The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,81

own us.’ She felt that her hand holding the glass was shaking a little. She drank and then set it back on the table.

Caz didn’t say anything. Perhaps she was remembering secrets of her own.

When it was her turn to perform, Gaby got to her feet and walked through the shadowy room. She was suddenly so nervous that she wasn’t sure her legs would carry her to the low stage. She’d changed in the studio before coming to the cafe and was still in black, but in a slinky dress and heels. She took the proffered microphone and stood for a moment looking out at them. The audience’s faces were lit by candle flame from below, and they looked like masks, barely human. The band started the intro and soon she was captured by the music, or escaping into it, singing of loss and love. As she finished, she looked to the back of the room where her group had been sitting. With surprise, she saw that Christopher Preece was there, standing behind his daughter. Gaby was touched that he’d come along to show his support. Caz and Ed were holding hands, staring at each other, their faces caught in the candlelight, in a way that Gaby suddenly found very moving. She handed back the microphone and began to make her way back to her seat. Only then did she realize that there were tears streaming down her face.

Chapter Twenty-Five

JEN RAFFERTY WAS IN THE HOSPITAL. It was evening and the lights had been switched down. Christine had had a barrage of tests. She was fine but the consultant had decided to keep her in overnight. The nurses at their station spoke in whispers. Jen was keeping vigil with Christine’s mother and Matthew’s mother, Dorothy Venn. Christine herself was deeply asleep, troubled only by an occasional loud snore, which startled her for a moment but never really woke her.

The two older women sat on one side of the bed on the easy chairs provided for patients and visitors and Jen was on the other side on the hard, orange plastic seat she’d dragged from the corridor. The curtains had been drawn around them. Despite the discomfort, Jen found herself drowsing. Matthew had said she should leave if it seemed that Christine would be unlikely to pass on any useful information – she could always come back in the morning – but Jen stayed out of inertia. And because she was earwigging on Susan and Dorothy’s conversation. They seemed to have forgotten that she was on the other side of the bed.

‘I don’t understand what Chrissie was doing all the way out there,’ Susan said.

‘It’s not so far from your Grace and Dennis’s place.’ Dorothy Venn was furthest away from Jen and her face was in shadow, but her voice was clear. ‘Not as the crow flies. We used to walk from Lovacott up to the pond when we were children for the summer picnic with the Brethren. You remember those picnics, Susan. What wonderful times we had! There was the three-legged race and hide-and-seek and our mothers had all baked, the fields were covered in buttercups and clover, all pink and yellow.’ She paused as if lost in her memory, before continuing more sharply: ‘It’s hardly any distance, even the little ones kept up.’

‘What are you saying? That Dennis did take her back to their house after all, and Chrissie ran off? That would make him a liar.’

There was a silence that dragged on so long that it became uncomfortable. In the end it was broken again by Susan.

‘Grace won’t hear a word said against him.’

‘Grace is a loyal wife,’ Dorothy agreed. There was another pause before she continued. ‘Matthew says you shouldn’t let Chrissie back there. Not until the investigation into the dead man is over.’

‘I won’t,’ Susan said. There was no hesitation this time and her voice was fierce. ‘I won’t be letting her out of my sight, whoever wants to care for her. She’ll be staying with me from now on.’

That was when Jen decided she could leave the women to it. Susan would be there for Christine in the unlikely event that she needed protecting. She could talk to Christine tomorrow, when the woman had had a good night’s sleep and when she was back in her own home. She’d have more to tell them then. She said her goodbyes and left. It wasn’t until she got home that she remembered seeing Colin Marston marching into the