Wearily, I turn away from the gates and head back to the car, more slowly this time. Monday’s my day off, so I don’t have to rush to the salon. Up ahead, a familiar looking vehicle comes down the road – a dark-green delivery van.Madeline’sdark-green delivery van. As she approaches, I catch her eye, smile and wave. She purses her lips, gives a small nod and keeps going. Okay, so I didn’t imagine that. She snubbed me, which means she definitely has some kind of issue. I clench my fists and stride back to the car.
This is ridiculous. I’m not going to spend the whole day stewing about my stroppy sister-in-law. I’m going to drive round to her house right now and ask her what’s going on. If I’m supposed to have done something wrong, the least she can do is allow me to defend myself. I get into my car and do a clumsy five-point turn, earning dirty looks from a couple of impatient drivers. Eventually, the car’s facing the right way and I head towards my sister-in-law’s house, trying in vain to compose myself. But my right hand is shaking and the rest of me is all tensed up.
It takes longer than usual to reach their house, which is on the other side of town. The traffic always seems worse on a Monday morning. Nick and Madeline’s home is a large, square, detached Georgian property. I guess you’d describe it as imposing. Toby mentions it a lot when he’s trying to persuade me that we should move. I agree that it’s a gorgeous house, but I still prefer our cosy cottage. I pull up on the road outside, take a breath and exit the car.
Madeline’s van is parked in the drive, but there’s no sign of her. I assume she must have gone in already. I walk up the path and pull on the ornate metal doorbell. As it chimes, I try to get my head straight and think about what I’m going to say. But my brain is mush. I’ll just have to wing it.
After waiting for thirty seconds or so, I tug on the bell once more. The chime sounds again. Perhaps she’s upstairs, or in the loo. I wait for two further minutes and ring again, trying to peer through the semi-opaque front door. But I can’t see any movement in the hallway beyond. I knock on the glass and ring one more time before turning around and heading back to my car. I wonder if she’s in there, hiding from me.
My first instinct is to call Toby and tell him how she blanked me. But knowing how the two of them met behind my back, I’m reluctant to talk to him about her. I get the feeling he’ll stick up for her no matter what I say. And then something else occurs to me. What if Toby didn’t ask Nick about her like he said he did? What if Toby already knew why Madeline is acting strangely around me? The memory of their parting kiss flashes into my mind, even though I was too far away to be absolutely sure that it wasn’t anything more than a peck on the cheek. But here I am, speculating again. I need to stop this.
As I slide into my car, I suddenly know what I need to do to get some perspective on this. I need to speak to Celia. I was hesitant before because I didn’t want to put her in the middle of anything. I didn’t think it was fair. But now I feel as if I have no choice. Not if I don’t want to drive myself mad. And I trust Celia to be fair-minded. She loves her son, but she also loves me and the kids. And she won’t want anything to break us apart. Above all else, she’s family oriented.
I remember Malcolm telling me about an incident back when Toby and Nick were children. Toby’s teacher had told him to stop crying in class, that he was acting like a baby. But when he got home from school, it turned out that Toby wasn’t being overdramatic at all; he was suffering with appendicitis and in terrible pain. Well, Celia marched into the school the next day and gave Toby’s teacher an absolute earful about it, reducing the poor woman to tears. Celia is the same with Alice and Jamie – won’t hear a word said against them. I love her for that fierce protectiveness. Her family really are the centre of her universe.
I glance back at Nick and Madeline’s house before starting up the engine, half expecting to see my sister-in-law watching me from one of the windows. But as far as I can see, they’re blank, save for their white cat Minnie sitting on one of the upstairs sills, licking her paws. The house is still. I put the car into first gear, pull away noisily from the kerb and make my way down the quiet street. I hope Celia’s home. She works different shifts at the hospital, so it’s pot luck whether she’ll be there or not. Although she’s cut back on her hours this year, so I’m really hoping she’ll be in.
Celia and Malcolm only live a few streets away from Nick and Madeline. A couple of years ago, my parents-in-law moved from their large 1930s house to a smaller modern bungalow. At first, Nick and Toby were horrified by the move. They couldn’t believe their mother and father were selling their beloved family home. But Celia insisted that the bungalow was far more practical. Their old house had too many maintenance issues, and although Malcolm is really handy, she didn’t want him spending his days with a toolkit in hand, or up a ladder fixing the roof and gutters.
