This Girl, That Girl, page 13
Dee slid Trevor Cooper’s contact details across the desk. ‘Let’s hope that works.’
Lindsay folded the paper in half and pocketed it. ‘I’ll make it work, I promise. And I want you to know that I’ve never, ever, done anything like that since, and I’ll never, ever, do anything like it again.’ Tears spilled out of her eyes. ‘This business means everything to me, Dee. And so do you. You have to believe me.’
Dee felt herself soften. She did believe her. ‘Didn’t you ever worry about something like this happening?’
Lindsay looked down and sniffed back the tears. She shook her head sadly.
‘Didn’t it occur to you that they might turn up again and that one of his friends might see them?’
‘It should have done, but it didn’t. I can’t believe it didn’t. I’m so fucking stupid.’
Yes, Dee thought. You are. But it was pointless agreeing with her on this. Lindsay was suffering enough. There was little to be gained by rubbing salt into her wounds.
‘Did he seem like the angry, violent type?’ Lindsay asked.
‘He seemed pretty pissed off, and he had every right to be. I don’t think he was the violent type, though, but how do we know what he’s capable of? He sent those nasty reviews, didn’t he? And he walked into reception and confronted me. Someone else might have just sent an email, or phoned. Do you want me to sit with you while you speak to him?’
‘No, it’ll be better if I do it on my own,’ Lindsay said. ‘I feel embarrassed enough already. I’ll let you know when I’ve done it.’
Dee didn’t see much of Lindsay for the rest of the day. She didn’t come up at lunchtime to suggest a walk, like she normally did. It was hardly surprising in the circumstances. Things were bound to be strained between the two of them, at least until this business with Trevor Cooper was sorted. If it could be sorted.
Even if he accepted Lindsay’s apology and decided not to take things any further, Dee couldn’t see her and Lindsay returning to the easy rapport they’d enjoyed before. Not for a while, at any rate. She felt let down. Disappointed. But most of all, she felt sad. It had changed the dynamics of their relationship. All the trust and camaraderie had vanished.
Dee got up to make herself a coffee. She toyed with the idea of calling down to see if Lindsay wanted one too. She even reached for Lindsay’s mug, then decided against it. She couldn’t help thinking that it would have been easier to accept if Lindsay had stolen something from her instead. Or if she’d upset Dee personally in some other way. But stealing the property of one of their clients somehow made things so much worse.
Then again, it had been a long time ago, and Lindsay was right, it had been a terrible, terrible year. Opening this business together should have been one of the best, most exciting times in their lives, and with Gina set to embark on her dance-teaching career, the three of them had been riding high. Then Gina had gone missing and all the happiness had evaporated, literally overnight. Perhaps she should cut Lindsay some slack. After all, nobody was perfect.
When the door to reception swung open and Lindsay appeared in her coat, Dee was surprised.
‘I thought you were downstairs,’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear you leave.’
Lindsay gave her a sheepish look. ‘I went out the back way earlier. Didn’t want to disturb you.’
Dee took a sip of her coffee. Was this what it was going to be like from now on, both of them trying to avoid each other? She really hoped not.
‘It’s all sorted,’ Lindsay said.
Dee looked at her, confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The Trevor Cooper situation. He’s agreed not to take things any further. He’s accepted my apology and he’s not going to say anything to Gabe’s mum, or any of his mates.’
‘What?’ Dee stared at her suspiciously. ‘When did he say all this? You haven’t been round there, have you? I thought you were going to call him.’
Lindsay unbuttoned her coat. Dee noticed that her hair was different. This morning it had been swept back in a neat chignon. Now it was loose and messy.
‘I tried to call, but his phone kept going to voicemail. I thought I’d pop round there on the off chance. I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. And it is over. It was like you said, he was pissed off at first, but … but then he came round. He said he’ll delete those reviews.’
Dee stared at her. Her hair. That look in her eyes.
‘Oh my God, Lindsay, please tell me you didn’t sleep with him.’
