26
26
Fiona watched from her upstairs window as the Doves’ car rolled to a halt outside their house. They were back. At last! Lola, sensing her owners, had already begun to bark, and she rushed out to greet her humans the second Fiona opened the door, tail whipping back and forth as she ran up to Emma, then Ethan.
Fiona slipped out quietly, heading straight to the car, to Rose.
As soon as the girl got out of the back seat, she lifted her face towards Fiona’s and their eyes met, held contact, and there it was. The connection. The recognition. Unmistakable. It was like the ugly duckling looking at his reflection and realising he was a beautiful swan. That moment of recognising your true nature and seeing it mirrored back at you. If Fiona had harboured any final doubts, even after witnessing Rose launch Patrick down the stairs, they were gone now.
‘Have a good time?’ Fiona asked, heading back towards Ethan and Emma, who were being licked to death by their cockapoo.
Emma laughed. ‘Yes, beautiful place. We had fun.’
Fiona looked Emma up and down. She had a lightness about her. A different energy. Glancing over towards the car, where Ethan was struggling with the suitcases, Fiona whispered to her, ‘Did anything happen with Mike? Did you contact him?’
‘It’s okay,’ Emma said, stepping out of her children’s earshot. ‘Ethan knows. And it’s all sorted. Seeing Mike made me realise there was no real connection between us. Not even friendship. Ethan and I had a really good talk and cleared the air.’
‘Oh. That’s great.’
Fiona glanced towards Ethan again and caught him looking at her, wearing a sheepish expression. He immediately looked away.
‘I guess I have to thank you for your advice,’ Emma said. ‘And thank you so much for looking after Lola.’
The dog was running around in circles now, whimpering with excitement, and Emma scooped her into her arms, turning to go.
‘Ethan will pop round later to pick up Lola’s stuff. That okay, Ethan?’
He had that rabbit-in-the-headlights look. ‘Huh? Oh yeah. Of course.’
‘Shall I pick Rose up at the usual time tomorrow morning?’ Fiona asked.
‘Oh, you don’t need to,’ Emma said. ‘I’ve taken the rest of the week off work.’
The whole family trooped into their house, Ethan avoiding her gaze, only Rose turning to look back at her. Their eyes meeting. It was clear she had changed, was fully out of the chrysalis now. But when was Fiona going to be able to spend time with her? It was frustrating as hell.
On top of that, Ethan and Emma had made up; and that had not been part of the plan. Right now, the broken-hearted Ethan – realising his marriage was over, full of hatred for his wife – should be running into Fiona’s arms.
As she closed the front door, a phone rang.
She went into the living room and grabbed her mobile. Except the ringing wasn’t coming from this phone. And she didn’t have a landline. Then she remembered: Lucy’s phone. God, no. Where had she put it?
She followed the ringing and found it in her bedroom cupboard. Pressed the answer button.
‘Fiona.’ Her voice was icy.
‘Hello Lucy. Where are you. In your cell?’
‘My room , yes.’ As if the prison were a hotel that she’d chosen to book into permanently. ‘We’re all in lockdown because there was a fight this morning. Some drama caused by this new woman who really ought to be in a psychiatric hospital.’ She sighed. ‘I’m going to have to deal with her.’
‘But that’s not why you’re calling?’
‘No. I just wanted to catch up. What’s been happening out there?’
Fiona was hesitant. Could Lucy have been offered some sort of deal? Were the police listening in to this call? Four days had passed now since Patrick’s death, and there still hadn’t been anything on the news about it. That didn’t mean, though, that they hadn’t found him. Fiona was sure she hadn’t left any evidence behind and that no one had seen her and Rose go to his house. But might she have made a mistake she wasn’t aware of? And might Lucy have been told she’d get special privileges if she helped entrap Fiona?
‘Nothing’s been happening at all.’
‘Really? Not been working on your mission?’
Fiona didn’t respond. Through the window she could see that Ethan had gone back outside to unpack the car. She wondered what Lucy would make of him. He was exactly the kind of naive, good-natured person she enjoyed tormenting.
‘What about the girl? Did you take my advice and ditch her?’
‘I’m still spending my days looking after her,’ Fiona said.
‘Huh. Well, you do you, as they say. I’m really calling to find out what progress you’ve made with my old friends.’
Of course she was. Irritating, but better than an attempt at entrapment.
‘You mean Jamie and Kirsty?’
‘Urgh. It still makes me feel ill when I hear their names. But what have you done? I’ve been going crazy here, waiting to hear about the suffering you’ve caused them. I’ve decided for certain, Kirsty’s daughter should be the target ...’
‘Lucy, I haven’t had a chance. I’ve been too busy.’
‘What, looking after that girl?’
‘Among other things.’
Lucy’s voice could have frozen lava. ‘You promised me, Fiona. When you were in here, you told me you were going to help me. I thought we had a bond.’
‘We do. And I will get round to it. You just need to be patient.’
Lucy’s voice went from icy to Arctic: ‘Do not tell me to be patient.’
‘Or what?’ The words emerged before Fiona could worry about the consequences. Oh well. The page had been turned. ‘What are you going to do about it?’
There was a long, outraged silence before Lucy said, ‘How dare you.’
Fiona could hardly believe it herself. But she was sick of Lucy trying to order her around. And she was in a bad mood after hearing about Ethan and Emma, and being told she would be kept from Rose this week.
‘You’re going to be in prison for the rest of your life, Lucy. Maybe it’s time you made peace with it. Jamie and Kirsty beat you. Accept it and move on.’
Lucy screeched, ‘You b—’
Fiona hung up, trembling as adrenaline coursed through her.
She and Lucy might have a bond, but Fiona would not let someone boss her about. Besides, she had a new connection now. With someone at the start of her career, not the end.
She watched as Ethan finished unpacking the car. She noticed that he deliberately didn’t look in the direction of her house. Such a coward.
In her original plan, she had thought that driving a further wedge between Ethan and Emma would make everything easier, with both her mission and its aftermath. But thinking about it, she decided it didn’t make too much of a difference. The important thing was that Rose was fully ready now. It was time to speed things up.
Very soon, she would have Ethan exactly where she wanted him.