Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
After spending the drive in a state of mild anxiety, Lily felt her nerves dissipate when Mr Harper greeted her with a warm smile and kind eyes.
“Lily?” he asked, holding the door for her.
She extended her hand to the smartly dressed man. “Mr Harper, I assume.”
“Richard.” He clasped her hand with both of his. “Please come in.”
They walked to the back and into the office she’d sat in a few days earlier. It felt like weeks ago with everything that had happened in between.
“Marianne offered to be here,” Richard said, taking a chair on the same side of the desk as Lily. “But I thought it might be better if it were just me. She can be a little overbearing sometimes.”
Lily smiled. “She seemed protective of you.”
“Yes. She thinks you’ve come to stir up trouble, but she has a tendency to assume the worst.”
“I’m not interested in stirring up trouble,” Lily said. “All I’m looking for is the truth. Anything you can tell me would be helpful.”
“I’m not sure that’s true since I don’t think there’s much I can tell you, but we can give it a go.” He paused and scratched his jaw. “Could I get you a drink?”
“No, thank you.” All she wanted was for him to tell her what he knew.
He seemed to sense her impatience. “The Truro project was my idea,” he said.
“My brother had been building up the business for a few years and suggested I join him. He was keen to keep things relatively small. His vision was for a small family business with a personal touch.” His eyes flashed with mirth.
“I thought he should be more ambitious. Cornwall was seeing a boom in tourism and retirement properties. I wanted to get in on the action.”
Lily nodded and waited for him to get to the bit about her parents.
“Truro looked promising to me. There was a lack of retirement homes, and I had an idea to build an assisted living complex. A retirement village with shops and a medical centre and a hairdresser. I thought I’d hit on the ultimate business idea in the perfect part of the country.
” He smiled sadly. “We just needed the right location.”
He paused and moved to the water cooler at the corner of the room. “Are you sure you don’t want a drink? I can get the coffee machine into gear if you’d like.”
“I’ll have a water,” she said. It’d give her something to do with her hands.
Air bubbles glugged their way to the surface as he poured one glass and then another.
“You wanted to build the retirement village on the street I was living on?” Lily asked when he handed her a glass.
“Yes.” He lowered himself into the chair again.
“The houses were already old. I honestly thought I’d found a brilliant solution for everyone.
We had some capital, so we could offer more than market value for the houses.
I felt like a bit of a hero in that first meeting – offering a financial windfall for the residents.
” He turned his glass on the desk. “I was na?ve, of course. I assumed the financial gain would sway people. It didn’t occur to me that for some people, no amount of money would tempt them. ”
“My parents?” she asked, a lump swelling in her throat.
“Yes. They kept quiet at that initial meeting. To me, they were only names on a list. Other people were louder. Samantha Weston, for example.” He rolled his eyes. “Are you in touch with her?”
Lily scratched at the skin above her top lip, while her brain tried to keep up. When he said he probably wouldn’t be helpful, she hadn’t imagined him being able to remember the names of the other residents.
“I’m not sure who you mean,” she said, feeling as though she was missing something.
“Samantha Weston.” He gave her a puzzled look. “Your neighbour.”
“I don’t remember. I was only little. Four years old.”
“Yes, but… I’m sorry, I just assumed…”
She wrinkled her nose. “Why would you assume I’d keep in touch with the neighbour?”
“It was such a tight-knit circle with the residents on the cul-de-sac. Everyone seemed to know each other well. They looked after each other’s kids and…” He trailed off, swallowed hard.
Lily stared at him. “You don’t need to walk on eggshells with me. Please tell me whatever you’re thinking.”
“You were staying with Samantha…”
“The night my parents died?”
“Yes. You were best friends with her daughter.” The inflection in his words made it sound like a question. One which Lily had no answer to.
She shook her head. “What was her name? Her daughter?”
“I don’t remember. I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. I was at their house the night of the fire?”
“Where did you think you were?” he asked cautiously.
“I knew I was at a friend’s house but…” Weirdly, it had never really occurred to her to wonder about that friend. Now, all she could think about was Samantha Weston. Some woman who’d been looking after another kid and had woken to find that kid had been orphaned.
“They lived right next door?” Lily asked.
“Yes. Samantha and your mum were good friends. She was devastated, of course.”
Lily had no memory. All she remembered was being in a house with her uncle.
She had an inkling it was in Truro, but she’d never really thought about the logistics of it before.
Had he arrived and taken her that day, or had she stayed with the neighbours for a while?
And how quickly had Uncle Derek found them a house?
Presumably the place in her memories had been a temporary rental.
“Did I stay with the neighbours after my parents died?” she asked, a slight tremor to her voice.
“No.” He looked thoughtful, and his eyes flashed with sorrow.
“I was staying in a hotel nearby. When I heard what had happened, I went down there. Your grandmother was collecting you from the Westons’ house.
” His chin twitched and his eyes were suddenly glassy.
He fished a handkerchief from his pocket. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t remember it,” Lily mused.
“Your grandmother was distraught. Everyone was. That morning is one I’ll never get out of my head.”
“I grew up with my uncle,” she muttered. “I only remember being with Uncle Derek.”
He nodded. “I met him.”
“But my grandmother took me?” Lily asked. “To start with, I went with her?”