A red flush crept into Lindsay’s cheeks and Dee knew. She knew straight away. ‘I can’t believe you’d do that. That’s so … did he ask you to do that? Is that what he expected, because if it was—’
‘Look, Dee, we had a problem and I’ve sorted it. End of.’ Lindsay’s tone was defiant.
‘You didn’t need to do that, for Christ’s sake! That’s sexual blackmail. What were you thinking, going round there on your own? Jesus Christ, Lins, we’d have found another way to deal with this.’
‘Except now we don’t need to, okay? And anyway, he didn’t ask me.’ She gave Dee a tight little smile. ‘Actually, he was rather cute, so let’s just call it “damage limitation”.’
Dee glared at her in disbelief. ‘No, Lindsay, let’s just call it “whoring yourself out”.’
Lindsay’s jaw dropped, as well it might. Dee couldn’t believe she’d used those words, but now that she’d started she couldn’t stop.
‘What did you do? Tell him you’d give him a blow job if he let the matter drop? My God, Lindsay! What kind of person are you? No, don’t answer that. I already know what kind of person you are. You’re the kind of person who steals things from dead people and fucks random strangers just for the hell of it. I can’t believe you’d stoop so low. I can’t believe you have so little respect for me or the business we’ve worked so hard to build. So little respect for yourself!’
Lindsay looked as if Dee had just slapped her round the face. ‘How dare you talk to me like that. You’re just jealous that I have a life and you don’t. And for your information, I don’t fuck random strangers just for the hell of it. I sleep with men I fancy, yes, and I enjoy it. What’s wrong with that? At least I’m not stuck at home with my dad at the age of forty, too scared to go out in the dark. I’m an independent single woman. Why the hell shouldn’t I have some fun? We’re all of us a long time dead, Dee. In our line of work, we know that more than most. And as for not respecting you or the business, that’s exactly why I wanted to sort this situation out before it went any further. And I didn’t go round there intending to sleep with him. I really didn’t. It just … it just happened.’
‘How? How did it just happen? That sort of thing doesn’t just happen.’
‘Yes, Dee, it does. Not to you, maybe, because you never do anything, or go anywhere. And if you do, you don’t engage. You might as well have a bloody great sign on your head that says: “Men, keep away!”’ She took a step closer to Dee, her face taut with anger. ‘I made a colossal mistake back then. I admit it. I fucked up big time. There are no excuses for what I did. But, for whatever reason, I did it, and I have to live with that. It would be nice if I didn’t have to live with your disapproval as well. It would be nice if, for once in your life, you could accept that not everyone is as fucking perfect as you!’
And with that, she stormed downstairs, her words still reverberating in the air.
29
Scarlett stared at all those faces of Gina Caplin on her screen. She looked like Ollie’s most recent girlfriend, Nikki. It was a wonder she hadn’t registered this before. And now that she had registered it, something else clicked into place. All the girls Ollie had gone out with in the past – all the women – had shared these same physical characteristics.
All the Katys and Lornas and Staceys and Jennas. All the Leonas and Tammys and Pippas and Nikkis. And those were just the ones Scarlett knew about. They all had longish blonde hair and pretty, smiling faces. They were all slim and sporty, with a tendency to giggle. Her brother had a ‘type’, and Gina Caplin had fitted the mould perfectly.
Scarlett tried to ignore the uneasy feeling in her stomach. If Gina Caplin had visited this house, then there was every possibility that Ollie had met her too. He’d carried on living here after Scarlett went to university and then moved to her flat in Clapham and, even when he’d moved out, he was still a frequent visitor to the house. Always popping round to do odd jobs for Rebecca.
She lowered herself into the chair at her desk. Was she seriously giving headspace to the possibility that Ollie might have had some kind of involvement with Gina? That he might know something about her disappearance?
