Hiding in Plain Sight

by Susan Lewis

  However, there were times when she, Andee, had been cruel to Penny, either not wanting to share something with her, or take her to wherever she was going, or help her to look pretty. Teenage behaviour that she was ashamed of now.

  ‘I want to look just like you,’ Penny used to beg, ‘then everyone will like me too.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Andee had snapped. ‘It’s not about looks, it’s about personality and you just don’t have one.’

  The dreadful things she’d said to her, and she couldn’t remember now how Penny had reacted, but she must have been hurt, who wouldn’t be when spoken to like that?

  ‘Will you teach me to dance the way you do?’ Penny had asked.

  ‘I don’t have time, now get out of my way.’

  ‘Have you kissed a boy yet?’

  ‘It’s none of your business.’

  ‘I have.’

  ‘Don’t lie, you’re only thirteen.’

  ‘What’s that got to do with it?’

  Andee couldn’t think why that particular conversation had come back to her now; she had no recall of being especially intrigued at the time. It was the kind of thing Penny used to say to make herself seem more interesting or mysterious without, Andee had assumed, a shred of reality behind it.

  Yet according to their mother Penny had actually been sleeping with men at that age. It was what she’d wanted, Maureen had claimed.

  Closing her eyes, Andee held her face up to the feathery rain, feeling the dampness in her hair, seeping between her toes and covering her hands. Was it loneliness that had driven Penny to be the way she was, a terrible certainty that her older sister was the favourite and that she wasn’t wanted at all?

  It didn’t excuse what she’d done to their parents; nothing would ever excuse that.

  ‘I’ve found something out that you don’t know,’ she’d told Andee not long before she’d disappeared.

  ‘Good for you.’

  ‘Don’t you want to know what it is?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘It’s about Mum’s brother, Uncle John.’

  ‘Sorry, couldn’t care less.’

  She’d assumed at the time that Penny was about to make something up, or maybe she’d been through their mother’s letters and found some old scandal. Whatever, Andee genuinely hadn’t been interested. Was that, insignificant as it had seemed at the time, what had finally prompted Penny to go?

  She’d said it was her decision.

  And what then?

  Had she wanted to come back at any time but John Victor had refused to let her? Or had she been happy to stay with him?

  John Victor Jr.

  Andee’s insides churned at the unthinkable suggestion.

  With all her heart she wished she could speak to her father right now.

  What had really happened back then?

  Had he found Penny and walked away?

  What clues was she, Andee, missing now?

  What did Penny want?

  The only person who could answer her questions was Penny, but with the way things were Andee felt no confidence in receiving straight, or even truthful answers. Penny simply wasn’t the kind of woman Andee had imagined her growing into; she wasn’t someone Andee could feel any sort of affinity with at all. It would appear that, behind the sophisticated, friendly front she so effortlessly put on there was something deeply disturbed and malicious about her sister. Why else would she have reminded their mother about the fate of Smoky the kitten? What had been the point of that? What was she getting from it? And why make her decision to leave, and all the heartbreak she’d caused, sound as though it wasn’t something that had remotely worried her? She must have known how hurtful that would be for her mother, though it didn’t come close to how Maureen would feel were she to be told who’d fathered her grandson.

  ‘Talk about being careful of what you wish for,’ she said to Graeme as she drove back into town. ‘All these years I used to dream about how wonderful it would be if she came back into our lives, and now here she is and I can’t help wishing …’ She didn’t finish the sentence, he knew what she was saying.

  ‘What have you decided to tell your mother about John Victor Jr?’ he asked carefully.

  ‘Nothing at the moment, but I guess I’ll have to at some point, or there’s a good chance Penny will. Do you think she’s done it this way to set me the challenge of telling Mum?’

  ‘If it’s true, then given how she’s operated so far, I’d say it’s possible she wants you to do it for her.’

  ‘Because it would churn my stomach, and once I’ve told my mother Penny’s as likely to deny it, or say I misunderstood, or he isn’t her son at all, meaning she’ll have caused a lot of stress and upset for no good reason other than to give herself some sort of perverse pleasure.’

