Page 33 of She Saw What He Did

Chapter Twenty-One

Abby

Everything looks so normal that I could easily convince myself that the last forty-eight hours have just been a bad dream. Our cottage, in the depths of the Fernsea countryside is the most welcome sight ever and when the front door opens and Sam comes rushing out, her eyes bright with excitement, it’s all I can do not to burst into tears. Daphne stands on the threshold wearing an apron. It’s boringly normal and I love it. I feel a small twinge of anger towards Jared. If he hadn’t had that stupid affair we would never have gone to the islands and our family would never have been at risk as it now is. Daphne gives us a tight smile. She’s anxious but trying to hide it from Sam.

‘Hello darling,’ I say, hugging Sam close to me. ‘Have you had a good time with Grandma and Gramps?’

‘We went to the zoo,’ exclaims Sam, tripping over her words in her excitement. ‘Come and see the drawing I made you.’

Daphne hurries to Jared and hooks his arm into hers. Her usually neat blonde hair has been scraped into an untidy bun. She’s not the immaculate Daphne I know.

‘I’ve got the kettle on,’ she says, helping him into the house.

‘You needn’t have got the train,’ she says reprovingly. ‘We would have collected you.’

‘It would have been too much,’ says Jared.

‘Are you okay?’ she whispers as I pass.

I nod but I’m feeling far from okay. I notice the lounge has been hoovered and we’re greeted by the smell of polish and I sniff it gratefully. I want everything to be as it always was. Boring and predictable; at least that was safe.

‘I only tidied a bit,’ smiles Daphne.

Her normal cheery face is drawn. She’d wanted desperately to come to the islands, but I’d talked her out of it, assuring her that Jared was fine and apart from being extremely tired, he was almost back to his normal self. Joe hugs me tightly.

‘You alright girl?’ he says in the rough manner he has, and I nod.

‘We’ll talk later,’ he says.

I praise Sam’s drawing and again hug her close to me. I don’t know what to do. I feel totally helpless. How can I protect my family? Jared’s eyes meet mine and I see the same shadow of fear in his. There’s a murderer on the loose. He could be anywhere. Even right now, he could be watching us. We’d talked endlessly on the way home about what to do and finally realised there was absolutely nothing we could do.

I glance at Sam and feel a chill run through me. I fight the impulse to jump up and close the curtains.

‘What’s this?’ asks Sam, rummaging in my rucksack.

She’s holding the geocache we found.

‘Oh, sweetie, perhaps …’ I begin.

‘It’s so lovely,’ she gushes.

‘It’s for you,’ says Jared before I can stop him.

I look at the box and shiver. I hadn’t wanted to give it to Sam. The sight of it stirs up the horror all over again. I should have dumped it before we left the island. Sam is fascinated by it.

‘It’s treasure isn’t it Mummy?’ she breathes.

She doesn’t let it out of her sight for the rest of the evening. When it’s time for bed I have to agree to the box sitting pride of place on her dressing table.

‘Can we open the treasure box tomorrow?’ she asks.

‘I don’t think it does open darling.’

‘Thank you, Mummy,’ she says, cuddling me.

I pull the duvet over her and leave the room. In the hallway mirror I glance at my reflection and am shocked by how drawn I am. My eyes are red and there are fine lines around them which I’m sure weren’t there before. I look older than my thirty-eight years. I brush my blonde streaked hair behind my ears and go back downstairs. Jared has uncorked a bottle of wine and I take a glass gratefully.

‘They accused us of being drunk,’ I say bitterly.

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