The Fall Girl (29 page)

She checked all the downstairs windows at the back, calling and tapping on the glass. But there was no familiar returning bark. She knew it had been a long shot.

Lexy, Edward and Peter spent the rest of the day slumped in the car, watching the villa. At least, Lexy did. Edward and Peter both fell asleep. She couldn’t blame them, although she wished
Peter didn’t mumble so much in his sleep. Especially as all he mumbled about was antiques.

Edward awoke with a start late in the afternoon. He blinked round at Lexy. “Anything?”

She shook her head. “Might as well give up. We could be here all night at this rate.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetie. Tell you what, we’ll come straight back here tomorrow morning and ...”

“I think Gerard’s already found another home for Kinky, Edward.”

Hopefully it wasn’t the bottom of the Thames.

Lexy was very quiet on the drive back home.

When she returned to Four Winds Cottage, nursing a heavy heart, it was gone ten, and the Patersons were out – they’d left a note to say that they’d gone to the Unicorn and Lexy
was welcome to join them.

She didn’t think she’d be great company that evening.

She fished her phone out of her bag, and went back out to the car to find the charger.

The faint sound made her look up. Someone was coming. She could hear the crunch of shoe on gravel. Lexy ducked down by the car.

After a minute a dark figure walked into the clearing, then disappeared into shadows at a corner of the wall surrounding the cottage. Lexy next saw him looking in at the kitchen window.

He went around the side of the cottage.

Was it Tyman? Bruce? Couldn’t be Ward because of his ankle. Whoever it was, he was checking whether anyone was in.

The figure reappeared at the other side of the cottage, then walked off down the rutted track.

Lexy wondered whether it was someone from the village, casing the joint. If whoever it was had bothered trying the kitchen door handle, they’d have been able to get in and have away
whatever they wanted.

Lexy felt too exhausted to trail the interloper, but she went back to the cottage and systematically locked all the doors and windows. Just after she had gone to bed, she heard muffled voices as
the Patersons returned. They had a key, luckily. Lexy listened to the creaking of the stairs as they went to bed.

She lay back in the darkness, trying to push away images of what Gerard might have done to her dog. Unsuccessfully. In the end, she put the light back on and turned on the portable radio
Gabrielle had been listening to earlier. She tuned it to something classical and lay back.

After a long while, Lexy had a plan. In the morning she would go back up to London on her own and talk to Gerard, if he was there. Find him, if he wasn’t. Plead with him if necessary. And
if that didn’t work, she’d threaten to expose him over the stolen painting. Somehow or other, she’d get the chihuahua back. If he was still...

Lexy lay back, letting Mozart soothe her mind, trying to think about something other than Kinky.

She allowed her thoughts to drift to the Gallimores. Even with the recent revelations about Steve, Lexy still held on to a slim strand of belief that they had something to do with
Elizabeth’s death. But on what basis?

Count the ways, Lexy.

Their behaviour from the word go. Their seemingly irrational attitude towards her presence at Four Winds Cottage, and the news of Rowana’s inheritance. The way Bruce had lost no time at
all in making an offer for the place, and in encouraging his sons to sweet-talk Gabrielle and Rowana with the same end in mind.

They wanted the cottage – but why?

Bruce had cajoled Lexy to leave the place, and when that didn’t work, he made some kind of pact with his elder son to get her out by more drastic means: a pact that excluded Tyman.

Was Tyman the key to all of this?

Lexy conjured up Tyman’s good-natured face. She tried to think why the trip she had made with him up the hill on September Eve had been such a big problem to Ward. So much so that he felt
the need to ambush her like something out of... Tarzan. It just didn’t make sense. On balance, there seemed to be more evidence pointing to Ward Gallimore being the one with problems.

And the ambush was nothing next to the gun incident.

Get out of the way, Tyman!

No! Don’t shoot!

Then that ear-shattering explosion that Lexy would remember for the rest of her life.

It wasn’t Lexy who Tyman saw at the last minute, when he warned Ward not to shoot. He hadn’t seen her – that much was obvious from what he’d stammered out when
she’d questioned him about it. So it had been the fox he was trying to save. Why not just admit that in the first place?

She shook her head, confounded.

