Little Girls Tell Tales

by Rachel Bennett

  I studied his face, in an attempt to make sense of the conflicting emotions there. ‘Are you mad that she won’t share a tent with you?’

  He evaded the question, which was confirmation enough. ‘Why’re you helping her?’ he asked. ‘What’re you hoping to get out of it?’

  ‘Why do I need anything out of it? Cora wants our help. That should be reason enough.’

  ‘She doesn’t need us.’ Dallin’s lip curled. ‘I felt weirdly indebted to her because I’m the one who told her about the curraghs. She never would’ve come here if it wasn’t for me. But you don’t even know her. Why’re you still following her around like a puppy?’

  That was harsh, intended to get a response. I didn’t rise to the bait. ‘I’m not doing it for her,’ I said. ‘I’m doing it for me.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Don’t you think I’ve been haunted by this as well? I found a human skeleton when I was ten years old. Ten, Dallin. Have you ever thought about how that screwed me up?’

  ‘Yeah, but you—’ He bit his tongue.

  ‘But I what?’

  ‘Nothing. I was—’

  ‘But I made it up, is that what you were going to say?’

  Again, that incriminating silence. After far too much of a pause Dallin said, ‘That’s not what I meant.’

  I slammed my hands on the steering wheel. ‘Seriously? You still don’t believe me? You genuinely think I made up a story when I was ten and I’d rather put everyone through this—’ I gestured expansively, ‘than admit it wasn’t true? That’s what you think of me?’

  ‘I don’t think you made it up.’

  ‘You think I exaggerated it? I was mistaken? I found a pile of rabbit bones and mistook them for a person?’

  With absolute sincerity, Dallin said, ‘You have to consider it’s possible.’

  I stopped myself from slapping the steering wheel again. All it’d done was hurt my palms. ‘Get out,’ I said.

  ‘There’s no evidence to back up what you saw! Trust me, I’ve looked. I’ve spoken to everyone who might know a single thing about the case. There’s nothing. I barely even remember it myself. That’s one of the reasons why I started that stupid bloody website in the first place – to see if anyone would come forward with more information about the curraghs. I wanted to believe you, Rosie.’

  I let out a breath. ‘Get out of my car. I’m done with you.’

  It seemed like Dallin would argue, but then he sighed and opened the car door. ‘I don’t doubt what you think you saw, Rosie,’ he said. ‘But that doesn’t necessarily mean—’

  I cut him off. ‘You know what? I don’t care that you’ve never believed me. No one ever did. But you’ve told the story to Cora like you completely believed it. Like it was the definite truth. She trusted you. Pinned all her hopes on you. That’s a lot worse than thinking I’ve made something up.’

  I started the engine. He still had the car door open, but if he didn’t move, I was going to drive forwards, whether he was still holding the door or not.

  ‘You want to know why I think she’s wasting her time out here?’ he asked.

  ‘Do please tell me.’

  ‘I don’t think Simone ended up here at all. I think she made a full break from her old life and is living somewhere far away from her family. Probably with that fella she ran off with. Or, if she really is dead, I reckon Cora should be looking closer to home for a culprit.’

  I stared at him for a moment longer. But he was finished talking. With another sigh, he shut the car door.

  I turned the car around on the grass and drove away from the campsite.

  ***

  The letter was rough, littered with misspellings; the effort of someone used to working with manual tools rather than a pen. At first reading, I thought they were from someone at school. Some ridiculous boy who’d fallen for your charms.

  There was no name on the letter, of course. He wasn’t that stupid.

  He talked about how torn he was. How much he wanted to be with you. There were details included that gave me a sick thrill to read.

  ‘I wish I could just run away with you,’ he wrote.

  I stood in your room and read the letter three times. My fingers trembled.

  He wanted to steal you away from me.

  I could prevent it, of course.

  All I had to do was tell our parents. The proof I needed was right there in my hands.

  Chapter 25

  I hadn’t told Dallin the whole truth. I wasn’t helping Cora just because I wanted to lay to rest the ghosts in my head. It was more complicated than that.

  Although I didn’t want to admit it, especially not out loud, I felt like the past few days had done me good.