“Yes. I think you stayed at her house. As far as I recall, you stayed there after your uncle arrived too. They never told you this?”
“No. We never talked much about that time. Did you meet my gran?”
“Yes.” He sucked in a breath. “She certainly wasn’t my biggest fan. I was the enemy as far as she was concerned.”
Lily jutted her chin out. “She accused you of setting the fire?”
“Yes.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I really wanted the deal to go through, and was pretty focused on making it happen, but I…” He took a breath, looking genuinely choked up. “I’d never do something like that.”
“My parents were supposed to be out that evening. I imagine if someone intentionally started the fire, that person might have thought the house was empty.”
He shook his head insistently. “I realise all I can do is ask you to take me at my word, but I would never have stooped to that level. I wanted the deal to go through, but not like that. Never like that. I’d gone in there making offers on houses which I thought would make people happy.
And some people were over the moon with the offers we made. ”
Lily slouched in her chair, not sure what to think. Mostly she was wondering about her best friend. Had she grown up wondering about Lily? And the other people who lived in the street who apparently knew her as a child – had they wondered what had happened to Lily?
“If you can’t take me at my word, you could consider the logic of it – we didn’t buy any of the houses.”
“Because my uncle inherited the property, in trust for me, and he wouldn’t sell to you.” Or so she assumed. A little digging had told her that Uncle Derek had sold the land to a local property developer who’d built a new house on it and sold it on.
“I have no doubt we’d have been able to get our hands on it after your uncle sold. But we didn’t even try.”
“Why not?” she asked, fairly sure she knew the answer but wanting to hear it.
“I couldn’t. It all felt wrong after the fire. Even if your grandmother and uncle hadn’t been accusing me, there was already too much bad feeling around it.”
“What do you think happened?” she asked quietly. “Do you think someone started that fire intentionally?”
“No.” He smiled sympathetically. “I think the fire was a tragic accident, but the timing of it made it look suspicious.”
“Do you know anything about the threats my grandma got when she was making allegations against your company?”
His eyebrows pinched together. “What threats?”
“Someone didn’t like her asking questions about the fire. She received threatening notes and was later attacked.”
“Attacked?” He straightened up. “Physically?”
“Yes. Someone pushed her down stone steps.”
Richard slumped back in his chair, covering his mouth with his hand. The sadness in his eyes was genuine, she was sure of it.
“I’m very sorry to hear that. I knew she’d had a fall.
” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.
“That must have been a few months after the fire. I was in contact with Samantha – she designated herself the spokesperson for the street and she had follow-up questions for a while.” He paused, and the creases in his forehead deepened.
“I remember asking about Clara because her phone calls had stopped. Partly, I was relieved not to have to deal with her abuse, but I also always felt sorry for her. I certainly wasn’t happy to hear she’d fallen and was in hospital, but I didn’t realise it was anything other than an accident. ”
“There was no evidence, but she was convinced someone pushed her.”
“I’m so sorry,” he muttered. “Truly. Obviously, we were never on the best of terms, but I admired Clara. I’m sorry she went through that.
” His gaze went to the window. If his response wasn’t genuine, he was a fantastic actor.
He really seemed shaken. After a moment of silence, a small smile lifted the corners of his lips.
“I visited Clara’s house after the fire.
There were all these accusations flying around, and I wanted to speak with her.
She was fierce with me. Her daughter and son-in-law had just died, so of course she was devastated and angry too.
But when you were around, she was the gentlest soul.
She doted on you. And you looked at her like she was your whole world.
” He pressed his handkerchief to his nose.
“I’m sorry for all your family went through. ”
Lily’s eyes filled with tears as she felt the crushing weight of grief for a woman she didn’t remember. The grief for another relationship that had been stolen from her.
Richard moved around the desk and opened a couple of drawers before finding a packet of pocket tissues and handing it to Lily.
“Thank you,” she said, sniffling as she battled to open the packet.
“If you don’t remember any of your old neighbours,” he said gently. “I’m assuming you didn’t stay in the area?”
She shook her head, then blew her nose. “After my gran was attacked, Uncle Derek was concerned for my safety. We went to stay with his friend but there was a fire there too. So he moved me to Italy. Then we moved again and again. We didn’t stay anywhere for long.”
Richard’s chest shuddered, and he pressed a hand to his heart. His reaction was genuine, and Lily knew, deep in her gut, that the man in front of her wasn’t responsible for her parents’ deaths.
“Gran was on the wrong track,” she murmured.
“But she was right that it wasn’t an accident,” he said indignantly. “Her being pushed, and then another fire, that’s shocking. Surely the police were looking into it at that point. Why didn’t I hear any more about it?”
“As far as I can tell, my uncle was focused on keeping me safe. He thought he could do a better job of that without the help of the police.” A smile played on her lips. Apparently that was something they had in common – thinking they could do better than the police.
“It seems he kept you safe,” Richard said. “It doesn’t sound like the greatest upbringing, though. Especially not compared to the way your parents were raising you – as part of a tight community.”
“I didn’t know any different,” she said, “or at least I don’t remember any different.”
Maybe some subconscious part of her remembered, though. Perhaps that was the part of her that sent her on the quest to find the ice cream shop and to get back to a small, tight-knit community.