by Lily Hayden
“It certainly doesn’t look that way,” Will replied. “I don’t know what to think. Neither of them would have done anything though, and they’d have told us if they went back to the house for any reason.”
She pressed her lips together in a tight line as she considered the facts.
“How did Dad seem yesterday?” Rose felt another twinge of guilt. “I feel so bad that I didn’t really stick around to help with everything.”
“Honestly?” Will sighed dropping down to sit on the curb, and she sank down next to him. “He seemed really good compared to the last times we were down. Remember how he was when we all came down together?”
Rose nodded sadly. “He seemed to have aged so much. I feel so guilty that I didn’t come down more.”
“I felt bad too,” Will admitted. “I haven’t been to see him for years. But it wasn’t just one-sided, was it? He never made the effort with us. In fact, I was shocked we were even invited to the wedding.”
“I can see why Linda might feel suspicious of us all,” she grimaced. “It does look terrible that we all show up and now this has happened.”
“He was the one who asked us though,” Will reminded her. “It’s not like we’ve all turned up and demanded to see his will.”
“Well, if they think that’s the motivation then Tim is safe. It’s not like he needs the money,” Rose tried not to let the pang of envy creep into her voice, but she could hear it there.
“I didn’t think he did either,” Will gestured to their brother still pacing like a caged tiger. He lowered his voice again to look at Rose. “Belle thinks he’s been having an affair.”
Rose looked aghast. “No! He wouldn’t, would he? Eleanor is so lovely.”
“I know,” Will pulled a face. “I wish Belle hadn’t said anything, but she was livid with him and they’d had words over it apparently when Tim tried to kick her out. She wanted to stay at mine, but Craig was really against it because the flat is so small. I think Tim backed down when Belle brought up this woman he’s been seeing.”
Rose was shocked to her core that Tim would do something like that. She couldn’t deny that he had fallen in her estimation when he had refused to help her, but she had never thought that he would be capable of cheating on Eleanor.
“I can’t believe he would do something like that,” she shook her head slowly. “Belle should have said something though if it’s true, Will, not use it as leverage. Poor Eleanor.”
Will frowned as he considered his sister’s words. “I don’t know, Rose. I feel terrible for Eleanor, of course, but you’ve got to appreciate how backed into a corner Belle was. She had no job, no home, and she needed to rustle up the money to move. She’s got Toby to think of, and nobody to support her. I couldn’t even help her.”
She flushed with guilt at her brother’s words. She, too, had done things that she didn’t agree with morally at XZ Finance, because she’d been desperate for the money. They both fell quiet as they watched Tim finish his conversation, and stuff his phone back into his pocket. She had never seen him look so agitated.
“He was the one who said he’d look into the will. Maybe he did speak to Dad or the solicitors, and that’s why they want to speak to him,” Rose chewed her lip nervously before turning to look at her younger brother. “Without the fields, what do you think the house is worth?”
“In the current state? Probably not much more than a normal three or four bedroomed house in the village. As an estate though, Craig reckoned around one-and-a-half million.”
Before she could reply, the heavy station door opened behind them. They both turned expectantly towards the noise expecting to see Belle, but the detective from earlier was stood in the doorway.
“Oh, brilliant,” the woman looked pleased to see them. “I was wondering if you were still here. Is it Will? Are we able to just check a few more things with you, please?”
Will nodded politely, but as Rose watched her brother walk back into the station, she felt an uneasy dread settle over her chest.
Belle
Belle crossed her legs before uncrossing them again. The plastic chair she had been sat in for the last half-an-hour was stiff and uncomfortable, and she could feel her back slicken with sweat beneath her cotton t-shirt. The more questions the detective asked her, the more her discomfort grew. She couldn’t help but squirm nervously even though she knew it was making her look suspicious.
The room wasn’t even that warm, she tried to reason with her traitorous nervous system. Just a little stuffy and claustrophobic. The team that had been circling around her statement with increasing pressure were both dressed in full-sleeved shirts and trousers. Neither of them looked remotely uncomfortable, yet her skin felt clammy and hot in short sleeves.
“I think that’s everything,” the lead detective finally finished up, and Belle let out a sigh of relief before she could stop herself. “Thank you for your time.”
They had nothing on her, she tried to reason with herself, but sitting in that chair, everything had felt so intense. No matter how hard she had tried to remain calm, she couldn’t help her mind running away with her. She wasn’t sure why she felt so worried; maybe it was the hard-learned knowledge that life wasn’t just and fair. It was like she almost expected something bad to happen. She rose from the chair discreetly wiping her clammy palm on her jeans before she accepted the outstretched handshake.
Rose and Tim were outside the station, and at first, she felt a stab of annoyance at the sight of them. She had purposely left the B & B that morning to go to her friend’s, needing some space from her family to digest the shock of everything that had happened. She had nothing against Rose; it was just sometimes she could sense her sister felt a bit awkward around her, and it served to remind her that they barely knew each other. Tim on the other hand, she could barely look at without feeling a flare of anger rise inside her. He’d categorically denied any affair during their showdown, but once it was in her head, all the signs were strikingly clear; the late nights, the weekend plans, the phone that never left his side. She felt ashamed of herself for keeping it from Eleanor. If she didn’t desperately need the short-term stability for Toby, she’d have wiped the floor with him. Instead they just gave each other a wide berth, but Belle knew there was only so long Tim could keep his dirty, little secret hidden for.
