Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
After five minutes of sitting in the eerily quiet police station, the sound of sirens had Lily venturing to the door and peering out at the street. With nothing to see, she was about to retreat inside when a figure caught her eye.
“Maria!” she called as the woman hurried towards her.
“I came as soon as I got your message.”
“Thanks. Did you hear sirens?”
She nodded. “There were flashing lights at the end of the road, but I came from the other direction. What’s going on? Have you been arrested?”
“No. The sergeant just wants to interview me for now. But he left, and then Flynn got some emergency call and ran off. I’m supposed to stay here… I don’t know what’s going on.”
Maria ushered her back inside. “Tell me about the money and the passports,” she said as they sat side by side on the bench seat that ran along the wall.
“I found it when Uncle Derek died. He had a bunch of cash. Lots of it. And forged passports for both of us. I got rid of his. I’m not sure why I kept mine.
Part of me wondered if I might need it… he must have had it for a reason.
But I really wish I hadn’t held onto it.
According to Flynn, I could be looking at a decade in prison. ”
“Surely not,” Maria said. “Not when you didn’t know anything about it. Once you explain you had nothing to do with it – that you just found it in your uncle’s things – everything will be fine.”
“That might be true if Uncle Derek were around to verify my story and explain that there was nothing illegal going on. But I have no proof that I didn’t acquire it myself and that I wasn’t planning something nefarious.”
Maria rubbed at her forehead. “What a mess.”
“Why did he have fake passports?” Lily asked desperately. “Was he some kind of spy?”
“No.” She huffed out a laugh. “Nothing like that.”
Lily sat ramrod straight. “You know why he had them then?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been keeping secrets from me this whole time?”
“I didn’t know how much you knew,” she protested. “I didn’t want to raise old issues that would upset you for no reason.”
“Can you please tell me now, since whatever you know might be the only thing that stops me from spending the next decade behind bars.”
“I’m sure that won’t happen.”
“Please tell me whatever you know… the sergeant and Flynn will be back any minute.”
She squeezed her eyes closed. “It’ll sound insane.”
“My life feels pretty insane at this moment, anyway.”
She exhaled a long breath. “Derek was never convinced your parents’ deaths were an accident.”
“He thought someone started the fire at our house on purpose?” Lily whispered.
Maria nodded. “That was only the start of it.”
“The fire at the ice cream shop?”
“Yes. But that was a little later…”
“How do you mean?”
“Derek had been asking questions. The fire at your parents’ house was deemed accidental. Faulty electrics or something. No one’s fault, or so they said. But Derek had his suspicions, and so did your grandma.”
“My grandparents all died either before I was born or when I was tiny. I never knew any of them.”
“You knew Clara. Maybe you don’t remember her, but she was a big part of your life when you were little.”
A lump swelled in Lily’s throat. “Did you know her?”
“No. But Derek talked about her a lot. She sounded like a force to be reckoned with.”
“She was my mum’s mum?” Lily asked.
“Yes.” She pressed her lips together. “I don’t know if you remember, but the house you lived in with your parents was on a cul-de-sac.
Right at the edge of the town. Your mum had grown up in the house and was attached to it.
Property developers wanted to buy out all the houses on the street, but your parents refused to sell.
As far as I understand it, there were some aggressive conversations with the company that wanted to buy…
and then your house burned down. Derek and Clara didn’t think it was a coincidence. ”
“But they didn’t find any evidence?”
“No. And it seemed that someone didn’t like them digging into it.”
Lily shook her head. “What happened?”
“Your grandma got a couple of threatening notes. Then she was walking home from the shops one evening when she had a nasty fall down stone steps. It didn’t kill her outright, but she was in bad shape.
I don’t think she was conscious much, but she came around for long enough to tell Derek that someone had pushed her.
And that he needed to stop looking into your parents’ deaths and focus on keeping you safe.
She told him to take you and get away from Truro. ”
“And he did,” Lily murmured.
“I don’t think he was fully convinced that running was the answer. He brought you over to visit me again.”
“That’s when the fire happened at the ice cream shop?”
“Yes.” She nodded sadly. “It didn’t seem as though the intention was to harm anyone, more that someone was sending a message.”
“Why did no one know I was here? I asked Glynis and Mirren – neither of them remembered you having guests.”
“Derek didn’t want anyone to know. After the incident with your gran, he got paranoid. He’d barely let you out of his sight. When the smoke alarms went off that night, he bundled you and your things together and slipped out through the back door.”
“I vaguely remember,” Lily said.
“You slept in his arms on the beach that night, and he left with you the next day.”
It took a few minutes for Lily to trust herself to speak through the emotions, which felt as though they might suffocate her. “We always used our real names, didn’t we? Why did he have fake passports?”
“He got them later. About a year after you moved to Italy, he caught some private investigator watching you at the school gates. I believe he beat the guy up, then he moved you to Spain. He found someone dealing in fake passports and got them as a security measure. He was trying his best to keep things relatively normal for you, so he didn’t want to change your names and identities.
But he also wanted to be ready in case that became necessary. ”
“You were right,” Lily said, her voice brittle. “This all sounds insane.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Will you tell the police all of this?” Lily blinked away tears. “I’m not sure anyone will believe I have a forged passport, but don’t know why.”
“Of course. I’ll help however I can.”
Lily’s gaze flicked to the door. “I don’t know what’s going on. Where did they go?” She pulled out her phone and messaged Flynn, but got no reply.
“Where are you?” she murmured, eyes not shifting from the door.