Chapter 19
19
LONDON, PRESENT DAY
Hi lovely,
Please can you check on the shop today when you get a minute and let me know if Katie is managing okay, she’s too stubborn to say she isn’t. Salem is amazing and have I got a lot to tell you. Honestly, you won’t believe it but if I said that my life has turned into an episode of Long-Lost Families that will give you some idea. I hope you’re okay, Mabel.
Love Dora Xx
Mabel read the text message from Dora several times. She had got up early because her hip ached if she lay in her bed for too long. The sound of the rain as it lashed against the window of the flat was both comforting and the source of the pain in her hip. It always hurt when the weather was cold and damp, lately it seemed that London had turned into the soggiest city in the world.
Mabel didn’t want to go down the steep stairs yet, at least not until her pain meds had kicked in. She loved this flat; it was so cosy and beautifully decorated, with cream walls and well-loved antiques she had picked up from stalls on the Portobello Road, but she also didn’t know how long she was going to be able to cope with that long, narrow staircase to get up here. If she told Dora she’d probably arrange to get a stair lift fitted, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but then she’d be admitting defeat and her age.
She went into the kitchen where she made herself some hot buttered toast with a teaspoon of homemade jam before she took the ever-growing assortment of pills the doctor had prescribed on her last visit. Two cups of tea, a quick watch of the news and she would be good for the day or as good as could be expected. As she swallowed the pills, she gazed out of the window that looked down onto the cobbled alley where the front of the shop was. The rain was heavy and the odd person rushing past had their heads bent against the weather or an umbrella above them. She couldn’t see the lights of the shop downstairs reflected in the empty shop opposite like usual. Katie was lovely, but she suspected the girl wouldn’t be as punctual as Dora. After all, it wasn’t her shop, or her livelihood, if she was running the shop to Dora as a favour, she could keep what hours she wanted. Still, there was a little twinge of something inside Mabel’s heart that she tried to ignore, but knew it was some kind of warning that there may be a problem with the shop.
Thirty minutes later she was dressed and as pain free as she was going to get, and took the spare key for the shop door that she kept on the hook behind her own front door. Wrapped in her warmest jumper and winter coat, she was cautious, taking one step at a time, holding on to the grab rail, and pausing at the bottom to catch her breath. She wondered what Dora’s exciting news was going to be, she loved the girl as if she was her own granddaughter, not that she had any. She had never married or fallen in love with anyone she considered worthy of having children with, but she imagined if she’d had grandchildren then they would have been just as loving, kind and considerate as Dora. Stepping out of the front door into the driving rain, she screwed up her face, bent her head and walked the ten paces to the pink shop door. Inserting her key and turning it, she pushed the door open and was hit with a smell so bad it made her wrinkle her nose in disgust. What was that, had Dora forgotten to put the bins out before she left? It was then she realised the shop was in darkness and so cold inside she could see her breath fog out as she exhaled.
‘Katie, are you here, love?’
Mabel knew she wasn’t, the shop was small and obviously empty. Sighing, she reached for the row of switches by the door and flicked them down, bright lights illuminating the space filled with buckets of fresh flowers and greenery. The sweet fragrance was overtaken by the bitter smell of something gone very bad and for a moment she was almost too afraid to go any further into the shop. Looking around, she saw the broken glass of the countertop and gasped. Had someone broken in?
She hurried towards the small box that she knew Dora used to keep her cash in. Expecting it to be missing, she saw it sitting under the counter, the key still in the lock. Mabel knew she should phone the police – something was wrong, and she might be putting her clumsy feet and hands all over a crime scene – but she slipped her fingers underneath the sleeve of her jumper and turned the key. She opened the cash box and saw there was money still inside, a lot of money. Closing it, she wondered if Katie had maybe dropped something and had an accident, which would explain the mess. Walking towards the tiny kitchen area at the back of the shop where the toilet was, she stopped dead in her tracks. There were smears of dark liquid all over the floor, a lot of smears that looked an awful lot like drag marks, and the white walls were covered in splotches of… dear God, it’s blood.
A chill settled over Mabel, and she felt a fear deep down inside the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t brought her phone with her but saw the landline on the wall and hurried towards it, dialling 999. It took her several moments to realise there was no dial tone. Whoever had been inside the shop had hurt Katie and it was then Mabel saw that the wire to the phone had been snipped in half, probably with the pair of secateurs lying open on the broken countertop directly below it with what looked like splashes of blood on the blades.
