Begrudgingly, he returned to the snug. He seriously contemplated if Kerra going missing was somehow linked to what had happened on Aldrich’s land. He found no connection in his mind. He thought of people who disliked Kerra, and why they did, and if they hated her enough to harm her. No motives seemed strong enough.
In the end, he fell asleep on the beanbag from pure exhaustion.
CHAPTER FOUR
JULIET’S PHONE RANG in her pocket. She took it out and answered to the sound of a crackly line. ‘Hello?’
‘Juliet! Eeeeeeee!’ Kim squealed through the interference.
‘Kim, how are you?’ Juliet went to sit in the downstairs living room while she talked. After breakfast, Lillian had gone to tidy upstairs, and she’d been up there a couple of hours already.
‘I. Am. Having. The. Time. Of. My. Life!’ Kim giggled to herself. ‘The weather’s gorgeous; it’s been in the thirties almost every day, and with my dark hair and brown eyes, I’m looking a bit Greek myself.’ She laughed in her squeaky voice. ‘Ryan’s having to apply lots of sun cream though. His skin was blistering a couple of days ago, and now it’s all peeling.’ Juliet tried to imagine Ryan Fraser sunbathing. He was pale, with crooked teeth and ginger hair, and his face was covered in blemishes.
The thought of him made her skin tighten and prickle all over. Back in early December of last year, Kim announced that Ryan had inherited a large sum of money from a recently deceased relative he’d never heard of. Knowing of Ryan’s twisted deeds, Juliet became afraid Kim would quit her job and spend even more time with the murderer. But to keep everyone safe, she had to honour her agreement with Ryan, and so she kept the truth from Kim. She acted pleased for her best friend, and she still hated herself for it.
‘Bless him,’ Juliet replied, unable to muster any nicer words. ‘How are you two getting on?’
‘Yeah … we’re good. I don’t know. He’s a bit restless lately, and distant … like he seems to think a lot inside his head, but he doesn’t share it with me … but maybe he’s still just adjusting to not having a job.’
Since ‘inheriting’ the money, Ryan had told Kim that he quit his job as a support worker for vulnerable adults. Kim hadn’t left her position at Ethereal Cuts, a hair salon in Etherby, the town she lived in, but she had dropped her hours. It was a relief to see that Kim wasn’t being completely reckless; Juliet knew how easily money could be blown, if mismanaged. And even though Kim was on her second holiday this year, she was keeping to strict budgets, and she deserved the vacations. Etherby was the poorest town on Lansin Island, and when Kim was little, her parents never had the money to take her away. After Juliet’s parents had won the UK National Lottery jackpot in 1994, Juliet asked them to bring Kim on their next holiday. They gave their assent readily, eager to show off their wealth. Looking back on it, Juliet felt sorry for Kim’s parents. They’d probably always wanted to treat their daughter to a luxurious vacation, and then Mr and Mrs Maystone went ahead and did it for them, as if the sum were negligible and not the difference, for some families, between affording rent and being kicked out onto the streets.
‘Yes, that’s probably it,’ Juliet reassured her. Ouch! Her eyes flicked down. She saw red lines on her palm; she’d dug her nails into the skin. Anger, guilt, anxiety: all consequences of endangering her best friend.
Telling the truth would be a surer way to endanger her, though.
‘How are things with you? The café going good?’
‘Everything’s fine. Roy and Sandra are doing a great job of running it while I spend some time with Gran.’ Juliet didn’t want to tell Kim about Austin until it developed into something more. If she told her about him now, Kim would want to know Every. Single. Detail.
‘Tell Lil I said hi!’ Kim squeaked excitedly.
‘I will.’
‘Have you spoken to your mum and dad yet?’
Juliet paused. ‘No. They haven’t contacted me since my blunt reply at Christmas.’
‘I still can’t believe it. You know, I remember your gran from when we were little. Your parents didn’t just kick Lil out of your life. They took her from me too!’ She giggled. ‘It all feels a bit Eastenders-ish. Her coming back after so many years.’
Juliet knew Kim well enough to imagine her mannerisms on the other end of the line. Right now she’d be shaking her head, jaw dropped, the sun on her face.
‘I don’t know what I’ll say to Mum and Dad when they find out Gran’s back.’