She tried not to focus on the adrenaline surging round her body. No. She could put that ridiculous notion to bed, once and for all. Ollie might have hurt a few women emotionally by not being the loyal boyfriend they craved, but he’d never hurt them physically. Not Ollie. Not her little brother.
And if Ollie had been romantically involved with Gina Caplin, Rebecca would have known about it, wouldn’t she? The uneasy feeling in Scarlett’s stomach intensified. Her aunt’s words came back to her then, the ones she’d used when Scarlett had tried to get to the bottom of the incident at Riverhill, the one that had resulted in her being asked to take sick leave: ‘This girl, that girl. There’s always some girl.’ She’d been confused, yes. Unable to recall the facts with any clarity. But she’d been scared too. Had she been thinking of Ollie when she said this?
And what about those other things her aunt had said? Those strange remarks of hers. The paranoia. Then there was the time Scarlett had found her standing in the garden in her nightie. ‘It’s a secret,’ she’d said. ‘I’m not allowed to tell.’ They had been symptoms of dementia, hadn’t they? But what if she did have a secret and someone had told her never to tell? What if her deteriorating brain meant that the secret was no longer safe with her?
The faces on the screen swam before Scarlett’s eyes. Another headache was on its way and her joints had started to ache. She closed down her PC. If only she could close down her mind so easily, drive out this unspeakable darkness. But now that she’d started, there was no going back. She found her 2009 diary, took some painkillers and decamped to the sofa with her laptop.
Gina Caplin had vanished on 16 March 2009, just three weeks before Scarlett had moved into the ground-floor apartment. All the work on the house had been completed then, bar the bathroom, which Mickey had still been working on, and one or two minor cosmetic jobs. The summer house had been erected too, hadn’t it? And the lawn – what had been left of it – had been aerated and overseeded.
Three sharp knocks on the back door made her start. It must be Mickey, she thought, returning with the glazed panel. Surely he didn’t need to speak to her again?
‘Come in,’ she called out. She’d just got herself into a comfortable position and didn’t have the energy to haul herself up again.
Mickey came in and stood on the mat.
‘All done?’ she said.
‘Yup. Good as new.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘About what I said earlier.’
She waited for him to continue.
‘You won’t tell Ollie I said anything, will you? I don’t want him to think I’m going behind his back or anything. You know what he’s like.’
Scarlett frowned. She wasn’t quite sure what he meant. What was he like? ‘Of course not,’ she said.
Mickey transferred his weight from one foot to the other. ‘I know, when my mum died, I was in pieces. Absolute pieces.’ He looked down at his boots. ‘You know what us men are like, Scar. Never like to admit when we’re struggling.’ He looked uncomfortable. ‘Your dad isn’t helping much either.’
Scarlett looked at him in surprise. ‘My dad? What makes you say that?’
Mickey shook his head. ‘He’s been giving him a hard time over something. Turning up at the yard unannounced. You don’t know what that’s about, do you?’
Scarlett frowned. ‘I’ve absolutely no idea, sorry.’
‘Oh well, like I said, I just wanted to give you the heads-up, so you can keep an eye on him.’
‘I will,’ she said. ‘Thanks for letting me know.’
When Mickey had left, Scarlett pondered his words. Why was her dad turning up at Ollie’s yard and giving him a hard time? The two of them had never exactly got on. Her dad had always expected Ollie to follow in his footsteps, to train as an architect and work with him, or follow some other high-status career. But Ollie had never liked studying and hadn’t wanted to go to university. He didn’t have the intellectual capacity for it and, instead of just accepting that and encouraging him in other areas, their dad had continually given him grief for not being the son he wanted.
They hadn’t even been able to discuss Rebecca’s funeral without getting into an argument. It was always the same. After a minute in each other’s company, they’d been sniping at each other. But surely, after the trauma they’d all been through, her dad should be cutting him some slack.
Scarlett put her laptop and diary on to the floor and lay on her side on the sofa, drew her knees to her stomach. Her recent dream came back to her. The one where they’d all been in the summer house; her mother, too. All laughing and drinking wine. Except Scarlett hadn’t been laughing. Scarlett had been the outsider, there but not there. The only one who’d sensed danger.
