‘Mrs Kelk, of course.’
‘Not Frances Wingate.’
‘No, Charlie.’
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‘Not Edward Randle.’
‘No. I told them all not to come. All our friends. It’s what you said you wanted. I asked them to stav awav until you felt like seeing people.’
‘So Frances hasn’t been.’
‘I’ve told you.’
‘And no one else.’
‘No.’
Charlotte lit another cigarette, pouting her lips to suck on it and narrowing her eyes.
‘I don’t know why I ever trusted you,’ she said.
‘Why do we have to do this now, Charlie?’
‘While I’ve been lying there,’ she said, ‘I’ve been thinking. You’re not completely unconscious, you know, when you’re sedated. Your mind keeps working. And without any distractions, you seem to see things more clearly. All the memories came back
J O J
to me. All the memories of Laura.’
She walked to the cabinet, and her groping fingers found the empty frame again among the photographs.
‘When will they let us have the photo of her back?’
‘I’ll ask,’ said Graham.
‘I need to get back whatever I can of her.’
O
‘I understand.’
Charlotte turned towards him, tears glittering in her eves,
O O ‘
anger twisting her mouth into an ugly shape.
‘I blame you, you know, Graham. Do you realize that? When I think about … everything. All this. I’ve lost my little girl,
^ O ^ O ‘
and now they’re taking away my memories of her. How could
J O J
you let it happen?’
Graham moved to put his arms round her when he saw the tears, but she pushed him away roughly.
‘Keep away from me. How can you think about it at a time like this? You’re an animal.’
‘I wasn’t, Charlie. I wasn’t.’
‘Laura told me everything,’ she insisted desperately. ‘She didn’t keep secrets from me.’
The phone was ringing. Graham moved to answer, then changed his mind and left it. The answering machine switched
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in. It would be another client, anxiously wondering what was happening. When wuuld Graham be back in operation? When could they expect him to be at their beck and call again? He didn’t resent them. Their businesses had to go on. even if Vernon’s
o ‘
didn’t. Graham thought for a moment of passing everything
o r o j o
on to Andrew Milner, letting him take all the responsibility permanently. But he dismissed the thought as soon as it came. He would be back in harness soon enough — surely it wouldn’t take the police too long to sort things out, to come up with someone they could charge. As long as he could stop Daniel from stirring up trouble.
‘We have to hold together somehow, Charlie. Will you talk to Daniel?’
She raised her head, dabbing at her eyes. They both listened for the sounds of their son, heavy-footed on the stairs, getting ready to go out. But she answered with another question.
‘There isn’t anything that I don’t know, is there, Graham?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘About Laura. 1 need to know exactly what happened, and why. Are there things that you’re keeping from me?’
Graham saw that something important depended on his answer. Should he tell the truth, or was it a lie that his wife wanted to hear? He thought of the sort of information that Tailby and his team might already be collecting — details that could shatter even Charlotte’s illusions about their daughter. The direction of Tailby’s questions about Lee Sherratt, and even about Daniel, had made that possibility clear. And who would Charlotte blame for that? She