Kim replied instantly. ‘I’d give them hell.’ The crackle on the line became louder for a second, maybe in agreement.
‘I don’t know if I can.’
‘You can.’
Juliet huffed.
‘You can, Juliet! Sometimes I don’t get you. You’ve always been confident when it comes to work, and study, and talking to people, and you can stick up for yourself when you know you’re right. But not when it’s your parents. When it’s them, you won’t even make a squeak.’
There was an obvious silence while Juliet tried not to laugh.
‘Oi!’ Kim whined. ‘I don’t have to see you to know what face you’re pulling. Leave my voice out of this. And see! You’re avoiding talking about it now; you’re making fun of me instead of facing the problem. You need to stand up to them.’
‘I know I do,’ Juliet said seriously. ‘But my parents aren’t like yours. You can be frank with yours. I can’t with mine.’
‘Have you tried it?’
The energy to answer was simply not there. She sighed instead.
‘Fine. I’ll drop it. Ah!’ Kim squealed. ‘Time’s about to run out on this phone.’
‘Okay. Well, keep having a lovely time. And take care of yourself.’ She thought of Ryan, and a shotgun.
‘Juliet, I have something to tell you when I get back,’ Kim said fast.
That psycho hasn’t got you pregnant, has he? ‘Okay. Love you, bye.’
‘I can’t wait to tell you! Eeeeeeeeee! Love you lots!’ The line went dead.
Biting her lower lip and scrunching up her face, Juliet thought back to the last time she’d properly seen Kim. It had been after getting back from London. Juliet had gone away for her birthday much to Kim’s dismay, so when she returned, her best friend insisted on the two of them spending a day together to exchange Christmas gifts, get drunk, and make use of Juliet’s hot tub.
Thinking about it now, it seemed to Juliet that Kim had been hiding something back then. But Juliet had been under too much stress at the time, and Kim had gone on and on in excitement about her newly acquired sum of money, so Juliet hadn’t pressed the matter. I should have asked.
Bitterness towards her parents cropped up. She hated how every time she thought of them, all the details seemed to play through her mind in order, like a terrible movie she was being forced to watch …
Her mother, Evelyn Maystone, had banished Lillian from their lives over twelve years ago, telling Juliet that her gran was dead. Apparently Evelyn had only done it because of a fierce row she’d had with Lillian concerning Juliet’s neglectful upbringing. It was only last November when Juliet discovered the truth.
Her parents didn’t yet know that Lillian was back in their daughter’s life.
Should I talk to them about it? In moments of less anger, she reasoned that her parents deserved a chance to explain themselves. But those moments were rare.
The last time she’d communicated with them was by text. On the 18th of December, when Juliet had been in London with her gran, a message appeared on her mobile phone:
HAPPY BDAY SWEETIE!
u’ve not rang or txt in a while. we’ve guessed ur not comin 2 c us this yr? let us kno what prezzies u’d lyk 4 ur bday & Xmas. lv mum & dad. xoxoxoxox
Juliet hadn’t replied. The message was obviously typed by her mum, with minimal input from her dad. Then, on Christmas Day, back in Chanton, her mobile lit up again:
MERRY XMAS!
sweetie, we’ll hav 2 get ur prezzies l8 this yr, wen u hav ty
m 2 rply.
lts of lv! m & d xoxoxox
No longer in denial about her parents’ indifference towards her, she noticed how her mother’s rushed texts exemplified the little time Evelyn spared for her daughter. With clenched teeth, Juliet had tapped out:
Merry Christmas. Sorry, been busy. Talk soon. X
Unsurprisingly to Juliet, her parents had not been in touch since. Even on Mother’s Day, when Juliet had purposefully made zero effort, no contact came from her mum or dad. It was concerning. But not enough to make her pick up the phone.
Forget about it, she told herself, getting up from the sofa and walking to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Gran?’ She spoke with a clear voice that carried well. ‘I’m going to make a fruit salad for lunch. I’ll call you again when it’s done, okay?’
‘Okay, sweetheart,’ Lillian replied in the half-attentive tone her gran used while doing house chores.
