but said nothing.
In the event, they were longer than they thought buying the groceries and for once Leo enjoyed shopping for food. Ellie made everything sound so tasty. She could eulogise over some raw prawns, when all Leo could see were grey, slimy looking things. Somehow Ellie made them sound plump, pink and mouth-watering.
Ellie glanced at her watch.
‘I think we need to do a bit of multi tasking here, Leo. I’ll walk round to the collection point, but can you take the shopping back to the car and drive round to meet me?’
Leo looked at her sister in surprise.
‘Drive your car? To what do I owe this privilege? Max seemed to think that would be out of the question.’
‘Hah! That’s because I wouldn’t let him borrow it.’ Ellie giggled. ‘It was all part of my cunning plan to get him to buy a new one. But of course you can drive it, and so can Max.’
Ellie threw the keys to her sister, and set off back towards the department store.
Leo pushed the trolley through the car park, and in spite of only having the vaguest idea of where they’d parked, she found Ellie’s Mercedes easily and went straight to the rear to unload the shopping. With the trolley returned, she went round to the driver’s side, and stopped. There was something on the windscreen.
Strange, she thought. Why would anybody leave a fake flower there? She pulled it out from under the wiper blade, climbed into the car and threw it on the passenger seat. After giving herself a moment or two to become familiar with the controls, Leo drove round to where her sister was waiting with some large bags. She pulled into a parking bay and jumped out to give Ellie a hand. Everything was quickly stowed in the back of the car, and Ellie surprised Leo.
‘You drive. Just to prove that I am not precious about my car.’
Leo shrugged and went back round to the driver’s door. As she settled into her seat and adjusted the mirror, she realised that Ellie wasn’t in the car. She was standing by the passenger side, holding the fake yellow rose and staring at it intently.
‘What’s this doing here?’ she asked Leo, her voice wobbling slightly.
‘Oh yes. I’d forgotten about it. The weirdest thing,’ Leo said. ‘It was on the windscreen when I got back to the car. It’s like those that were on display with the freesias, isn’t it?’
Ellie didn’t answer. She walked over to the nearest waste bin and threw it in. When she returned to the car, she was quiet. The earlier good humour seemed to have evaporated.
19
Pat had told Mimi that he was going to see Abbie’s parents, which was the truth. But he wasn’t there for very long. He only stayed for half an hour. Kath Campbell was at the hospital, and her husband Brian was in no fit state for visitors, although he had asked if Pat would help the police to talk to the ‘little cows’ that had been out with Abbie on Friday night to see if they were holding anything back. But then he had given up trying to speak. The poor man had started to weep openly and Pat had found it difficult to know what to say.
He wasn’t good at dealing with other people’s grief. It affected him deeply, and he needed to share his feelings with somebody. His first thought was Georgia. It was always Georgia. God, what a mess.
He decided to drive his car out into the country. He needed some thinking time, and he needed time without Mimi. He knew he was going to have to deal with his own problems, one way or another. But Mimi was expecting his child now, and whatever mistakes he might have made, it wasn’t the baby’s fault.
His car seemed to have a mind of its own, though, and within fifteen minutes he found himself outside his home. His real home. Georgia’s car was in the drive. Without stopping to think, he made his way up the front path and approached the door. He remembered how much they had loved this house from the moment they saw it. A large, late Victorian semi, it had huge bay windows and high ceilings. With fields to the rear, it had a stunning view over the Cheshire countryside to the hills beyond.
He knocked on the door, realising that using his key wouldn’t set the right tone. He needn’t have worried. Georgia opened the door, and