Who is Alice?

by Miranda Manning

  They set about designing invitations on the computer and printed them out to be taken into school the next morning.They wouldn’t know for certain until the day after how many would accept the invitation. Alice knew that she had to organise the party with military precision, because she couldn’t afford to neglect her work for the hotel at this crucial time in her budding career.

  Cassandra appeared in the kitchen soon afternine the next morning and they got started.Alice had already prepared some of the novelties for the children and asked Cassandra to time them and, when they were ready, to take them out of the oven and decorate them. Cassandra felt that she could do this with ease and was delighted with having something to occupy her time.They worked together all day and at the end of it they had several dishes prepared for the party and Alice was also making good progress with her hotel food.

  “Is Nicola coming to the party?” Cassandra asked as she put the Smartie eyes on the gingerbread men.

  “I never thought of her.I’ll ring her now.”

  “I’d love to come,” Nicola said in answer to the call, “but Séamus and I will be in Donegal for a hill-walking trip for the long weekend.”

  “Sounds nice,” Alice said.“Enjoy yourselves! I hope it stays fine for you.”

  “That’s what they say in Cork when they’re expecting lousy weather,” Nicola laughed.

  “That’s a no then,” Cassandra said with grin when Alice put down the phone.

  They got back to work.It was tough going but they methodically got through it, working first on the items which could be kept in the fridge without spoiling.

  “I’m going to sell my apartment,” Cassandra said out of the blue. It was the first time she had said it to anybody except the auctioneer.

  “Snap!” Alice grinned.“Great minds think alike. I’m selling mine too!”

  “Well, isn’t that interesting!” Cassandra mused.“I wonder would it be a good idea if we put them up for sale together.”

  “We could ask an auctioneer,”Alice said. “You know, I haven’t been back to the apartment since the eviction and I don’t know how I will feel.”

  “Well, I’ve decided not to go back to mine until after it has been decorated.I’m not sure how I will organise that yet.”

  “I think there are a lot of options,” Alice said thoughtfully.“Let’s get this party out of the way first but we may be able to work together and it might be to both our benefits.”

  With that the girls arrived home, all news about who was coming to the party and who was not.

  Alice and Cassandra cleared up the kitchen and Alice put the finishing touches to the casserole she was making for Hugo and Eliza’s dinner and put it in the oven.As she went up the stairs to her own apartment with the girls her mind was in a whirl.The possibilities were endless.She realised that she was happy and excited for the first time since Jack had organised her eviction. Cassandra was rather less upbeat but she too could see the potential for co-operation with Alice and making the sale of the apartments a joint venture.

  Alice and Cassandra worked together flat out on the Wednesday.Alice was delighted at how much Cassandra, who claimed to be able to burn water, was able to help her.When they were not organising the logistics of getting Alice’s order to the hotel and the food arranged for the party, they were mulling over the possibilities for their future.They had both decided to trade down – rather than downsizing.In fact Alice thought she would go for a bigger place but would probably get it cheaper if she moved out a bit towards Moycullen, though Cassandra thought that Moycullen was expensive enough as well.

  “Not as expensive as Taylors Hill,” Alice said and Cassandra had to agree.

  While Alice was collecting the children from their final rehearsal and delivering her order to the hotel Cassandra remained in the kitchen decorating the novelty foods for the kids. She was particularly proud of putting the liquorice wheels on an enormously long chocolate-train cake and filling the carriages with assorted sweets just like a train the girls had seen in an illustration and which they thought would be cool.There were hedgehog cakes and rabbit cakes and all sorts of other novelties. Grace thought that some of the goodies were a bit babyish but Alice assured her that these were for the smaller ones and sophisticated young ladies like herself could have the adult food.

  “But I hope we can have some cake,” Grace said, wondering if perhaps she had shot herself in the foot in her effort to appear grown-up.

  “Of course you can,” Alice said and kissed her gently on the forehead.

  Chapter 39

  Saint Patrick’s Day dawned cold and bright. The girls were beside themselves with excitement.They were to be in the Cathedral Square at twelve noon.

  The whole household except for Cassandra went to Mass at ten.

  Orla wondered if they could skip it. “Given the day that’s in it,” she said.

  “I don’t think so,” Hugo said. “After all, aren’t we celebrating the fact that SaintPatrick brought Christianity to Ireland?”

  “Can we wear our outfits?”

  “No,” Alice said.“You will wear your ordinary clothes and we’ll come back here and you can get dressed.”

  She and Cassandra had been up early to prepare more food for the afternoon’s festivities. Cassandra did skip the Mass, seeing no point in going just for appearances, and continued the work while the others were out.She made enormous cauldrons of soup, following Alice’s instructions to a tee.

  “The adults will be delighted with that, having stood immobile for at least an hour while they wait to gaze proudly on their little darlings,” Alice said with a grin.

  “Yes, won’t they?” Orla said, completely unaware that it might be a bit of an ordeal for at least some of the adults.

  Alice worried that the girls might be cold in their light clothes but they were so restless it was unlikely.

  “We can dance while we are waiting to start,” Grace said and that was what they did.

