had seen running up the cliff last night. The same someone whose life she had once saved. What was Jackson Brodie doing here? He was a man who brought confusion in his wake. And he owed her money.
‘Wendy Ives?’ Ronnie said. ‘No, that’s a major crime investigation. This is nothing to worry about, sir. Just an old case that we’re looking into. Your name came up in connection with one of several individuals we’re investigating and so we would like to ask you some routine questions, if that’s all right? We’re trying to build a picture of these individuals, fill in some background details.’
‘Of course, anything to help,’ Tommy said amiably. ‘Who are these “individuals”, if you don’t mind me asking?’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Holroyd, I’m not able to tell you that. Mr Holroyd – have you ever heard of something called the magic circle?’
All three of them heard the sound of a car making its fast and furious escape.
‘Did you hear that?’ Ronnie puzzled to Reggie.
‘What?’ Reggie said, mirroring her frown. ‘The unmistakeable sound of a car being driven away at speed?’
‘Was that Mrs Holroyd leaving?’ Ronnie asked Tommy Holroyd, smiling pleasantly. ‘It looks like you won’t be getting that coffee.’
He frowned at her as if he was trying to translate what she was saying.
Reggie stood up and walked over to one of High Haven’s big picture windows. It was at the back of the house. No driveway, no cars, only sea and sky as far as the eye could see.
‘Wow,’ she said.
Christina and Felicity. Running. Running away.
Christina, Tina to her friends, although she only had the one, Felicity – Fee. Tina and Fee running down the street, helter-skelter, screaming with laughter, like hostages who had freed themselves, although it wasn’t as if the doors of their care home were locked, or even as if anyone was bothered whether they were inside it or not. The Elms, it was called, and there was precious little care on offer.
The Elms was a place for ‘difficult girls’ and Tina had never understood why she had ended up there because she didn’t consider herself to be in the least bit difficult. She’d been taken into care after her mother abandoned her and her father was deemed unfit to look after her, after he had tried to pimp her out to his drinking pals in the pub. The Elms seemed like a punishment for something her parents had done, not her.
Fee had been in foster care since she was five and she was difficult. She was a rebel, bold and mouthy – ‘a wicked girl’, Giddy said. Mrs Gidding – Giddy she was called, of course. She was short and fat – round almost, like an egg. Tina liked to imagine her rolling down the big staircase at the Elms and breaking into bits at the bottom. Giddy had fluffy hair and was always shouting at the girls in her high squeaky voice, but none of them took any notice of her. There was an assistant manager who was a different kettle of fish. Davy – a big burly bloke who always looked as if he wanted to belt the living daylights out of the girls, although he bought cigarettes for them and even cans of lager sometimes. Fee was always wheedling stuff out of him. The Flea, he called her. Tina was Teeny – you wouldn’t think it but she’d been a small kid. Sometimes Tina had seen Fee stumbling out of Davy’s airless nicotine-stained office looking pale and sick, but when Tina asked her if she was okay she just shrugged and said, ‘Top of the Pops,’ which was one of her sayings (along with ‘Ah, Bisto’ and ‘Can I have a P, Bob?’).
They’d ‘escaped’ before, lots of times, of course. They’d caught the bus into the town centre a few times and nicked stuff from Woolworths – a New Kids on the Block CD (there was a machine in the rec room), a bottle of nail varnish, a strawberry-flavoured lip gloss and loads of sweets. They’d gone to the cinema as well, sneaking in the fire exit to see Candyman and then having nightmares for weeks. They’d hitched to Grimsby (horrid, rightly named) and to Beverley (boring), but now they were on a bigger adventure. And not only were they getting away, they were getting away for good. No going back. Not ever. Running.
It was Fee who suggested they go to Bridlington because that was where the two pervy blokes lived.