  For the last year, I’d held rigidly to my self-imposed routine, leaving the house only once a week on my prescribed outings to visit Mum and do my shopping. Except for occasionally driving to the Spar shop in Ballaugh when I ran out of bread midweek, the idea of going out at other times had never entered my head. Everything I needed was contained within the house and its garden.

  So this week had been a big step for me. I’d gone out every day. I’d met new people. I’d gone into the garage in Ramsey and interacted with other humans. I’d visited my neighbours. Most astonishingly of all, I’d invited people into my house and prepared a meal for them.

  Maybe this wouldn’t have sounded like a big deal to anyone else. But for me it was massive. Any of those small steps would’ve seemed unthinkable even a week ago.

  For the first time in ages, I had a purpose.

  Maybe Dallin was right, and Cora didn’t technically need me to drive around for her and introduce her to my neighbours. She was more than capable of doing it herself. But she’d made me feel useful. She’d given me a reason to get out of bed.

  I thought about that as I drove home.

  Eventually, Cora’s search would come to an end. Either she’d find what she was looking for, or, much more likely, she would give it up for a lost cause and go home. Either way, in a few more days, I would lose her. She’d return to her old life and I’d go back to mine. I wondered if the advances I’d made over the last few days would stand up to her being gone. More likely I would retreat, maybe even further than before, until I was tucked up like a hermit crab in the safe confines of my empty house.

  When I got home, I waited for half an hour to be sure of my feelings, then called Cora.

  She didn’t answer straight away, and when she did, she sounded distracted. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hi. It’s Rosalie.’ Which was dumb, because she could see my number on her screen. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah, we’re fine. The police are just about done here.’

  ‘Sorry I left.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. Not much point us all standing around in the cold, is there?’

  Before I could talk myself out of it, I said, ‘Listen, I know you might not want to stay in your tent now that, y’know.’ Now someone had knifed several big holes in it. ‘So I wondered if, I mean, if you needed somewhere to stay …’ I closed my eyes and gripped the phone tighter. ‘If you wanted to stay at mine. Don’t feel you need to say yes. But I’ve got a spare room and, well. It seems daft to leave you sleeping out in the cold when I’ve got a whole house to myself.’

  Cora laughed. The sound was gentle and warm. ‘Oh my God. That’s so sweet of you. I don’t want to impose on you.’

  I thought about the stolen Filofax, which was now hidden in the glovebox of my car. I needed to ask Cora about it. But not over the phone.

  ‘It wouldn’t be an imposition, not at all,’ I said. ‘Dallin can stay too. I mean, if he wants to.’ It took a lot out of me to extend the invitation to Dallin, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t invite Cora and not him. Could I?

  ‘Honestly, I can’t think of anything better than a real bed,’ Cora laughed. ‘You can’t see it right now, but I’m making kissy motions in your general direction.’

  The warmth in my
stomach told me I’d done the right thing. ‘I’ll get the kettle on, shall I?’

  ‘You’re an absolute star, Rosalie. Give us half an hour to pack everything up. Oh, I tell you what, shall we swing through Ramsey on our way? We’ll grab a takeaway.’

  I found myself smiling along with her. ‘That sounds great.’

  It was closer to an hour and a half by the time Cora arrived. She met me at the door and pulled me into a hug.

  ‘Sorry we’re late,’ she said. ‘I had to argue with the campsite owner over how much we owed him. How much he owed us.’ She carried in two plastic bags loaded with takeaway containers. ‘We paid for seven nights. We only stayed for three. Ergo, he owed us a refund for the four nights we weren’t able to stay. I’m surprised he put up as much resistance as he did. You would’ve thought he’d be happy for us to leave quietly, rather than make a scene in front of his other paying guests.’

  Cora went into the kitchen and set down the bag on the table, then retrieved a stack of plates from the cupboard over the sink. It should’ve been weird to see her pottering my kitchen like it was her own, but I found myself smiling. The house did look better with people in it. I couldn’t believe it’d taken me so long to realise.

  Dallin brought up the rear, hovering for a moment on my doorstep like he was half-afraid I might slam the door in his face. I stepped aside to let him in.

