Hannah’s hand flew up to her mouth.
‘No!’ She gasped and shook her head. ‘No, no no…’
‘I’m so sorry. But with anything like this, they need to investigate, just to make sure…’
‘But Uncle Phil? Why? No. He wouldn’t…’ Hannah’s eyes filled with tears and the words came out in gulps. ‘He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t hurt Mum. Say it’s not true?’
I caught Henry’s eye in the mirror and he quickly turned his attention back to the road. Hannah rested her head against the car window and wept softly as the sea came into view.
Rachel was at Mum’s by the time we arrived. Everyone had piled into the living room, with Auntie Sue comforting Rachel as she sobbed. Betsy and Lucas were tear-stained and dazed.
‘Oh my god, Izzy I’m so sorry; I don’t know what to do!’
Rachel crumpled into herself. I wrapped my arms around her as sobs wracked her body.
‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’ I tried to soothe her. ‘We’ll figure this out.’ My head was thumping, the beat of blood loud in my ears. I looked over Rachel’s shoulder at Auntie Sue. ‘Where’s Mum?’ I mouthed. Auntie Sue gestured upwards, and gave me a look that warned me against asking more. Hannah sat down between Lucas and Betsy, pulling the pair of them into a cuddle. Betsy started to sob again.
‘And where’s Mike?’ I asked, aloud this time.
‘We can’t get hold of him,’ said Rachel, between choking, gut-wrenching sobs.
Auntie Sue sighed. ‘He isn’t picking up his phone. We’ve left messages.’ The worry was etched onto her face.
I instinctively wanted to shelter Rachel, to comfort her, and I pictured two girls holding hands across the gap between their beds, fortifying one another. Making each other whole. I held her firmly by the shoulders. ‘I’ve got you. We’ll figure this out.’
I willed her to be strong right then, at least for now, at least in front of the kids.
My mind was scrambled, but I frantically tried to think through my next steps. Where was Mike? I needed to speak to Jake. What had made the police suddenly switch their focus from Mike to Phil? Maybe they still had Amy’s phone after all, and had uncovered damning proof. And where the hell was Mum?
First things first – the children. I crouched down on the floor in front of them. Betsy slid down from the sofa onto my lap and curled her warm little body into my side.
‘Listen kids, this is horrible. There’s no other word for it. But we have to stay strong.’ I took Lucas’s hand. ‘We have to support each other.’
‘Does it mean Mummy was murdered?’ His lip trembled.
The word sent a shiver down my spine, and I was floored by fresh wave of nausea. I saw Hannah blink back new tears.
‘No, darling, it doesn’t mean that at all. We don’t know anything yet. The police just need to be sure exactly what happened to Mummy. But we shouldn’t think too much about those things.’ I tried to speak slowly and deliberately, to give the kids some reassurance that this was all normal, that everything would be fine, even though I wasn’t convinced myself.
Jake picked up on the third ring.
‘Izzy, how are you? I was just about to call you—’
‘Couldn’t they have given us some advance warning?’ I hissed angrily.
I’d come to the back garden to get some privacy. I didn’t want any of the family to hear.
‘It doesn’t work like that. They can’t tell you before they arrest someone, for obvious reasons.’
I put a hand on the wall to steady myself. ‘What happens now?’
‘They have twenty-four hours in which to question him - thirty-six hours at most. If they can’t charge him in that time, they’ll release him.’
Arrested. They had arrested someone for Amy’s murder. The thought was like a hammer blow to my head. Even breathing became a struggle. I took shallow gulps of air and tried to focus. My head was spinning. Now everyone will find out about the affair, I thought.
‘But what about Mike? Amy and Phil having an affair means Mike had a motive on top of the money from the insurance.’
‘That’s true, but it seems some additional information has come to light.’
‘What was the new information? Can you find out?’
‘Not officially, no.’ A nervous edge had appeared in Jake’s voice. ‘But I heard a rumour. They had an anonymous tip-off.’
I heard him swallowing. Stalling. The sound of bad news stuck in his throat. I closed my eyes.
Jake sighed. ‘The loose wheel. How it might have happened. Apparently, Amy took her car to Phil’s garage for a service two days before… the incident.’
I slumped to the ground, my back against the wall and face to my knees, the phone still held up to my ear.
‘Izzy?’ Jake said quietly.
‘Yep, I’m still here.’
‘There’s nothing you can do for now. Go and be with your family. Wait it out.’
‘Rachel’s here, too,’ I said.
Silence from Jake.
‘Does she know?’ I said. ‘Does she know about Amy and… what Amy and Phil did?’
Poor Rachel. How they had betrayed her. I felt sick again.
‘Not yet, and you shouldn’t say anything. The police will need to speak to her at some point, and it’s important she hears it from them first.’
‘You’ll have to go with her,’ I said firmly. ‘We can’t expect her to do that on her own.’
‘Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.’ Jake sounded tired.
We said our goodbyes and hung up. I wanted a drink, badly. A vodka. Or frankly, whatever I could get my hands on at this point. It was starting to get dark, the sky turning velvety, and the kitchen window cast an amber glow onto the lawn. I pulled myself up and headed back inside.
Mum was in bed. Auntie Sue had half-heartedly tried to talk me out of going to her, and I could see why. The smell of the room stirred deep memories within me.
The curtains were drawn, and I assumed they’d been
