Jake frowned. “Megan has been dead a lot longer than that, Charly. She died when she was seven years old.” He looked at her indecisively. “A hell of a lot of time has passed. Even I sometimes find it hard to imagine Megan alive, to remember things we did together, and I’m her brother.”
Charly smiled sadly. “It’s funny,” she said. “We were three friends and now two of us are dead.” She looked down, blinking back tears. When she looked up again, she saw Jody and Jonas laughing together and felt better instantly. “Will you tell me how Megan died?”
Jake pressed his lips together grimly. “It was a terrible accident… She fell off the cliffs. When they found her, she hadn’t been dead long, so the doctors assumed she could have survived the fall if she had been found earlier.”
Charly flinched like someone had slapped her. The images of the photos from last night flashed before her eyes. Imogen without a face, Megan’s laughter… She swallowed hard. “Does anyone know what happened?”
Jake raised his shoulders. “I don’t know much about it either. Basically, I only have the information that was going through the media at the time. Supposedly Megan climbed over the barrier to throw rocks into the sea. She must have lost her footing. To be honest, I never tried to find out exactly how it happened. My parents’ marriage broke up because of this tragedy, and at some point I got fed up, just wanted my life back.”
Charly took Jake’s hand and squeezed it gently. “I’m sorry, Jake. Just one more question, okay?”
“All right.”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that both Megan and Imogen both fell to their deaths from a cliff?”
“What are you trying to say?” Jake asked, piercing her with his gaze.
“I mean to say I find this more than just a little strange.”
Jake shook his head in annoyance. “Megan has been dead for over twenty years, Charly, and Imogen only a month ago. How the hell are the two deaths related? If you ask me, you’re getting off into left field. We live in an area where people keep getting killed—tourists and locals alike—because they don’t pay attention to the warnings on the signs by the cliffs. As for Beachy Head, you should know that the place is the focal point for life-weary souls.”
Charly stared at Jake wide-eyed. “Are you saying that both Megan and Imogen died on the cliff off Beachy Head?”
Jake stared at Charly as if she was out of her mind. He waved his son over to him and stood. “Don’t be angry with me, Charly, but Jonas and I better go now.”
When Charly drove up the driveway to the house in the early evening, Alice was sitting on the landing, waving a bottle of wine and grinning. When Jody saw her aunt, she cheered with joy and clapped her hands.
Charly smiled and pressed the button of the seat belt, then unlocked the child lock of the car door.
Laughing, Jody tucked her new giraffe, which she had won, under her arm and crawled out of her seat. Then she jumped out of the car right into Alice’s arms.
“That must have been thought transference,” said Charly, grinning at Alice. “I was going to call you tonight anyway and ask if you were free.”
Alice gave Jody a kiss on the cheek and let her down. “I brought us some treats from the deli. Italian sausage, some cheese, olives and fresh bread.”
“Sounds delicious,” Charly replied, and ruffled Jody’s hair. “Shall I make you some noodles?”
“Ain’t hungry no more.”
Alice frowned. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”
Charly waved away. “She stuffed herself in Brighton. Chicken nuggets and fries, then cotton candy and a monster sundae.”
Alice pointed to the Marks and Spencer bag sitting in front of the door. “I guess I’ll just have to eat it all myself…”
Charly shook her head in feigned horror and Jody laughed. “I already had totally delicious fast food from the snack bar at the pier, but I won’t miss out on an Italian dinner.”
Two hours later Charly and Alice were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table. Charly had let Jody watch a cartoon and then put her to bed after reading her a story. Meanwhile, Alice had cleared away the dishes from dinner and opened the red wine, pouring two glasses.
Charly toasted Alice and sipped the dark red liquid, tasted the light vanilla note with a hint of strawberries on her tongue. “Delicious,” she declared. She shot Alice an uncomfortable look.
“Will you tell me what’s going on?” Alice said, getting right to the point.
Charly sighed. “Can you see it so clearly on my face?” She told Alice about the photos from last night, then took the pack from her purse and spread them out on the table in front of Alice.
Alice quirked her eyebrows questioningly. “You seriously thought Jody did this?”
“At first. She could have found these pictures somewhere in the closet and stuck them to the walls. All she had to do was climb from a chair onto the desk, which would be perfectly feasible even for such a little girl.”
“Who do you think would have cut out these faces?”
“Again, I thought of Jody first. After what you told me the other day about Imogen, that she even hit Jody once… I thought, maybe she is angry with her mother because she had changed so much and then disappeared. But the longer I thought about it, the clearer it became that that was ridiculous. Why would Jody do that? Not to mention the fact that at three years old she is not yet able to think that way.”
“Well, I think Imogen herself did it and these pictures were either already hanging on the wall or Jody found them and stuck them there.”
Charly stared at Alice, perplexed. “That can’t be. I was in this room in the afternoon and there was a world map hanging on the wall. And it would have taken Jody hours to put all these photos on the wall, I should have noticed.”
