As soon as they’d gone, Nellie slumped down on a chair, the necklace clutched in her hand. She lifted the apron to her nose; beneath the usual smell of fried food and cigarettes, she could detect a hint of rose water. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ she whispered. In her mind’s eye, she saw herself outside, Gladys’s head in her lap, her blood soaking the pavement. And glinting at her neck was a gold crucifix.
‘Nellie?’ Jasper came and sat beside her. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I think Gladys is haunting me,’ she whispered, unable to keep it to herself anymore.
When Jasper stared at her in disbelief, she held up the necklace. ‘It’s Gladys’s. Reenie found it in the pocket of the apron, but I swear to God, it weren’t there yesterday. I launder those pinnies every other day.’
Jasper frowned and took it from her, examining it closely. ‘You’re being daft, love. These are two a penny. It could be anyone’s.’
‘Then how did it end up in the apron pocket?’ Nellie said, her voice high and shaky.
Jasper shrugged. ‘There’s bound to be a logical explanation. Maybe one of the customers dropped it and Marianne found it.’
‘She’d have given it to me,’ Nellie said.
‘Maybe she forgot.’
She lifted the apron to her nose again and swallowed back the nausea. ‘She’s haunting me!’ she said again.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Smell it!’ She thrust the apron under Jasper’s nose.
‘It just smells like the café. Cigarettes and cookin’,’ he said, bewildered.
‘Smell it again. It reeks of rose water.’
Obligingly, Jasper held it to his nose again, then shook his head. ‘Look, it’s not that busy. Me and Marianne can manage, so why don’t you have a lie-down, love?’
Nellie stared at him mutely. The last place she wanted to go was her bedroom, but she couldn’t tell him that – nor why.
‘Go on,’ he said gently, nodding towards the stairs.
‘Can you stay with me this afternoon?’ Nellie asked, feeling ridiculous. After all, she wasn’t alone here. Marianne was in the kitchen and Donny was sulking in his room. And no doubt there’d be a few more customers. She stared mournfully through the plastic window, willing people to come in. But as had happened so often over the past weeks, few of them did.
Jasper hesitated a moment. ‘I’ve got something I need to do, but I can come back later.’
‘What you doing?’
‘That’s none of your business, woman.’
She examined his face. ‘Why do you look so shifty?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘Shifty?’ he said with an innocent smile. ‘You know me, Nell, my life is an open book. Give me an hour, all right? I’ll be back soon as I can.’
Nellie nodded wearily and stood up, the necklace clutched in her hand, the sharp edges of the cross digging into her palm.
She went into the kitchen and held it over the bin. For a moment she watched it twirling above the rubbish, the light glinting off it. Gladys had treasured this necklace, she couldn’t just throw it away. So instead, with shaking hands, she fastened it around her neck, tucking it under the collar of her green blouse.
With Nellie out of sight, Jasper surreptitiously sniffed the apron again. Rose water. He hadn’t wanted to lie to Nellie, but he didn’t know what else to do. He knew she was struggling – her scrubbing at the non-existent blood outside made that plain enough. But this sudden belief that she was being haunted meant that she was having a harder time than he’d realised.
There were two explanations: either someone had dropped the necklace and one of the others had found it and put it in the pocket. Or someone had put it there deliberately to scare Nellie – although why, he couldn’t begin to fathom. As for the scent . . . the only person he knew for sure who wore this scent was Gladys – she used to collect rose petals every summer and make gallons of the stuff. But who else had worn this apron? He thought back over the past couple of days and realised that it could only be Marianne or Reenie.
He let out a deep sigh. So, either Gladys was haunting her or someone was causing mischief. And seeing as he didn’t believe in ghosts, his money was on the latter. Was this why Nellie had been so unlike herself recently? Aside from the grief, was someone going out of their way to frighten her? The question was who and why.
Jasper stuffed the apron into his pocket and stood up. Time enough to return to this problem later. For now, he needed to send a telegram. Nellie needed help, and he knew just the person to give it. The problem was, he was pretty sure Nellie wouldn’t agree.