  But what if she wasn’t lying, and she really had had a son with her own uncle?

  Slowing as she descended the hill to pass Hope Cove and the Mermaid pub, she said, ‘I want to tell her not to bother us any more, that we’re not interested in playing her games or finding out any more about her, but even if I did I can’t imagine she’s going to give up until she’s achieved whatever she’s come back for.’

  ‘Which frankly is causing me some concern,’ he said darkly. ‘What are you doing now?’

  ‘I’m on my way home. When I get there I’ll contact Gerry Trowbridge to set up a time to go and see him, then I’m going to read the inquest report on John Victor.’ Checking to see who was calling, she said, ‘I have to ring off now, but I’ll call again later if you’re going to be around.’

  ‘Dinner with Nadia,’ he replied, sounding fed up about it, ‘so I’ll call you when I get back to the villa.’

  Sorely wishing she was still in Provence with him, Andee clicked on to the incoming call saying, ‘Hi darling, how’re things?’

  ‘Hey Mum. I’m cool,’ Alayna replied. ‘Did you see the baby rhino? She’s soooo sweet. Oh my God, I wish we could adopt her. I think we should.’

  ‘I’m sure it can be arranged.’

  ‘Let’s do it. Anyway, you need to check your phone because apart from Hermione – that’s what we’re calling the rhino – you’ll find pictures of me in three different outfits. I so need you to tell me which I look the best in.’

  ‘Is it for something special?’

  ‘I’ve only got a date with this guy who’s the hottest, most ripped, most amazing, coolest dude in town. I’m so excited, but I can’t make up my mind what to wear. Sophie says it should be the white lacy top with peppermint jeans; Sanako reckons I look best in the yellow dress with daisies all over and Tamsin’s going for the kind of grungy-looking string thingy over the red slip with the Roman sandals you got me the last time you were here. Can you look at them now?’

  ‘I’m driving, but I will as soon as I get home. Actually, if you have the time you could do me a favour.’

  ‘I never have time, but shoot.’

  ‘I’m trying to find someone who we believe is staying at a hotel on Buckingham Palace Road in London. If you can get me names of all the hotels with that address, and their phone numbers, that would be great.’

  ‘I can do better than that if you give me the name of the person we’re looking for.’

  Loving how she’d immediately jumped on board, while aware that she couldn’t give Alayna her own name or Penny’s, Andee said, ‘She has several aliases, but let’s start with Michelle Cross.’

  ‘Got it. When do you need it by?’

  ‘Before you go on your date?’

  ‘No probs. Got to go now, love you,’ and she was gone.

  By the following morning Andee had read through the inquest report on John Victor’s death and left a message for Gerry Trowbridge to call her back as soon as he could. She’d also received an email from Penny, using the name Michelle Cross, asking if she’d met John Jr yet.

  Andee hadn’t replied.

  Let Penny think she’d been spammed, or ignored, either would do. A dis
cussion about the boy and all it could entail wasn’t one to have via email. She wasn’t even going to bother wondering how Penny had got her email address.

  She looked across at her mother as Maureen put aside the inquest report.

  ‘Did it tell you anything you didn’t already know?’ Andee asked.

  Maureen shook her head. ‘Not really.’

  Having expected as much, Andee said, ‘For me one of the most interesting parts is the statement from the neighbour, Alison Brown. Did you know he was living in Shepherd Market up until the time he died?’

  ‘We found out after. Until then we didn’t know where he was.’

  Andee reached for the report and turned to the part that had caught her attention. ‘“He was really upset about something during the weeks before he disappeared,”’ she read aloud. ‘“He wouldn’t tell me what it was … I assumed he’d got into some sort of trouble over money again – he was always owing money to someone – but he said that for once it wasn’t that. He was definitely on edge. He kept checking to see if anyone was outside. He thought someone was watching him, and a couple of times he said, ‘I saw her, I know she’s out there.’ Then he said, ‘She wanted me to see her. She’s doing this to freak me out.’

