Chapter Five - Verity Louise Clarke #3
Her memories of the weekend Gracie died were vague; anything that had occurred in the run up to her sister’s body being discovered had been hijacked by the horror of the event.
Her mother on her knees screaming, her dad with his hand on his heart, as if he might topple over and die too.
Numerous police officers in the hallway and the kitchen.
The blue flashing lights of their vehicles, quite unnecessary on their wide sweep of driveway, they filled the hallway with their cool tone.
It reminded her of being at the bottom of a swimming pool, something she’d liked to do when the weather allowed, trying to see how long she could hold her breath, as she battled to stay submerged in her floral swimming hat and matching costume.
Her auntie Nesta running in and grabbing her mother around the waist, the two women falling to the floor in the sitting room, a jumble of arms and legs and then her aunt’s screams matching those of her mother.
Her sweet cousin Darius sitting on the end of her bed.
They’d sat in silence as the house grew dark and no one came upstairs to offer them food or drink or check in.
It felt like everyone for themselves and about as scary.
Verity liked the sudden warmth that coated her skin, it felt like, like sunshine!
She opened her eyes, fighting to take a steady breath…
and there she was in her parents’ carefully tended back garden, laying on a tartan blanket in her cut-offs and vest. It was a miracle, it was magic!
Beautiful, beautiful magic because right there next to her, in a denim bikini, was her stunning big sister, Gracie!
Reaching out, she ran her fingertips over her sister’s arm, confirming she was real.
‘You trying to tickle me?’
Verity shook her head, stunned! How was this possible? Aware then of her long hair, forgetting how it had felt, the swish of locks around her face, the weight of it on her shoulders. She looked down at her striped T-shirt, her arms skinny, chest only starting to bud.
Gracie’s skin was covered in freckles that gave her a burnished hue. Her auburn hair caught the sunlight, and her pale blue eyes were laughing. She looked happy, so happy, as she propped her head on her hand, her elbow planted on the blanket.
‘You look really pretty.’ It was the truth. Her voice riven with emotion. Gracie was striking and lovely, with a youthful roundness to her face and limbs. A young woman with the whole wide world at her feet. A million miles away from that rotten photo.
‘Why are you being so nice to me?’
‘I’m always nice to you!’
‘No you’re not, you snitch on me!’ Gracie made out to jab her in the ribs.
‘When did I snitch on you?’ She had entirely forgotten if she had.
‘When I took the gin from the sideboard that Mum’d bought for Christmas, you told them it was me.’
So she had! This memory wrapped now in deep regret.
‘Well who else was it going to be?’ she laughed, and Gracie laughed too.
The loveliest sound. ‘What are you doing tonight, any plans?’ It was the closest she could get to discussing her sister’s movements, aware of Chen’s warning that any mention of what was to happen would be disastrous and their time would end.
She was not about to let this incredible opportunity slip through her fingers.
‘I’m going to a party, actually!’ Her sister lay on her front and beat her feet on the blanket, excitement and energy making her limbs jump. ‘But don’t tell Mum and Dad; it’s a secret.’
‘Can I come with you?’ If there was the slightest chance that she might be able to tag along, stick to her sister’s side, stop her meeting the most terrible fate, but, of course, that was impossible.
Everything had already happened. This was no more than VR, a snapshot, at least that was how she tried to explain it to herself.
‘No, you dork, you can’t. It’s not your kind of party. Maybe in a few years.’
‘Who’re you going with?’
‘Well aren’t you full of questions!’ Gracie leaned forward, held her hair to one side, and whispered conspiratorially, ‘If you must know, I’m going with my boyfriend.’
‘You haven’t got a boyfriend!’ This was news.
‘I have, actually, but he’s a secret too. And don’t tell a soul, but I’m only going to the party to show my face and then I’m meeting him and we’re going to hang out in his car, put some music on. Have a wee drinkie! God, I’m so into him!’
‘He’s got a car?’
‘Even better than that, he’s got a truck.’ Gracie widened her eyes as if this was currency.
‘Do you love him, Gracie?’ she asked softly.
Her sister nodded, her tone sincere, ‘And he loves me.’
‘Are you shagging?’
Gracie let out a raucous howl, ‘God, that is the funniest thing in the world, hearing you say the word shagging!’
‘I’m fourteen, not a baby!’
‘You’re our baby, V, always will be.’
‘So, are you?’ Verity wanted the detail.
‘Aye. It’s like a drug! I’m totally addicted, can’t get enough of him.’ She threw her head back and took a deep breath.
‘So who is it?’
‘Can’t say.’ Gracie shook her head.
‘You can tell me. I want to know!’ She felt the bloom of tears at the back of her throat. ‘Is it, is it Dale McCurdy?’ She hated the feel of his name in her mouth.
Gracie sprayed her laughter, ‘Dale McCurdy! Urgh! Jesus Christ!’ she made out to retch. ‘You’ve giein me the boak! Why would you think that? Dale McCurdy? He’s a complete waste of space! Dale McCurdy, of all people?’ – she laughed again – ‘Are you kidding? Do I not have standards?’
