Chapter 9
As they approached a café called The Two Magpies Bakery, the queue had shortened. Arriving at the café counter, they chose homemade filled rolls. Joss got a coffee to go, insisting on footing the bill.
When they returned to the car, Briony said, ‘Would you mind stopping by the car park in Dunwich before we head to The Beach House?’
‘Not at all,’ Emily said. ‘Here, sit up front with me.’
Briony got in the passenger seat next to her. Joss climbed in the back, putting the filled rolls beside him on the back seat.
As Emily started the car, she said, ‘Has Troy started work on the outbuilding?’
‘Yes, he started last Monday after you and Clarissa were so kind as to help me clear it out. He’s working today too.’
‘But it’s Saturday.’
Briony smiled. ‘I know. He’s so dedicated, isn’t he? Working six days a week like that.’
‘He’s obviously enjoying the job …’ Emily paused to look at Briony. ‘Or the company.’
Briony ignored that comment. She was thinking about how it had all come about. She’d come across the plans that her grandmother had drawn up to renovate the old outbuilding by the seashore in the grounds of The Beach House. The plans had been on the kitchen table when she’d first arrived. Her grandmother’s plan was to turn it into a summerhouse with large floor-to-ceiling glass windows fronting the sea, a woodburning stove for the colder months, a lovely, vaulted ceiling and warm pine panelling for the walls, making it feel like a lodge.
Troy, whom Briony had not met before, had turned up along with his little half-sister, Willow, to inspect the outbuilding, clearly with a view to starting the job. Briony realised he had no clue that her grandmother, who’d obviously employed him to do the job, was missing.
She’s not necessarily missing, Briony told herself. Reggie had suggested that Blythe was probably staying with a friend after her knee op. Who, then, was that friend, and where were they? Briony hoped her grandmother would return soon. In the meantime, she’d decided to let Troy get on with renovating the outbuilding. The plans had been drawn up, she obviously wanted it done, and as an added bonus, Briony intended to pay for it herself out of the savings that were intended for her trip to the Galapagos Islands.
There was just one thing bothering her a little about the renovations. Troy. It wasn’t that she didn’t have confidence in his ability. From what she’d seen over the past week, he was working hard and doing an amazing job. The problem was that she didn’t want him to finish the job and leave. The previous Tuesday, when Briony had been unable to sleep, she’d decided to take Reggie’s advice and watch a sunrise – she’d discovered that the Suffolk Coast wasn’t called The Sunrise Coast for nothing. It was gorgeous, but it had been made all the more special by the unexpected company on that beautiful morning – Troy had turned up on the beach at an ungodly hour, saying that he couldn’t sleep either. He obviously had things on his mind, about which he wouldn’t elaborate.
Fair play, Briony had thought. He wasn’t the only one keeping his problems to himself. Her grandmother was on her mind.
The only people, so far, who knew Blythe was missing were Reggie, Emily and Clarissa. It was Clarissa who had suggested that perhaps Briony ought to declare her a missing person and contact the police. Briony was still holding out for her grandmother to return, hoping Reggie was right and she was just staying with a friend. Otherwise, if she was considering involving the police in a missing person case, she really would have to contact her mum and her grandfather first and find out if they knew her whereabouts. Her grandfather might, given that he’d stayed in contact with her grandmother.
Briony really didn’t want to contact her grandfather; he’d be so shocked to discover she wasn’t on the research ship but was instead in Suffolk. However, as time went on, she realised that if she couldn’t find her grandmother pretty soon, she would have to contact him. She’d already been in Suffolk for a week. The longer it went on, the more concerned she was becoming that something had happened to Blythe.
She hadn’t told Troy, though. He was aware that her grandmother wasn’t around, obviously, but she hadn’t actually told him that Blythe was missing – just that she was away. For some reason, he’d seemed to accept that – no questions asked. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him with the information. It was just that she didn’t really know him. That just isn’t true, Briony silently berated herself. You knew him well enough to hold hands while watching the sunrise that morning. If Luna hadn’t intervened, worming her way in between them for attention, they might have even kissed.
Briony still couldn’t believe that had nearly happened, although it was clear that they were attracted to each other, even though they’d only met a few days earlier. She couldn’t believe she’d been with Freddie for almost three years, and yet she had been able to fall for someone else so quickly.
In that moment, as they’d watched the sunrise together, Troy had asked her to stay, and Briony had convinced herself that it was what she wanted – for herself, for her child. Not that Troy was aware she was pregnant. She had yet to tell him that. Perhaps that was why she’d been avoiding him since, and had just let him get on with the work on the outbuilding.
Her job at Reggie’s shop was proving a distraction – some of the time, at least. He might be out of sight, but Troy certainly wasn’t out of her mind.
‘Briony? You seem lost in thought,’ commented Emily, glancing at her as she drove.
Briony apologised. ‘Sorry, I’ve just got so much on my mind.’ Some of it she hadn’t shared with her new friends, like her personal predicament, and how she had come to be in Suffolk. She had shared with Emily the news that she was pregnant, and it had turned out that Emily was too. Neither had yet told the fathers – Emily was waiting for the right moment, aware that although she was engaged to Joss, they still hadn’t set a date. Briony didn’t see that as a problem; in fact, she expected that Joss would see it as a great excuse to speed up the wedding, if they could.
Briony imagined that Freddie would react in a similar way as soon as she told him, telling her that now she had to accept his proposal and get on with planning the wedding. But why do I have to do that? Briony thought to herself. She knew what Freddie would say to that. It was obvious – at least to him – because we love each other.
Inevitably, Briony’s thoughts turned to Troy once more.
‘You’re thinking about him – aren’t you?’ whispered Emily.
