He handed me over to your mother and then ignored me. He didn’t care what happened to me. After my mum died, I was distraught. My world had ended. You tried to comfort me, but how many times did he try? Never. Not once. Too busy out doing whatever he was doing all the time.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean? Come on, sis. He was working.’
Leo didn’t respond and Ellie was quiet for a moment.
‘I suppose if he’d been more of a role model, I might have been less suspicious of Max. I instantly leapt to a conclusion - the wrong one. Poor Max.’
Ellie felt a slight increase in pressure from Leo in mute sympathy.
‘Am I allowed to ask? What have you told him?’ Leo said.
‘It was a hard decision. I did wonder whether telling him everything would be just an effective way of giving me absolution, and whether I shouldn’t live with the guilt. But Max and I had, until recently, been so close that we could practically see into each other’s minds. My mind would have permanently had a shutter in place, and I knew he would be able to see it and not understand what was behind it. So I had to tell him. I told him everything while you were in hospital.’
‘And…?’
‘And nothing. He’s angry, but partly at himself. He’d put up quite a few shutters too with that sodding Alannah. And God knows what he thought he was doing, going into property development with Sean!’
The two women were quiet for a moment.
But they’d had enough tension in the last weeks, and Ellie needed to help Leo to lighten up a bit. She gave her a gentle nudge in the ribs.
‘Anyway, how about you and your dashing policeman then? I hear he has a job offer in Manchester - is that right?’
Leo laughed.
‘He’s not my policeman, but yes. He has been offered a job, and I think he’s going to take it. He doesn’t want a promotion, he says, because he doesn’t want to be too office bound, and he doesn’t need the money. He’ll keep the cottage for weekends, but it’s a bit far for a daily commute so he’s going to look for something else for during the week.’
‘Leo, that man was a complete star in all this. What would we have done without him? Do you think that you and he might…?’
Leo nudged her sister back.
‘Enough, Ellie. We get on well, it has to be said, and he does have a few redeeming features.’
‘What, you mean apart from his good looks and his calm demeanour?’ Ellie asked with a grin.
‘For the record he can be a stroppy bugger so don’t let that Mr Nice Guy act fool you. But apart from that, he’s not the kind of guy to just jump me, if you know what I mean.’
‘Pity,’ Ellie said with a grin. ‘Anything else?’
‘Well… he cooks a mean curry, and I don’t think he’s ever likely to call me ‘Babes’. Two huge points in his favour.’
Ellie laughed and tucked herself in a bit near to her sister, making the most of the moment of closeness and wondering if it could last.
* * *
It was good to laugh after the previous two weeks, because there had been so much to cry about. The laughter was almost painful, as if it was something they’d forgotten how to do, and was forcing them to exercise muscles that were weak from lack of use.
Leo was relieved that they had changed the subject from her father. She had come so close to telling Ellie, but she knew that her sister was still very vulnerable. So despite her blog post, she was going to abide by Ellie’s wishes. Not keep anything from her, but wait until her sister decided she was ready to hear it. For now, it was too much.
Leo felt sorry about Sean, though. Whatever his crimes and however much he had confused Ellie, he hadn’t deserved to die. Ellie had told her all about the blackmail texts, and how she had ignored them because she believed they came from him. But Mimi had been getting into the house all the time, driven no doubt by her hatred of Ellie as Georgia’s best friend and greatest ally, mixed with her belief that Ellie was having an affair with the person who had knocked Abbie over and ruined all her plans.
Nobody knew even now why Mimi had thought that Gary was Ellie’s lover, and Leo had never admitted