Martin looks at each of us in turn. “Well, this is a bit of a mystery,” he says. “I don’t suppose any of you know what Ms. Silveira was doing here today, or who might have bashed her over the head? Anything you’d like to tell me?”
I wait for one of the others to say,It’s Seraphine’s fault: someone warned Laura not to talk about Summerbourne, but Seraphine wouldn’t stop asking questions. I can’t tell Martin that Laura had a note from Edwin luring her here, even though I know Laura might be telling that to a police officer at the hospital at this very moment. And I’m afraid that if I tell Martin anything else he will tug on it until he unspools all the events of the past ten days, and then he too will look at Edwin and Joel with suspicion.
There must be another explanation.
Martin watches us, and we stand in silence. As the seconds tick by, a conviction grows in me: the signature at the bottom of that note isn’t Edwin’s. Whoever sent it had to have known about Laura’s fondness for Edwin all those years ago and used that to lure her to the isolated cliff top. I roll my shoulders back. We stand in silence. We shake our heads.
In the end, Martin questions Joel first, and then the rest of us, and as we account for our movements during the day, I have a strong mental image of Martin placidly absorbing each detail into his elephantine memory.
“How did you meet Miss Kaimal?” Martin asks me. “Why did you invite her here for lunch today?”
In the air between us hangs the unspoken ending of his sentence:today, of all days?
“I found out about Alex when I was going through my dad’s things after the funeral,” I tell him. “I met him. I thought it would be nice to spend some time with Kiara.”
Martin’s expression doesn’t change. He looks at Kiara, then at Danny, then back at me.
Joel’s story is that he’d gone to the cliffs to look for Michael, who had failed to return from a walk, and he spotted Laura collapsed at the base of the tower. In his medical opinion, he thinks she’d only just been hit. A team of police officers are already out on the cliffs, examining the site of Laura’s attack, and Martin alerts them to Michael’s latest disappearance. Of course, Martin and the Harrises have known each other their whole lives, and I can see the sympathy on Martin’s face as he makes the call. His colleagues on the cliffs report no sign of the old man.
“I’ll likely need to talk to you all again in the morning,” Martin says before leaving. “Better you stay here, Miss Kaimal, please. Just until we know how Ms. Silveira is doing.”
Kiara is visibly distressed. “I need to phone Dad,” she says as soon as the police car has gone. Edwin, Danny, and I retreat to the day nursery to give her some privacy to make her call.
“Shit,” Danny says, throwing himself on one of the sofas. “What the hell was all that about? Why did Laura come here—and why today? What kind of maniac did that to her?”
I’ve brought my bag through, and I pull Laura’s note out slowly and hand it to Edwin. “Laura dropped this.”
Edwin opens it, reads it, his mouth falling open.
“I didn’t write this,” he says, staring at the letter and then at me. “This isn’t from me.” He passes it to Danny, his eyes still on me.
I step toward him and take both his hands in mine. His feel cold. “I know,” I say. “I believe you. But who did?”
Edwin shakes his head.
“Joel?” I whisper.
“No!” Edwin snatches his hands from mine and strides over to the window, keeping his back to me, his shoulders hunched. The contents of his treasure box are still strewn across the table, and, unable to settle and unwilling to break the silence, I collect them together distractedly and pack them all back inside.
I join Danny on the sofa then, curling up at the far end, wrapping my arms around my knees. My mind keeps returning to Joel, no matter how hard I try to stop it. Joel, who knew I had been asking questions about the day I was born. Joel, who had access to Michael’s key to Summerbourne. Joel, who knew that Ralph had a propane torch in his van and could have “borrowed” it. Joel, who was free to wander up to the folly in the middle of the day at the exact same time that Laura happened to be there.
I squeeze my eyes shut. I’m worried I might be sick.
Edwin’s phone beeps from the kitchen, and he goes through to fetch it. “Joel’s found Michael, back at the cottage,” he says as he walks back in. I don’t open my eyes. Who’s to say Michael wasn’t there all along?
Kiara appears then, eyeing us as if we’re dangerous strangers, the camaraderie of our lunch together all but forgotten.
“My dad’s on his way,” she says.
We acknowledge this with nods, watching her.
She moves slowly toward the table, where Edwin’s treasure box sits, its lid now closed.
“I wish I’d never come,” she says quietly.
“You can stay in the annex,” Edwin says. “With your dad, tonight. I’ll show you.” But when he goes to turn the handle, he finds the door locked.
“I hid the key,” I say. Yet again, they all look at me wordlessly. I stalk out to retrieve it from the kitchen, and hand it toEdwin without further comment. Back on the sofa, I listen as Edwin opens windows in the annex, making small talk. I can barely hear Kiara’s muted replies. I leap up again.
