lie had sacked Lee Sherratt. The second gardener they had lost that year.
‘No, of course not, Charlie.’
She accepted his word. ‘And the boy, Lee?’
Graham said nothing. He closed the abandoned novel, slipping a soft leather bookmark between the pages. He collected the book and the half-full glass of Bacardi from the table. The sun had almost gone from their part of the valley now. But the jagged shapes of the Witches were bathed in a dull red light that was streaked with black runnels where the rocky gulleys were in shadow.
‘What about him, Graham? What about the boy?’
He knew Charlotte still thought of Laura as pure and innocent. It was the way she would think of her daughter for ever. But Graham had begun to see her with different eyes. And the boy? The boy had already been punished. Punished for not dancing to the tune that Laura had played. Lee Sherratt had been too stubborn to play the game — but of course, he had been busy playing other games by then. And so Graham had sacked him. It was what Laura had wanted.
‘The police have spoken to him. He told them he hasn’t seen Laura for days.”
‘Do you believe that?’
He shrugged. ‘Who knows what to believe just now?’
‘I want to speak to him. I want to ask him myself. Make him tell the truth.’
‘I don’t think that would be a good idea, Charlie. Leave it to the police.’
‘They know about him, don’t they?’
‘Of course. They’ve got him on their records anyway. Over that stolen car.’
‘What?’
‘You remember. The car that was taken from the car park at
IS
the top of the cliff. It belonged to some German people. Laura told us about it.’
‘Did she?’ said Charlotte vaguely.
At last she allowed him to lead her back into the room, where she began to touch familiar objects — a cushion, the back of a chair cover, the piano stool, a series of gilt-framed photographs in a cabinet. She opened her handbag, touched up her lipstick and lit another cigarette.
‘Who else is supposed to be coming tomorrow night?’ she said.
‘The Wingates. Paddy and Frances. And they’re bringing some friends of theirs from Totley. Apparently, they’re building up a big computer business, installing systems in Doncaster and Rotherham. Paddy says they’ve got a really good future. They’d make an ideal account, but I need to get in quickly and make the contact.’
‘I’d better see to the food then.’
‘Good girl.’
As she turned towards Graham now, her eyes showed no sign of any tears. Graham was glad — she was not a woman given to tears, and he would not have known how to deal with it. Instead, she fiddled with the front of her wrap, letting him glimpse her brown thighs and the gentle slope of her belly above the edge of her bikini briefs.
‘You like Frances, don’t you?’ she said.
Graham grinned, recognizing the opening. ‘Not as much as I like you, Charlie.’
He took a step towards her, but she turned suddenly and picked up one of the photograph frames from the cabinet and began to stroke its edges.
‘Won’t you go and see the Sherratt boy, Graham? To help get Laura back.’
o
‘Leave it for now, Charlie.’ ‘Why?’
‘Because the police will find her.’ ‘Will they, Graham?’
The photograph frame she was holding was bare and empty. The picture had been given to the police to enable them to
16
identify Laura when they found her. Graham took the frame from her and replaced it in the cabinet. ‘Of course they will,’ he said.
The old woman’s burst of anger was over, but her thin hands still jerked and spasmed on the floral-patterned arms of her chair. Helen watched her until she was calm, and pulled her cardigan closer round her shoulders from where it had slipped.
‘I’ll put the kettle on, Grandma.’
‘If you like.’
‘Do you want your Special Blend?’
‘The bags‘11 do. But make sure you put an extra one in the pot. You know how I like it.’
Helen stood at the narrow window of the kitchen of Dial Cottage while she waited for the kettle to boil. The electrical
o
appliances that her father had bought for his parents-in-law left hardly any room in the kitchen to turn round. There was certainly not enough space for two people between the cooker and the oversized pine table crammed in lengthwise to the sink.
