Page 59 of Good Bad Girl

“And then lost her again it seems. She came here, to the police station in Covent Garden.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Unless she has a twin.”

“I’m sorry. She’s such a nuisance. I’ll come and collect her as soon as I—”

“You can’t. That’s why I’m calling. She said she knew who killed the care home manager...” Clio’s thoughts collide like clouds creating a violent storm inside her head. She only hearsthe last few words the detective says. “...And that’s where she is now.”

“Sorry, where is my mother now?” Clio asks.

“The hospital. Like I said, she got herself extremely worked up and was very upset. The paramedics said they thought it was a heart attack, she was unconscious when they put her in the ambulance. If you want to see her, I suggest you go right away.”

Frankie

“I don’t know how I let you talk me into this,” Clio says, sitting in the passenger seat of the camper van and checking her seat belt for the tenth time. Frankie is equally surprised that the woman in the pink house accepted her offer of a lift.

She shrugs. “Well, it’s hard to get a taxi at this time of night.”

“I know the way to the hospital. So if you’re planning to drive me down a back lane or a dark alley and—”

“I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just trying to help,” Frankie says.

“Why?”

“Because your mother is in the hospital.”

They drive in silence for a while. It is too uncomfortable but Frankie can’t think of anything appropriate to say.

“I like your red trainers,” she blurts out eventually.

“What?”

“Your trainers, I think they’re really cool.”

Clio stares at her. “Do you have any inkling what a weird thing that is to say, given the circumstances?”

“I was just trying to be nice.”

“Well, don’t. If any taxi company had been able to send a car sooner, this would not be happening.”

“You’re welcome,” Frankie says.

“Maybe we could just travel in silence?”

“Maybe you should learn to drive.”

Frankie puts the radio on. Once again, this isn’t playing out the way she imagined. All these years she thought she was a good person who did a bad thing. But now she’s starting to doubt herself. Do bad people know that’s what they are? Maybe all villains are the heroes of their own stories.

Clio reaches for the radio and switches it off. “Tell me about her.”

“Who?”

“Your daughter.”

Frankie hesitates, not sure if she wants to share the person she loves most with the person she hates the most.

“She’s your daughter too,” Frankie says, staring at the road ahead.

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