There were other odd things, not least the way Tyman flinched every time Elizabeth’s fall was mentioned. And the fact that the Gallimores were constantly watching the cottage through
binoculars. And that other falling incident concerning Tyman’s mother and a circus high wire.

Add to that the oft-referred-to sheep on the hill, the sheep that Lexy had never actually seen. And the incident with the bull.

“The bull that also never was,” Lexy said to herself.

On top of all of that was the frankly bizarre behaviour of Tyman and Ward when she went to the farm the previous day. What was all that about?

Why had Tyman started yelling?

Because he’d seen her coming down the path from the cottage.

Big deal.

Bruce had shut him up pretty quickly, but what had Ward said when she’d queried it?

I think Tyman must be pleased you’ve come to see us.

Lexy hadn’t realised that she’d come to mean that much to Gallimore minor.

An earlier incident suddenly came to Lexy’s mind. When she’d been hiding under Ward’s bed, on the night they’d been invited to the Gallimores for dinner.

Tyman had been trying to find her.

Well, she’s not in here,
Ward had said, unwittingly.
Perhaps she decided to give you the slip?

Yes, well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?

That was it. That was the thing that had been lurking at the back of her mind.

Why hadn’t they wanted her loose on the farm? What hadn’t they wanted her to see? Something incriminating? Something that might link them back to Elizabeth? She must...

Lexy felt her eyes closing.

The next thing she knew was a tap on the door. She pushed herself up, blinking. The table light was still on, as was the radio. She glanced at the clock. It was five-thirty in
the morning.

“Who is it?” Lexy stood up, alarmed.

There was another quiet tap. It was someone at the patio door.

Lexy went over cautiously. The curtain was half pulled across. Cupping her hands she put her face against the glass to stare out into the iron grey dawn. No one there. Was she expecting the dark
figure who cased the joint earlier? Surely he wouldn’t knock before entering.

Plucking up courage, Lexy unlocked and opened the door. “Who is it?” she called, quietly.

No one. Had she imagined it? But there wasn’t even a breeze to blame for making the leaves of the rhododendron tap against the glass.

Lexy was just closing the doors when she heard a sound.

One she recognised. Scampering feet.

A second later Kinky appeared. He leapt up at her with a joyful bark.

Lexy was almost too stunned to greet him.

She stared beyond him, went out on to the patio. There was no sign of anyone.

“Tell me it wasn’t you tapping,” she said to the excited chihuahua. She checked him over. He seemed the same as ever. No new scars. No additional limps. Had he somehow escaped
from Gerard during that fracas, and made his way back here? He’d be pretty footsore if he had, and he clearly wasn’t. And, anyway, surely he’d go home, to the cabin, if he was
loose in Clopwolde?

“Main thing is, you’re back, mate,” said Lexy, the realisation finally hitting her. She closed her eyes, sinking on to the sofa. “You’re back.”

Lexy awoke to a familiar discomfort. She was squashed up on one end of the sofa, and Kinky was spread out at the other end.

It hadn’t been a dream. The dog opened one eye, then jumped up and shook himself, demanding breakfast.

Lexy heard the sound of murmured voices, and pushed open the living room door to listen. Sounded as if Steve, Rowana and Gabrielle were talking together.

She quickly dressed, and pushed open the kitchen door.

The Patersons were indeed sitting at the table, heads bent together, talking intensely.

“Hello,” Lexy said. They all jumped.

“He’s back,” said Rowana, as Kinky trotted past them to the larder.

“Yup – like a bad penny,” Lexy smiled. She opened a packet of dog food for Kinky.

“We’re having a council of war,” said Steve.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to butt in.”

For a moment Lexy wondered if things had come to a head. Perhaps, thanks to her broaching the subject with each of them, Rowana and Gabrielle had discussed the morning of Elizabeth’s
death, and the fact that their father had been absent during that crucial time, and now they were questioning him themselves.

But Steve looked far too pleased with himself to be on the wrong end of an inquisition.

“Actually, we could do with your advice.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Rowana pushed out a chair for her. A drift of papers, covered in scribbles, figures, bullet points and question marks lay across the table.

Gabrielle poured a cup of tea and put it in front of Lexy. The girl was becoming positively human.

