It was Liz who answered. ‘Let Jack think on it,’ she said. ‘How long will it be before you leave?’ She had taken a liking to Cyrus. In an odd way, he reminded her of Jack.
‘I’m homesick already,’ he confessed. ‘We’ll be leaving just as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements… a few days, a week at the most, I think.’ His face fell. ‘I never wanted to take my sister home in such sad circumstances.’ But he knew. Right from the moment she revealed she had found Jack, he had a premonition she would not return alive. He momentarily closed his eyes. ‘Unfortunately, Katherine believed she was invincible.’
Jack stiffened. Taking Liz by the arm, he turned and walked briskly away. She was intrigued when he softly giggled, ‘She of all people should know none of us is invincible.’
The two older ones watched as Jack collected his family and hurried them down the stairs. ‘We won’t see him again,’ Cyrus said forlornly.
Maureen shook her head. ‘Ah now, don’t be too sure,’ she declared in her broad Irish accent. ‘Ye’ve offered them a fortune, sure ye have. Yer nephew Jack may not be interested.’ Tapping her nose she smiled at him. ‘But his pretty little wife, and the one named Virginia? These two are another kettle of fish altogether.’
His face brightened. ‘You may be right.’
‘We’ll see, won’t we?’ she said. ‘Now, will ye take a poor old soul for a cup o’ tea and an English muffin? Jaysus! Me feet are killing me!’
As they walked towards the stairs, she chuckled aloud, ‘The bugger may be gone, and let’s hope it’s to a better place, but I swear she’s left me a legacy of her blessed corns.’
On the way to the car park, Lianne and Ginny hung back. Still disturbed by the events of the morning, Lianne was riddled with guilt, unsure as to whether she might have told the truth if the coroner had questioned her. ‘I was wicked not to tell,’ she murmured.
‘No, you weren’t,’ Ginny scolded. ‘You must never tell. What happened is a secret for ever. Between you and me.’
‘And Grandmother.’
Amused, Ginny gazed up at the sky. It was a bright sunny day, unusually warm, yet invigorating. Her dark eyes shone with excitement. ‘All right,’ she conceded, ‘it’s a secret between you, me… and Grandmother.’ Wrapping her arm in Lianne’s she whispered wickedly in her ear, ‘But she’s not likely to tell anyone, is she?’
‘She might haunt you.’
It was a moment before Ginny spoke, and when she did it was with a curious satisfaction. ‘Won’t bother me if she does.’ Shrugging her shoulders, she smiled darkly. ‘I’ve been haunted before.’
There was little said on the journey home. Everyone was obsessed with their own thoughts. Jack was seething inside, hating everything, musing whether he should uproot his family and make a new life somewhere else. It was the last thing he wanted. Yet it might be the answer. He had done it before and found a semblance of peace. Here in Bedfordshire, in that proud old house with Liz and his daughters, he had begun to heal. He wondered if he could do it again. Wondered, over and over until he could hardly think straight.
Liz felt lost. Everything she had cherished was falling apart around her. The only real thing was her love for Jack. Whatever he had done, however much she detested him for deceiving her, she could not deny her love for him. It ran through her every thought, throbbed with the beat of her heart, and flowed with her life blood.
She loved her daughters, but not with such ferocity. If she never saw them again it wouldn’t really matter. With Jack it was different. He was everything to her. She glanced at him now, at his strong hard-set face. She couldn’t even begin to fathom his thoughts. Somewhere deep down, she was afraid. His mother’s death was not the end. In a way, she felt it was only the beginning. But… the beginning of what? If only she knew.
That night she and Jack made love. He didn’t want to. It was she who made all the advances. A little caressing, a tender touch in the right place, a nibble of the ear, and he was like putty in her hands. ‘You’re a witch,’ he murmured as he took her in his arms.
She didn’t argue. If she had to be a witch to turn him on, then that’s what she would do. ‘Don’t use a rubber,’ she whispered. ‘Let’s make love like we used to.’
He was incredulous. ‘Don’t you care if you get pregnant?’