Fear made her dash towards the door as fast as she could, and she pulled it shut behind her, too scared to take the time to lock it. Her hands were shaking so much she struggled to open her own front door. Once inside the dark hallway she bolted the door and hobbled up the stairs to the safety of her flat. She grabbed her phone off the kitchen counter and for the first time in her life dialled 999. She had no idea how long it would take for the police to arrive; she had never had a reason to phone them before. Her voice quivered as she told the man on the end of the line the reason she needed them, he was lovely and so calm, talking to her the whole time. He didn’t end the call until he told her the police were outside her flat door and she was safe to open it, bless him. There were three knocks on her front door, so loud it had shaken in its frame. When she opened it, she felt better to see the two policemen standing in front of her, their van parked half on the pavement. Another van pulled up behind it, flashing lights and sirens, and a policewoman got out and joined her colleagues.
‘I’m sorry, the flower shop.’ Mabel pointed towards the shop door with a trembling finger.
‘It’s okay, love, we’re here now. What’s the problem?’
‘There’s broken glass and I think it’s blood on the floor too; it smells awful.’
The woman nodded, she was already tugging on a pair of bright blue gloves, then she pushed open the door. One of the men did the same and followed her inside, the bigger of the two men smiling at her.
‘Should we go inside your flat, do you live above the shop?’
Mabel nodded.
‘Come on then, let’s wait upstairs to see what’s happening, get you out of the cold.’
She was thankful for his kindness. The pain deep inside her hip joint had returned on a mission, making her struggle with the stairs for the second time. He never said a word as she tried to get back up to her safe haven, patiently waiting for her. She was shaking and in agony, those painkillers hadn’t been able to handle the rushing up and down the steep stairs.
‘Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll make us both a nice cup of tea. You look as if you need to take the weight off for a bit.’
‘Thank you. My hip, it’s worse in the rain.’
‘I should imagine these stairs won’t help either. I’m Eric, by the way, and you must be Mabel?’
She smiled at him. He had a kind face, and she knew from his smile that she could trust him.
‘So, what do you think has happened in the shop? Is the owner not here? We’re going to need to talk to her.’
‘Poor Dora, she’s going to be beside herself.’
‘Who’s Dora?’
‘The owner, she went on a last-minute holiday with her aunt to the States. Her friend Katie is keeping the shop open for her while she’s away.’
Eric busied himself boiling the kettle and rinsing out the tea pot on the side. Within a few minutes he’d poured the boiling water onto some fresh tea bags and let it brew, then he took a seat next to her, pulling out what looked like a mobile phone but much bigger.
‘Now, can you give me Dora’s contact number and I’m going to need Katie’s if you have it. How well do you know them?’
‘Dora is my friend; she has been since she took over the shop a few years ago. Such a lovely girl, we go to the bingo and eat lots of cake. I know Katie but not very well. I can give you Dora’s phone number but not Katie’s. Do you think she’s okay? That looked like a lot of blood and someone cut the phone wire.’
Eric raised his eyebrows at her, then began using a stylus to write on the phone screen.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, Mabel, but my colleagues will take care of it.’
‘Thank you.’
She took hold of her phone and scrolled through to find Dora’s number which she then repeated to him. He stood up, poured out two mugs of tea and carried them to the coffee table. Mabel didn’t have the heart to tell him she’d rather have a double shot of Jack Daniel’s to steady her nerves and instead picked up the mug and sipped at the too hot, too sugary tea. He took a few sips of his then set it back down.
‘Did you hear or see anything, Mabel? Hear any loud noises from the shop below?’
‘No, I didn’t. I have the television on a little too loud and then I sleep very well, I always have done. My mother used to tell me that a bomb could go off outside my bedroom door and it wouldn’t wake me.’
Eric smiled at her, and she smiled back. ‘I’m very worried about Katie.’
He reached out and patted her arm. ‘I know you are, let me go down and speak to my colleagues. I’ll come back to update you shortly.’
He stood up. He was so tall his head almost knocked the light shade off its pendant, and it swayed from side to side, the light casting dark shadows on the antique cream walls that Mabel was too afraid to stare at.
‘Thank you.’
He left her there, her hands shaking, her hip aching and her heart racing as she sipped the hot, sweet tea because she literally had no idea what else to do.