Page 65 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

I had my eyes on Sandra as the woman drank down the contents of a second glass. She was going to be catching up with her son at that rate. I watched as Rufus put his hand on her arm and gave her a nervous glance. I felt that things were going to take an unpleasant turn, if they could even be more unpleasant. Was Rufus the thief? Did Sandra know and was she about to reveal his secret? But no, I suddenly realised the truth.

‘So, where is this painting then?’ asked Sandra.

‘Don’t tell her,’ I blurted out.

‘Why ever not?’ Dorothy asked.

‘Because—’

‘Please don’t, Gina, please don’t,’ Sandra said in an anguished whisper.

‘Because I think she’s the thief.’

There was a moment of stunned silence with the whole group staring at me and then Sandra collapsed into a chair with her head in her hands and all eyes turned to her. I walked over to stand next to Dorothy who looked troubled and then I helped her into a chair too.

‘Sandra, please tell me this is a sick joke,’ Paul said in a low voice, his hand on his chest as if he might need to restart his own heart. ‘You didn’t break into Dorothy’s house. You couldn’t have – it’s impossible.’

‘I wish I could say it was a joke,’ came Sandra’s muffled voice from between her hands.

‘But, Philip,’ he said.

‘That wasn’t meant to happen. They weren’t meant to be there,’ she said and she was crying now. ‘I’m so sorry, Dorothy. I hate myself.’

‘Don’t you dare,’ Miles said. ‘You don’t get to cry and be upset about this. My father is dead because of you. How could you!’ Miles’s voice broke at the end of his words and he took deep ragged breaths to try and regain control. Lavinia, who looked traumatised herself, took his arm as much to comfort him as to comfort herself.

I had my own hand on Dorothy’s shoulder and I could feel her shaking under my touch. I hadn’t done what Harry had suggested and prepared her. I had been taken over by the excitement and hadn’t remembered what I’d said to Dorothy before about repercussions.

‘What did he have on you?’ Dorothy asked, her voice quiet and controlled. ‘How did Leonard get you to do it? Not money?’

‘No, not money, I would never have done it for that,’ Sandra said.

‘What then? You’d better start being honest now,’ Miles said, but there was only silence from Sandra.

‘It was because of me,’ Rufus said. ‘Mum did it because of me.’

‘Well, you’d better start talking then,’ Sophie said, her expression furious.

I realised that Dorothy’s family had all moved closer to her in some sort of protective stance and I moved back a little to accommodate them.

‘I had my degree certificate forged,’ he said. ‘So basically I was taken on at the law firm under false pretences. Uncle Leonard knew someone who could help me and to start with he was just happy to have helped, but then he wanted me to do something in return. He told me he wanted Philip’s painting and he wanted me to steal it. I told him I wouldn’t do it, but then he became more and more demanding. I went to Mum because I was out of my depth, with work and then with this. I just wanted it all to go away. Mum went to see Uncle Len and said that she would do it if that would be the end of it all. And then, of course it all went wrong and it’s all my fault.’

‘Yes it bloody is!’ Paul shouted. ‘I don’t know my own family. How could you both have done this?’

‘It’s Leonard’s fault,’ Peter suddenly said. ‘And someone needs to go and find him before he disappears too. We can pick this all apart later, but it stops with him.’

‘Peter’s right,’ Sophie said. ‘Let’s get him out here to give his account.’

‘I don’t want him anywhere near me,’ Paul said. ‘I might actually do him harm.’

They all moved towards the house then, apart from Sandra who’d been told not to move a muscle by her husband. Paul looked as if he was going to say something further, but then, as if he couldn’t bear to be near his wife, he followed the others with a resigned sigh. She began to talk to Dorothy, but Dorothy cut her off before she could really get going.

‘Sandra, I can’t hear another apology, not now. I might be able to tomorrow, but not now please. It’s all a bit raw.’

Sandra nodded and then buried her head back in her hands.

‘Gina, I think you should go and help the others. You have a better knowledge of this house and all its hiding places now. I’ll go to my room.’

I helped Dorothy up to her bedroom and then followed the sound of scurrying steps until I found the rest of the group. I showed them the secret room, but he wasn’t in there, the attic or any of the rooms in his wing. The others had scoured the rest of the place and it was clear very quickly that Leonard was nowhere in Walstone Hall.