She smiled. In the half-light she looked like a child. ‘That’s the last thing I want,’ she said. ‘It’s just that I need to feel you. Your skin against mine.’
‘Dangerous.’
‘Not if you do what we did before we had the girls.’
‘Withdraw, you mean?’
‘Hmm.’
‘You can never be sure.’
‘Be careful then.’ Opening her legs she drew him to her. It was like the first night they were married. Wild and turbulent. Deep frantic strokes. Long passionate kisses that reached right into her soul. It was young love rekindled, the two of them locked together for all time, shutting out the world and its badness. When it was over, she loved him all the more.
Drained and exhausted, they slept like kittens. Tomorrow might bring its own troubles. Tonight, and for a time at least, they had each other.
‘We’ll have to kill them.’ In the darkness Ginny had entered her sister’s room, and now the two of them were seated on the bed, Lianne propped against her pillow and Ginny lounging across her feet. Her hair was dishevelled. She was naked. In the halo of light from the bedside lamp, she looked half-mad.
Horrified, Lianne pressed her hands over her ears. ‘I won’t listen.’
In a quick vicious movement, Ginny wrenched her hands away. Holding them in her own she pushed her face close. ‘You will listen!’
‘I don’t want you to hurt them.’ Her face was ashen. Tears ran down her face and smudged.
‘You want to be rich, don’t you?’
‘Even if you hurt them, we wouldn’t be rich. Daddy said he would never touch any of Katherine’s money.’
‘You’re stupid!’ Ginny retorted. ‘It doesn’t matter whether he wants it or not. Cyrus said he was putting a lot of money in the bank… in Father’s name. If he and Mother have an accident, the money will legally belong to us.’
‘I don’t want it!’ Cringing, she began sobbing. ‘Leave me alone. Leave me alone or I’ll tell!’
‘Calm down. I’m only fooling.’
‘Honest?’ Her smile was pitiful.
They hugged. Ginny tucked her up in bed. ‘You’re a little fool,’ she chided, ‘thinking I really meant to hurt Mum and Dad.’
‘Sorry.’
‘I should think so.’
‘Goodnight, Ginny.’
‘Goodnight.’
Outside the door she leaned against the wall. ‘You’re all the same,’ she whispered, ‘and I don’t need any of you!’
The two figures seemed like any other couple out for a stroll. The moon was low, the night black as tar. ‘Are you certain we won’t be seen?’ Cyrus was nervous. ‘It wouldn’t do if we were stopped and questioned.’
‘Now, why would anyone stop and question us?’ Maureen gently chided. ‘Sure we’re doing no harm.’
‘But it’s so late.’
‘Pretend we’re lovers,’ she giggled.
Before he could answer, she tugged at his coat sleeve. ‘Here,’ she whispered, dragging him to the side of the bridge, ‘this seems a likely spot. It’ll be deep enough here, I reckon.’
Peeping over the bridge, Cyrus stared down into the waters below. ‘Makes me go cold,’ he shuddered, ‘especially when I know what’s in this bag.’ Holding the valise high for her to see, he glanced about, highly nervous, wanting to do the deed and run from that place. To run and run so he would not have to think about what had brought them here, to the darkest and deepest part of the lake.
‘Throw it over,’ she urged, ‘quickly. Before anyone sees.’
He hesitated. ‘Are you certain all the cuttings are inside?’
‘You have my word on it.’
&n
bsp; ‘I’m not doubting you,’ he assured her, ‘but I know how devious she was. How can you be certain she didn’t have others hidden away?’
‘Because I’ve searched high and low. There are no more. If there had been others, I would have known.’ A fondness crept into her voice. ‘She kept nothing from me.’
He glanced at her then, silently accusing. ‘There was one time,’ he reminded her.
She bowed her head and leaned forward, sagging on the wall like a deflated balloon. ‘Katherine told me everything,’ she answered. ‘I knew when she defied her parents in order to see Jack’s father. I was one of the first to know when she was pregnant with Jack.’ She enjoyed shocking him. ‘Katherine and I had no secrets,’ she taunted, ‘ever!’
