Mum went away on a shoot for a week. Usually the times she was away passed quickly, but this time Katie went down with a sore throat, so I was tied to the house more than normal. The heat added to Katie’s misery and she cried if I left her even for a short time. I bought several electric fans and plugged them around the house in a vain attempt to circulate some air. Placing bowls of ice in front of the fans helped, but only slightly. I would have given a lot for air-conditioning, but it wasn’t something we could afford to have installed. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and Katie, and do the best I could. Poor Katie had only wanted to eat ice cream and drink orange juice for several days and all of us were thoroughly sick of the heat.
When she was feeling a little better, I rummaged around in the basement and found an old blow-up paddling pool. Leo cleaned it, setting it up for me in the shadiest part of the garden under the large pear tree. After a little encouragement, Ashley nervously stepped into the water and eventually, having watched Katie pretending to swim for a few minutes, joined her.
Both girls spent hours staying cool despite the heat of the day, by wallowing in the water and it was a relief that Katie had cheered up.
Apart from the occasional topping up from buckets filled at the outside tap to keep the water cool, all we had to do was watch them and fan ourselves and I looked forward to her returning to pre-school, so that I could get on with my work at the studio.
‘This heat is exhausting,’ Dee moaned one morning. ‘If we don’t get some rain soon I’m going to go mad with this hay fever, it’s getting worse every day.’ She sneezed as she reached the kitchen door, as if to make her point.
Later that day, I left Katie with Dee and Ashley and walked to the small corner shop at the end of our road to buy some sweets for the girls. I hadn’t been back since losing my temper about Henri, but wasn’t in the mood to walk far in the oppressive heat.
‘Ahh, Sera,’ said the shopkeeper, as if nothing had ever happened. ‘You’ve heard the news?’
‘No,’ I said, not sure to what news she was referring.
‘About the tenant. The one at the farm?’
I nodded eager for her to continue, not wishing her to see how anxious her comment made me, but realising she hadn’t forgotten my last visit to her shop. I picked up two paper bags and using the small plastic scoop, half-filled them with a mixture of sweets for the girls.
‘He was taken by the police for questioning at the station.’
‘When?’ I asked, unable to hide my panic.
She smirked. ‘Yesterday morning.’ Her delight at my reaction exhausted, she eventually added. ‘They released him in the afternoon.’
Old crone, looking so self-satisfied. Why anyone could glean enjoyment from someone else’s misery I couldn’t imagine. She weighed the sweets I’d selected and twisting the tops of the paper bags, handed them to me, holding out her other wrinkled hand for payment.
‘He’s a good man, you know,’ I said, counting my coins and handing her a couple. ‘Whatever you all might think.’
She closed her fingers over the metal and shook her head, pressing the drawer release on the old till and dropping them inside. She took out my change, checked it and handed to me. ‘Too many changes and too many strangers; everything is different around here now.’
She turned her attention to the ancient fan above her head and switched it to a higher speed. ‘There have been fires reported south of here, too. Did you know that?’ she added.
‘Hopefully we’ll have rain soon, then we won’t have to worry about them here,’ I answered as cheerily as I could manage, desperate to cut short this depressing conversation and leave.
I hurried home to deliver the sweets. Having received Dee’s assurance that I could give Ashley some, I called both girls into the kitchen.
‘Here you go,’ I said, handing out a bag to each of the delighted little girls. They ran to play upstairs.
I went to find Mum, who’d got back the night before, to ask her to look after Katie while I paid Henri a visit to find out why he had been arrested. The doorbell rang.
‘Dammit. I’ll get that,’ I shouted, hurrying to the front door and pulling it open. Two policemen stood, grim-faced on the doorstep. Recovering from my shock at seeing them there, I opened my mouth to speak. ‘Can I help you?’ They explained that they wished to ask Leo and Dee some questions. ‘Why? What about?’ This was ridiculous, first Henri getting questioned and now Leo and Dee? Surely the two enquiries couldn’t be connected? Could they?
‘We’re unable to discuss this with anyone but the people involved,’ one informed me. ‘Now, if you’d take us to them?’