  As she gazed across the One Man’s Pass on Sliabh League in Glencolmcille on that bitterly cold March day, a Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Galway seemed like a very attractive option to Nicola. But there was no going back.They had climbed the mountain in conditions that had been far from ideal.The leader said that the fog would clear but they were not convinced. He decided that they should have their lunch before they crossed the notorious pass so they sat down on nearby rocks and opened their lunch boxes.These were no Chablis and smoked-salmon type of lunch boxes which are de rigueur on walking tours in France, or so they were told by another walker. They were what they could get at the local supermarket and which they cobbled together at their hostel accommodation. But there was an atmosphere of camaraderie, much improved by the flasks of hot coffee which their leader had warned them the day before were to contain nothing that might turn them into Irish Coffee or Russian Coffee. To be honest they were so cold that the quality of the lunches was irrelevant.They shared hot drinks and passed around chocolate before they tackled the pass.

  “Are you glad you came?”Séamus asked Nicola.

  “I’ll tell you if I get across the pass,” she smiled.“If I don’t, you will have the pleasure of informing my parents.”

  “You’ll do it okay – and you’ll be delighted you did.”

  As they were talking the mist cleared to reveal a breathtaking view of the bay. One Man’s Pass lay before them, a path running along a ridge with the summit of the mountain rising at its end. An almost sheer drop on both sides of the ridge was also revealed, so any sharp intake of breath had little to do with the beauty of the view and more to do with fright.

  “This walk is about ten minutes long,” their guide said. “Watch your footing.The pathalong the ridge is about a metre wide but you must go in single file and don’t stop or take photos while you are on the pass. Gusts of wind can prove dangerous so we’re lucky it is relatively calm today.”

  “Well, that really makes me feel better!” Nicola muttered to Séamus. “You go first
!”

  “Right! It’s easy really. I’ve done it several times.”

  “It will be good to have you ahead of me.It will give me courage.”

  The pass was such that nobody could hurry in any case and it was indeed a very beautiful scene.One by one they got to the other side. Nicola sighed in relief and Séamus gave her a bear hug when she got there.

  “Wow! I never thought I’d be able to do that,” Nicola laughed.

  “Of course you could!”

  They had a lovely weekend and they were pleased they had the opportunity to spend so much time together away from what had undoubtedly been a very stressful time for both of them.

  The parade was superb, an enthralling mix of art and commerce and afterwards there were about six green-clad síogsand some of their siblings dancing around the front garden at The Coven.Hugo had arranged an old-fashioned treasure hunt in the garden and there was Musical Chairs in the sitting room and Pass the Parcel when the weather got too cold to remain outdoors.

  “It reminds me of when I was a child,” Cassandra mused.“I didn’t think they played these sorts of games any more.”

  “They probably don’t,” Hugo grinned. “But they are the only ones I know how to organise.”

  “The kids are getting a great kick out of it,” Cassandra said over the loud laughter, shrieks and general mayhem which had taken over The Coven.

  The parents appeared to be having fun as well.

  “It’s always such an anticlimax after the parade,” one dad said.“So many people just go for a drink but you can’t do that when you have children.It was so nice of you to invite us.”

  “It’s our pleasure,” Eliza assured him.“We are really enjoying ourselves.”

  All of the adults helped with the clearing up and by six everybody who wasn’t resident was gone.

  “I think we should all take it really easy for the weekend,” Alice said and everybody agreed.

  When Alice and the girls went up to their apartment they watched a favourite DVD and then the girls began to prepare for bed.

  Alice switched on the news as she began to tidy up the room – she was exhausted and decided she’d have an early night.

  “Oh, look!” exclaimedGrace, coming back into the room.“There’s Uncle Jack!”

  Alice glanced at the screen just in time to see Jack Madden presenting the President of the United Stateswith a Waterford Crystal bowl of shamrock.

  Chapter 40

  Alice and Cassandra did a lot of thinking over the weekend.They saw hardly anything of each other but they were thinking about their options.On Sunday afternoon Cassandra dropped into Alice’s apartment for coffee.

  “I was thinking we could go and have a look at the apartments together this week,” said Alice as she put coffee cups on the table, “and then decide what we should do.I don’t know what condition Jack left mine in.I suspect that whatever plans he had for it came to a halt when we got the injunction.”

  “Probably,” Cassandra said. “I’d say he’d see it as throwing good money after bad.”

  “What day would suit you?”

  “Alice, I told you last week that I don’t think I can go back. Not now anyway!”

  “Of course you can,” Alice said brightly.“If I can do it, so can you.”

  “Alice, Nicola and I weren’t completely truthful when we told you I was assaulted in the street. The fact is a man tried to murder me in my apartment – and then when he didn’t succeed he vandalised my apartment in the most appalling way.I don’t wish to belittle what happened to you but compared to that I think your life is a picnic.”

  Alice was dumbstruck.

  “I was lucky in that I had no life-threatening injuries. But that creep said that I had made enemies in high places and he had been paid to make sure that I was silenced. That gave him carte blanche and I think he is a psychopath and he would have enjoyed killing me.”