‘So who is it then?’ Verity sat up and stared at her darling sister. ‘I promise not to tell anyone.’
Gracie sat up too and toyed with a chain around her neck. She bit her lip as if keen to share the information, in the way you did when you were excited, in love and seventeen. Her beautiful, beautiful sister, only seventeen…
‘If you say a word to anybody, I’ll never speak to you again.’ Her eyes glinted with seriousness.
‘Cross my heart.’ Verity made the sign.
‘It’s Jon.’
‘Jon?’ She thought hard, unable to think of a single Jon. There was no Jon on the school bus, no Jon in her sister’s friendship group, not a single Jon came to mind. ‘Jon who?’
It was then that her sister leaned close and, with a blush to her face and neck, whispered into Verity’s ear, ‘Jon Morton.’
‘But,’ pulling away she stared at her sister. ‘Mr Morton, Dad’s friend?’
‘He’s hardly Dad’s friend, but yeah, him.’
‘But,’ again words failed her. ‘He’s old! He’s married!’ Verity pictured the wealthy farmer whose kids were in the year below her at school.
‘Age is just a number, V, and, as for married, he won’t be for much longer.
He’s going to leave her, for me. Well, actually, he’s going to ask her to leave.
You’ll be able to come and visit me up at the big house, I’ll make you a cuppa tea.
I’ve already told him I’ll need to redecorate.
Can’t be living with another woman’s wallpaper. ’
It was as sad as it was ironic that her sister naively announced she couldn’t live with the woman’s wallpaper but was happy to live with her husband.
It was new information, terrible and revealing new information!
Jon Morton! A man who stood to lose a lot if his affair with his young neighbour were to be made public and if Gracie had told her …
Verity didn’t know what to do, what to say! But the pressure to do something was almost overwhelming.
‘Gracie…’ Verity took her sister’s hands into her own. ‘I, I don’t think seeing him is a good idea. He’s married! You’d be better off with someone your own age!’
‘Two things. First, we’re in love, and second, as if I’d take advice from you!’
‘Please, Gracie, please.’ It was as close as she could come to begging, and then it occurred to her, the time was running out anyway, what if there were the slightest chance…
Verity took a deep breath and spoke with urgency.
‘I love you, I love you so much, don’t go to the party tonight, please, Gracie! Don’t g—’
It felt as if she were being flung backwards with force.
Her spine hit the sofa and she found herself back in the lounge of the house she shared with Patrick.
Dottie barked in the kitchen before she came trotting in.
Winded, it took Verity a minute, as she moved onto all fours, head hanging down, trying to catch her breath.
‘Jesus! Oh, Jesus!’
Jon Morton. The question now was what was she to do with the information?
Reaching for her phone, she fired a text off to her Dad. The man who had inadvertently given her a clue – a place where everyone pulled together to face whatever came their way, looking after each other, like family, protecting their own.
YOU AWAKE?
He called her almost instantly, as she’d hoped he might.
‘I don’t require half as much sleep as I used to, Hen, everything okay?’ She hated the note of concern in his voice. ‘Not like you to call so late on a Saturday night!’
‘Dad, this is going to sound very odd.’ She closed her eyes, it made it easier somehow. ‘Are you sitting down?’
‘I am now,’ he whispered. ‘You’re scaring me, Verity.’
She decided to cut to the chase. ‘This is going to sound mad, but I think I know who killed Gracie, and why.’
‘Goodness me,’ he breathed heavily down the line, ‘I… I don’t know what to say, tell me!’
‘I believe she was having an affair with Jon Morton. A man who had a lot to lose if that ever got out.’
‘Jon Morton…’ He spoke the name quite calmly, a surprise in itself. ‘Now that’s a very strange thing.’
‘How so, Dad?’
‘Your mother said something very similar just before she died. I assumed it was the morphine talking. She wasn’t making a lot of sense. God love her. Jon Morton?’
‘Yes, old enough and clever enough to let a waste of space like Dale McCurdy fall under suspicion. But I’m sure it was him, Dad. Did Mum say anything else?’
‘Ah, my beloved wife, I asked her how she knew, I mean it sounded so far-fetched, and she said that, she said that,’ his voice broke then, giving way to tears, ‘she said Gracie had told her.’
‘Oh, Dad!’ Verity put her hand over her eyes and matched him tear for tear. ‘Poor Gracie!’
‘Aye, poor, poor Gracie.’ He echoed. ‘I don’t know what to make of it, Verity, but we’ll not let it drop. We’ll go back to the police. I still have friends on the force. The Mortons are still up at the big house. If it’s him, Verity, I swear to God, I’ll—’
‘Dad, you need to keep calm, and we need to let the powers that be do their job. But we’ll face it together, whatever comes next, we’ll muddle through.’
‘Aye, we’ll muddle through.’ He sniffed. ‘But, how, Verity, how did you come to know this?’
‘Erm,’ she stroked Dottie’s back and took a deep breath. ‘That’s the thing, Dad, Gracie told me too…’