Alice said nothing, but Charly suspected she did not agree with her. “Do you have a better idea?”
Alice nodded thoughtfully. “You haven’t been here long, taking care of Jody day in, day out, keeping the house in order, making appointments with the welfare people and…. You’re stressed, Charly. You’re just not used to taking care of a child, to being responsible. It’s possible you’re wrong, that these pictures were already hanging there and you hadn’t noticed them before because there were other things demanding your attention around the clock.”
“Then will you explain to me who cut Imogen’s face out of all these photos?”
Alice looked away uncomfortably. “I honestly suspect she did that herself too. She had these photos reproduced somewhere and then cut out her face.”
“Why?” Charly asked. “What’s the point? These pictures look as if someone wanted to wipe out Imogen. Why would she do such a thing?”
“My sister was sick. Sick people do sick things.”
Charly changed the subject. “By the way, I met Jake Bishop on the pier today. He’s the policeman who investigated Imogen’s suicide. I was with him the other day, asked him all kinds of questions. In the process, our conversation turned to his sister. I asked him how she was doing and he freaked out.” Charly cringed. “I don’t know how, but apparently I have completely suppressed the fact that she is long dead, and understandably made him totally angry. When we ran into each other today, I apologized and asked him what happened to Megan.” She fixed on Alice’s face. “Megan died in an accident when she was seven years old. She fell off a cliff. Just like Imogen.”
Alice blanched. “Megan? The girl’s name was Megan?”
“It was. Didn’t you tell me the other day that you had the impression Imogen was getting all worked up over something? Something that had to do with her past? And that she sometimes called Megan’s name at night?”
Alice’s face darkened and she nodded.
“Then there are my dreams,” Charly continued. “Since I have been in this house, I have dreamed a few times that I too would fall to my death from a cliff. Just like Megan and Imogen.”
/> Alice picked up her wineglass and drained it all in one go. She poured another full glass and took another big sip. “And you still remember nothing about Megan’s accident?”
“I have a mental block in my head. It’s as if my subconscious is trying to prevent me from remembering.”
Alice looked Charly in the eyes. “Honestly, it only confirms my suspicions. Apparently there is something in Imogen’s and your past that has to do with this Megan. Something that made Imogen feel terribly guilty. After Adam’s death broke her last hold on life, she became ill. Maybe she wanted to express her guilt with these photos? Didn’t you say you two had a fight the day of Jody’s baptism? Maybe it’s all connected?”
Charly nodded slowly. “However, I still can’t imagine that this thing had so devastated Imogen that she was willing to take her own life and leave Jody to fend for herself.”
“I’ll admit it’s hard to understand. But the fact is that Imogen was not herself in the days before her death. You should have seen her and talked to her, then you would know what I mean.”
“Still, I want to be on the safe side. It’s also about Jody. What if Imogen didn’t kill herself? What if she didn’t just abandon her daughter? Wouldn’t you want to know?”
chapter 13
Newhaven, June 2015
A terrible bang startled Charly from her sleep. Dazed, she stood up, looked around, and found it was terribly cold in the room. Astonished, she saw that the window of the guest room in which she slept was wide open. She swung her legs out of the bed, searched for her slippers with her tiptoes, and walked over to the window shaking with cold and locked it. At the sight outside she stopped short. A cold front had moved in and spread over the coastal region, dropping the temperatures below ten degrees. Everything was covered in frost. And that in June.
Charly shivered and was about to climb back into bed when another bang broke the silence of the early morning. She quickly slipped into her clothes from the day before and ran to Jody’s room. Once in the hallway she discovered that the cold had taken over not only her room but the rest of the house. With a queasy feeling in her stomach Charly yanked open the bathroom door and saw that the window was open. Just like the window in Adam and Imogen’s former bedroom, the window in the office and… a heart-rending crying sounded.
Jody!
She ran the last distance to the girl’s room and ripped open the door. Jody was lying in her bed, rubbing her eyes sleepily, her face wet with tears. Here, too, the window was wide open, which was probably ultimately responsible for Jody’s early awakening. Charly slammed the window shut and lifted Jody up, gave her a loving kiss on the cheek. “Everything’s okay, little mouse. It was probably just a window banging against the wall that woke you up. Would you like to sleep a little more?”
Panicky looking, Jody said, “No!”
“All right, let’s see what it looks like downstairs and then we’ll make ourselves breakfast.”
That elicited a tentative smile from Jody, who then cuddled her head on Charly’s shoulder and put her thumb in her mouth. On the way down, Charly wondered how it could be that every single window on the upper floor was open when she was sure that they were all closed before she went to bed.
Once downstairs Charly saw the open front door and pressed Jody even harder against her body. “All is well,” she whispered to the child, although in truth it was herself who desperately needed encouragement. She walked toward the door, kicked it with her foot, but nothing happened. Only when she came closer did she realize that not only was the door open, but that the key had been turned around once from the inside so that the door could not close at all. She hastily turned the key in the opposite direction, then pushed the door into the lock.