“Was everything ok?” Rose asked anxiously as soon as Belle emerged from the station.
Belle nodded. “Yeah, fine. Any news?”
Rose shook her head. “Nothing yet. I don’t really know how long these things take.”
“What’s he doing?” She gestured towards Tim who was squinting against the sunlight at his phone screen.
“Looking for a taxi to take him back to his hotel,” Rose replied. “I did offer him a lift, but Will is just answering a few questions inside, and he can’t wait until he’s done.”
Belle snorted contemptuously calling over to him. “In a rush, Tim?”
He looked over, and she felt a childish glint of satisfaction at his expression. All day she had felt overwhelmed and tearful, but the annoyance on Tim’s face gave her a tiny rush of satisfaction.
“How did it go?” He asked.
She shrugged petulantly. “They don’t think I killed my own father if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Belle!” Rose’s jaw dropped open with shock, but Tim just rolled his eyes in irritation.
“Of course, that’s not what I’m asking,” he retorted sharply. “Have some sensitivity, for crying out loud.”
“Well, that’s why they’re interrogating us all!” She felt her temper finally snap. “This isn’t normal procedure, surely! They don’t harass the family of an old guy who’s popped his clogs. They clearly think one of us has done it.”
“I’m sure they don’t think that.” Rose tried to sound soothing, but Belle could hear the stress in her tone. “It’s just ticking boxes until they can tell what happened.”
Belle turned to scowl at her siste
r. “It’s either an accident or it’s not, and the only one who can tell us what happened is conveniently dead right now.”
“Belle,” Tim shot her a warning look as Will appeared in the doorway with a police officer at his side. “That’s enough.”
Rose hurried over to Will, leaving them alone for a moment. Belle glared at him, wondering how someone could look so much like her yet be so hateful and arrogant.
“It’s true,” she argued back, but this time dropping her voice, conscious of the police officer within earshot. “All it would take was for one person to link any of us to that house, and we could be arrested. We’ve all got a motive.”
“We’ve hardly got a motive,” Tim scoffed, but Belle caught the slightest twitch of his jaw, and she knew he was worried. Stop it now, a little voice in her head warned her. Before you go too far.
When she didn’t reply immediately, he eyed her with disdain and turned back to Will and Rose. The dismissive gesture sent a fresh bolt of fury coursing through her.
None of this is fair, she raged internally. Everything had been lined up perfectly. All I had to do was get through the next few weeks and now it’s all ruined. I’m back to having nobody.
“Belle, are you ok?” Will was the only one that noticed her whole body was physically trembling, and he rushed to her side.
She could already feel hot, spiky tears flooding her eyes. She swiped at them furiously, but she was helpless to stop the rush of emotion.
“Yeah,” she manged to choke out, still defiantly angry through her upset. “I’m great. Everything is great.”
“Oh, Belle,” Rose tucked a motherly arm around her, and Belle had to fight the urge to pull away. She didn’t want their comfort. All she wanted was for all this to be a horrible dream.
“Everything will be ok,” Will said hollowly, but she could hear in his voice that he felt as wretched as she did.
“Did they say any more?” Tim asked him. “I don’t see why we have to keep going over the same grounds. It’s not like any of us were hanging around outside the house. You were all together, and I was with Eleanor. It’s ludicrous that they’re treating us this way.”
“It’s Linda!” Belle spat through her upset. “She’s made out like we’re only here for the money. He invited us! He brought up the will, now they’re all looking at us like we’re vultures.”
“I drove past the house.” Will suddenly burst out in barely more than a whisper. “I didn’t go in, but what if something else comes out and they don’t believe me?”
His words were enough of a shock to rip Belle from her misery as she spun around to face him with disbelief. “Oh, Will, they won’t! Everybody knows you would never…”
Will’s face was deathly pale, but he shrugged bravely. “It feels like a witch hunt now.”
“Why did you go past the house?” Tim asked in a low voice, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “Was Craig with you? That’s an alibi.”
Will shook his head. “No, it was just me. And it was around the time that they think…”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Tim insisted, and for once Belle was glad that he was there. “If they had any suspicion, they’d arrest you.”
“No,” Belle corrected him quietly. “They need more than suspicion. They need evidence.”
“I was the only one near the house,” Will responded hollowly.
“I was out of the B & B,” Belle offered. “I don’t even have an alibi.”
“Is that why they brought you back in?” Tim asked.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I didn’t go to the house, but they kept asking if I had. By the end, I felt like utter shit.”
Tim sighed heavily. “Yeah, they do make you feel a little flustered.”
“I’m not going to lie,” Belle reached for Will’s arm. “We could both be screwed. Imagine if Linda says she saw one of us there. That’s all it could take; someone else’s word against ours.”
