She nodded, almost hoping that Finn would suddenly turn out to be gay, and Casey at least would get his ‘happy ever after’.
*
Joy was busy making a maquette, a mini model from plasticine as she planned out her next carving. Many ideas and plans were formed in her head, but it wasn’t until she made a model of it could she see the limbs and detail in scale. She liked to make a scale model of the tree first based on photos from her recces. Then she experimented with what she could achieve from the canvas she had been given. Sometimes branches would become part of the design, sometimes she would chop them all off and work with a plain round canvas. She often wished that trees would grow square instead of round, it would make her job an awful lot easier.
The backdoor was open and the late afternoon sun was spilling across the kitchen floor. She heard Darcy bark and looked out to see what she was doing. Her heart dropped when she realised Darcy wasn’t in the garden. She ran out and saw her with a girl of about seven years old in Finn’s back garden. Her hair was a white blonde curtain over her face and she was busy painting Darcy’s claws with pink sparkly nail varnish. Joy smiled and let herself through the connecting gate which Casey might have left open earlier.
‘You know, you should probably practice your skills on someone who isn’t likely to lick it off.’
The girl jumped and Joy saw the smile that had been on her face quickly fall off.
‘Is this your dog?’
For someone so young, Joy was surprised to see such an angry expression on her face.
‘Yes, her name is Darcy.’
‘Do you have Billy then as Uncle Finn has your dog?’
‘No, Billy’s not next door, I think Darcy just wandered through the open gate.’
The girl looked back at Darcy. ‘She’s a Newfoundland isn’t she? My granddad had one, Boris he was called.’
‘Your granddad or the dog?’
The girl smiled again. ‘The dog, Granddad was Frank.’
Joy noted the ‘was’ and the sudden sadness that had entered the girl’s eyes.
‘I’m Joy by the way.’
The girl shook her hand so hard that Joy’s whole arm was almost yanked out the socket.
‘I’m Lily.’
‘So, Lily, why don’t you practice your makeover skills on me instead, and then you can tell me all about your granddad and Boris.’
‘I don’t like to talk about it.’
‘Ok, I’d like purple nail varnish please.’ Joy sat down and laid her hands on the table, knowing there’d be more to come.
Lily dived into her bag and pulled out a bottle of bright purple nail varnish. ‘Well that’s what Mummy says when people talk about him, she tells them “I don’t like to talk about it” and then they stop.’
Joy nodded as Lily stuck her tongue out and carefully applied the nail varnish to her thumb nail. ‘And would you like to talk about it?’
‘I miss him.’
‘I bet you do.’
‘He died two weeks ago and the funeral is today. I’m not allowed to go.’
Children and death were such tricky subjects. There was a fine line between trying to shield your child from death and allowing them to grieve properly. When her parents had died, no one had spoken to her about it, apart from Alex. Everyone thought she was too young, or that mentioning it would upset her even more. Talking about it helped but no one was prepared to take that risk.
‘Tell me about Frank, what was he like?’
*
Finn put the phone down and went out towards the garden. Lily loved pizza; maybe that would cheer her up. She’d been so sad for the last two weeks and nothing seemed to make her smile for very long, if at all. He didn’t agree with his sister’s decision to not let Lily come to the funeral, but it meant he got to spend time with Lily and that was always a good thing in his book.
He stepped outside and froze.
Joy was holding Lily on her lap, her arms around her to stop Lily toppling off as Joy struggled against her. Joy’s lips had already been painted red, she had pink glittery eye shadow, deep red blusher in little cute round circles on her cheeks and Lily was desperately attempting to put ribbons in Joy’s hair. Joy was moving her head out of Lily’s reach, but Lily had her pinned down, giggling uncontrollably, she quickly attached the ribbon before Joy could move away. Then she added a pair of huge plastic orange clip-on earrings and the outfit was complete. Joy slumped in defeat.
‘Now would you like purple nail varnish or red on your toes?’ Lily asked, rummaging in her makeup bag.