In the kitchen, Juliet prepared a honey-mint dressing to go with the salad, and then began to wash and cut the fruit. After slicing a kiwi in half, she stopped and gazed at how alien the inside of it looked, her thoughts drifting to the portal and bobbing fairy-like light. As her mind began to overwhelm itself with questions (What was that thing in Aldrich’s woods? What other beings could exist? Things from mythology, fantasy books … nightmares? I spoke with the portal, or something on the other side … I gave it my name. Are there other people with supernatural abilities living in this world? What about the Spiritworld? The Otherworld? Besides those two and this one, do other worlds exist?). She shook herself and said aloud, but quietly, ‘Don’t think of those things.’
When she moved on to the strawberries, she managed to shift her thoughts to something that made her warm and anxious all over—in a good way. Well, more someone than something. Austin. He’d looked so good on their last date, so good that Juliet’s thoughts turned a little libidinous during the meal. It had been a long time since she’d been with someone ...
Juliet parted a strawberry down the middle, her eyes lingering on the colour. Juice ran onto the cutting board. She swallowed, visualising how Austin’s top two shirt buttons had been undone. Now the next strawberry. Her palms became moist, her fingers losing tension. She closed her eyes indulgently for a moment. Then they shot open.
‘Ouch!’ she gasped. The knife had slipped, parting the flesh of her index finger, which began to bleed. ‘Dammit.’ She hurried to the sink and ran the cut under water, but the bleeding continued. She grabbed a clean towel from a nearby cupboard and applied pressure to the wound while holding her hand above her head. After a short while she was able to gently wash it and apply a plaster without drawing more blood.
Peering over at the cutting board, she sighed; blood mixed with some of the fruit. She was about to clean it up and continue preparing the salad when there was a sharp rap at the front door. She wasn’t expecting visitors, so she anxiously hurried towards the entrance of her home. ‘I’ll get it,’ she called up to Lillian on the way, and tried to ignore how the throb in her bandaged finger intensified with the speed of her gait.
She pushed down the handle, the door glided open, and her ears were immediately assaulted by a sturdy woman shrieking, ‘Hola, sweeeeeetiee!’
Standing slightly behind the woman was an extremely tanned man.
Juliet almost gaped at her mum and dad. Her skin tingled apprehensively. She considered slamming the door shut in their faces, but in her mother’s presence, her self-assurance diminished.
‘Now, Juliet, sweetie. It appears that you’ve been ignawwwhring your father and I. We have been forced to fly aaallll the way out here to see you.’ Her eyebrows lifted so high they threatened to take off. ‘You are going to let us in, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Juliet answered, as stunned as she felt.
‘Oh, goodie!’ Mrs Maystone hurried inside and beckoned her husband with a flick of her wrist. She headed into the downstairs living room while Juliet closed the door behind her father. ‘We can see how you’ve been taking care of The Haaayven.’ Juliet’s mother had named the house The Haven back when she’d owned it, thinking the title classy.
Evelyn Maystone had on a shaggy fur coat, and a red Mulberry Del Rey handbag dangled from her inner elbow, her arm posed as if balancing an invisible tray. She exaggerated a shiver. ‘Oh, it is freeeeezing in this country. Isn’t it, Adam?’ She widened her eyes at her husband.
‘Yes, dear,’ Adam Maystone replied in an automated manner, his voice humdrum.
Go back to Spain, then, Juliet thought, well aware her home was comfortably heated. How her mother wasn’t sweating in that coat, she didn’t know.
‘Hello, love,’ Adam said to his daughter. Juliet suddenly realised she wasn’t so annoyed with her father. He was subservient when it came to his wife, because disobeying Evelyn was more hassle than it was worth. He was a short man with a face turned orangey-brown from overexposure to the sun, and he had hair that would naturally have been grey had his wife not coerced him into regularly colouring it dark. A few stubborn white wisps still poked through in places, especially around his ears.
‘Hi, Dad.’ Juliet went to hug him, but stopped when her mother spoke.
‘Adam! Are you forgetting that our daughter has barely spoken to us for months?’
Adam straightened his back, opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it. Juliet turned to her mother and waited.
‘Well, Juliet? Do you care to explain?’ Evelyn put a hand to her hip and tilted her head. ‘I would have thought you’d at least call me on Mother’s Day.’