“So...?” Lexy looked around at them, her face going a little rigid as she met Steve’s eyes. Whatever they were cooking up here, he wasn’t out of deep water yet.

“We’ve discovered something about ourselves since we’ve been here,” he began.

“Don’t tell me – you’re all aliens from the planet Zarg.”

“Nah – we knew that already. What we’ve actually discovered is that none of us wants to start up the cake business again.”

“We’ve had our fill of cakes,” Gabrielle reiterated.

“In a manner of speaking,” Rowana added.

“So we’re going to have a go at something we really want to do for a change – seeing as we’ve been given this opportunity,” said Steve.

But were you given it, or did you engineer it? Lexy couldn’t return his smile.

She got up to let Kinky into the garden.

“The thing is, I’m not going to sell the cottage,” Rowana announced. “We’re staying here. I already love Four Winds Cottage far too much to part with it. So do
Gabrielle and Dad.”

“But how will you...?” Lexy began.

“Well, there’s a little boutique over in Aldeburgh that’s advertising for a full-time assistant.” Gabrielle had anticipated her question. “I called them this
morning and they’ve asked me to come over for an interview.”

“And I’m going to start restoring vintage motors,” said Steve.

“Big surprise there,” added Rowana.

“Won’t make any money from it, but what the hell. I’ll try to get some work in a local garage to make ends meet.”

Lexy said a silent prayer that Steve wouldn’t be studying car manuals in a prison cell instead. She turned to Rowana, eyebrows raised.

Steve and Gabrielle were grinning like a couple of Cheshire cats that just got a large dollop of double cream on top of their cream.

Rowana blushed. “I’ve been accepted into art college in London. Just told Dad and Gabby.”

“Wow!” Lexy made like she didn’t already know.

“I’m going back there in a couple of weeks, to find digs,” the girl continued. “But I’m coming back here at weekends.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of both my daughters,” said Steve.

“Leave it out, Dad,” said Gabrielle.

“So – what was that advice you wanted?” Lexy asked. “If you were going to ask me whether you should take the plunge and follow your dreams, I’d say you’ve
already answered that question.”

The Patersons smiled sheepishly.

“Even though Elizabeth’s dead,” Lexy went on, “it seems like her influence lives on.” She was watching Steve carefully. “Without that old car in her garage,
you might have taken Rowana up on her offer to sell the cottage and gone back to London to start another confectionery business.”

“True.” He returned her look with steady good humour.

“And Rowana might have decided to sacrifice her place at art college, so she could help you.”

Rowana nodded.

“Not that I’d have let her,” Steve said.

“And I might still be wishing I’d married Russell,” said Gabrielle. “And I’m glad to say I’m now completely over him.” But did her sapphire eyes look a
little wistful?

“What about Ward?” Rowana said, quickly. “After all, we are going to be neighbours with them now.”

“Not my type,” returned Gabrielle. “And that book he lent me was about a completely different Tom Jones. I think the sod was laughing at me.”

Lexy and Rowana exchanged looks.

“I’d better get ready to go to Aldeburgh.” Gabrielle pushed her chair back. “It’s OK if I borrow the van, isn’t it, Dad?”

“Yes, of course. Good luck, darling.” He hugged his elder daughter.

Lexy watched them, struck by the similarity between the two, in looks at least.

“I’ll be in the studio,” said Rowana. “I’m going to sort out Elizabeth’s paints. Best of luck, Gabby.” She, too, embraced her sister. But they were
chalk and cheese. Just as Steve had said.

Steve and Lexy were left alone in the kitchen.

“I’m glad you’re going to be staying here,” she said. “Hope things work out.”

“It’s going to be a struggle.” Steve drained his tea. “But I think we’ll get by.”

“It’s a nice place to get by in.”

“It’ll be even better when I get that window fixed. But right now, I feel like stretching my legs. Fancy a walk up that legendary hill?”

“I do,” said Lexy. Time to get some answers.

“Give me ten minutes, then.” Steve stood up. “I’d better make sure Gabby gets off all right.”

“I’ll meet you by the back gate,” said Lexy. “Just need to make a phone call.” Might as well put Edward and Peter out of their misery.