There was a pensive lull in the conversation then Lucas said, ‘You’re asking us all to discuss something that I for one have worked hard to put behind me.’ He searched the faces of his ‘brothers and sisters’, and they nodded.
‘Give us some time to think about it, Kit.’ Livvie said.
‘OK.’ Kitty sipped her beer, ‘I suppose I’ll have to. Anyone for another?’
When she returned with a swimming tray of drinks, the topic had moved to Paul and Cerys’s engagement party. Everyone had accepted their invitations.
‘Are you OK about it?’ Livvie asked Kitty.
‘S’pose so.’ Kitty gave out the glasses. ‘Not much I can do about it, anyway.’
‘I know that, but are you happy for your dad?’
‘If he’s happy, that’s all that matters.’ Kitty sank into her seat and watched the fire. ‘I don’t trust the woman if I’m honest, but I might be wrong.’
‘It’s natural you should feel protective about your father.’ Livvie leaned across and squeezed Kitty’s hand, and Kitty slapped it away.
‘I’m fully aware of that.’
Josh, who had been quiet, piped up, ‘I think I would like to talk about the past. I’ve been thinking it over, and now you’ve opened the can; I need to look at the worms.’
‘Nicely put, Joshy,’ grinned Lucas.
‘Piss off Luc,’ Josh responded with a half-smile.
Kitty beamed at Josh. ‘Really? I’d be so grateful if you would. Can we try to piece together what happened?’
‘OK.’ Livvie sighed. She took a tissue from her handbag and put it under her wet glass, ‘I suppose we could get it out of the way.’ She frowned, ‘We were all so young. Sam, you’re the oldest, I bet you remember the most.’
‘I remember going swimming with Dad. It was a change of plan because they’d agreed that Mum would take us shopping. Dad was acting weird. Josh was too small to remember, I suppose.’ Sam looked at Josh.
‘I don’t remember the swimming. I remember you and Dad in the car somewhere. You were crying, and so was Dad. I suppose that was the time you found out Mum had disappeared. I knew something bad had happened.’ Josh looked accusing. ‘Nobody would ever tell me anything.’
‘It might have been the swimming day,’ Sam said. ‘On the way back from the pool Dad told me that Mum wasn’t away having a rest, she’d gone missing.’ He met Josh’s eyes. ‘I cried. Then you woke up and joined in.’
‘Poor Dad,’ Josh said, and Sam continued, ‘Things were normal for a while after that and I thought it was OK again. I can’t imagine why because Mum hadn’t come back.’
‘Do you mind if I put a few things down on paper?’ Kitty flapped open her notebook. ‘Could we put together a timeline of what happened first and next etcetera?’
The conversation ranged around with one person’s memory sparking another. Soon, Kitty had filled several pages. Not all their memories were awful; some were happy. Like the day they all visited Little Callun Hill to test a new go-kart that Paul had built.
‘It was massive, remember?’ said Kitty. ‘We all fitted on it at the same time.’
‘Who was there that day?’ asked Josh.
‘We all were, weren’t we?’ Kitty screwed up her face, trying to construct a mental picture. ‘Was your dad there, Luc?’
Luc shrugged. ‘Possibly not. I can’t visualise him. I bet he was working.’
Kitty noted that in her book. It was not important, but she had an urge to record every detail, to map out everyone’s movements.
‘I was gutted when someone stole that cart.’ Sam said.
The others agreed.
‘Remember the restaurant opening?’ asked Lucas, who now worked in the same building. After Millie’s death, Lucas and Olivia became owners of the heap of rubble that had been Feast. Because they were too young to understand, Mick used Millie’s insurance pay-out to rebuild the place in case one or both his kids wished to follow their parents’ careers and become chefs.
With the work completed, Mick leased the building to a local restaurant chain until Lucas and Olivia came of age. At twenty, Lucas took the plunge, paying his sister rent for her share of the building. People thought him crackers. Kitty, in her straightforward way, demanded, ‘Wouldn’t you rather get rid of it?’ But Lucas was doing it in memory of his mother. Despite, or even because of his sad childhood, he found comfort in being where Millie had been, knowing he was doing what she did, wondering if she could see him.
Mick opted to leave his high-powered hotel job and join his son in the enterprise. ‘I’ve had enough of travel and sales,’ he told Lucas. ‘I miss being hands on.’
Lucas hoped this was true and that Mick had not given up his successful career to support him.
But the business blossomed, and Mick and Lucas worked shoulder to shoulder as a contented team. Despite their excellent relationship, Lucas had one gripe: he wished his father took a less detailed interest in his non-existent love life. Lucas had personal reasons for avoiding women.
‘Everyone was there that night,’ Kitty mused, still remembering the opening night.
Sam said, ‘That woman who worked for Mum was there. What was her name?’ He wrinkled his forehead. ‘Remember? She used to give us strawberries behind Mum’s back.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Liz.’
‘Where did you dredge that up from?’ Kitty asked.
‘I’ve got a pretty decent memory for names.’
‘Are you sure that was her name?’
‘Fairly.’ Sam nodded in thought. ‘Yes. Liz.’
Kitty noted the name. Her speedwriting now crawled across page after page of her notepad, but looking round at the faces of the others, she wished she could have got the information without hurting them.
15 KITTY
Scanned pages of the Chelterton Herald cascaded down Kitty’s screen making her eyelids droop. She jerked awake
