Page 87 of The Fall-Out

‘It was good. Interesting. I’ll tell you all about it soon. But first, there’s something I really wanted to ask you.’

Kate gestured to one of the chairs, poured the wine and sat down. ‘Go ahead.’

‘It’s about Bridget.’

‘Bridget? Your mother-in-law?’

I nodded. ‘I’ve been worried about her. She’s getting absent-minded – well, more absent-minded. She keeps calling Toby and Meredith Patrick and Niamh, and the other day she almost burnt our house down when she was babysitting.’

I poured out the story and Kate listened, her head on one side as she nibbled a cheese straw.

‘I thought you might have some advice,’ I finished, ‘because of all the stuff you do with your lonely older people who meet for coffee and company at St Mildred’s church.’

‘St Mungo’s,’ she corrected. ‘And I don’t actually do anything. Mona organises it all. I just turn up and drop off cake for them when I’ve been up all night baking because I haven’t been able to sleep.’

I knew this, of course – but I also knew that Kate loved nothing better than a problem she might be able to help solve.

‘But I suppose I pick up a bit,’ she went on. ‘Just through chatting to Mona. When elderly people are isolated, it can sometimes accelerate symptoms of dementia – if it is dementia. And often it isn’t. Other things can present in the same way – urinary tract infections, deafness, plain old loneliness.’

‘I see,’ I said.

‘So it sounds like a trip to her GP is the first step,’ she said. ‘And why not bring her along to St Mungo’s? I know it’s a bit of a journey for you but they’re a friendly lot. Mona’s got a real gift for getting people to open up about their problems. They meet every Wednesday and Saturday at ten.’

‘I will,’ I said. ‘Thank you.’

Kate smiled and sat back in her chair. Beyond her, I could see the setting sun glinting off the river, Tower Bridge silhouetted in front of it. The cries of gulls rang out over the water and I could hear a group of young men laughing as they walked along the path below.

I can do this, I told myself. I can get everything back to how it used to be – before Zara came back.

‘Now, tell me about Paris.’ The tentative ease there’d been between us seemed to have faded now; Kate was looking down at her hands instead of at me, twisting her fingers together in her lap. ‘Did you see Zara?’

I said, ‘No, we didn’t. We tried, but we didn’t. We did see her old flatmate, though –Gabrielle. And we saw her cat.’

Kate’s face turned white, as if there was no blood left in her at all. ‘Oh no. Does that mean she?—’

‘No! Not that,’ I hastened to reassure her. ‘She’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with her. Well, nothing except…’

Quickly, I filled her in on the story, watching as her expression went from bemused to incredulous to amused.

‘My God,’ she breathed, when I’d finished. ‘That’s – I mean, I’d say it was incredible. But it’s not, really, is it?’

‘Not really.’

‘And it’s a massive relief, obviously.’ I could see the analytical part of her brain working – If that wasn’t true, what else isn’t true?

I seized the moment. ‘So that made me realise there’s something I need to ask you.’

The smile faded from Kate’s face. She looked closed again, guarded. ‘Go on.’

‘When you met up with her, back in February, what happened? What did she tell you?’

Kate sighed. ‘She told me she felt partly responsible for what happened with Andy.’

‘Wait, what? She did?’

‘She told me about a time Andy visited her in Paris. It was a couple of years back, she said, during his sober period. They went out together, and they – you know. Partied.’

I sighed. ‘You know what Andy was like. You could have dropped him down on the surface of the moon and he’d find a dealer. Go on.’

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