‘Yes,’ I said, stepping back to give them space to enter the hallway. ‘Please, come this way.’
I showed them to the living room. It was stifling in there. For some reason neither Mum nor I had remembered to open the double doors onto the balcony overlooking the garden. As I did so, I heard something drop behind me and noticed Dee standing at the doorway an open book at her feet.
‘What are they doing here?’ she murmured, the colour disappearing from her face.
I wished I could have given her warning. ‘They want to speak to you and Leo. Is he in?’
She stared at the policemen. ‘What? Um, outside maybe?’ She stepped towards the door. ‘I’ll go and look for him.’
‘No.’ The taller of the two men stepped in front of her. He nodded in my direction. ‘You. Please go and fetch him.’
I gave Dee a reassuring smile. She had been slightly calmer and more relaxed lately and it irked me that these visitors could change that. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ I promised her. ‘I’m sure this won’t take long.’
She sat, her back straight as she picked at the skin on the side of her thumb.
I rushed out of the room, aware that I could have no idea how long their questions would take, or even why they wished to ask Leo and Dee anything. Reaching the back door, I ran down the stairs to the garden.
‘Where’s Leo?’ I asked Mum, who was standing by the peach tree with Paul. She had a script in one hand with the other in the air, her fist clasped as if holding a dagger. Paul was holding his own script and grabbed her by the throat with his free hand. ‘Two policemen are here,’ I shouted as I neared them. Paul dropped his hand immediately. It would have been funny on another occasion. ‘They want to speak to him and Dee about something.’
Mum turned to me, her legs almost giving way. Paul caught her and led her to a nearby seat. ‘You okay, Mimi?’ he asked. ‘Blimey, it’s not as if they want to speak to you.’
I did my best not to give him a mouthful. Why was he so useless in a crisis? Mum wasn’t someone who liked to cause a scene, or show any weakness, so her reaction confused me. I walked over to her seat and knelt on the grass next to it. ‘You okay, Mum?’
‘Yes, yes,’ she snapped. ‘It’s the heat. We’ve been out here too long, and it’s got to me. Stop making a fuss.’ She waved me away like an annoying wasp.
I stood up, knowing to leave her alone. ‘Do you know where I can find Leo?’ I asked, picturing Dee’s anxiety at being left alone with the police.
The sound of the front door slamming against the hall wall made me and Mum jump. ‘What the—?’
‘Dee,’ I heard Leo shout. ‘Where the hell are you?’
I ran up the back steps and into the house.
‘Why are the police here?’ he demanded, his face red with fury. ‘And where’s my sister and niece?’
‘Dee’s in the living room,’ I said, assuming he must have seen the police car parked outside the front of the house to be so annoyed. I noticed the living-room door was closed, certain I’d left it open earlier. ‘They’re only here to ask you both a few questions, though I’ve no idea what about. Do you know?’
He shook his head.
‘I think Ashley’s upstairs with Katie. I’ll keep her away, don’t worry.’
He took a deep breath. ‘I don’t mean to act like a lunatic, but Dee’s too fragile to be left alone with them.’
I agreed and watched him go. When he’d closed the door I leant in closer, but was only able to hear muffled voices and the occasional snippet about the dead body at the farm. Why would they be asking Dee and Leo about that? I lived nearby and would have more reason to be involved in any questioning than two people who hadn’t lived here for fifteen years.
I heard crying and Leo was, as usual, doing his best to comfort his sister. I remembered Ashley and went up to her room to check on her.
Opening the door quietly, I watched as she hummed to the teddy Katie had given her. She seemed fine, so I crept back out and closed the door after me, not wishing her to hear the commotion downstairs. I wanted to find out if the police were intending staying much longer. I didn’t think the strained atmosphere was healthy for the little girl.
I went to check on Katie. She was lying on top of her bed brushing her doll’s hair. ‘Ashley wants her mummy,’ she said when I crouched down to straighten her doll’s skirt.
I stroked her face. ‘She’ll be fine, sweetheart, you mustn’t worry. Why don’t you ask her to come and play in your room?’
