Chapter 44
ROSIE
Late in the evening, the wedding party were beginning to let their hair down.
A local DJ, Mary-Marg, was playing a mix of nineties and disco classics from inside the marquee and you could hear the voices of people singing lustily along.
Others were sitting on the grass talking, their drinks balanced on the grass, bathing in the sunset as the skylight dimmed and the day wound to an end.
Grace and Rosie were staying close by, not drinking and on duty, just in case anything went wrong.
Nessa and Laurence were walking through the hotel, holding hands.
‘Don’t worry,’ called Laurence. ‘I’m not about to gatecrash the wedding again.
We’re just on a walk. The twins are at my parents’, probably eating crisps and having a fizzy drink.
And I think my dad was going to put on Jaws for them. ’
‘I can only hope he was joking,’ said Nessa. ‘But I never know with your father.’
Teddy was strolling the other way, carrying his hedge clippers. ‘Evening, everyone,’ he called.
‘Fancy a drink, Teddy?’ called Grace. ‘I’m the mixologist this evening.’
‘A mixologist?’ said Teddy, turning to walk towards them. ‘What’s that?’
And then, from around the corner, came Bertie, panting. ‘Have you seen Lucinda?’ he wheezed.
They shook their heads.
‘She’s missing,’ went on Bertie, breathlessly.
‘I saw her earlier and she was wandering around with Pedro with no shoes on and she told me she was no longer welcome in the hotel and she wanted to say goodbye. And so I said goodbye and I would see her soon, and she said no, I wouldn’t and where she was going she wouldn’t be returning. ’
Rosie and Grace looked at each other.
‘First Pedro, now Lucinda,’ said Grace.
‘She must have gone home?’ said Rosie. ‘Was she drunk?’
‘She had a few of those fizzy pops earlier,’ said Teddy. ‘I have to say that they were alcohol by stealth. Honestly, they’d tip anyone over the edge.’
‘Well, she wasn’t making much sense,’ said Bertie.
‘She was crying. And I thought perhaps she was overwrought… my mother used to get like that, what she called “done in”. So I didn’t think anything of it until I found this.
It was in a box outside the office, just behind reception.
There was a note saying, “Please look after me”.
’ Bertie was carrying a bundle of rags which Rosie now realised was moving and when he began to unwrap it, a small ear was revealed, then a head, then two eyes.
Pedro. ‘Be careful,’ warned Bertie. ‘He’s already nearly had my finger off…
but Lucinda wouldn’t leave him. Even if no one else likes him, she loves him. ’
‘Oh my God,’ breathed Grace.
‘I told her to shut up,’ said Rosie, suddenly wracked with guilt. ‘I told her that she wasn’t welcome. But what if it means she does something stupid?’
‘You were right to say it, though,’ said Grace.
‘You most certainly were,’ said Teddy. ‘She’s always interfering and I’ve had enough of her meddling and telling us what we should be doing. She told me that Sarah had married beneath her.’
There was a gasp from everyone.
‘I told her not to be so ridiculous,’ Teddy went on. ‘She’s barely spoken to me now in eight years.’
Bertie was wrestling Pedro as he wriggled in his arms. ‘Come here, you little divil, you,’ he said, as Pedro snapped again like a baby crocodile when Laurence tried to stroke his head.
‘Her flat. Let’s go there first.’ Rosie and Grace headed out to get the Land Rover, leaving Nessa, Laurence and Bertie scouring the grounds of the hotel.
They drove down the hill to Sandycove Valley, an estate of deluxe apartments, with rigid rules which had to be observed, including no visitors parking, no washing on balconies, no ball games, no running inside the perimeter. Dogs were only allowed if they were Pedro-sized.
Lucinda’s flat on the first floor was in darkness when they rang the bell.
‘I think we’re going to have to break in,’ said Grace. ‘Can you run at the door and break it down with your shoulder?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Rosie, beginning to feel panicky. What would they find on the other side of the door?
‘Let’s try together.’
Grace counted down from three and they ran at the door, only to be bounced back as though they were made of rubber.
‘They make it look so easy on the films.’
‘We’re not muscly stunt doubles, though.’ Rosie was trying to think. ‘The balcony? Let’s go outside.’
It was easier than they thought because, flaunting and disrespecting the rules, Lucinda’s downstairs neighbour had left out their patio furniture, obviously having enjoyed the day’s sun.
Without thinking, Rosie balanced a chair on the table, placing it under Lucinda’s balcony, and with Grace holding on, she climbed up, and edged onto the ledge, clinging on with her fingernails.
She thought of Patrick on the side of the cliff, trying to save that cantankerous dog.
