LARA CHADWICK TURNED in the bed, reaching for the phone. The night editor screamed down the line at her.
‘Listen, Lara, I wouldn’t normally do this to you but we got a tip-off that Glenn Harris, the investment millionaire guy, that his son Joshua committed suicide a few hours ago, and we need to get an official confirmation and file the story.’
‘Jesus, Bill, it’s Christmas Day! Can’t it wait?’
‘Sorry, but no. You’re on to do relief so it’s your shot!’
‘Where was he found?’ she asked.
‘Hung himself off a fucking scaffold in one of his father’s building developments!’
‘What a Christmas present,’ replied Lara, taking down the address. ‘Anything else?’
‘There were rumours about him being bounced out of college two years ago and mention of a habit, but maybe you can check them out.’
Lara sighed. She’d give it two hours, three max, as she was cooking a turkey and had invited her parents and her sister to Christmas dinner.
Pulling on her clothes, she raced outside. The pavement was so icy she nearly slipped as she walked to her car, blasting the Harris kid for ruining her day.
Martha made the best of that first Christmas on their own, driving over on Christmas Eve with the kids to meet Evie and Frank at the midnight mass at St John’s. The hymns and the simple crib moved her.
Paul and Sue Lucas had invited her and some neighbours for a festive drink on Christmas morning, young Timmy proudly displaying his new bike. Martha was amazed by the power of the human body and spirit to recover as she watched him cycle crazily on the snowy paths outside.
She put extra effort into decorating the house and cooking and felt glad when Mike accepted her invitation to join them for the Christmas meal. Alice, Mary Rose, Patrick and she did their utmost to pretend that nothing had changed, but it hurt when Mike made his excuses as soon as they’d finished eating about having to go and meet some friends. Martha tried to laugh it off and pretend to the children that it didn’t matter, but she knew deep inside that it really did.
The next day Jack and Annie insisted she come over to their place to join Sean and Carrie and her mother and all the cousins. When the news of Joshua Harris’s suicide made the local evening news, Martha wept but felt comforted in having her own family around.