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‘Wh-what?’ Ella asked, gripping the worktop for support.
‘He’s dead. Killed by a hit-and-run driver.’
Ella took a seat. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Saw his body with my own eyes.’
‘Oh my God,’ she said, covering her mouth. ‘I’ve prayed for this for so long. I know how that sounds, but I can’t lie. That man destroyed my sister. He destroyed our family. Our own mother doesn’t even know where Charlotte is. Birch tricked her one time, and she’s blamed herself ever since.’
Ella stared at the table and started shaking her head. ‘I can’t quite believe it.’
Kim was reminded of the scene from the filmScroogedwhere the lives of many were improved due to the death of one man.
‘Seriously, you have no idea what that man did to my sister. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he robbed both me and Mum of time with her. He is the—’
‘Was,’ Kim corrected, reaching across and touching her arm. ‘Past tense. It’s over. Charlotte can come home.’
Tears started to fall even as a smile played around Ella’s mouth. ‘I’m sorry, I just don’t know how to act. Oh my God, I can’t wait to tell Charlotte. She’ll get a train and be back with us tomorrow. Mum will be—’
‘Tomorrow? I thought she lived in Australia or…’
‘No. My lie was deliberate. I’ve had years to practise it.
‘After the time Mum got tricked, I swore that no one would get any idea of her whereabouts. Since then, Charlotte won’t even drive a car because she’d have to be registered on the DVLA site, and she didn’t trust that Birch wouldn’t find her through that somehow. I’ve said the same thing to anyone that’s asked about her. She would never have moved so far away from Mum. She’s in Newcastle, and we speak briefly every two months. Come with me to tell Mum.’
Kim followed an excitable Ella through to the lounge. Kim wasn’t sure of the woman’s age but she seemed to have dropped ten years at the news.
‘Mum, guess what?’ Ella asked, sitting beside her mother and taking her hand.
‘What, love?’ the woman asked, opening her eyes wide.
‘We can all be together again. Terence Birch is dead. Charlotte can come home.’
Mrs Danks patted her daughter’s hand. ‘Oh, that’s nice, love. Now who on earth is Charlotte?’
THIRTY-EIGHT
Kim swallowed down the sickness in her throat as she walked past the building where Stacey and Devon lived. The curtains were drawn so she was in no danger of being seen.
As she’d suspected, the light-blue Ford Focus was parked at the end of the road.
She didn’t expect it to bear any damage. It wasn’t the vehicle that had struck Terence Birch, but it was possible that it was the car that had caused the accident in the first place.
Kim wasn’t proud of her actions, skulking around in her colleague’s neighbourhood. But there was an itch in her mind that had to be scratched.
She walked slowly along the pavement, looking carefully on both sides.
On the third house away from Stacey’s, she saw what she was after.
The Ring doorbell was sited just inside an open porch, and she was guessing it had a good view of the road.
She knocked on the door and got her identification ready. She pushed away the feeling of doing something wrong. She was a police officer wanting to view some CCTV.
A woman in her mid-fifties answered the door with glasses pushed up onto the top of her head.
‘Sorry to bother you,’ Kim said, showing her ID. ‘But I see you have a camera here.’
The woman looked at the device as though confirming that yes, it was there.