Was that only a matter of hours earlier?
Her fingers tightened on the bar of the railings.
‘What do I do now?’ she whispered down to Grace. ‘I forgot I am not flexible. Or brave. Or intrepid.’
‘You are intrepid,’ urged Grace. ‘And brave. Okay, maybe not flexible. You can’t touch your toes.’
‘I meant, as in easy-going.’
‘That as well. But you are brave, and you are intrepid. Who takes over an ailing hotel at the age of twenty?’
‘It wasn’t ailing exactly,’ said Rosie, defensively, pausing to look back at Grace and wobbling dangerously.
‘But it’s doing better now, is my point,’ said Grace. ‘Anyway, we’re wasting time. Go and be brave. Go on!’
Rosie shuffled along the balcony, feeding the railings through her fingers and thinking of poor Lucinda, who was, perhaps, lying comatose inside the flat, needing hospitalisation or stomach pumping or whatever. She managed somehow to fling her leg over the railings and balanced on either side.
‘That’s it! Well done!’ Grace whispered up in the dark of the night.
Next leg now. Rosie shuffled a bit and threw her leg behind her, spun around, and she was on the balcony.
‘See if the door is open,’ said Grace. ‘Or throw something at it to smash it!’
Rosie put her hands on the sliding doors and, miraculously, it opened. She pushed through the heavy curtains and stepped into the living room.
There was no sign of life. The bedroom, empty. Next, the bathroom. She dashed in but again no sign. She checked everywhere again, including the wardrobe and, incomprehensibly, under the sofa.
She whispered down to Grace, ‘She’s not here!’
‘We’ll try somewhere else!’
They drove back to the hotel, both looking around on the streets for signs of a worse-for-wear Lucinda, perhaps staggering home drunk and forlorn.
‘I can’t believe I said what I said,’ said Rosie.
‘Don’t beat yourself up about it.’
‘I was mean. And I shouldn’t have been.’
They fell into silence.
‘She’s incredibly annoying though,’ said Grace.
‘Oh God, so annoying.’
‘But obviously we don’t want her to die.’
‘Obviously.’
‘But still so irritating.’
‘The most irritating woman who has ever walked this earth.’
Back at the hotel, Nessa and Maureen seemed to be in charge of the search party. Teddy was wielding an extra-large torch.
‘Francois is searching the whole of the grounds,’ explained Maureen. ‘Laurence is combing the golf course and Patrick Power has gone somewhere.’
‘Patrick Power?’ asked Rosie.
‘He’s one of the guests,’ explained Maureen. ‘He left the wedding for some reason and I found him wandering around. He asked what was going on and I explained and he said he had an idea. Very nice of him, it really is. I did try to dissuade him, but he was determined.’
Rosie and Grace looked at each other for a moment. But there was no time to lose so they had to keep searching. Rosie checked her own cottage, their secret garage bar, the other storehouses. She bumped into Francois, who was even looking in the large chest freezer.
‘You nezzzer know,’ he said, enigmatically.
Eventually, they all made their way back to the front of the hotel. ‘I’ve checked everywhere,’ said Grace.
‘Let’s have another drive around,’ said Rosie, just as Laurence reappeared in his car.
‘I’ve been driving around everywhere,’ said Laurence. ‘Can’t see her anywhere. I stopped everyone and asked them if they’d seen a middle-aged woman with bouffant blonde hair and very prominent eye make-up and a weird smile but no one had.’
Teddy and Francois were equally Lucinda-less. ‘She’s a most infuriating woman,’ Teddy was saying to Francois. ‘Nothing like my Sarah, at all. Chalk and cheese.’
Francois looked confused. ‘She is like cheese?’
‘What are we going to do?’ said Nessa. ‘It might be time to alert the guards.’
Rosie nodded. ‘We should file a missing persons’ report.’
They all nodded, feeling sad that it had come to this, especially on the night of the first wedding they had hosted, and they thought of poor Lucinda so miserable to take off like that… or maybe even worse.
And then, out of the darkness, there were footsteps and an unmistakeably braying voice. ‘So he said to me, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. He couldn’t resist me, apparently, and I was to return to his yacht and we’d sail the Aegean…’
They stood in silence, listening to the voice rabbit on.
‘He took my rejection very badly. I said that I needed more than money and jewels. I needed a connection… bodily and mentally…’
And there she was, Lucinda, her arm through Patrick’s.
‘Good evening, everybody! Oh look, a welcoming committee, I had no idea I was remotely important to these people.’ She shot Rosie a look before resuming her glorious smile, all pointy teeth and cheekbones.
‘Where were you?’ asked Grace.