Satisfied they hadn’t been disturbed by the latest goings-on in the house, I went back outside to see if Mum was feeling better. She and Paul were continuing with their rehearsal as if nothing had happened. It was as if I’d imagined her reaction minutes earlier.
I wished she didn’t feel the need to always appear strong in front of me. She had once told me when I had asked where my father was, that she was both mother and father to me. I presumed that she felt it was her duty, therefore, to always hide her fears from me. Unfortunately, it also meant that she kept her innermost thoughts and emotions from me, too. I knew she found my openness difficult to cope with at times and must question why I hadn’t absorbed more of the reserved side of her nature. It occurred to me that she might have a more secretive side that I hadn’t noticed before. I pushed the thought away and instead tried to picture what my father must have been like for me to be so different to her.
I noticed her looking reflective. ‘You okay, Mum?’ I asked, trying not to let her see how much it had upset me to see her get such a fright. ‘Do you need me to do anything for you?’
She gave me her best actress smile. ‘Darling, don’t I look perfectly fine?’
‘That’s the point of my question, how do I know when I’m looking at the real you?’ I teased.
‘That’s not funny, Seraphina,’ she glared at me. Her large eyes darkened. I couldn’t think why she was taking my silly joke so badly.
‘Hey, relax. I was only messing about,’ I said. When she didn’t look like she was going to calm down, I added. ‘You know that, surely?’
She stared at me for a little longer. I could almost see her thoughts clambering through her mind. She glanced up at the living-room window where Leo and Dee were still ensconced with the two police officers and then back at me.
‘What can the police want with those two?’
‘I’ve no idea. I did ask Leo, but he didn’t know either.’
I made sure Mum was settled and went back into the house, stopping in the hallway. I tried to make out what was being said in the living room, but could only pick up hushed voices.
Impatient to discover the cause behind the visit, I checked on Katie and Ashley again.
‘Hey, girls.’ I opened Katie’s door to her completely pink bedroom. ‘Everything okay?’
Katie held up a ragdoll that Mum had bought her when she was very small and said, ‘Ashley doesn’t have any dolls.’ When I looked concerned at this snippet of information, she nudged Ashley. ‘Do you, Ashley?’
The little girl stared silently at me for a second and then shook her head slowly. She almost seemed guilty, as if she was betraying a secret.
‘Are the police speaking with Leo and Ashley’s mummy?’
I crouched down next to Katie. ‘Have you been downstairs?’
Ashley looked terrified. Sorry to have frightened her, I cupped her chin and smiled. ‘It’s okay,’ I said in what I hoped was a soothing voice. ‘I won’t tell anyone.’ I looked down at Katie. ‘You should probably keep this a secret, too. Okay?’
She nodded her head vigorously. ‘Yes, Mummy.’ She put an arm around Ashley’s skinny shoulders. ‘Are they telling them off?’
‘Don’t be silly, Katie.’
The contrast in these children was remarkable. Katie with her bubbly character, golden-tanned skin and pudgy arm, next to Ashley’s almost translucent skin. I would have hugged Ashley if I didn’t suspect doing so would terrify her. I wondered when her birthday might be, and if maybe Katie and I could buy her a doll then without offending Dee.
Not knowing what to do with myself, I walked slowly from room to room checking all the windows were open. The lack of breeze through the house, despite the fans and all the downstairs windows being open, left the place with an oppressive air about it.
The sun streamed into my bedroom. I ran my hand over the thick layers of white paint on the wooden shutters and pulled them closed to keep in as much shade as possible before crossing the landing to go up the stairs to the attic to Dee’s and Leo’s bedrooms.
Entering Leo’s room at the front of the house, I opened his window and pulled the small single shutter closed. Nothing was out of place. I could see his rucksack on top of the wardrobe. There wasn’t a crease on his bed sheets or pillow. Next to his bed a single book lay beside a carafe of water, its lid a clean glass resting upside down, both of them joined by a plain lamp on the oak bedside table. I smiled at the simplicity of the room and turned to leave. Leo’s beige linen jacket was placed neatly on a wooden hanger on the back of the door. It moved slowly side to side from the jolting of me opening the door.
