After her chase, Emily had decided to confront Caitlyn again about the man. She chose her moment carefully and waited until after dinner, knowing that Caitlyn was generally more easy-going on a full stomach. She helped with the dishes, brought Caitlyn a cup of tea and gave her a minute to settle down and relax. Then she perched on the armchair across from her sister’s, poking her fingers into the holes in the patterned seat cover.
“Caitlyn?”
“Hmm?”
“Please tell me who that man was.”
Annoyance flickered across Caitlyn’s face, smoothed away so quickly that Emily would have missed it if she wasn’t watching so closely. “What man?”
“The man who came to the house the other day. The one who upset you.”
“I already told you. He was nobody and he didn’t upset me.”
The stubborn twist of her mouth was mirrored on Emily’s face. “I saw you through the window. Crying after he left.”
Caitlyn picked up a newspaper and started to leaf through it. The smile she offered Emily was watery and thin. “Sweetheart, we talked about this already. You must have been too far away to see properly. I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t upset. You can keep asking but that’s still going to be the answer.”
“So what was he doing in our house?”
“He was just some random guy doing a survey.”
It was a lie. Emily couldn’t remember Caitlyn lying to her before. Her temper rose, heat flushing up the back of her neck. “He knows my name.”
Caitlyn froze. “He what?”
“He knows my name. He shouted at me, chased me through town. Why would some stranger do that?”
“I don’t know,” said Caitlyn, her voice wavering.
“Stop lying to me!” Emily’s voice was louder than she had expected, ringing round the small living room. Caitlyn’s head jerked as she flinched away from Emily’s shout. She folded her newspaper, tossed it on to the coffee table and stood up.
“I think we’re done talking about this for tonight.”
Emily followed her into the kitchen. “We haven’t even started talking about it. You’re not telling me anything.”
“That’s because I’m handling it.”
“Let me help.”
“I don’t need your help. I need you to stop pushing me all the time.”
“No! I won’t. I want you to tell me what’s going on. I want you to tell me who that man was and why he made you so upset. I want you to tell me when we started having secrets from each other.”
“There are some things you’re too young to understand.”
“I’m not a baby.”
“I’m not saying that you’re a baby.”
“That’s exactly what you’re saying.”
“I’m not, I—” Caitlyn blew out a long, slow breath and rubbed her hands roughly across her face. “I’m just trying to look after you.”
“You don’t have to look after me. Stop pretending that you’re so much more grown-up than I am. You’re not Mum.”
The words landed like a slap. Shame bleached through Emily as the colour drained from Caitlyn’s face. The silence ringing around the room seemed to stretch for hours, days.
Caitlyn turned away and Emily saw her shoulders start to shake. She wiped her eyes fiercely and pushed past Emily out of the room. Emily reached out a hand towards her sister as she passed, but Caitlyn spun and slapped it away.
“Don’t,” she hissed. Her footsteps faded up the stairs and her bedroom door slammed, shaking every window in the house.
Emily stood breathing heavily, shock still hitting her in waves. Why had she said that? She poured herself a cup of cold water and drank hungrily, her teeth chattering against the glass, water spilling down her front.
She knew exactly why she had said it. She had wanted to hurt Caitlyn. She was upset and angry that Caitlyn was keeping a secret, so she had picked the cruellest words she could muster and thrown them with all her strength. She felt sick. She had no idea how she was going to fix this. It was dark outside and the kitchen window showed her reflection in sharp focus. She glared into her own eyes accusingly.
Suddenly she was seized with the uneasy thought that someone could be standing on the other side of the window, cloaked by the darkness, watching her. Sick, irrational panic pooled in her stomach and she flicked the light switch down hard, pitching the kitchen into darkness.
She stared out of the window, letting her eyes adjust and start to make out shapes in the garden outside. A flicker of movement drew her gaze but it was just the bushes blowing in the wind. Suddenly exhausted, she swiped at her eyes and made her way upstairs to bed. If she had been less tired, maybe she would have noticed what might have been a shadow slowly moving through the garden away from her.
Less than a week after their fight, Emily and Caitlyn McCrae disappeared.