Chapter 45

Flynn saw her sitting on the steps outside the ER, white-faced and immobile with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. When he’d taken her call, she’d asked him to come, saying only in a voice that was barely recognizable, “It’s James, something awful’s happened.”

He pulled up away from the ambulances and jumped out of the car. Lara rose to her feet and made her way woodenly across the tarmac toward him.

“He’s dead.” She was dry-eyed, too shocked to cry. “Oh God, I can’t believe it. James is gone. He just… died.”

Flynn took her in his arms. James might have turned out not to be her father but getting to know him had meant the world to Lara. The connection between the two of them had been instantaneous. His heart went out to her.

“Come on, let’s get you home.” He gently led Lara back to the car; she was walking like an automaton.

“The table’s booked at the restaurant.” Her teeth were chattering. “We’re all supposed to be meeting there at eight.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll sort that out.” Flynn helped her into the passenger seat. “I’ll take care of everything.”

“Sorry. Being a nuisance again.”

Only someone in such a state of shock could come out with a statement like that. Bending down, he kissed the top of her head. “Put your seat belt on.”

“Oh God, and James’s car. It’s still there outside the park. We only paid for two hours.” Lara turned to him, her tone fretful. “He’ll have got a ticket by now. What happens if it’s towed away?”

“It’s all right. Leave it to me. Have his next of kin been informed?”

“The police are doing that now.” She was twisting her fingers together in her lap. “We were having such a nice time. We went to see Janice and Joan, gave them the DNA results. Then in the park afterward we were just walking and talking about… well, loads of different things. I’d been making him laugh, telling him about the time Gigi thought her new Spiderman pajamas gave her superpowers and she jumped out of a tree. Then, a minute or so later, he collapsed. Without even any warning. He was just lying in the leaves and I couldn’t find a pulse and this jogger came along who was a doctor, so we were trying to get his heart going again, keep him alive… then the ambulance arrived and they used defibrillators and injections and everything they could. It went on for ages but nothing worked. He’d gone.” Lara took a couple of deep shuddery breaths. “And we hadn’t been walking up steep hills or anything, so it wasn’t that. I just keep thinking it must have been me that caused it, making him laugh.”

***

It hadn’t been her fault, needless to say. Lara knew that now. The post-mortem had revealed a catastrophic brain hemorrhage as a result of an aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel, bursting inside his head. The berry-shaped aneurysm had been there for years evidently, lurking like a time bomb; it could have happened at any moment. Telling James funny stories, the doctor had assured her, definitely hadn’t caused the hemorrhage.

“Making people laugh is a good thing,” he’d added. “I can’t think of a nicer way to go.”