‘I, uh’—found out about your viscous lies—‘I’ve just been busy.’ Her heart sank.
‘Busy?’ Evelyn made a sound like she was throwing up air. ‘You’re never toooo busy to come visit us, sweetie. You’ve managed it every other year! Why not this—wait, where are the photos of your daddy and I? You used to have them up here.’ She pointed at the mantelshelf. ‘And that smell … what is that smell? Perfume?’ She blinked excessively, perking her posture. ‘Adam, you recognise it, right? It’s soooo familiar.’ And then it dawned on her. A horrified expression painted Evelyn’s face, an expression Juliet never wanted to see again.
Lillian came downstairs, stepping proudly but cautiously, and entered the large living room. ‘Hello, Evelyn,’ she said. ‘Adam.’ She nodded.
Evelyn’s chest puffed up, her face reddening. She shouted, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘My granddaughter asked me to live with her.’
‘In my house?’
‘Your house?’ Lillian scoffed casually, and widened her eyes a little. ‘Don’t you mean Juliet’s?’
Juliet was surprised at her gran’s composure, especially in comparison to her mother’s. Evelyn breathed heavier and her skin flamed redder by the second.
‘Evelyn,’ Lillian said, when her daughter didn’t answer, ‘why did you tell my granddaughter that I had died?’
Evelyn kept her eyes fixed away from her mother, as if Lillian didn’t deserve her full attention. ‘My name is pronounced Eeeeeevlin, not Ev-uh-lin, you stupid old woman!’
‘Mum!’ Juliet finally spoke up. ‘Don’t talk to her like that.’
The horrible look of shock Juliet had never wanted to see again was topped by Evelyn’s new expression. Her jaw dropped while her eyebrows collided in utter disbelief at her daughter’s effrontery.
‘I’ll talk to her however I like.’
‘Not in my house, you won’t.’ Juliet’s blood rushed. ‘And I’d like an answer to Gran’s question. Why did you tell me she was dead?’
Mrs Maystone turned away, now apparently unable to look at her daughter either. After some jerky head movements, Evelyn swiftly raised her chin, finally giving her eyes to Lillian. They were cold, hard. She stormed over to her and pointed with the hand that had been posed as if carrying a tray. ‘This is your doing! You’ve turned her against us!’
Juliet became so afraid her mother would strike Lillian that she hurried to interc
ept her. ‘She didn’t turn me against you.’ Her fast movement seemed to rush energy into every inch of her body. ‘All she did was reveal your lies. She’s been a better mother to me these past months than you’ve ever been.’ A frisson came over her as she confronted her mother; she held on to its momentum. You can, she heard Kim say in her mind. ‘I’m just an idea to you, something you throw money at when it suits you, when you want me to play happy daughter! At least Gran treats me like a person. At least she cares.’
‘Fine!’ Evelyn bellowed. ‘Do you want me to take it all away? Kick you out of this house? Take back the café?’
Her mouth falling slack, Juliet took a moment to respond. ‘Are you being serious?’ She was almost at a loss for words. But words certainly needed saying; her mind clambered to find the right ones. ‘This house is mine. The café is mine. You own no rights to either of them. Even now you can’t see me as an adult.’ Realising her words would damage her mother’s pride, and not wanting to face the guilt, she hurried to say, ‘Get out of my house.’
It seemed Evelyn had run out of shocked expressions. She avoided eye contact, pursed her lips, and shook herself before heading for the front door. A flick of her hand, and Adam followed. He gave a regretful smile to Juliet on his way, which she reciprocated.
Juliet followed them, then overtook her mother to grab the door handle. She let them out. Before leaving, Evelyn looked her daughter in the eyes and let out a low and lengthened sigh. Her cheeks were glaring red. In a soft tone Juliet had never heard from her mother, Mrs Maystone said, ‘Well … I’m glad Lillian’s the perfect mother for you.’
They left. Juliet stood for a moment, her eyes narrowed, her posture collapsed. Shuffles came from behind her as she closed the door and turned to gather her thoughts.
‘Are you okay, sweetheart?’ asked Lillian.
‘Yes,’ her voice came out quiet. I think so.
A Body Displaced (Lansin Island 2) Page 6