‘Red I suppose,’ Joy grumbled, looking at the ribbon in her hair. ‘It will go with my ribbon.’
Finn snorted with amusement and Joy turned to look at him. Suddenly he felt a huge lump in his throat. Every time he thought he had successfully pushed her away, she did something to pull herself closer. She looked adorable.
‘I caught this reprobate putting nail varnish on Darcy and the next thing I know I’m being made over like some kind of Barbie princess.’
‘What’s a rebro-bate?’ Lily had found some glitter gel and was applying it to Joy’s cheeks.
‘It means troublemaker,’ Finn said. He finally tore his eyes from Joy and glanced around the garden. The back gate leading to the road was open and his heart leapt.
‘Where’s Billy?’
Joy and Lily looked blank and he quickly ducked back inside and called him. Billy didn’t appear. He raced upstairs. Billy normally came when he was called, but it wasn’t completely unheard of for him to be in a very deep sleep. There was no sign of him upstairs either. He ran back downstairs and back out into the garden. He couldn’t have gone far.
‘Lily get your shoes on, we need to look for Billy.’
Joy stood up, her eyes underneath all the makeup were alert and concerned. ‘He’s missing?’
Finn gestured helplessly to the open gate as Lily ran past him into the house.
‘Look,’ said Joy, ‘she can stay with me, you’ll probably cover more ground without her.’
He shook his head. He couldn’t leave his niece with a complete stranger. Besides he was supposed to be cheering her up.
‘I can’t, she’s had a rough few weeks, she’s barely spoken – ’
‘I know, her granddad died, she told me all about it. And him, he sounds like quite the character. I’m presuming as you’ve not said anything that he wasn’t your dad?’
‘My brother in-law’s. She told you? She hasn’t wanted to talk about it at all.’ His sister had been quite adamant not to mention it in front of Lily.
‘It turns out she did.’
Finn felt angry at this. Lily had known Joy for all of five seconds.
Joy must have seen his face. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to tread on any toes. Maybe she felt more comfortable because she didn’t know me. Regardless, you can shout at me when you get back, you need to look for Billy. Give me your number and I’ll call you if he comes home. They normally do once they’re hungry.’
Joy was right, he would be quicker looking for Billy without Lily.
Lily came running out with her pink spotted wellies on. ‘I’m ready, do you think Billy’s ok?’
He knelt down. ‘Would you rather stay here with Joy? The pizza has been ordered, and I’ll be back really soon.’
Lily wavered. ‘What kind of pizza did you get?’
‘Your favourite, ham and pineapple, and there’s chocolate ice cream in the fridge.’
‘I’ll stay and we’ll save you some pizza.’
He smiled as he stood back up. He scribbled his number in lipstick on a piece of paper and gave it to Joy. ‘Thanks, there’s money on the table for the pizza.’
He quickly kissed her on the cheek and ran out the gate, wondering why he’d felt the need to kiss her. Maybe Joy wouldn’t notice.
He heard Lily giggle as the gate closed behind him. ‘Uncle Finn just kissed you.’
He winced.
‘Yes he did.’
‘Do
es he love you?’
‘We’re just friends.’
‘He doesn’t kiss Casey like that.’
Finn nearly stopped to hear what Joy would reply to that, but he imagined it would be quite a lengthy reply.
Chapter Ten
Finn stomped back towards his house almost two hours later with Billy at his side. He was in a foul mood. Some people were so rude and Mrs Browne was by far the rudest, stupidest person he’d ever had the misfortune to come across. Why would she walk all the way home with Billy following and not turn round and bring him back? How could she not ring to say Billy had followed her and her bitch home? Billy had his collar on, with Finn’s number on the tag. How hard would it have been to phone him? Why would she leave Billy sitting outside her house for two hours and not do anything about it? It was only sheer luck that Finn had been passing and saw Billy scratching at the back gate. Obviously the bitch had been in heat. Mrs Browne had come out and laughed about how Billy had followed her little Princess home. Finn, who had been frantic with worry, had wanted to throttle her.