‘What if this valise is found?’
‘It won’t be. This is not a tidal river.’
‘We should look inside. Make certain they’re all there.’
Impatient she snatched it from him and swung it high in the air. It smacked the water and was sucked from sight. ‘We don’t need to look inside,’ she told him. ‘Katherine had already put them back the night she collapsed.’ The images were powerful in her memory. ‘There was one jutting out. I crammed it back myself, and the valise has been well hidden since then. No one else has touched it.’
Leaning over the wall he peered down. ‘She should have destroyed them long ago.’
‘She wanted to. They were all she had left.’
‘But why?’
Maureen shrugged. Touching him tenderly on the arm, she murmured, ‘To remind her of her mother. Of what she had done.’
‘Let’s go back.’ He couldn’t bear it here. He had only ever seen those cuttings once, and they were burned on his brain. ‘I don’t ever want us to talk about this,’ he pleaded.
‘We won’t, then,’ she promised. ‘Jack will go his way and we’ll go ours. That’s the way it should be.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Never more so.’ Like Jack, she suspected that Katherine’s death was no accident. One name sprang to mind. Virginia. A name that echoed down the ages.
They stayed a moment, solemn and grieving, as though they had buried something close to their hearts. ‘I couldn’t bear to take them back with us,’ he groaned.
One more moment, while they quietly watched the waters, hoping they would keep their secret. ‘Let’s away,’ Maureen said, and together they crept away, as silently as they had arrived.
The hotel was only a short walk away. When they returned the clerk gave them their keys and wished them a cheery goodnight. But it wasn’t night. It was morning. Yet he understood. Like he said to the porter later, ‘What with the inquest and all, it ain’t surprising the poor sods can’t sleep.’
Maureen was restless. First it was two a.m. then three. And now it was four in the morning. Outside it was still dark. She thought of the case, and the papers in their watery grave. She thought of Katherine and her loneliness was overwhelming.
Softly she crossed the floor. Going to the door that separated her from what had been Katherine’s room, she listened. There was no sound. Slowly, carefully, she turned the knob, opened the door and went in. Except for the thin yellow halo from a night-light, the room was in darkness.
She made no sound as she walked across the room. Nor when she slithered out of her nightgown and climbed in beside him. He stirred, saw her in the half-light and smiled. ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ he whispered. Then he slid his hands down the bed and caressed her. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said.
‘I knew you would,’ she sighed. So she stayed. Until the morning.
On Monday morning, Ginny and Lianne arrived at school, only to find all the pupils already assembling in the hall.
‘Some thief has broken into our science lab,’ the headmistress announced. ‘There will be no biology or science lessons today. Instead, timetables will be altered, and all pupils will report to cookery class.’ There was a loud collective moan. ‘I understand your disappointment,’ she called out, ‘but there has been a great deal of damage, and the police will need to make investigations. It’s likely they may want to talk to some of you as the day progresses. Please give them all the help you can,’ she said, gesturing to a uniformed officer she introduced as Constable Wilson.
A big round-faced man with twinkling eyes, Constable Wilson was a family man. He prided himself on being able to talk to young adults in a way that didn’t get their backs up. ‘Good morning, everyone,’ he began. ‘This is a nasty business. I know how annoyed you must be about having your timetables disrupted.’ He wasn’t too surprised at the little sniggers and the tight grins as everyone sneaked a look at the person next to them. ‘All right,’ he conceded, ‘it may have been a long time ago, but I was a teenager once. And I daresay I wouldn’t have been too worried about missing my science lesson.’
A ripple of laughter told him they were on his side. ‘Your timetable is not all that’s at stake here,’ he explained in a sombre voice. ‘We need to find out who broke into these premises, and we need to find out before he… or she… decides to do it again. I’ll be talking to most of you during the course of the day. I’ll want to know if you saw anything. Overheard anything. Do you know of someone with a grudge?’
