Page 79 of The World Outside My Window

Laura feels her face flame as everyone turns to look at her. She can hardly bring herself to look at Ben.

‘Well, that doesn’t mean anything, does it?’ Carol blusters, and Laura has never been so grateful for Carol’s lack of tact.

‘Of course it means something,’ Marjorie says, her voice louder, and Faye lays her hand on her mother’s arm. ‘I also told Laura that Jim liked a reading sometimes too, andhedidn’t think they were a load of old nonsense.’

Laura clears her throat. ‘Yes, Mrs Phillips did say that—’

‘Marjorie.’

‘Marjorie did tell me that,’ Laura corrects herself, ‘and I was very grateful that she took the time to do it. Maybe we could add it to the board anyway?’

‘Yes, we wouldn’t want to miss anyvital evidence,’ Marjorie says, smiling with satisfaction as Carol huffs and writes down

tarot reading

at the bottom of her list.

‘Anything else?’ Carol says crossly, looking round the room and very deliberately avoiding Marjorie’s gaze.

‘I have something to add,’ Debbie says.

‘Do you?’ Carol says.

Debbie looks at Laura, who takes over. ‘Ben and I—’ she flushes at mentioning his name, aware that Jane will be interested in the fact they’ve spent time together ‘—we broke into a locked drawer in Jim’s office at home and found – well, we found a card from Jim’s dad for his thirtieth birthday.’ She pauses and looks up. ‘Jim told me his Dad died when he was twelve.’

Marjorie gasps. ‘See, a past that doesn’t serve her well,’she says to Faye, who holds her finger to her lips to shush her. Carol can barely contain her glee at this development.

‘So, what do we think it means?’ she says.

‘I don’t think Laura’s sure,’ Ben says. ‘We wondered whether there might have been someone else called Jim in the family that she doesn’t know about.’

Carol considers it for a moment, her pen to her lips. ‘Does that seem likely, Laura?’

‘Well—’ She stops, unsure how much to reveal. ‘Jim doesn’t really have any family that I’ve known about. He told me his parents died when he was younger and I’ve never met anyone else. He’s always said there’s no one else around but I… I think we might be wise to add this to the list just in case.’

Carol adds

Jim’s father still alive?

to the board and tries not to look too pleased about the situation. ‘Right, I think that’s everything, isn’t it?’ she says, looking round the room like an officious school marm.

‘Actually there are a couple more things,’ Laura says, and Carol stops in her tracks.

‘Oh?’

‘The police came to speak to me a couple of days ago and said there has been a possible sighting of Jim in London.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, that’s marvellous.’ Carol and Arthur both speak at the same time.

‘Where was this?’ Sonja says. ‘Was it near to where I saw him?’

Laura shakes her head. ‘It was in Putney. South-west London,’ she adds.

‘So are they trying to find him?’ Carol’s words are tripping over themselves in her excitement at this new lead. Oh, she knew she’d make a good detective, she always guesses the endings before Arthur does onThe Bill.

‘Someone claims to have seen him and they managed to take a photo,’ Laura explains. ‘So police are trying to find out more.’ She doesn’t mention the fact that she wasn’t – and still isn’t – entirely convinced that the blurry photo they showed her was actually of Jim. She needs to cling to any tiny shred of information they do have.

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