  ‘Thanks,’ he muttered.

  I shut the door behind him. Honestly, I would’ve preferred to leave him outside. I was a little surprised he’d actually accepted my invitation to sleep here. I’d figured his pride would’ve stopped him.

  As I went into the kitchen, I glanced out through the windows, where rain was splattering the paving stones of the path. Maybe it was the weather more than his pride that’d been the deciding factor.

  ‘We bought a variety of things from the Thai place,’ Cora said. ‘I know nothing about Thai food so I just pointed at the most interesting names. Anyway, enjoy.’

  Dallin pulled his chair up to the table. ‘For someone who loves planning so much, you’re surprisingly laisse-faire at coordination,’ he said.

  ‘I’m not flaisse-dah,’ Cora objected. ‘I have a system that works totally fine for me. Anyway, I asked you at the outset what you wanted to eat and you said “anything”.’ She gestured at the plastic takeaway containers she’d pulled from the bag. ‘This is anything. I intend to eat most of it anyway.’ She took cutlery out of the drawer by the cooker. ‘I have fear-of-missing-out when it comes to food,’ she told me. ‘I’m always scared the other person is eating something better. Hence why Thai is a great idea.’ She came to the table and pulled the lid off a container of noodles. ‘You can pile a bit of everything on your plate and it still tastes amazing.’

  I glanced at Dallin as I spooned jasmine rice onto my plate. He’d taken one container of rice and one of curry and made a pile on his own plate, conspicuously not sharing. I smiled to myself. As a kid, Dallin had always hated sharing food. He’d always say, ‘If I’d wanted what you’re eating I would’ve ordered what you’re eating.’ One time, when I was fourteen, we went out for a birthday meal – him, me, and Mum – to my favourite tapas restaurant. It still made me laugh to remember the look on his face when we all started reaching over to take bits of each other’s dishes.

  ‘I’ve made up the bed in the spare room,’ I said, reaching past Dallin to grab a tub of what looked like Pad Thai. ‘You’ll have to ignore the Jurassic Park bedcover.’

  Cora’s hand shot up. ‘Dibs that one.’

  ‘Why do you have dinosaur bedcovers?’ Dallin asked me.

  ‘Because dinosaurs are great,’ Cora said. ‘Duh.’

  ‘We were looking for single bedspreads for the spare room,’ I said. ‘All of them were so dull. It was Beth’s idea to look in the children’s section instead.’

  It’d made Beth laugh whenever one of our friends had stayed the night. We tried so hard to be grown-up in other ways. Moving in together, getting married, decorating the house in tasteful, pastel colours. But there were times when we couldn’t help being daft. Dinosaur bedsheets were the least of it.

  What I didn’t tell Cora – what I would never tell anyone, as long as I lived – was what Beth had accidentally said when we were putting the covers on the bed for the first time, when she’d said, ‘This baby room will look great.’ She’d corrected herself straight away, of course. ‘Guest room. Guest room.’ But the thought was out there. Spoken into the world. There was no putting it back.

  Cora grinned as she forked up more noodles. ‘Sounds perfect.’

  ‘Which one is the guest room?’ Dallin asked.

  I kept my eyes on my plate. ‘It’s the one at the back. Same as when you lived here.’

  ‘Oh. So, what happened to—?’

  ‘We turned your room into a study. The sofa bed is still in there.’

  Dallin’s eyebrows went up. ‘Not the old sofa bed? The one we used to have?’ He laughed. ‘That thing was all lumps and broken springs before I left home. What’s it like now?’

  ‘You can go back to your tent, if you want,’ Cora said with a straight face.

  I smiled down at my food. It was nice to have someone to back me up again. One more thing I hadn’t realised I missed.

  My thoughts soured as I remembered I still had to ask her about the Filofax. I’d tried and failed to come up with an innocent explanation for its presence in her tent.

  ‘Anyone want a drink?’ Cora asked. She’d bought a number of beer bottles, which she’d asked to put in the bottom of the fridge. Now, she retrieved two from where they nestled amongst my salad groceries. ‘Sure you don’t want one, Rosalie?’

