The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,103

little side streets he knew and they walked together towards the town centre, slowly, because Lucy never walked quickly and because he was still getting that stabbing pain.

They went for coffee first. They’d drive to the big supermarket on the edge of the town for the main shop on their way home. There was a cafe that looked out over the river, where the bus station had been before it had moved, and they sat there, at their favourite table. Maurice wondered if all old people did this: if they saw the shadows of the past wherever they went. Past places and past people. He still thought of Lucy as a teenager. Then he thought he’d rather dream about the past than the future, because he didn’t know what would happen to Lucy when he died. He’d need to sort it out – he’d promised Maggie that he would – but he didn’t know where to start. When all this business at the Woodyard was over, he’d talk to Jonathan and see what he suggested.

Lucy’s eye was caught by the chocolate cake in the glass cabinet and he bought her a slice. He thought she deserved it, her friend going missing, the man she knew from the bus having been murdered. And anyway, he could deny her nothing. The cafe was getting busy; Lucy smiled and waved at everyone as they came in as if they were old friends.

Back out in the street, they wandered past the shops. Lucy liked looking at the clothes; Maurice thought she was like one of those birds that were attracted by bright and shiny things. She loved deep colours and wild patterns. Occasionally they bumped into people they knew and stopped to chat.

They were near the end of the high street on their way back to the car when Maurice saw Pam, the woman who used to work in the butcher’s shop where he’d spent his working life. Again, he found himself slipping back into the past, sharing memories and anecdotes. Pam was elderly now, a widow, but just as fierce and funny. She’d kept in touch with most of his colleagues and brought him up to date; some had died, some were in care homes, some were fighting fit and full of life.

‘It’s just a lottery, what happens to us, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Look at your Maggie. She was always the healthy one, you’d have thought she’d go on forever.’

That was when he realized that Lucy was missing. He turned, expecting to see her staring into nearby shop windows, thinking that she’d come back to him with a wish list, that wheedling voice. Dad, look at that scarf, those shoes.

But there was no sign of her. She must have wandered farther away, bored listening to the two friends talking about people she’d never met. Maurice had lost track of time.

‘Where’s Lucy?’ It was hard not to blame Pam for distracting him, though he knew he was really the one to blame. ‘Did you see where she went?’

Pam shook her head. She’d been as much caught up in the conversation as him, as lonely, perhaps, as he was.

Maurice felt himself breathless with panic. ‘You stay here, in case she comes back. I’ll look for her.’

‘All right, my lover.’ Her voice easy and indulgent. ‘You know she’ll be around somewhere. What can happen to her here?’

In that moment, Maurice thought he hated the woman. She had no idea of the danger Lucy could be in. He moved as fast as he could down the street, pushing open shop doors, shouting to the people inside, not caring that he looked like some sort of madman. Then there she was. He saw the dark hair and the purple cardigan. She was staring into the window of a jeweller’s, lusting no doubt over a silver pendant or a ring with a coloured stone.

‘Lucy,’ he said. ‘Maid, you’ve got no idea how scared I’ve been. Don’t ever go off like that again.’

The woman turned and smiled. She’d heard the anxiety in his voice but not his exact words. It wasn’t Lucy. It was a stranger who looked nothing like her at all.

* * *

Later, back in his own home, talking to Matthew Venn, Jonathan’s man, he couldn’t explain what might have happened. ‘She was there with me, and then she just disappeared.’

‘You’re sure Lucy was with you when you started talking to Pam?’ Venn was patient. He didn’t ask Maurice to hurry, or make him feel bad about