The headmistress stepped forward. ‘If you do know anything then you must speak out,’ she insisted. ‘Even the smallest piece of information will be useful. That will be all. Thank you.’ With that she walked briskly across the stage and down the steps. As she made her way out, there was a formidable silence. Once she had left the room, the excited chattering became almost deafening until the deputy angrily called them to attention.
‘Leave the hall one row at a time,’ he ordered. ‘Quietly!’
The front row was made up of prefects and girls who were in their last year before college. Ginny was among them. As always this row was the first to depart the room.
Two rows behind, Lianne kept her eyes on her sister. She had a sneaking suspicion that Ginny might know something about the break-in. As Ginny approached, their eyes met. Ginny was smiling intimately. Nervous and guilty beneath her sister’s probing gaze, Lianne turned away. When she looked again, Ginny was smiling. In the moment before she was lost to sight Ginny dared to wink. It was then that Lianne’s suspicions were confirmed.
The day went quickly. A round of never-ending lessons and lectures. A day when all Lianne wanted to do was go home. Ginny wanted the same. During the lunch break, when the sisters were alone in the dining hall, Lianne asked the question that had been on her mind since assembly: ‘It was you who broke into the school, wasn’t it?’
Ginny was wonderfully coy. ‘What a thing to say.’ She then got up and strode out of the room, leaving Lianne more frustrated than ever.
That evening, the two of them sat at the dinner table with their parents. It was an unpleasant experience; Liz had burned the crust on the shepherd’s pie, and Jack was moody, pensive, toying with his food.
‘Why don’t you say it?’ Liz was on edge. ‘The meal’s ruined. Not fit for pigs.’
‘It’s not the meal,’ he said kindly, ‘it’s me. I’m not hungry, that’s all.’
He lapsed into a deeper silence. She sulked. And there was an atmosphere you could cut with a knife.
The meal ended. Jack insisted on the girls doing the washing up. Liz insisted on doing it herself, and for the next hour, could be heard crashing and banging about in the kitchen.
When eventually she came into the sitting-room, she had a face like thunder, and a temper to match. Switching off the television, she told a disgruntled Ginny, ‘Your father and I have to talk. Alone.’
‘Miserable cow!’ Ginny led the way out of the room and up the stairs. ‘She knew I wanted to watch the James Bond film.’
‘I expect they’ve got a lot to talk about.’
‘I expect they have. He wants rid of his family, and she wants to bring them all together.’ She laughed cruelly. ‘He doesn’t want his mother’s money, a
nd she does.’
‘I think he’s right.’ Lianne wished that none of this had happened. She wished Katherine Louis had never found them.
Ginny shrugged, singing a little as they went along the landing to her room. When she and Lianne were inside she said cruelly, ‘Soon it won’t matter anyway. Because they’ll be with Katherine, and the money will be ours.’
‘I shan’t stay if you talk like that.’ Anxious, Lianne remained by the door.
Smiling sweetly, Ginny threw herself on the bed. ‘I won’t say another word about it,’ she promised. But that was all she could promise. Her plans had not changed.
‘I hope Mum hasn’t forgotten our birthday party.’
‘She hasn’t.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because yesterday I heard them talking about it. You’ll be pleased to know the cake is already made and it’s being kept at the bakery.’
Lianne’s eyes shone. ‘I’d like a peep.’
‘Hmm! That’s because you’re still a baby.’
‘Don’t be stupid! I’m not a baby. I’ll be sixteen on Friday, and anyway, you’re only two years older than me.’
‘And of course I’d forgotten. You’ve got a young man now.’
Lianne blushed. ‘If you mean Dave Martin, I haven’t talked to him since… since… you know.’ She had looked at him though. And he had looked at her. Time and again. At every opportunity. But they hadn’t talked, because she was too embarrassed.
‘I’ve talked to him.’
‘Who? Dave Martin?’ In spite of a rush of anger, she couldn’t help but smile.
‘Who else?’ Languishing on the bed, she rolled over, scrutinising Lianne from upside down. ‘I hadn’t realised how handsome he was,’ she purred. ‘In fact, if you don’t want him, I might even take him myself.’
Lianne visibly bristled. ‘He doesn’t even like you.’
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