Page 88 of Deep Blue Lies
“Wow. OK. How do you feel?”
“I don’t know. I need time to process.”
“OK. That makes sense.” Sophia hesitates.
“What is it?”
“Well…it’s good news. You know Mum asked the nurse to keep us informed if anything changed with Imogen? She’s just called.”
“And?” I hold my breath.
“I told you. It’s good news. She’s awake. She’s out of the coma. They don’t want anyone to visit her now because she’s really weak, but you can visit her tomorrow. You can hear her side of the story. Whatever it is.”
I don’t reply, instead I look over at Mum, who’s sitting up straight, adjusting her hair like she’s about to take a selfie for Instagram. Mum who said Imogen has nothing to tell me, just drug-fuelled paranoia. Except, why would she come all the way out hereif she had nothing to say? And why would someone attack her on the beach?
“Ava, you still there?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Are you gonna go, do you want me to come with you? I can get the day off.”
“Um…”
“I don’t have to come in there with you. I’ll wait outside. Whatever it is she has to say, you don’t have to tell me, or anyone else. Not if you don’t want to.”
I feel myself smiling, I feel the relief in my jaw.
“Thanks, Sophia. That would be good.”
SEVENTY-FOUR
Mum offers to drop me back in Skalio with the car she’s rented, but I refuse. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe I just want to be alone. Maybe it’s that I don’t want her to see the horrible little apartment I’ve been living in. But the bus takes ages to arrive so I just end up walking, and then I’m committed, and I have to walk the whole five miles from Kastria to Skalio. It’s good for thinking. Or maybe for not thinking. Maybe that’s what I’m doing. Finding ways to let time pass by without having to examine this – wound – that I’ve opened up in my life.
Maybe Mum was right. Maybe I shouldn’t have come here and dug into this? What has it actually achieved? So, I know I was adopted, what does that get me? But the more I do actually start thinking, the more my mind drags me towards Imogen. Why didshecome here? Even if she is taking anti-psychotic drugs because she’s crazy. What is it shethinksshe can tell me?
I wonder if maybe it’s just the baby thing. Perhaps she knows about what happened with Mum and Simon, and she wanted to confess to that. If so, it would make sense that maybe Simon had his men attack her – maybe he regretted telling me the story? But at the same time, what does that have to do withme, really? And as bad as it was, it was a lucky escape. It didn’t harm the child, so whytry and kill over it? Unless…unless it somehow contributed to what happened that night? It seems an impossible coincidence that it happened and then that night they both died. But what happened to link those events?
And if it wasn’t Simon who attacked Imogen, then who was it? Kostas? Duncan? Or are the police right, and it was just bad luck? She was careless with her money, and a gang of thieves saw her? It’s hard to accept. But then, the police are the police. And they’re going to know far more about this kind of thing than me.
I have to stop off at a little shop that’s on the way, and I buy a bottle of water and a bag of peaches. I eat two of them quickly, sucking the sweet juice as I bite. I think for a moment without really thinking, just that the fruit here is totally different to what I’m used to at home. But then I realise what I’d just said in my mind. Thisismy home. I’m twice as Greek as I thought I was. I believed I had an English mother and a Greek father, probably a waiter. But now I know that’s not true, both my parents were Greek. It’s just that I’ll probably never know a thing about them.
The one thing I do know is that Alythos isn’t my home after all. I’ve nothing to do with this island, no connection at all. Everything that happened here might be part of Karen Whitaker’s history, but it’s not part of mine. There’s no reason for me to even be here.
Sophia calls me half an hour later. She’s finished work at the dive centre, and she offers to borrow Maria’s car and come and pick me up. But I tell her not to bother, I’ve almost walked the whole way back to Skalio now and I’m shattered. I just want to get back to my apartment and crawl into bed.
SEVENTY-FIVE
I’m in the shower the next morning when I hear a banging on my door. I grab my towel and wrap it around me, then when I walk out of the bathroom I can see it’s Sophia through the frosted glass. Here to pick me up for the trip to the hospital. I open the door and beckon her in.
“I’ll just be a few minutes,” I say, turning around at once. “Do you want to make coffee, or shall we get some on the way?”
There’s something wrong though. I turn back round. The look on her face is weird. She’s been crying.
“What is it?”
She doesn’t answer. But after a moment she reaches out and rests a hand against the door frame, like she needs it to keep herself up.
“Sophia? What’s happened?”
