Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
The ex-police officer lived in the next village over.
Nancy had pulled out her mum’s address book to find out where exactly.
Armed with that information, Lily set off on foot as soon as she left the Westons’ house.
It was a twenty-minute stroll to St Clement, along the river and then narrow lanes through rolling hills.
The walk was a waste of time. He didn’t answer the door. Undeterred, Lily wandered around the quaint village, then tried again, but still had no luck. She’d return later in the car.
Her wasted trip left her deflated as she retraced her steps. At least the wind had dropped. Eerily so, actually. In the stillness, the wide stretch of river sent goosebumps rippling over Lily’s neck. The birds had fallen quiet, and Lily’s footsteps sounded too loud on the lonely path.
She encountered a couple of hikers, but there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic. When she was almost back at Malporth, a stocky, hunched man lifted his gaze and gave a quick flick of his chin. Lily returned the greeting and continued onto Riverview Road.
Instead of calming her, the quiet walk left her on edge. Halfway up the steps to the cottages, she startled when she spotted Vanessa in the front window of her cottage.
By the time Lily got to the top step, Vanessa was standing in her doorway.
“Hello!” she said cheerfully. “Have you been for a walk?”
Lily nodded.
“Make the most of this weather.” She glanced overhead and wrapped her cardigan tighter around her. “There’s a storm forecast later. It’s supposed to pour all night tonight, and tomorrow morning too.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Lily murmured, not remotely in the mood for small talk.
“You missed a couple of visitors while you were out,” Vanessa said, stopping Lily in her tracks.
“Really?”
She nodded slowly. “Marcie was looking for you. From the gift shop. She told me you’d been in yesterday asking questions.”
“Yes.” Lily frowned. “And she came here looking for me?”
Again, the slow nod. “She asked me if you really were Christopher and Julia’s daughter. An odd question, I thought. And she wanted to know how long you were staying and why you were here.”
Lily opened her mouth, but didn’t manage to get a word in.
“I told her I won’t give out information about my guests. Everyone thinks I’m a gossip because of my hairdressing work, but I’m careful about the information I share. It’d be bad for business if I wasn’t.”
“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “Did she want to speak to me, or did she just come to ask you questions about me?”
“She wanted to speak to you, but she said she’d come back later.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“You also had a police officer looking for you,” she said with a glint of amusement. “Ex officer, actually. Roy said he’d heard you were visiting and wanted to say hello. He was the local constable when you lived here. You only missed him by five minutes.”
Lily’s gaze darted along the road. “Was he driving or on foot?”
“Walking. Like I say, you didn’t miss him by much.”
“Maybe I can catch him.” It was probably the man she’d passed at the edge of the village. “Thank you,” she called to Vanessa as she raced back down the steps.
Hitting the pavement, she set off at a jog. If he kept a slow pace, she should be able to catch him quickly. Why had he come looking for her, anyway? Probably just intrigued by her turning up after so long, she supposed.
The more interesting question was why Marcie was looking for her. And why she’d quizzed Vanessa about her. It sounded as though she didn’t even believe Lily was who she said she was…
Her thoughts halted abruptly. She’d only made it a little way on the footpath when the sight of a figure on a bench made her slow to a stop.
The guy she’d passed earlier stared out across the river, apparently lost in thought.
Frown lines wrinkled his forehead, and his lips were pressed into a straight line.
Lily took a step towards him, and he turned at the crunch of gravel.
“Are you Roy Morley?” Lily asked.
Crow’s feet softened his features as his lips pulled into a slow smile. He nodded. “Lily?”
“Yes. I heard you were looking for me.” She stepped closer to the bench. “I was at your place, looking for you. I believe you knew my parents.”
“That’s right. I knew you, too.” He rose from the bench and dangled his hand on a level with his knee. “You were only yay high. But you’d always get excited when you saw me around the village in my uniform. I used to put the blue lights on the car – you loved that.”
“I don’t remember,” Lily said.
“You were only little.” He tilted his head. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Thank you.” She shifted her weight, swallowed hard. “I never knew much about my childhood, and I thought it was about time I rectified that. I wondered if you might help me fill in some blanks…”
His eyes shone with kindness, and Lily felt instantly at ease with him. “I’d be very happy to help,” he said. “However I can.”
“I appreciate it.” She tipped her head toward the bench and they sat down.