  ‘“Did he ever say who this person was?”

  ‘“No, but it was definitely a she.”

  ‘“And you personally have no idea who ‘she’ was or what she might want?”

  ‘“He said once, ‘It’s about the kids.’”

  ‘“Kids?”

  ‘“That’s all he said. I asked him what he meant, but he wouldn’t tell me. He said, ‘It’s best you don’t know or you’ll be involved too and you really don’t want that.’”

  ‘“Did anything else happen during that time to concern you?”

  ‘“Well, he kind of stopped going out and there was one time when he said, ‘If anything happens to me, tell them it wasn’t my fault.’”

  ‘“What did you understand from that?”

  ‘“I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I guess he might have meant the people he owed money to, or someone he’d hurt in some way. For all I know he could have been talking about the police.”’

  Andee lowered the report and looked at her mother.

  Maureen’s face showed the strain she was feeling.

  ‘So who was “she”?’ Andee asked. ‘This person he thought was stalking him.’

  Hoarsely, Maureen said, ‘You’re thinking it was Penny.’

  ‘It’s possible. And who are the kids he mentioned?’ Since neither of them could answer that, she went back to the report. ‘The last time Alison Brown saw him was about a week before his body was found. She says he was getting into a car outside their building with a man who looked to be around fifty. He was tall, distinguished-looking, with white hair and wearing a long dark coat and round glasses. She didn’t think JV was being forced, and she didn’t see any sign of a woman.’

  After a while, Maureen said, ‘So what does that tell us?’

  ‘Nothing on the face of it, but it’ll be one reason why the verdict was open, because the man has never been traced. The other reason is that no one has been able to say why John Victor was in West Wales or give any insight into how he got there.’ She read again. ‘The police searched the clifftops for signs of a struggle, but with so much foot traffic in the area and bad weather at the time the findings were inconclusive.’

  Maureen swallowed dryly. ‘Do you think he was murdered?’

  ‘Well, given that there was no suicide note or any evidence of him being suicidal at that time …’ She broke off as Maureen’s hands clenched tightly shut and opened again. Her breathing was unsteady; Andee could almost feel her stress building as she got to her feet and went to the window. ‘Do you really think she’s having us watched?’ she asked, peering out at the back garden.

  ‘If she is, it’s unlikely that anyone’s out there,’ Andee replied. ‘But I do think Gould’s right, that we should move down into the town for a while. We can stay at Graeme’s …’

  ‘But what on earth do you think is going to happen? This isn’t making any sense, Andee. Whatever you think is going on, she’s my daughter …’

  ‘That’s who she used to be,’ Andee came in gently. ‘She’s another person now, you’ve seen that for yourself, and until we know …’

  ‘I’m not being pushed out of my own home. Blake and Jenny are just across the way, and the Villiers are right next door. I know he’s deaf, but Susan’s always in and out of the house. If anyone was behaving strangely around here, she’d be sure to spot them and let us know.’

  Thinking of how the most effective form of surveillance was to blend with the environment, Andee said, ‘Well will you at least go and stay with Blake and Jenny if I manage to get a meeting with Gerry Trowbridge?’

  Maureen looked worried. ‘Maybe I should go with you. I don’t like to think of you all alone if you’re being followed.’

  ‘I’ll be fine, I promise. I’m far more worried about how badly this is affecting you.’

  Maureen seemed suddenly annoyed. ‘I need to pull myself together,’ she declared, straightening her back. ‘I don’t know why I’m letting it get to me, and I certainly don’t need to go and hide myself away.’

  Deciding not to argue any more for now, Andee went to give her a hug. ‘Just don’t agree to see Penny without me, OK?’ she said, mindful of how shocking the news about Penny’s son would be should Penny decide to drop in and break it while Andee wasn’t around. ‘Or anyone else come to that,’ she added teasingly.

  ‘You mean no talking to strangers.’

  ‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ and going to check who was calling her mobile she saw it was Alayna and clicked on.