The pizza would be cold, he was starving, he had a headache, he’d barely slept whilst he held Joy in his arms the night before and was now really tired and the lovely night he’d had planned with his niece had been ruined.
He walked back through the gate and heard giggling coming from Joy’s. He went into her garden and the temper that he had carefully reined in when speaking to Mrs Browne snapped when he saw Lily, covered head to toe in a thick layer of mud. She looked like she had been at a festival – her hair, her face, every inch of her clothes was splattered in it. Joy, also covered in mud, was chasing her up the garden, obviously pretending she was a monster. Lily was shrieking, laughing loudly, the biggest smile splitting her face.
Lily saw Finn and launched herself towards him.
‘Lily no…’ Joy started but Lily had already splatted against his trousers.
He wouldn’t explode at Lily, this wasn’t her fault.
‘Uncle Finn, did you find Billy, oh there he is. We’ve had the best time ever, we had a water fight and then Joy fell over in the mud and I slipped on top of her and then we were laughing and doing mud angels and the mud was so cold and Joy was shrieking. Oh and Joy said that we could do a proper goodbye thing for Granddad with balloons and we can send notes to heaven for Granddad to read, we can do that can’t we?’
He kept his voice calm when he spoke. ‘Lily, it’s nearly time for bed, get undressed and I’ll be up to give you a bath in a minute.’
‘But you promised we would watch Shrek.’
‘We will, in bed, but only once you’ve had a bath.’
‘Yay! Can we have popcorn?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can Joy join us?’
‘No.’
Lily obviously sensed the anger coming off him because she suddenly backed off. She waved at Joy uncertainly and walked into the house.
Joy approached. ‘Sorry about the mud, I was just about to give her a bath myself and… Oh you’re really angry.’
His head was pounding and he could feel his heart racing. ‘You’re supposed to be the responsible adult, I do not expect to come back and find her looking like that. I trusted you to look after her.’
‘I did, she had a great time. It’s just mud, it will wash off.’
‘And what’s this stupid goodbye thing you’ve planted in her head. It’s down to her parents to help her with her grief, you shouldn’t interfere. You think because your parents are dead it makes you some kind of expert. Well butt out, it’s got nothing to do with you.’
Instantly he regretted saying that. He wanted to take it all back. It was just mud, and Joy had made Lily laugh like she hadn’t laughed in ages. He wasn’t even angry at Joy, he should have shouted at Mrs Browne rather than coming home and taking it out on Joy. And he’d hurt her with that comment about her parents, he could tell that.
For once, Joy didn’t have some smart comeback. After staring at him in shock she just turned away and walked back into her house.
Damn it. He really was scum.
*
Joy was waiting for a call from Alex. She knew he was out rigging explosives and some big car stunt for the latest James Bond film, but he had promised to call her as soon as he got in.
She had been in Bramble Hill nearly a week now, and though she had promised herself that she would make a go of it, the long term prospects weren’t good. There had been more poo posted through her letterbox that morning. She had popped down to the local shop earlier and had been pelted with eggs before she so much as put a carton of milk in the basket, and the volatile ‘friendship’ she had with Finn wasn’t really a selling point.
But where to go next? What was it exactly that she was looking for? How would she find it if she didn’t know what ‘it’ was?
Maybe she could move to Casey’s village. She had a good friend there and that at least was a start. Though if Arielle or him decided to make a go of this marriage, she guessed she wouldn’t really be seeing him a lot.
And what of Finn? With Casey still in her life, then seeing Finn would be quite likely too, and after tonight’s little episode she didn’t think she could cope with that anymore.
Idly, she sat on the bed, picked up her notepad and started sketching ideas for her next strike. A stag soon stood proud on the page, its liquid eyes staring out from the stark white background.
The phone rang and as she added the detail of his fur, she flicked it onto loud speaker.
‘Hello.’
‘Hi, you ok?’ asked Alex.
She stopped drawing for a moment. ‘Yeah, a bit worried, but I’m ok.’
