Page 60 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘I’ve been invited to go away in October,’ Dorothy said.

‘Where?’ Sophie asked her.

‘My friend was supposed to be joining me for a cruise around the Med, but her hip replacement has been brought forward and she’s desperate to get it done,’ Yvonne said. ‘So I asked if Dot would like to come with me instead.’

‘And she knows I won’t go,’ Bill said.

‘Yes, you’d never get Bill on a floating hotel. You’re keen, though aren’t you, Dot?’

‘I am,’ she said. ‘Let’s get this week done and then we can talk about it properly.’

I noticed Sophie give Luke a dubious look, but then the conversation moved on to various joints being replaced. And Bill seemed like he had a lot to say on the matter. I glanced at Juliet and smiled as she gave me a look that said kill me now.

Then my phone pinged in my bag by my feet and as I bent to retrieve it and discreetly read the message on my lap I saw it was from Juliet who wanted to know what was happening and what we were going to do next. I quickly responded, saying we’d talk after. I also noticed I’d missed a message from Alice confirming our lunch next week. I didn’t respond to that.

‘Sorry,’ I said to the group. ‘My daughter messaging me. I’ll talk to her later.’

‘You have a family?’ Sophie asked me. ‘I’m sorry I’ve not asked you anything about yourself.’

‘You’ve no need to. I’m here to look after Dorothy,’ I said and we all turned to look at Dorothy who was looking a little paler than earlier. Another job I wasn’t doing particularly well. ‘I do have a daughter – Alice – and a son – Christopher, Chris. Alice has two little girls, so I’m a granny too, which is lovely.’

‘And you’re newly single, I think you mentioned on the minibus the other day?’ Sophie said, but before I had the chance to respond and say it had been Dorothy who had divulged that tit-bit of information, the staff were bustling around and clearing the plates away and I could hear someone talking behind me. I looked round to see two waiting staff standing close together and whispering. I caught only a few of the words they were exchanging, but it was enough. Harry had disappeared.

25

GINA

‘Would you excuse me for a moment,’ I said.

I pushed my chair back and without looking at those seated at the table I got up and left as quickly as I could. I walked past the huge refrigerated van that had been used to bring the food and drink from the house. The staff had a table to plate up and a portable oven to keep those plates warm for all the courses. There was a posh toilet block that had been erected, but I walked past that too, hoping no one inside the orangery could see me, but then I didn’t really care any more. I made my way back down the path to the house.

The kitchen was alive with energy. Flustered staff were cooking and preparing dishes ready to go in the van when it returned. Everything was lined up and they clearly had things under control despite the furore and also despite the fact that Harry was nowhere to be seen. I asked a couple of them if they’d seen him. Two shrugged that they didn’t know who I was talking about and another said he’d disappeared.

I left them to it and made my way back up the stairs to Harry’s room. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so I decided to chance it and go in. I half expected the door to be locked, but it wasn’t and I hesitated with my hand on the handle, not entirely sure what I was going to find. Then I took a breath and pushed open the door.

Harry’s bed was made perfectly, his curtains were neatly tied back and there was no sign that he’d ever been there. So, he’d done it, his version of handing in his notice. That was it then. He hadn’t found the painting before Leonard; that tiny glimmer of hope was extinguished. We were all vacating the house tomorrow and nothing at all had been resolved.

I sat down on the end of his bed and rubbed my hands across my eyes, suddenly feeling every one of those missing hours of sleep from the last few nights. Then I remembered my carefully applied mascara and got up and looked in Harry’s mirror. Disaster, I looked like I’d been crying or as if someone had thumped me in both eyes. I’d need to wash my face and reapply my make-up. Then again, did I really need to go back to the wedding? Was my presence all that important? Did we still need to keep up the facade of me being Dorothy’s companion? The trouble was that it wasn’t in my nature to abandon a situation. I’d need to see it through to the end no matter that the finish line had been crossed and we were definitely in last place. I returned to my own room to sort my face out.

Two things happened as I opened the door to my bedroom: my phone pinged with yet another message at the same time as I noticed there was a package on my bed. I ignored my phone for the moment and picked up the package. It was the size of a tea tray and I knew immediately it was a painting. I could feel the edges of the frame and when I pulled back the bubble wrap, used to cover it, I could see that it wasn’t just a painting, it was the painting. My heart leaped at the sight of it. After a week of trying to find it, it was just there on my bed, easy as that. Now I could see it up close and in the flesh, so to speak, I realised I’d been a bit dismissive of it before. It was actually a lovely watercolour of a coastal scene: a headland and a beach with a stretch of rocks and a lighthouse. I turned it over and the artist had written Bamburgh on the back. If my geography was correct, I was pretty sure it was a coastal scene from the North East.

Had Leonard given up? Was he finally ready to admit his part in this whole sorry story? From what I had learned of him over the last few days, I knew this couldn’t be true. Leonard didn’t give up. It wasn’t in his nature.

It was when my phone pinged a second and then a third time that I took it out of my bag and read the messages. The first one was from Dorothy asking if I was okay. I hesitated over my reply, full of wanting to tell her all about the painting, but it occurred to me that Leonard must not know right now that I had it and I couldn’t fully trust Dorothy not to march up to the top table and expose him. He would obviously take it back given any opportunity. I had to get it out of this house and find a better hiding place. But where?

The other messages were from Harry. The first was a photo of the painting sitting at the back of the Chinese cabinet with the words ‘for what it’s worth’ typed underneath and the other message said to phone him on this number. I dialled the number straight away.

‘Harry?’ I said when the call connected.

‘Yes,’ he said simply and I could hear from the background noise that he was driving.

‘So you’ve gone then? I don’t blame you.’

‘I had to. I can’t be there when the police come and you’ll phone them now you have the painting. You have found it haven’t you? It was behind the panel in that white cabinet. I’ve sent you a picture, although it doesn’t really prove much. Could be useful, though.’

‘Yes, thank you, Harry, you’re a star.’

‘I’m a criminal, Gina, and it’s hard to stop that when you keep mixing with people like Len.’