  ‘Sorry I didn’t get back before,’ Alayna stated, ‘bit of a late night last night.’

  ‘How was the date?’

  ‘That’s not until Friday. So you definitely think the third outfit?’

  ‘The grungy thing over a red whatsit with the Greek sandals,’ Andee confirmed.

  ‘Roman, but hey! Brilliant, that’s what I thought too. But that’s not why I’m calling. I’ve just emailed you a list of the hotels on Buckingham Palace Road. There are a bunch of them, but it turns out that someone called Michelle Cross is staying at the Forty One. It looks dead posh, so she must be a bit minted. What’s she supposed to have done?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet,’ Andee hedged. ‘You’ve done brilliantly, thank you. Grandma’s here, have a quick chat with her while I go and see who’s at the door.’

  Thrusting the phone at her mother, and bracing herself for the unexpected caller, Andee closed the hall door behind her and went to answer a second ring on the bell.

  To her amazement a deliveryman was brandishing an enormous bouquet of white flowers, mostly lilies and roses. ‘Someone’s birthday?’ he smiled, handing it over.

  ‘Are you sure these are for us?’ Andee asked, searching for a card.

  ‘Right there,’ he said, pointing. ‘And this is Briar Lodge? Mrs Maureen Lawrence?’

  ‘OK, you’re in the right place. Thanks very much. Do I need to sign?’

  ‘No, you’re good to go,’ and with a cheery wave he returned to his van.

  After closing the door Andee put the flowers on the stairs and tore open the card.

  Dear Mum, I shall be visiting again very soon. Meantime, I hope you like these. Watch out for the roses, we don’t want any blood shed now do we. With love, xxx

  Fighting back a surge of anger, Andee quickly pocketed the note, and would have binned the flowers had there been a way to get them out of the house before her mother saw them. What the hell was Penny doing? Just what kind of message was this? It was intimidating, full of spite, like venom wrapped up in candy. And how were they supposed to react? It was as though they were in some sort of twisted game that only Penny knew the rules to, and only she derived any satisfaction from.

  ‘Oh my goodness,’ Maureen excl
aimed, as Andee carried the bouquet into the kitchen. ‘They’re beautiful. Are they from Graeme?’

  ‘I don’t think so. There doesn’t seem to be a card.’

  Perplexed, Maureen searched amongst the blooms, and finding the cane that had supported the card she said, ‘It must have fallen off in the delivery van. We should call to find out who’s been so generous. Are you sure they had the right address?’

  Without answering Andee plonked the bouquet in the sink and went in search of a vase.

  ‘Oh, they’re from Penny,’ Maureen declared, reading from her phone. ‘Hi Mum, hope you got the surprise I sent. Sorry haven’t been in touch for last few days, but will get there very soon. PS: Watch out for those thorns.’ Maureen looked at Andee, clearly not sure how to react.

  Covering her anger with a shrug, Andee left her mother to sort the flowers while she went upstairs to photograph the card. After texting it to Gould and Leo Johnson, she added the message, What do you think?

  Within minutes she had a reply from Leo. Blood shed? Sorry, but your sister’s starting to creep me out.

  Just after came a text from Gould. I read the inquest report last night. Do you think she might have been involved in death of JV?

  I do, she texted back in spite of having no grounds to go on.

  Have you contacted Gerry Trowbridge yet?

  Waiting for a call back. Why?

  I’ve been hearing things.

  What sort of things?

  Too soon to clarify, but something’s up. Just watch your step.

  ‘OK, that does it, I’m on the next plane back,’ Graeme declared when she updated him later.

  Startled, Andee cried, ‘No, no, you don’t have to do that …’

  ‘Oh, I do. I’ve got no idea – you’ve got no idea – what the hell is going on over there, and I’m not prepared to let you go and see this Gerry Trowbridge alone when Gould himself is telling you to watch your step. What’s that about? To me it’s smacking of some sort of cover-up that might be nearly three decades old, but someone still doesn’t want it out there. Have you set a time with Trowbridge yet?’