He looked at her intently, no doubt searching her features for family resemblance. Not wanting to leave space for him to comment on which of her parents she looked most like, she got straight to her point.
“Were you there the night my parents died?”
He hesitated, shifting his gaze to look out at the glassy surface of the water. “I was first on the scene that night,” he said slowly, carefully. “I tried to get in – at the front door and the back – but the smoke was too thick. We couldn’t do anything but wait for the fire brigade.”
Lily was glad to be sitting, fairly sure she’d be lightheaded if she were standing.
“I tried,” he murmured. “I promise you, I tried.”
She took steady breaths until the lump in her throat eased. “I believe you,” she finally said. “I’m sure the emergency services did all they could that night.” She chewed on her lower lip, considering her next question. “Did you know my grandmother, Clara?”
“Yes. I remember her.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
He shook his head, looking pained. “She had a fall and was in hospital for a long time, then moved to a rehab centre. I visited her a couple of times.”
Lily’s forehead creased. “Officially? As a police officer?”
“Both.” He glanced over his shoulder. “I was on duty the night she fell and went to the hospital that evening. I’d spoken to her several times before that and I liked her. Later, I checked on her on my own time, not for any official reason.”
“Do you remember what you talked about?” Surely she’d have told him that someone pushed her. If he was concerned enough to visit her on his own time, he would have followed that up, wouldn’t he?
“That first night she was drifting in and out of consciousness and struggled to get any words out. After that, she never spoke to me – either couldn’t or wouldn’t, it wasn’t quite clear.
The last time I went to the rehab clinic, she was no longer there and I couldn’t find out where she’d gone.
The staff wouldn’t tell me and I didn’t have grounds for a formal request.”
“Everyone I’ve spoken to in the village thinks she died, but if she died at the rehab centre surely the staff would have told you.” Lily’s mind whirred. “Maybe she moved to a different facility and died there.” Or maybe she left and went into hiding.
Roy looked thoughtful. “Weren’t you in touch with her back then? Or your uncle?”
“We moved to Italy. My uncle told me Clara died, but he didn’t tell me any details about when or how.” She drummed her fingers on the worn wood of the bench. “Do you know Clara asked questions after the fire? She didn’t think it was an accident.”
Roy sat up straight. Tilting his head, his gaze flicked along the path in both directions.
“She accused the property developer,” Lily said. “And then she accused the neighbours too.”
“I remember,” he said quietly. “I had several conversations with her about it.”
“Do you think she might have been right?”
Again, his gaze darted furtively. “We looked into the property developers,” he said quietly. “They were clean as a whistle. There was no evidence that the fire was anything other than an accident. Your parents’ deaths were ruled accidental.”
“I know that!” Lily turned sideways, looked him straight on. “Can I be honest with you?”
He nodded.
“I think my grandmother was right about the fire. And I think she might still be alive. That’s why I came back. I need to find her, but I don’t know how. It’ll sound crazy, but I think whoever set the fire threatened her life, and she went into hiding.”
His jaw tightened, and he stood abruptly. “It does sound crazy.”
Lily eyed him desperately. Maybe it was because he was a police officer, but she’d felt she could trust him and that he’d help her. Now it seemed he would declare her crazy, like her grandmother, and want nothing more to do with her.
“You said you’d answer my questions,” she complained.
“It’s cold,” he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his raincoat. “I’ll talk to you, but let’s go back to my place where it’s more comfortable.”
Relieved, Lily fell into step beside him, walking briskly along the footpath. They didn’t talk on the way, and it was only when they were on the doorstep of his semi-detached house that Lily thought to question his motives for wanting to speak to her at his place.
He seemed like a nice enough man, but Lily should know better than to be so blindly trusting.
“Are you okay?” he asked, staring at her from inside the doorway. Apparently he’d invited her in and she’d remained frozen to the spot.
“Yes.” Smiling, she pulled out her phone. “I just remembered I’m meeting my boyfriend later. I should message him and let him know I might be late, and where I am.”
For appearances’ sake, she tapped out a quick message to Flynn, telling him she’d tracked down a retired police officer and was paying him a visit, but would call him later.
There wasn’t any point in giving the exact location.
Flynn was too far away to do anything. She only wanted Roy to believe that she’d be missed, and someone knew where to look for her.
Hopefully, she was being paranoid, but her previous investigations had taught her to keep an open mind.
No one was ever really above suspicion.