hair and connected to the phone lying on a table.
Astrid stared at the young woman next to the window. ‘Is that Evie Church?’
‘It is.’
‘Won’t she know from the internet what happened to her brother?’
‘There’s no internet access allowed anywhere in the building unless you’re a member of staff. Come, I’ll introduce you.’
Astrid followed her over, wondering how she’d tell the poor woman her brother was a suspected child killer.