“What do you think about me putting a movie in your DVD player? You could watch a movie while I make breakfast.”
Though she was inwardly frightened by what was going on, the sight of the child nodding off on her arm made her smile. She slowly walked into the living room, took a good look around, and laid Jody on the sofa, covering her with an afghan. Then she closed the window, went next door to the bathroom, and then into the kitchen, where there was also a draft. When she was sure everything was locked and bolted, she armed herself with a poker and went down to the basement. She first checked the laundry room, the boiler room, and then the pantry.
Ten minutes later Charly fell onto a kitchen chair in relief. Nobody seemed to be in the house except Jody and her. Which inevitably led to the question of who was responsible for this morning’s chaos. She herself had certainly not left the front door open and opened the windows of every room. And Jody was far too small to reach the bolts, let alone the security lock on the front door. Wasn’t she? Charly decided to do the only sensible thing to do in this situation and used her cell phone to look up the phone numbers of some locksmiths on the Internet. As she googled, the familiar WhatsApp whistle sounded several times in a row, announcing the arrival of numerous messages. Charly knew, even without looking, that they were from Andreas. Her stomach cramped up at the thought of her ex. Was he behind all this? Had he tracked her down and wanted to scare her? Make her fly home in a hurry in this way? To throw herself into his saving arms? With trembling fingers she clicked through to the news. Then she uttered a sigh of relief. None of it was from him. Pia had written and complained that she didn’t call her back. Another message was from her mother, who complained that she hadn’t answered. Then Alice had written and apologized for leaving so abruptly last night. Immediately Charly’s stomach lurched. It made her angry that Alice still thought Imogen was responsible for the ominous photos, and did not even consider that her sister might have been murdered. Even Adam’s death did not make her suspicious. Jake also held this opinion, as he had tried to make her understand twice before. Did none of them see what she saw? That a young woman in the prime of life, with a young daughter who needed her, couldn’t have just thrown her life away? That Imogen, whom she had known since early childhood, would never have been capable of such an act? Not even in a state of complete despair.
Yet could she be sure?
Was Alice right when she claimed that Imogen had changed a lot? Could one become a completely different person through grief and depression?
Then she remembered Alice’s words. Sick people do sick things.
Nevertheless!
Didn’t anyone wonder how it could be that two young married couples died so close together? One did not have to be a police detective to be able to put one and one together to understand that this did not happen every day, and therefore needed to be investigated more closely. But Jake had assured her that both his colleagues in London and his local colleagues had more than thoroughly investigated both cases.
What if they missed something?
Charly sighed when she realized that she was going in circles, both mentally and emotionally. Her gaze touched the clock above the sideboard. Already shortly before half past seven. Charly rubbed her eyes tiredly. She sat there for an hour and a half without making coffee or setting the breakfast table, pondering on her search for an answer about long gone conversations with Alice and Jake. She was angry at herself. Was she slowly going crazy? Did the same thing happen to her that Alice and Jake said happened to Imogen? Was she slowly but surely going crazy? And then there was this thing with Megan. Since she had talked openly with Alice yesterday, she felt it very clearly: There was definitely something in Imogen’s and her past that was connected to Megan and that she didn’t want to remember at all. She took a deep breath. Her decision was as clear this morning as it was last night. She would not give up until she was sure she knew the whole truth, as bitter as it may be.
Charly was just about to check on Jody when the front doorbell rang. Unsettled by recent events, she first peeked through the peephole, saw Jake was outside, and invited him in.
Smiling, he held up a large bag in his hands, which smelled seductively of pastry.
He wink
ed mischievously at Charly. “I thought you two girls might like some scones and white bread for breakfast.” His smile faded and he stepped a little closer to Charly. “But first of all I wanted to say I’m sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have offended you like that. My leaving was rude, I’m sorry.”
Charly smiled and took the bag from him. “If you set the table, I’ll make us some coffee.”
Forty-five minutes later, Jake had said goodbye and left for work. Jody was still fast asleep on the sofa in the living room, which was very convenient for Charly. She had told Jake about the open front door and windows and told him she planned to spend the day calling companies that specialized in installing security locks. Jake’s guess about what had happened was that the front door’s locking mechanism had failed and Charly had forgotten to lock all the windows after airing the house in the evening. He had offered to come back in the evening and install a new security lock. An extremely generous offer, which Charly took up only too gladly in view of her daily shrinking bank account.
The ringing of the landline phone ripped her out of her thoughts. Since the call to the welfare department was long overdue, she quickly ran into the hallway to get the phone. Glancing at the display, she recognized that it was a London area code. She answered the phone. A young police officer was on the phone and asked if she was a family member of Linda Shaw. Charly wanted to explain who she was and why he had to make do with her, then decided to lie, hoping the man would be able to tell her something new about Adam’s accident.
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