‘They’re honestly the biggest compliments I’ve got. Listen, maybe we can go travelling together. Find some stories for your films. Have a relaxing adventure with no guns or dead bodies or doppelgängers.’
‘You don’t think we’d be bored?’
She took another step closer until we were almost touching.
‘This is really what you want?’ I asked. ‘Me, over your family?’
‘Patrick, I have no other way of putting this. My family are a fucking nightmare. I don’t even want to look at my dad any more. Miranda will be a little harder, but, well… She is kind of awful, isn’t she? It’s not her fault. She just never got over Mum’s death.’
I took her hands. ‘How do you think your mum would feel if you didn’t talk to them again?’
‘She’d be heartbroken. But also, I really don’t think she would blame me. The question is, will looking at me trigger bad memories for you every day?’
I thought about it. ‘I’ve got a response, but it’s corny.’
‘Hit me with it.’
‘I was going to say, we’ll have to make good memories to replace the bad ones.’
She groaned. ‘That’s actually nice. Corny as fuck, but—’
She grabbed my upper arms and pulled me towards her.
‘What is it?’
I twisted around, expecting to see Charles with a gun. The movie monster, back one last time.
It was a snake. Brown and red, it zigzagged across the floor. It looked like it had emerged from beneath the sink, and it sped towards the back door. The same one we’d found in Jasmine’s bag or a different one? I’d seen that one in the garden, fleeing into the shrubbery. Holly crossed to the door and opened it, and we watched as the snake crossed the threshold and made its way out into the world.
The funny thing was, seeing this reptile, I wasn’t scared.
A little old adder?
What was that, compared to Holly’s family?
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Bluebells were springing up in the graveyard. It was the beginning of April, and the visitors’ centre was open again, and the old stone church behind it was preparing for the Easter service.
I hadn’t expected to come back here. Had sworn not to, in fact. But Miranda had called me directly– the first time she’d been in touch since January– and told me this was something I needed to know, but that she wanted to tell me, to show me, in person. Holly was away on a hen weekend with a group of her mates in Tenerife, and I assumed Miranda had timed this invitation to coincide with that. She wanted to talk to me on my own.
I couldn’t resist, so I’d got a flight to Inverness, and here I was. I parked my rental car by the visitors’ centre and found Miranda in the churchyard, sitting on the ground beside her mother’s grave.
‘You made it,’ she said.
‘What’s this all about?’
She didn’t reply straight away. ‘It’s a lovely spot here, don’t you think? I’m actually thinking of moving up here, buying a little house nearby. Freddie’s at boarding school so he cancome and stay during school holidays.’ She appeared to be talking to herself. ‘Maybe he’d find some good friends here, like Holly and Lewis did.’ A wry smile. ‘Except hopefully his friends wouldn’t end up dead.’
Realizing she wasn’t going to tell me why she’d asked me here immediately, I said, ‘How have you been, Miranda?’
‘How do you think? Zack’s death… you would not believe how much admin there is when someone dies. It’s been a bloody nightmare. Muggins here had to deal with most of the admin around Lewis’s death, too.’ She shook her head. ‘Dad hasn’t been the same since he found out the truth about that bitch.’
She snorted.
‘Did you hear that he’s opened a new software division now, hired a load of kids? He promised he’s not going to resurrect that Fase app, but I will be amazed if they don’t produce something like it. He’s got a new operations manager, too. Looks like Zack’s clone. Maybe he used the app to find him.’
