her palms up to the sky.
‘Sorry. I’m sorry.’ His first words fell to splinters in the open air. His knees felt hot.
‘You just left,’ she said. A strand of hair caught in the corner of her mouth and how appalling it was that he would not be the one who was allowed to free it.
Red prickled round her eyes and nose, and her voice was a mixture of loud and quiet. ‘I thought you would hunt me down.’
‘I didn’t want to hunt you. I’m sorry. I was awful.’
She put a hand to her forehead and hid her face. She opened her mouth and closed it again with a terrible silent cry. He opened his mouth to speak, but she waved a hand at him and he closed it. She put her hand over her mouth and looked at him. She shook her head and waved him away again as if he had come towards her. ‘You don’t even know what you’ve done to me, do you?’
Yes I do, he thought. I do know, I do.
Then she turned round slowly and walked down the steps.
You are watching her leave, he told himself. You’re watching her leave and if you ran down after her things might be different. But she opened the door of her car and, without looking back, slid in and slammed it behind her. As the car pulled away he said under his breath, ‘Go, go, go,’ but he didn’t know if the instruction was to Lucy or himself, so he stayed put as if she’d never been there, the only difference was that one of the cold beers had slipped from his grasp without him noticing. White froth collected round his toes.
32
On a Monday morning a man arrived wearing a grey suit and carrying a briefcase. Leon looked at him and saw that he hadn’t come to buy scones.
‘Mr Collard?’
He met his eyes for a second, hoped to see something a bit light in his bearing. There was nothing. ‘That’s me. What can I get you?’
‘Are you the only son of Roman and Maureen Collard?’
‘I am.’
‘Mr Collard, my name is Gregory Thorpe, I was your parents’ solicitor. I’m afraid, Mr Collard, it is my sad duty to inform you that your parents are now deceased. I’m so very sorry.’
Leon leant on the counter. A woman came in and asked for a plum tart, which he boxed and bagged, counting out the correct change, doing everything exactly as he would have done before.
The man in the suit stood by politely. When the woman had gone he said, ‘Excuse my presumptuousness, Mr Collard, but perhaps you’d like to close the shop for the next half-hour while we talk? Give yourself some breathing space?’
He heard Amy moving around in the bathroom upstairs. ‘No. It’s fine. How did it happen?’
‘I’m afraid, Mr Collard, I don’t have that information. You’d need to talk to the head of police in Mulaburry for that kind of information.’ There was a look about him, a quick smile and a shrug that said he did know, he just was not going to tell.
‘What do I need to do?’ He wasn’t sure what kind of answer he expected.
‘Mr Collard, I’m here to inform you of a property that has been left to you. By your parents,’ he added needlessly.
Leon nodded. From upstairs came the loud clack of something being dropped and he tensed until he heard the sound of Amy swearing at herself.
Gregory Thorpe smiled pursedly and opened his briefcase, which now rested on the counter. ‘The deeds to the property. Everything has been left just as it was since their deaths, as no one wanted to presume to know what you would want done with their belongings.’
He handed them over and Leon glanced at the papers. ‘They don’t live so far away from here,’ he said.
Gregory Thorpe shifted uncomfortably. ‘No. I suppose they didn’t.’ He smiled in what was possibly meant to be a sympathetic way. ‘If you could just sign some things for me, Mr Collard, then I will leave you to your grief.’
He signed where Gregory Thorpe pointed and Gregory Thorpe looked happy. He snapped his briefcase shut. ‘Well, it’s been a pleasure to meet with you, Mr Collard. And I do hope you will accept my sincerest condolences.’ He began to walk towards the door.
‘Wait,’ said Leon.
Gregory Thorpe turned to him, a look of undisguised impatience on his face. ‘Yes?’
‘Haven’t you got some keys for me or something?’
Gregory Thorpe smiled. ‘There’s no lock on