It wasn’t until Ethel came in to call time up. . she’s in charge of the children’s activities; that’s her absolute rule. . that us two mums had the chance of some time alone. ‘Well?’ Susie demanded, as soon as wee Jonathan, always the laggard, was out of earshot, and we were settled on two couches, under an awning.
‘It’s not good,’ I said. ‘Frank’s associates caught up with him. He and Adrienne are missing, believed dead.’ I didn’t see the need to tell her any more than that.
‘Believed? What are their chances?’
I looked at her, and shrugged.
‘God, Prim, I’m so sorry.’ She glanced at the ground between us. ‘I have to confess that when you called me on Tuesday the words “drama” and “queen” came to mind, given that you’ve got a track record in that area. I was expecting your aunt to be found wrestling with a trolley in the local supermarket. But this; it’s shocking. How did your cousin get mixed up with these people?’
‘He was working undercover for Interpol, to break a major international fraud, but he was betrayed by someone on the inside. He might have got away in one piece, until I went crashing in there after him, like a cow in a bloody china factory.’
‘That’s why they took your aunt? To get to him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh dear.’ She looked at me. ‘I see now why you wanted Tom out of it. How about you? Are you okay?’
‘Apart from being knackered, I’m fine.’
‘Would you like to stay here for a while?’
‘A couple of days, if that’s all right with you, and then my boy and I will get back down the road.’
Susie frowned, her red hair glinting in the sun. ‘Actually,’ she ventured, ‘I was going to talk to you about that. We’d agreed that Tom would come here for a couple of weeks in August, yes?’
I nodded.
‘Well. .’ she hesitated before continuing ‘. . I’ve pretty much decided to sell the Loch Lomond estate. It would suit my book to go back there in August, to get the process under way. There would be no point in now. You know what Glasgow’s like: you can barely sell chips in July. So, seeing as Tom’s here now, can we bring his stay forward to. . well, to now?’
I thought about it. Tom and I had no firm plans for the rest of the month. That said, I always missed him while he was gone, and after the past few days, did I need to be brooding on my own? On the other hand. .
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘The rest of this week and next.’
‘Thanks. You can stay too, if you like.’
‘That’s good of you, but it’s best if I don’t. Let’s stick to our normal practice.’ It’s not just two women in one kitchen, as I’d told Adrienne. While Susie and I do get on fine now, we both know that if we were together for a couple of weeks we’d wind up either going out on the batter every night, or arguing over the past or, probably, both.
‘Why are you selling Loch Lomond?’ I asked her. ‘It’s a palace.’
She glanced at me, then looked away again. ‘Janet thinks it’s haunted.’ She tried to chuckle, but failed.
‘It’s a big old house,’ I pointed out. ‘It’s not unnatural for a kid to imagine things, especially one with the enquiring mind she’s got.’
‘It’s not just the house, Prim, it’s the whole damn place. There are some woods that she just won’t go in. To tell you the truth, I find it really spooky myself now. No, it’s going, and that’s an end of it. I’ll buy a smaller house, with an ordinary garden, not something the size of a bloody farm.’
‘Do you ever feel haunted here?’ I asked.
‘No.’ This time she did manage to laugh. ‘Did you think the bugger was stalking me from beyond the grave?’
‘I wouldn’t put it past him.’
‘Are you still afraid of him,’ she asked bluntly, ‘even though he’s dead? For he is, believe me. I saw the body.’
‘No, but I never really was. When I disappeared after the crash, I was confused, but I reckoned that was what he’d want me to do.’
Her brow furrowed as she realised what I’d said. ‘Wait a minute. Are you implying that you thought he wanted you dead? That he arranged that plane crash?’
‘I’m not implying it; I’ve never told anyone straight out, but that’s what I believe. We knew him better than anyone else, Susie. Can you put your hand on your heart and deny that he was capable of it?’
She had to think about that for a while. ‘No,’ she confessed. ‘I can’t. But I don’t believe he’d have harmed you. He loved you, Prim, for all you spent half your time at each other’s throats. My secret fear, even after Jonathan was born, was that one day he’d leave me and go back to you. If one of us fixed that aircraft it would more likely have been me.’
‘Now that I can’t accept,’ I protested. ‘You are definitely not capable of such a thing. Honest, I wish I didn’t believe what I do, but that’s the way the evidence points.’
‘Fuck the evidence. Take my word for it: Oz didn’t do it.’
One day, I may be able to accept that. There, on her terrace, I told her I’d try, but I’m still a way short of succeeding.
Thirty-five
I stayed with Susie and the family for two days, until Sunday. Both mornings, I went on-line and checked for developments in the search, but there were none reported. I studied the London media too. The story hadn’t gone unnoticed: I found it on the BBC website, and in the Telegraph and the Guardian, but without names to go on it wasn’t front-page news.
Tom was fine about the idea of extending his visit, especially when I promised to take him to America in August, to see his aunt Dawn and his cousins, Bruce and Eilidh. He hadn’t asked me any more questions about Adrienne or Frank; I was pleased about that.
I headed off after breakfast, but I didn’t drive home. Instead, I went to Nice Airport, where I parked the Jeep and caught a flight that I’d booked the day before, to Edinburgh, via London. My dad was waiting for me at Arrivals, as arranged. I could have hired a car, but as usual he wouldn’t hear of it. Since Mum went, he’s seized every excuse to get out of the great big house in which he still lives, having refused to sell it, despite suggestions, entreaties and downright bullying from my sister and me.
I spent a lovely, peaceful evening with him, and later, in my old bed, managed a night’s sleep that was, as far as I can recall, free of dreams of any sort. I didn’t raise the subject of Adrienne’s visit, but he did, over breakfast. ‘I had your aunt on the phone,’ he said casually. ‘Has she been in touch?’
‘Yes,’ I told him. ‘She invited herself, stayed for a couple of days, then buggered off without as much as a thank-you.’
His eyebrows rose; that’s about as dramatic as he gets. ‘That’s fairly typical of her, I’m afraid. Adrienne always was a law unto herself. She has the odd beliefs that flamboyance entitles you to be rude, and that unacceptable behaviour can be explained as eccentricity. The arrival of her son was a classic example of that.’
‘She isn’t all bad.’
‘Nobody is, my dear. She was a damned good agent for your mother when she started to write her children’s stories.’ He smiled. ‘The trouble is, the woman still sends me a copy of every book published by every one of her clients. They’re filling up my damn shelves. Take some of them when you leave, please, Primavera, for Tom, and yourself.’
I promised that I would. We finished breakfast, and I did the dishes, while he went off to work. He’s a craftsman carpenter, designing, carving and painting chess sets, and other pieces, like the cuckoo clock he gave to Tom and me.
When I was done. . Dad doesn’t have a dish-washer because it never occurred to Mum and him to buy one. . I called Fanette, in Adrienne’s office. She became a bit standoffish when she realised it was me, not having forgiven me for ripping strips off her in our previous discussion, but eventually she told me that, no, she hadn’t heard from Adrienne and, yes, she had been expecting her back in the office that morning. Of course, without her, she was terribly busy, so if I’d excuse her. . I did, with a private vow that I would sort her out when I had time.