I turn left and wait while a woman in gym gear and a high ponytail jogs across the road, pushing a souped-up baby buggy. The woman waves her thanks and I continue down the road, still hardly able to believe that Madeline wouldn’t open her door to me.
On the opposite side of the road I notice a couple walking towards me, hand in hand. He’s tall and dark-haired with a beard, bundled up in a scarf and thick navy parka. She’s small, wearing a stylish red wool coat and black gloves; her hair is long, dark and wavy. She looks so familiar that I almost don’t register it. But then it dawns on me – she’s the spitting image of my sister! Same height, same face, same way of walking.It’s her. The hair’s a little longer and it’s wavy instead of straight, but it’s been so long since I last saw her. ‘Dina!’ I cry, despite the fact that my window is up and she won’t be able to hear me.
There’s an almighty bang and I realise with a sinking sensation that I’ve rear-ended the car in front – a newish looking Lexus. I hadn’t even noticed there was a car there; I obviously wasn’t concentrating. I turn back to where the couple were walking a second ago and catch sight of a flash of red disappearing around the corner of a side street. If that really was Dina, I can’t let her disappear. I have to go after her!
I fling open my door at exactly the same time as the guy in the Lexus exits his car.
‘I’m sorry,’ I say, barely concentrating on him. ‘I’ll be back in a minute!’ I take off down the street after the couple.
‘Hey! Where d’you think you’re going?!’ A hand grips the shoulder of my coat and yanks me backwards.
I half turn and try in vain to shake him off. The man’s face is red and he’s wearing a look of outrage.
‘Let go of me!’ I cry. ‘I have to… I said I’ll be back in a second! I just… I saw someone who I think might be my sister—’
‘You’re not going anywhere until I’ve got your details! You can’t just run off from the scene of an accident.’ The man is tall and broad shouldered, well groomed, wearing a suit. ‘This car is brand new! How the hell did you get a licence? You weren’t even looking at the road. I saw you in my mirror, staring over there at the pavement like an idiot.’
‘Honestly, I’m sorry,’ I repeat, shaking myself free of his grip and taking a step away from him in the direction of where the couple disappeared. ‘Look, please just let me quickly go and see if that’s my sister. She’s literally just gone down that road.Please.Would you mind?’
‘Would I mind?’ he says incredulously. ‘Yes, I would mind. You need to give me your details.’
‘I’ll only be a minute and then I’ll come straight back, I promise.’ If the man didn’t look like he’d tackle me to the ground, I’d run after them and deal with the consequences of the crash later.
‘If you do a runner, I’m calling the police. I just don’t bloody believe this. I wasn’t even supposed to come through Shaftesbury, but there was flooding, so the satnav brought me this way. This is all I need!’
I feel like crying, but I can’t add a police enquiry to everything else going wrong in my life. ‘I wasn’t going to run off, I just need to… oh never mind. Can we do this quickly then?’ I resign myself to the fact that I’m going to have to stay here and deal with this.
He rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath, shepherding me back down the street.
Before moving our cars to the side of the road, he takes photos of both vehicles from all angles. Then we spend a good few minutes exchanging numbers and insurance details. And all the while I’m cursing myself for not getting away from him in time to see if that really was my sister.
Finally, the man calms down somewhat and apologises. ‘I’m sorry for shouting at you and grabbing your coat. It’s just, it’s a brand new car.’ He looks genuinely miserable and I end up feeling sorry for the trouble I’ve caused him. Finally, he gets back into his Lexus and I don’t waste any more time. I dash across the road and head down the side street – a narrow residential road with a lot of parked cars – but, unsurprisingly, all this time later I can’t see the couple anywhere.
They could have gone into one of the properties or got into a car and driven away. Why did I have to crash into that stupid car? I’m such an idiot. I spend the next twenty minutes walking up and down the side street, peering down connecting roads and into people’s windows, trying not to look suspicious. The last thing I need is for someone to call the police, thinking I’m casing the area. It feels like I’m wasting my time anyway. They’re obviously long gone. I berate myself for not concentrating on the road. But it really shocked me to see Dina’s face again after so many years.
Of course, I only saw her from a distance, so I know the chance of it actually being her is slim. After all, I haven’t heard from my little sister in ten years.
Not since she went missing.
