Page 17 of Serenity Falls

And with that she climbs into the van and pulls off.

‘Her, I like,’ Sadie says.

Frances moves to my side. ‘I’m so sorry about all of this,’ she says. ‘If there’s anything – anything at all – I can do, just let me know.’ She flashes a sympathetic smile. ‘Oh, and you’ll find the number for the pool-cleaning company on your contacts card.’

6

Sadie and I sit on the floor, eating a pizza I found in the freezer (as Frances had promised). Neither of us wants to risk tomato sauce on the cream sofas, and the bar stools in the kitchen, although stylish, aren’t exactly comfortable.

Principal Lockhart was understanding when I called to cancel dinner: ‘Oh, my goodness. Of course. What a terrible thing. And on your first day here. I do hope this doesn’t taint your impression of Serenity.’

‘Well, it wasn’t the best welcome.’

But I’m pretty sure Frankie’s family are having a worse day, I think.

‘I shall endeavour to make it up to you. Why don’t we meet up tomorrow? I can take you on a guided tour of the town, and then for lunch at Serenity Falls Hotel. Their deck has beautiful views out over the lake.’

I hesitated. ‘That sounds great, but I don’t really want to leave my daughter on her own right now.’

‘Of course. Understandable. How about my daughter, Ellis, shows Sadie around? She’s the same age so she can give her the unauthorized teenagers’ tour – then they can both meet us for some food. What do you say?’

What could I say? It was impossible to refuse. Why is it that other people’s hospitality can sometimes feel so fucking irritating?

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘That sounds great.’

‘Perfect. I’ll see you at eleven thirty.’

I haven’t broken the news about the guided tour to Sadie yet. She’s been worryingly calm about everything so far, but I know my daughter. The calm before the storm, and when it breaks, it’ll rip the roof off.

She pushes away the remains of her pizza. She’s only eaten a couple of slices and normally she has the appetite of a ravenous Labrador.

‘Not hungry?’

‘Not so much. Probably the heat – oh, and the dead body in the swimming pool.’

‘Look, I know this hasn’t been the best start—’

‘That’s like saying the Titanic didn’t have the best start, Dad.’

‘Right. But we can’t let it cloud everything. We’ll get the pool cleaned; the rest of our stuff should be arriving in a couple of days, and we can make this place feel more like home.’

‘You’re joking, right?’

‘What?’

‘You’re not actually considering staying here?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘Dad, we found a corpse in our swimming pool today. Bad omens don’t get much more frigging ominous.’

‘Sadie, it was a freak accident. And there’s no such thing as a bad omen.’

She snorts. ‘Says the man who won’t book row 13 on an aeroplane.’

‘That’s superstition, not an omen. It’s also not the point – this isn’t the first house we’ve lived in where someone has died. An old lady died in our last house.’

‘Years before we moved in, not minutes before we arrived.’