  I shook my head. Just the food alone was making me a little giddy. After months of avoiding sugar and salt and processed food, I was overloading my system. A tingle of worry started up in my stomach. I shouldn’t be eating this stuff. It’ll send my brain chemicals haywire.

  On the other hand, the Pad Thai was delicious. All those sugars and salts and stimulants and e-numbers were amazing.

  ‘This is nice, huh?’ Cora said. ‘So glad to have a roof over our heads and some hot food. It’s been a week since I was last warm.’

  ‘Yep.’ Dallin swigged his beer. ‘It all worked out for you, didn’t it?’

  ‘How d’you mean?’ Cora speared some more noodles.

  ‘Just, y’know.’ Dallin gestured around the kitchen with his fork. ‘You’ve been saying for days how nice this house is. I’m glad you finally got your foot in the door.’

  The table went quiet. ‘Hang on there,’ I said. ‘You guys are my guests. Both of you. No one’s got any foot in any door.’

  ‘I’m just saying, is all,’ Dallin said. ‘It’s funny how it worked out.’

  ‘No, it isn’t.’ Cora didn’t look up from her food. ‘It was a bunch of unfortunate events that I’d rather not dwell on right now, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Sure. Fine.’ Dallin kept quiet for a full fifteen seconds before he added, ‘So, Rosie, did you get the money back for the tyres?’

  I glanced at Cora. Did I imagine a guilty flinch? ‘C’mon, Dallin,’ she said easily. ‘When have I had time to get to a cash machine? You know I’ll sort it out as soon as I can.’

  I ducked my head in embarrassment. I hadn’t even got round to giving Cora the receipt for the tyres. Why was Dallin making a big deal of this now?

  ‘Oh, of course,’ Dallin said. ‘I take it you’ll pay me back for this food at the same time?’

  I shot him a glare. ‘Dal, what the hell?’

  ‘I’ll get it for you,’ Cora said. ‘If I’d known it was such a big deal I would’ve gone to a cash machine while we were in Ramsey.’

  ‘Look,’ Dallin said with annoyance, ‘I’m just making the point that we’re all putting ourselves out for you. A little acknowledgement wouldn’t hurt.’

  Cora set down her fork, wiped her mouth, then looked at him. ‘What sort of acknowledgement would you like? Hmm?�
��

  Dallin wavered for a second. ‘You could start by telling us the truth about your family,’ he said. ‘If you’re so intent on winning over my sister, how about you tell her everything?’

  Cora turned her level gaze to me. ‘What would you like to know, Rosalie?’

  I sat, frozen, wishing I was anywhere but there.

  ‘Tell her why you didn’t look for your sister sooner.’ Dallin gestured with his beer. ‘Why it’s taken twenty years to get here.’

  ‘Is that what you’d like to know, Rosalie?’ Cora asked.

  I didn’t answer.

  Dallin folded his arms. ‘Cora was married. She was too busy playing happy homes to look for Simone until now.’

  Cora took her time before responding. ‘That’s half right, yes.’

  ‘Which half?’

  ‘I was married, for six years.’ Addressing me instead of Dallin, she said, ‘I got married at eighteen. It was one of those mistakes that’s only obvious in retrospect. I cut all ties with my family. My husband didn’t like me even talking about them. Any time I spent thinking about Simone was time I wasn’t devoting to him.’ She reached for her beer. ‘Afterwards, I started volunteering at the women’s refuge that’d saved me. And I started looking for Simone again.’ She cocked her head at Dallin. ‘Is that everything you wanted to know?’

  Without waiting for an answer, Cora stood up and took her beer over to the window. The sun was heading down towards the horizon, although it was still hidden behind the clouds, casting everything in a diffuse grey light. At that time of day, the curraghs looked close enough to touch, like their branches might scrape against the back wall of the garden each time the wind blew. I wished I’d thought to close the blinds earlier. If I got up now it would be too obvious.

  When I was sure Cora wasn’t watching, I kicked Dallin in the shins under the table.

  At the window, Cora peered round towards the front of my house. Because of the way the kitchen stuck out from the rest of the house, it was possible to see the road and part of the driveway out front. I assumed Cora was checking on her car. After the last few days, I would’ve been paranoid too.