Where had he been all these years? I wondered where the rest of his things must be and where his home had been. In France like Dee? He must miss his personal effects; I know I would if I had to be away from everything for long. I didn’t own much, but my photos and books were precious to me, as were an overnight case crammed with Katie’s baby clothes, and drawings she had done for me at pre-school.
I entered the larger attic room. This was another sight entirely. Clothes were strewn on every surface, including the floor. I hadn’t realised Dee had managed to fit so many items in her bag. Ashley’s bed, on the other hand, was roughly made, but tidy. It seemed odd for such a little girl to take pride in her bed. The teddy Katie had given her was resting against her pillow. Tears welled in my eyes, blurring the vision in front of me. I wanted to look after her. Teach her to be a little girl and not spend her time worrying so much.
Remembering what I’d come up here for, I hurried over to the two square windows and opened them, pushing them as far out as I could before closing the shutters. This room above all the others needed fresh, clean air to waft through it, blowing away the tension. Even though it wasn’t my room, I couldn’t help hanging up and folding away Dee’s T-shirts and straightening her bedclothes. I heard the front door slam.
Leaving the bedroom, I ran down the stairs as Dee ran up them. ‘She’s in Katie’s room,’ I said before she had time to ask her daughter’s whereabouts.
‘Thanks,’ she said, giving me a smile. ‘I need to give her a cuddle. She always makes me feel better when she hugs me.’
I smiled, understanding her sentiment. I followed her.
‘What did the police want with you both?’
She hugged the silent child tightly without speaking for a few seconds. I was about to repeat my question, when she answered. ‘They’ve been questioning Henri, did you know that?’
‘I was told earlier at the shop.’ I was surprised that she seemed more self-assured after being questioned than she had before. ‘The police told you that?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘Leo was told by someone in the village. The police wanted to know anything he and I could tell them about the farm.’ She lowered her voice, which was pointless as she was still holding Ashley. ‘They’re trying to identify the burnt body.’
‘But what could you possibly tell them?’ It didn’t make sense.
She let go of Ashley, stroked her hair and followed me downstairs. ‘That’s what Leo repeatedly said to them. We haven’t lived there for years. How the hell could we know who it was?’
She had a point.
I decided to spend some time by myself and met Leo in the kitchen on my way to the cellar.
‘How are you?’ I asked although he seemed perfectly fine as he poured himself a coffee.
‘Bloody cops. I don’t know why they don’t focus on the job in hand rather than picking on innocent people.’
‘They’re probably just following a line of enquiry,’ I said, repeating something I’d heard on one of the detective shows on television, not really sure what it meant. ‘You both did live there, so maybe they’re speaking to you to be certain they haven’t missed anything?’
‘It did seem that way. I heard them mention Henri on their way out.’
I stiffened, not wishing to show him my concern. ‘What did they say?’
‘I have no idea, they wouldn’t elaborate when I asked them.’
I shivered, crossing my arms in front of my chest. ‘I doubt Henri has anything to do with it.’
He stared at me silently for a few seconds before shaking his head. ‘You don’t know that, Sera. For all you know, the three of us could be involved in some way.’
My mouth opened as I tried to find an answer to his shocking statement.
Leo laughed and nudged me. ‘Don’t look so horrified. I was joking. Of course none of us are involved. How could we be?’
Leo could be bloody annoying sometimes. Irritated, I left him to go to the cellar and lose myself in my work. I reached up and, lifting the small hook I’d fixed onto the door out of Katie’s reach, went inside and turned on the Bakelite light switch. I walked into the huge cavernous room.
I began sorting through the signs. My arms ached in the dim, room after moving so many of them into two rows. It didn’t matter how I tried to focus on what I was doing, I couldn’t stop thinking about how my small family’s lives had changed since Dee and Leo’s arrival. I rested my hands on my waist and arched my back to try and ease it. Spotting the plait of garlic hanging from the hook nearby, I was reminded of Henri. At least the police had released him. I hoped he was okay. I wasn’t sure if he avoiding me, though? And if he was, why? I realised nothing made sense any more. It hadn’t made sense for some time.