She wasn’t dreaming now, though. She was wide awake. So how come her sense of danger was even stronger?
30
It had been two days since T. J. Cooper’s visit to the office and his damning accusation, and a day since Lindsay had made things ten times worse by going round there and having sex with him.
Dee still found the whole thing hard to believe. Not the theft itself. She’d reconciled herself to the fact that Lindsay had made a stupid, stupid mistake, that she’d let her desperation not to lose her house cloud her common sense and decency. And at a time when she was consumed with stress about Gina. But taking it upon herself to visit a potential blackmailer in person, allowing herself to be persuaded into having sex with him, or seducing him as a means to an end – whichever it had been – was beyond stupid. They’d barely spoken to each other since.
Dee read the message that Lindsay had left on her desk.
‘Gone on that course. Out all day. Jake will pick up the van and collect Mr Byatt from the hospital.’
And that was it. No niceties in the form of greeting or sign-off. Just that one stark message. Dee sighed. How were they ever going to get through this?
She crumpled the note in her hand and tossed it into the wastepaper basket. At least she’d have the place to herself today, wouldn’t be on tenterhooks every time they bumped into each other. Lindsay had been in two minds about attending that course. It was to update her embalming skills and, since they rarely offered this service, it hadn’t seemed particularly essential. It was true, they’d had a couple of repatriation enquiries lately, which involved tropical embalming, a much longer process with stronger chemicals to take account of the extra time the bodies spent in transit. But Dee had always been happy to recommend another firm for jobs like that. Lindsay had clearly wanted to be anywhere else but here right now.
She looked at her watch. If Jake was collecting Mr Byatt, he’d be arriving soon. She went and unlocked the back door. The sky was leaden, the temperature colder than it had been. Winter was on its way. Dee shivered as she drew back the bolts on the gate and opened them, ready for Jake’s arrival.
A moment later, she saw the van turn into the access road and stepped away from the gate, wondering if Lindsay had come clean with him yet, if she’d told him the whole story. If Jake knew she’d slept with Trevor Cooper, he’d be appalled. But if she’d told him about their argument and the horrible words Dee had used, he’d be indignant on her behalf. However much Jake might condemn his sister’s actions, he’d always support her. He’d always take her side over Dee’s, wouldn’t he? Dee hated the thought of falling out with Jake too.
He grinned at her from behind the steering wheel and gave her the thumbs-up sign before reversing into the yard. Dee felt herself relax. When he climbed out and said, ‘Wotcha, mate!’ just like he always did, she knew Lindsay couldn’t have told him. She was probably too ashamed.
Dee helped him unload the gurney from the back of the van and wheel the late Mr Byatt along the corridor and into the lift.
‘I’ll see you down there,’ she said.
Dee went downstairs and waited for the lift to descend. The prep room wasn’t the same without Lindsay pottering around in it. It was never warm down here, and nor was it meant to be, but today it felt particularly cold. Dee turned the lights on just as the lift doors opened and Jake emerged with the gurney.
The two of them undid the securing belts and transferred the late Mr Byatt into one of the drawers in the refrigerated storage unit. Jake was so strong he could probably have managed entirely on his own, but it was nice for Dee to do something practical. It distracted her from her worries, at least for a little while.
‘Young, wasn’t he?’ Jake said, taking one last look at Mr Byatt before closing the fridge drawer.
‘Too young,’ Dee said.
By the time Jake had folded up the gurney and given her the relevant paperwork from the hospital mortuary Dee was more than ready for a coffee. Jake joined her upstairs.
‘I can’t stay long,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to take Hayley for her antenatal check-up.’
‘When’s she actually due?’ Dee asked.
‘First of January.’ He laughed. ‘I’d better not drink too much on New Year’s Eve. She’ll kill me if I’m in no fit state to drive her to the hospital.’
