part0060

Shane and I have made a Herculean effort to be normal with each other. To talk, tease and ignore each other like two people who haven’t previously had (a lot of) sex and made many declarations of love. It’s been difficult, but done.

Macy looks pleased and relieved and I feel guilty that all this time she’s been feeling like this and I’ve had no idea.

‘Oh, Nell,’ Shane says as I’m leaving. I’ve helped put the children to bed, and if I stay any longer I will end up falling asleep on the sofa. Besides, Zach told me to text him when I was free if I fancied going over to his new place in town.

‘Yes, Shane,’ I reply. I even look him in the eye when I say it, now that we have to do that.

‘I was, erm,’ he looks over his shoulder at the living room where Macy is and lowers his voice, ‘I was, erm, talking to this guy at the gym—’

‘Do people actually do that?’ I cut in.

‘Talk to people at the gym? I’ve always thought it was somewhere you go to exercise, not to start random conversations with random people.’

Shane looks pained. He’s obviously remembering that I can be annoyingly off-topic at the drop of a hat. ‘What are you talking about, Nell?’

‘Nothing, nothing. Carry on.’

‘I was talking to this guy at the gym. He was saying how he wanted some genealogy research done but didn’t know where to start. Wasn’t going to do it himself, but didn’t know who to pay to do it. I said I knew a woman who did that and that I would pass on his number.’ Shane reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a slip of paper that is folded in half. He holds it out to me. ‘You never know, there might be a few quid in it. He was talking about how it was to do with a will or something.’

‘I don’t charge people,’ I say.

‘I know that, but he doesn’t. And it’s stupid not to charge people for your time. Or for the records I’d imagine it costs to get copies of.’

‘Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to “manage” for a while though?’

‘You sound like my dad. No, actually, you sound like my sister.’

‘What are you two doing out there?’ Macy calls. ‘I’m going to start getting paranoid.’

‘I’m just talking to Nell about her work,’ Shane says in what seems an uncharacteristic moment of honesty when it comes to something to do with me.

‘What work? Nell doesn’t have a job any more,’ Macy says and dissolves into giggles.

‘Thank you and goodnight, Macy,’ I say. I take the paper from Shane. ‘Thanks for this,’ I say to him.

‘And yes, I’ll think about charging people. Goodnight.’

The world outside is darkening and it is glorious. I like the betwixt and between hours when night is descending but it’s not quite certain if it will stay. When night could very easily lose its battle to reign over the sky; when daylight could reassert itself.

I don’t charge people for looking through records and, especially, for having their DNA analysed because what I do with it isn’t strictly legal. I have everyone sign a disclaimer saying I can submit their DNA on their behalf, and that I can get the results. I then interpret those results for people and inform them of the findings. But I … I also use the results to scan through all the databases available to see if they are even the slightest of matches to the DNA of The Brighton Mermaid or Jude.