‘Does Casey know? The conversation I had with him earlier about the CCTV was very vague, but reading between the lines, he knows.’
‘Yeah he does. I’ve not confirmed it but he knows. Al, I don’t want you to lie for me. Especially not to Casey, he’s your friend and CID, you could get into trouble. Just… if I’m on the CCTV, just give me some warning before you tell him so I can prepare myself.’
‘Of course I’ll lie for you; I’ll do anything in my power to protect you. Casey’s my friend but you come first.’
She smiled with love for him. ‘No, just tell me if you find anything and I’ll tell Casey. Then he can choose what he wants to do with it.’
There was a cough from the other side of the wall and she went cold suddenly, realising that Finn had heard every word they had been saying. Had she mentioned The Dark Shadow? No, she hadn’t, but still she had to be careful in case Finn put two and two together.
She quickly snatched up the phone and took it off loud speaker. ‘Hang on Al, let me take this call downstairs.’
She really didn’t need to give Finn any more ammunition.
*
Joy stared sleepily at the saucepan and its contents that smelt and looked like vomit. She had carved intricate pieces that were twenty feet long on fallen trees, she had scaled trees with very limited equipment to carve into the tallest limbs, but something as simple as cooking, was clearly beyond her. Maybe if she chopped her vegetables with a chainsaw she might have more luck.
Her puddings were legendary; crumbles, pies, cakes, trifles, tarts – she could do them all with her eyes closed. But something like soup just seemed to be beyond her capabilities. She had tried many times over the years to teach herself to cook, but whatever she made tasted disgusting. She had thought soup would be easy. But even she wasn’t tempted to try the vomit smelling soup de jour before her.
The back door was open and the black acrid smoke was drifting out, probably creating another hole in the ozone layer. The smoke alarm had finally stopped, though it was still echoing in her ears. It seemed she would have another microwave meal for lunch again.
Just then there was a knock on the back door. ‘Is everyone still alive?’
She turned round to face Finn, not sure whether she should still be angry with him. She really couldn’t hold a grudge for long but she w
as certainly still hurting over the whole Lily incident. He was holding a huge bunch of flowers and she felt herself soften almost immediately.
He stepped in, blocking out all the light temporarily with his enormous frame.
‘I’m really sorry about last night. I wasn’t even angry with you, it was the whole Billy situation that had riled me. I said some really hurtful things and I’m so sorry.’
He offered her the flowers, which she took. They weren’t even shop bought ones, these were handpicked from his garden – which just made them so much more personal. They smelt divine and were arranged beautifully.
‘Was Billy ok?’
‘Yes, he’d followed some bitch home and the owner didn’t think to call me and tell me Billy was sitting outside her house for two hours. I was so annoyed.’
‘I could tell.’
He winced at the dig. ‘I am sorry. Lily didn’t stop talking about you all night, how wonderful you are. You really made her happy.’
Joy smiled into the blooms and Finn obviously took this as a good sign as he came further into the kitchen.
‘Still friends?’
She hesitated but found herself nodding anyway.
He moved to the saucepan and pulled a face as he poked the contents. ‘What is that?’
‘Soup,’ Joy said, defiantly. ‘A… Moroccan recipe.’ She took a big spoonful and swallowed it. As suspected, it tasted like vomit as well. She kept the smile on her face. ‘It’s delicious, probably not to your taste though.’
He looked around at the chaos in the kitchen, the remains of chopped up vegetables sitting in pools of water or gravy and every single bowl, plate, pan, jug, knife, fork and spoon littering the surfaces. It was quite obvious to even the untrained eye that she had no clue what she was doing. She had looked in recipe books but they spoke of techniques and ingredients that she had never even heard of before, so in the end she had made it up, which was now obvious to Finn.
He started picking up the mess and loading the dishwasher. She supposed she should feel embarrassed but she couldn’t find it in her. ‘Do you want me to show you how I cook my soup sometime? I’m sure your Moroccan masterpiece is delicious, but… well it’s always good to have alternatives.’
Beneath the Moon and the Stars Page 14