she meant to light up there in the classroom. Monica Patterson-Hughes looked suitably appalled. She said, "My dear, you can't - " to which Lexie informed her she'd damn well do what she bloody liked.
Meredith thought this might be smearing things on a bit thick, and she got her "younger sister"
out of the classroom posthaste.
Lexie crowed once they were outside. She said, "Tha' was great fun, that," and
"Where're we off to next?" and "I'll talk 'bout me boyfriend at the next place. What d'you think?"
Meredith wanted to tell her that a wee bit less drama would serve them better but Lexie had few enough diversions in her life and if this little jaunt of theirs had the potential of supplying her with some excitement in the absence of such from her Bible-thumping parents, that was fine by her. So at the New Forest District Council offices - which they found in Lyndhurst in a U of buildings called Appletree Court - they put on a performance of such conviction that they were immediately ushered into the presence of a social worker called Dominic Cheeters, who brought them coffee and lemony ginger biscuits and seemed so eager to help that Meredith felt a nagging sense of guilt that they were lying to the man.
But here, too, in the council offices they learned there was no programme being established for girls at risk, and definitely no programme being established by one Gina Dickens from Winchester. Dominic, helpful to the core of his being, even went to the trouble of phoning round various of his "personal sources," as he called them. But the result was the same. Nothing.
So then he went further afield, phoning the local education offices in Southampton to see if they could be of help. By this time, Meredith reckoned she knew that they could not help and such was the case.
The enterprise with Lexie Streener ate up most of her day, as things turned out. But Meredith considered it time well spent. She now had proof positive, she decided, that Gina Dickens was a flaming liar about her life in the New Forest. And Meredith knew from personal experience that where a person told one lie, dozens of others existed.
WHEN HE WAS alone again, Gordon whistled urgently for Tess. The dog came running.
She'd been out on the property since early morning, ultimately taking herself to her favourite shady spot, beneath a climbing hydrangea on the north side of the cottage. There she had a lair of beaten earth kept moist even on the hottest summer days.
He fetched the retriever's brush, and Tess gave him that loopy smile and wagged her tail.
She leapt up onto the short-legged table he used for this purpose, and he drew his stool near and began with her ears. She needed a proper brushing daily anyway, and now was a good time to do it.
He wanted a smoke, but he didn't have any fags on him, so he applied himself forcefully and rapidly to the brushing of the dog. He felt tight from head to toe, and he wanted to get loose and be easy. He didn't know how to manage that, so he brushed the dog and he brushed the dog.
They'd walked away from the car towards and ultimately into the barn. Gina would have wondered why, but that couldn't be allowed to matter because Gina was untouched, like a lily growing out of an excrement heap, and he meant to keep her that way. So he left her standing in the driveway looking puzzled or frightened or concerned or anxious or whatever it was that a woman might feel when the man she's opened her heart to seems to be under the thumb of someone who could hurt him or hurt them both.
He brushed the dog and he brushed the dog. He heard Tess whine. He was being too rough. He eased the pressure. He brushed the dog.
So they'd gone into the barn and before they got there, Gordon had tried to make it look as if the call from this stranger had to do with the land. He'd gestured here and there, and that had amused. The other chuckled.
"Understand your lady love's gone missing," he'd said, once they were within the cooler confines of the barn. "But looks to me" - with a wink and coarse gesture that he was meant to take as sexual and did - "like you've no worries on that score. She's a nice bit, that one, nicer