  Alice, who had been pouring coffee, had to sit down.

  “Why did nobody tell me this until now? You told me that it was horrendous but not the bit about enemies in high places nor the other things he said – not even that it occurred in your apartment!”

  “Because you had enough to worry about! It wouldn’t have helped at all to scare you more than you were already scared.”

  “I can’t believe I was so naïve.”

  “I can’t believe that you have matured so much in six months.But I can’t go back to the apartment yet.”

  “You know what? We’ll ring Nicola and see what she thinks we should do next.She has a clear head and she will surely have some ideas.Hugo and Eliza will have enough to do this week.It’s Eliza’s last week of radiotherapy but they say that she will be tired for some time to come.”

  “I’ll ring Nicola tomorrow,” Cassandra said. “And maybe meet her for lunch and if she can do it we can all meet up later in the week.What do you think?”

  “Good idea,” Alice agreed.“And Cassandra?”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry.I’ve been so wrapped up in my own problems I didn’t really take in the seriousness of yours.And to think that this all happened to you because of me!”

  “Think nothing of it.I can’t say it was a good thing but maybe it was the push I needed to get out of this dangerous game.We’ll talk again, after I’ve spoken to Nicola.”

  On the Tuesday after Saint Patrick’s Day Cassandra called Nicola and arranged to meet her for lunch. They met in a café near the Health Centre because Nicola was up to her eyes and had only half an hour to spare.

  “What can I do for you?” Nicola said.

  “Actually both Alice and I have decided to sell our apartments but we suspect neither is in a condition to be sold at present.”

  “Well, yours certainly isn’t.How do you intend to deal with it?”

  “That’s exactly it.I just can’t bring myself to go back.”

  “I don’t blame you.It’s in an awful state.It shook me and it wasn’t even my apartment.”

  “Alice feels she wants to view hers and see if it is in need of redecoration, which it probably is.But I just can’t.”

  “Why don’t I go with Alice and we can report back to you? I think it would be good for Alice to face up to this.It will be part of the moving-on process.I’ll ring her and we can arrange a time.”

  “Thanks, Nicola. I owe you one.”

  “Not at all.I’m glad to help.”

  Nicola didn’t tell Cassandra but she fully intended to inform Chief Superintendent Tom McEvoy before she or anyone else went anywhere near that apartment block.

  He responded in his usual generous fashion when she contacted him. “I’ll be happy toaccompany you and Alice.”

  “That will be great,” Nicola said.“What day would be okay for you?”

  “We’ll do it in the evening,” Tom replied.“Because, strictly speaking, it’s not part of our work any more or at least it’s not mine and we could spend more time then.”

  “Great.How about eight on Thursday?”

  “That’s fine with me.”

  “Great. I’ll phone Alice.We can all meet at my apartment and go down in my car.The doorman already has the reg of that.”

  “Okay. See you then.”

  Tom McEvoy put his phone back in his pocket and was glad Nicola had rung him.He had a problem of his own which he didn’t know how to deal with and he hoped that Nicola with her training might be able to make some suggestions.

  Alice arrived at seven on Thursday evening as Nicola had suggested they have a light bite together before they went to look at the apartments. Nicola noticed that Alice was not as jaunty about the visit as she had been, now that it was imminent.

  Nicola produced two Spanish omelettes with side salad in double quick time and was quite pleased with the result.

  “Not up to your standard,” she laughed, “but not bad for an amateur!”

  “It’s great,” Alice assured her.“Just what I needed!I could do with a stiff drink as well but
I suppose that’s not a good idea.”

  “No, it’s not,” Nicola said, rather more sternly than she intended.“But you’ll be fine.The anticipation is always worse than the actual event.”

  “I suppose so,” Alice agreed and with that the door bell rang.

  It was Tom.

  “We’ll be right down,” said Nicola.

  They drove in virtual silence to Taylors Hill – a trip which, at that time of the evening, took less than ten minutes.When they drove in the gates Nicola could sense the tension in Alice.She sat straight up in the front seat and didn’t look left or right even though she hadn’t been inside these gates for nearly six months.The gardens were immaculate as usual.Alice used to watch with interest as the various snowdrops, crocuses, tulips or daffodils began to peep above the surface but this evening she just stared straight ahead.

  They pressed the code into the key pad to gain entry and the glass doors parted to let them into the foyer.Alice was delighted to note that the usual doorman wasn’t there. She wasn’t sure if there was anything significant in that fact or whether it was just a coincidence.They went straight to the lift and the man at the desk only very briefly took his eyes off the security monitor to glance at them but he showed no interest in who they were and which apartment they were visiting.

  They took the lift to the second floor and when they got out Alice paused.

  “We’ll look at Cassandra’s place first,” she whispered.

  Nicola and Tom looked at each other.

  “No,” Nicola said.“You should look at your own first and then Cassandra’s.It will work better that way.” Nicola was thinking that if Alice got very upset on seeing the vandalism in Cassandra’s apartment she would be already in a vulnerable state when she went to see her own.