Briony bit her lower lip and nodded. They both knew who she was talking about. Especially after Emily had turned up that day to help her in the outbuilding and discovered her and Troy together. It hadn’t been exactly how it had looked. Briony had got into difficulty while going for a dip in the sea, and Troy had appeared unexpectedly and waded into the sea to save her. Emily had happened upon them at the very moment Troy was carrying her in his arms, laying her down on her towel. It was ever so awkward, and even now, exactly one week later, Briony was still embarrassed just thinking about it.
Emily smiled wistfully, glancing in the rear-view mirror at the man she loved.
Briony glanced over her shoulder and wished her life was as uncomplicated and carefree as theirs. She thought of Troy. Was he in a relationship that he wasn’t sure was right for him too? She had no clue. She really knew next to nothing about him, apart from the fact that they were the same age, and he had a little half-sister, Willow, who was five years old. He looked after her while their father worked away as a deep-sat diver for weeks at a time. Briony hadn’t heard of deep-sat diving before, until she’d Googled it and discovered that ‘sat’ meant ‘saturation’. It was a specialised from of diving that enabled divers to stay submerged for lengthy periods, working in pressurised underwater environments – often hundreds, if not thousands, of feet below the surface. It didn’t sound like a job for the faint-hearted.
Their father was due home soon, apparently.
She did know one other thing, though; it sounded as though their father and grandfather had fallen out. She had no clue what it was about, but although Willow and Troy were welcome to stay with their grandfather – according to Willow, her grandfather was quite well-off and lived in a big house – their father insisted they stay in his small cottage – Coastguard Cottage – where he and Willow lived. When he wasn’t looking after Willow, Troy lived with his grandfather.
Perhaps I should ask Willow, next time I see her, whether her brother has a girlfriend.She wondered what little Willow would say.
Emily commented, ‘I’m so glad we managed to get the outbuilding cleared for Troy to start.’
‘Yes, me too.’ The previous Saturday, when Emily had brought along her friend, Clarissa, a journalist and good friend, to help her out clearing the outbuilding, Briony hadn’t voiced her reservations about whether she should really be taking it upon herself to clear it out. After all, none of the stuff in there belonged to her.
Should she even be touching it, let alone sorting through and deciding which items to keep, and which to get rid of? Would her grandmother be angry with her when she found out she’d done that – and that she’d even roped in new friends to lend a hand? Even Willow had got involved; they’d made a game of it. Their first task as the Wolf Girls Club – a name Willow had come up with, as the club included Luna too – was to clear the outbuilding.
Their next mission, according to Clarissa, was to find out where the key fitted that Willow had found in an old shell box that belonged to her father. Clarissa wasn’t serious about finding which lock fitted that key; it was just a mission she’d invented for Willow’s benefit.
Briony hadn’t mentioned at the time that she knew exactly which lock that key fitted. The shell box was identical to one belonging to Briony’s mother, which Briony had brought with her. Willow’s key was a replica of the one Briony had found in her mother’s shell box, and Briony just knew it was another key to The Beach House; she’d used her mother’s key to get in when she’d arrived. She wanted to find out why Willow and Troy’s father had a key before she told anyone, though. Briony’s mother’s box also contained a necklace with a wolf pendant that was one of a pair – and Briony had noticed Troy wearing the other half.
‘So, shall I drop you and Joss off at The Beach House, and park in the car park?’
Briony furrowed her brow, and looked at Emily. ‘Why?’
‘Well, you asked me to drive to the car park. There’s no point all of us traipsing along the coastal path to The Beach House. It’s a bit of a walk, I imagine.’
‘It is,’ Briony agreed. ‘But you can park at The Beach House.’
‘Won’t Troy’s truck be there?’
‘Yes, but there’s still space to park.’
Briony caught Emily raising an eyebrow. She realisedit was an odd request, asking to stop at the car park first.She explained. ‘I know I can walk to the car park later, but Reggie mentioned my grandmother’s car and said that she always parks in the car park. I can’t wait to see if it’s there.’
She knew she’d recognise it; Blythe had told Reggie it was the same car her parents had owned; the one she’d learned to drive in. Briony didn’t know what colour the car was because the photos she’d seen of it were black and white, but she imagined there weren’t many of those cars on the road today.
‘Blythe’s car? It’s a little Morris Minor in vintage green.’
‘Vintage green,’ repeated Briony.
‘You think it’s in the car park?’ Emily glanced at her as she drove through Dunwich village.
Briony nodded. ‘Reggie said it cropped up in conversation one day, when he’d arrived to tune her piano, and thought she wasn’t in, because her car wasn’t parked outside The Beach House. Turns out that she doesn’t like driving Missy – that’s the car’s name, apparently – down the track in case she gets a flat and ruins the car’s suspension, which is pretty non-existent anyway. And it wouldn’t do her back any favours either.’
‘Have you come across some car keys?’ Emily asked.
‘No, I haven’t. But I wasn’t exactly looking for car keys.’
‘But mightn’t she have them in her handbag?’
Briony frowned. That was a good point. She had not thought of that.
Joss, who had been drinking his takeaway coffee sitting behind Emily, waded into the conversation. ‘Yeah, I agree with Em. She’s probably got her car keys in her handbag, even though she hasn’t been using her car.’
Briony sighed. ‘Never mind. It was only a thought.’
‘I can still stop off at the car park anyway, if you like,’ said Emily.
‘I guess.’ Briony knew that it wouldn’t take them too much out of their way.
‘I don’t remember seeing it when I arrived by taxi. The taxi driver parked in the car park, but I wasn’t really looking at the other cars when we arrived.’
‘And if it’s not there …’ said Emily.
Briony shrugged. ‘Then I guess she drove herself to hospital for her op.’
‘And organised a friend to collect her and her car,’ said Joss.
Briony sighed. If a friend had collected Blythe, and her car, she was still no nearer to finding her.