eyes belying his energetic air.
‘Cheers.’ He ran a hand through his short salt and pepper hair. ‘Call me when you leave. And if you get an address for a girl called Rachel Johnson, let me know immediately.’
And he bounded up the stairs, out of hell, horribly aware it might be too late already.
Back in the land of the living, Silver tried Paige’s number but it just rang out. Walking back to the car, he phoned through to the station.
‘Can you try to track a number for me? I need the billing address.’ He gave them Paige aka Rachel’s number. ‘It’s urgent.’
He rang Philippa. ‘I’ll be home in an hour. Can we have a chat then?’
Next he rang Anne. ‘I’m sorry,’ he cut across her furious invective. ‘I know you think I’m irresponsible, but I have a duty here too. The kids will be fine with me. Is Ben there?’
‘No,’ she sniffed derisively. ‘He’s always with that Burton lass.’
‘Well,’ Silver grinned. ‘Young love, Anne. You must remember. You and Tony.’ His late father-in-law, a gem of a man. Passed away, thank God, before Lana’s disgrace. ‘You met at school, didn’t you?’
He felt Anne hesitate. He sensed her soften slightly. He took a deep breath now himself.
‘And Lana?’ He felt himself tense. ‘Any word?’
‘She left me another message. Said she’s getting her head together.’ He heard the quaver in Anne’s voice. ‘I’m scared, Joe.’
He was taken aback by her admission.
‘Anne,’ he wished for once that they were in the same room, ‘she’ll be fine. I’m sure. She’s just—’ he watched a young mother in a red sun-dress lean over her pushchair, cooing at her fat-faced baby, ‘she’s never recovered from that day. She’s still dealing with it. Badly, it would seem. And there’s nothing we can do, other than support her, I guess.’
‘I suppose,’ Anne sniffed again, but this time she was fighting the tears. ‘I just – I don’t know what went wrong, Joe. I – I tried so hard.’
‘It’s not your fault, Anne.’ He paused outside the grocers on the corner. ‘And it’s not mine.’ He’d needed to say that for a while. ‘It’s no one’s fault except Lana’s. Lana got addicted, and she got sick. And she made her choices. Now all we can do is help her live with them.’
Silver hung up soon after and walked into the shop; plucked a can of diet Coke from the fridge. He realised at that moment, icy tin in hand, that his life was going to have to change immensely. He paid the money and left.
MONDAY 24TH JULY CLAUDIE
Some time shortly after dawn, a sombre Asian girl opened the curtains and woke me. She presented me with a bowl of runny porridge and a cup of tea, and I forced myself to eat despite the foul appearance of the food, because I felt so weak and light-headed. I hoped it would help.
‘The Archangel, our true Bringer of Light, will visit you soon,’ the girl said joyfully.
‘Who?’ I answered, spooning the thin slop near my mouth and then dropping the spoon in repulsion.
‘I think you will be most pleased to be reunited,’ she smiled. She was quite pretty, but she had a very hairy face, I thought absently; hair grew on her cheeks in swirls beside her ears, joining her hair-line eventually.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I tried to lever myself out of the bed. I stared at her dove pendant as if it would give me clarity, remembering the necklace the intruder had dropped in my hallway. I clutched my own locket. ‘I think I should ring home now.’
But who would I ring? She looked at me with pity, as if she knew there was no one.
‘This is your home now,’ she said.
I flopped back on the bed. I kept smelling that odour I’d smelt on my arrival, and then in my mind’s-eye suddenly I saw the ruined note that Tessa had left with Mason the day before she died. ‘Take’ and ‘necklace’. That was what the smell was: the same as the herbs in the locket Tessa had given me months ago.
Frantically, I pulled at the chain round my neck, chafing my skin as I did so. ‘Take the necklace off’ – is that what she’d written? The smell of the herbs had always been noxious and yet I’d believed, because she’d told me, that they were spiritually good. But looking at these girls and their pendants, I felt a huge shiver go through my body. What if