“It’s not just you,” Tim admitted quietly. “I wasn’t with Eleanor around that time either.”
Rose looked at him in confusion. “Where were you?”
“I was just talking to a colleague on the phone,” he replied defensively.
Belle met his eyes until he looked away uneasily.
“But they can vouch for that,” Rose reassured him quickly. “Gosh, it’s only my word that I was in the room on my own. They’ll probably want to see me again.”
“No, there’s CCTV that shows anybody who enters or leaves the pub,” Will tried to reassure her.
Belle frowned at his comment, unsure why his words rang a bell in her frazzled mind, but before she could remember what it was, they had reached Rose’s car.
“I can drop you all back to wherever you need to be if you’re all in a rush,” Rose said clicking the fob to unlock the doors. “But it would be nice if we could get lunch and maybe pay our own respects to Dad amongst all this.”
Belle looked over at Tim, certain that he would decline, but she was surprised when he nodded.
“Yes,” he agreed, and she thought that she heard a quiver of emotion in his voice. “I think he’d like that.”
Will
As Will filed into the pub behind his brother and sisters, he tried to push his worries to the back of his mind. The day had felt like an awful nightmare, and his head was spinning trying to process it all. He could see from the faces around him that they all were feeling the same.
“What are we going to do?” Rose asked anxiously. She didn’t need to elaborate for any of them to know she was talking about the suspicion that had landed on them.
“There’s not a lot we can do,” Tim snapped.
“Nothing we can do,” Belle proclaimed at the same time.
They glanced at each other uncomfortably before everyone fell silent again.
Even through his despair, he was struck by the similarities between his brother and younger sister. On the face of it, they were worlds apart, yet they were so alike to look at, and shared the same body language and facial expressions.
“Can we just talk about something else for a bit?” Will suggested when Rose’s face fell.
She was the only one who had nothing to worry about, but Will wouldn’t put it past Belle or Tim to not lose their temper and snap at her. The last thing he needed right now was for everyone to fall out.
“I saw Christian Lennon yesterday in the little Tesco,” Will offered the first meaningless snippet that came to his head. “Can you remember him?”
“That’s a blast from the past. Remember when he pushed you off the tyre swing down the river and Rose chased him all the way back to the woods?” Tim surprised him by replying with an amused smile.
“Everyone was terrified of Rose,” Will grinned back at his brother, keen to move the subject to lighter matters if only for a brief reprieve. “Remember when you broke your arm falling out of a tree getting my football back?”
“And we were in A & E for about eight hours,” Rose groaned. “We were all moaning about how bored we were.”
“Mum had to stay overnight, and we were waiting ages for Dad to pick us up,” Will frowned. “I can’t remember him ever coming.”
“He couldn’t take time off from work apparently,” as the eldest, Tim remembered it clearly.
“Poor Mum,” Rose voiced all their thoughts, and the laughter that had been on their lips died away.
“I feel like we should try to say something nice,” Belle spoke up bravely. “But all my memories are just me and Mum. By the time I was old enough to play out, most of you had your own lives, and Dad was just never around.”
“That’s true,” Will admitted sadly. “I don’t even know what to say or to feel, and I feel so terrible for thinking like this. Even though he was our dad, I kind of feel that I’ve got no right to feel sad because I never really knew him, and he didn’t know me.”
“I feel the same,” Belle admitted. “But I feel angry too. I tried to make an effort when Mum was ill, and then I
tried reaching out when Toby was born, but he didn’t want to know. I’m angry at myself for thinking that the invitation was his way of making amends, when in reality he probably only invited us to make up the numbers. And now we’re all in this mess.”
Rose grimaced. “He loved us in his own way.”
“No offence, Rose,” Belle shot back. “But it might be different for you and Tim, but Will and I hadn’t seen him for years. He wasn’t interested in our lives.”
“I don’t think it was different for us,” Tim interjected, surprising them all by coming to Rose’s defence. “We were probably in a position where it was easier for us to pay a visit every now and again over the years, but that was more out of duty. We can’t claim to have a deep bond with him anymore than the rest of you.”
Will considered their words feeling a sharp tug of sadness at how hopeless it all felt. He’d spent the best part of his life travelling the globe; the excitement of the next adventure had been enough to chase away the quiet ache for a place he could always call home. The call had grown louder over the years until he had thought that the only answer was to put down roots himself. Yet when Craig had offered him all those things, the security and the predictability of the same home to go back to every night for the rest of his life, he had realised deep down that it wasn’t what he wanted. It hit him, with startling clarity, that what he had been yearning for wasn’t a big house with a partner and a regular job, but for the childhood home that had ceased to be a reassuring refuge when his mother had died. He missed Kathleen with every fibre of him but sitting amongst his siblings, he recognised how much he had craved the collective sense of belonging that had died with their mother. She had been their anchor, and without her they had been cast adrift. The hardest part, he thought as he regarded his siblings, had been knowing that Frank could have been the tie that they needed, but he had chosen to turn his back on the role.
“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Will sighed heavily, suddenly overcome with sorrow. “And I think that makes it harder, because at least then we could be angry. He was who he was, but it’s not our fault.”