Craig was going into motormouth mode now. Kate realised it was his way of coping. She didn’t want to shut him down. ‘He did not have a thing for me,’ she said, her arms folded tightly against the stiff offshore breeze that she remembered too well from that summer. It always looked warmer than it ever was. She should have worn another layer over her white cotton dress — what was she thinking? This was the east coast of England in May! Cloud was gathering in the west and she guessed it would rain before lunchtime, which would be a pain because a walk along the beach was what she’d had in mind when Lucas got here. The thought of Lucas, here, crashing into her world of seven years ago, made her insides turn over. She was nervous — undeniably nervous — about seeing him. But she also really needed to see him. On several complicated levels.
Number one on the list was getting Lucas — and Sid — to help her locate whoever had killed Julie and Martin. That was the most important thing and she felt sure he could do it. Together they’d solved two murder cases now and although it had been far from plain sailing and had cost them both a lot, there was no doubt that they were quite the team once they put their minds to it.
And after that? Assuming they could do it again of course… after they’d tied everything up here at Lakefield? What then? He’d said it and she’d said it. They needed to talk. About Mabel. About Zoe. About what had happened in that quarry more than sixteen years ago. A shiver ran through her and she had to admit to herself that she was afraid of what he might tell her. There was no question he was hiding something about that day. Every shred of her copper’s instinct told her this. She’d been ducking away from it for months now because… because what? She was attracted to him? She owed him her life? Well… they were pretty even on that score at least.
‘Kate! Focus!’ Craig was snapping his fingers in front of her face, as they ambled down the pebbles towards the gunmetal grey curls of water lapping along the shoreline. ‘Little Backflip Barney. Remember what he used to look like?’
She shrugged. ‘He was just a kid. We all were. None of us looked as cool as we liked to think we did. I mean, god, the tracksuits we had to wear! All that nylon and towelling!’
‘Yeah, but we didn’t have a choice,’ said Craig. ‘The state of Barney, though, in his orange nylon zip-up hoodie and his old man baggy joggers, and the hair…. oh god, the hair… he looked like something out of the Jim Henson creature workshop.’
‘Smelt like it too,’ said Talia. ‘God — he could make your eyes water at twenty paces!’
‘You see, this was what I didn’t want to remember,’ said Kate, suddenly stopping. ‘We were such shits back then. So judgy.’
‘Oh come on… we were only mucking about,’ said Talia, sounding defensive. ‘And we had to be super nice to everyone, twelve hours a day. We just needed to let off steam. We didn’t mean anything by it.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ said Kate. She felt the mood get colder than the water. Everyone was tense and she wasn’t helping.
‘Fuck it, I’m going back to my chalet,’ said Talia. ‘It’s too bloody cold and that looks like rain,’ she waved towards the gathering cloud in the west.
‘We’ve got to stay together!’ said Nikki.
‘Fine — come with me,’ said Talia, and they both marched off. Craig glanced uneasily between them and Kate, torn.
‘You go too,’ said Kate. ‘I need to check in with the Suffolk police.’
‘You’re not meant to be alone!’ said Craig.
‘I won’t be — I’ve got Francis!’ she said. ‘I’ll go and find him. I’m crap company right now… so go on with the girls. Persuade them to go to the bar; you might as well try to have a nice time, eh? Don’t get pissed though — you’ve got to talk to the police again at two, remember?’
He nodded and hared off after them, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Managing these old friends while she was trying to focus on what was happening here was a pain she didn’t need. She wondered if she should text Lucas and get him here sooner. She checked her phone but couldn’t get a signal down here by the water, the short cliffs probably blocking the patchy local cell coverage.
‘Kate.’
She jumped at the closeness of the voice. She spun around, for a moment thinking it was Lucas. Backflip Barney stood close by, his hands pushed into the pockets of a leather jacket and the breeze tugging a lock of dark, twisted hair across his face.
‘Barney!’ She glanced up the beach, wondering where the others were now and if they’d seen Barney. She hoped not. ‘How are you? You look great!’
He stared at her with the same old intensity. There had always been something other about him. And even though he now dressed better — and smelled better — that quality was still there.
‘You look great too,’ he said. ‘I wanted to… wanted to say something to you…’
‘Um,’ she said. ‘OK… but can we walk and talk? I need to meet my brother in the pool hall.’
‘OK,’ he said, falling into step beside her.
For a while he didn’t say anything, and she got the uncomfortable suspicion he might have heard Talia talking about him on the beach a few minutes earlier.
