Page 74 of None of This is True

Thursday, 25 July

Alix’s mother spends the night. She comes with Alix the following day to the end-of-term assembly in the overwarm school hall, where the doors are standing open but no cool air is getting in. They sit side by side on a bench, their knees bent up into sharp angles, and Alix knows that her mother, though young for her age, will be glad when it is over and she can stretch her legs again. It is the end of primary school for Eliza. In the world in which she lived before Saturday night, this had been the day that Alix had been feeling most anxious about. The end of an era. The end of the safety net of a kind, nurturing primary school. No more sky-blue polo shirts for Eliza. No more Velcro-fastening book bag. No more assemblies for Alix to join in, no more museum trips for her to accompany.

And then it is over, the school spills out, the sun is shining, the summer has begun, six weeks of innocence and freedom and the beginning of a new stage of her daughter’s life and she feels none of it. They go to the park and queue for ice creams. The children play with their friends. Alix sits with her mother, away from the other parents. They head home and Alix puts the children’s uniforms in the washing machine for the last time until September. She waits as long as she can, which turns out to be 4.58 p.m., and then she pours wine for herself and her mother.

And then, as she glances at her empty glass and considers the possibility of pouring herself another one, even though it’s not yet five thirty, her phone rings, and it’s Sabrina Albright.

‘Guess who’s just walked into the station, Alix? And wants to see you?’

Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin!

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES

The screen shows a young woman sitting in a vintage armchair placed in the middle of an empty, softly lit room.

She has blonde hair, shaved short on one side and grown to shoulder length on the other. She wears a buttoned-up pale blue shirt and black jeans.

She has many earrings in both ears and smiles nervously.

On the screen below are the words:

Roxy Fair, daughter of Josie and Walter Fair

The screen cuts to the title graphics and the episode ends.

***

2.50 p.m.

Roxy picks at the skin around her fingernails and stares at the clock on the wall. She is about to find out what the hell is going on, if anyone would ever actually come and see her. A few minutes later the door opens and a pair of feds walk in, a man and a woman, Chris and Sabrina they’re called, and they smile and say how sorry they are about Roxy’s dad and then they clear their throats and open notepads and the woman says, ‘Do you know where your mother is, Roxy?’

Roxy shakes her head. ‘I haven’t seen her since I was sixteen.’

‘We’ve managed to get hold of your grandmother, Pat O’Neill?’

Roxy nods.

‘She’s in Menorca, but she’s heading back tomorrow. She says you’ll be able to stay with her, if you want?’

‘I can’t stay. I have work. I need to get back.’

‘OK. That’s fine. But you should know, if you haven’t already seen it in the news, that we are actively searching for your mother in relation to your father’s murder and the attempted murder of Erin.’

Roxy flicks a gaze at the female police detective and then at the male. ‘Seriously?’

‘Yes. There’s a lot going on at the moment, Roxy. And I think it might be best to talk you through it a step at a time, so it doesn’t get too confusing. Is that OK?’

Roxy nods tightly.

‘It sounds as if your mum and dad had a row on the night of Friday the twelfth of July. They’d been for dinner at a friend’s house—’

Roxy interjects with a snort of laughter. ‘Yeah, right.’

‘A woman called Alix Summer had recently befriended your mother. They’d been working on some kind of project together for a few weeks. This culminated in a dinner invitation on that Friday night. A few hours after your mother and father left Mrs Summer’s house, your mother reappeared on Mrs Summer’s doorstep badly injured, claiming to have been beaten by your father.’

‘My father?’

‘Yes. That is what she told Mrs Summer. She told Mrs Summer that she and Erin had left the flat together in the early hours of the morning and implied that your father was alive and well. She then spent a week living at Mrs Summer’s house, before leaving on Saturday morning, telling Mrs Summer that she was going to her mother’s flat, your grandma, Pat. The same night, Mrs Summer’s husband disappeared after a night out in town drinking with friends. The two events would seem to be entirely unrelated, apart from the fact that the hotel room that Mrs Summer’s husband was staying in when he disappeared, and the car that was filmed collecting him from the hotel he was staying at, were both paid for by a debit card in the name of …’

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