Chapter 35
THIRTY-FIVE
Sophia’s Audi was as full of tension as it was full of people. Jake sat up front, while Penn, Christa and I were squashed into the back.
As Sophia sped from the city centre to the outskirts, we sat mostly in silence; I, for one, had too many unanswered questions in my head to be able to coherently formulate them, so I kept my mouth shut. Just once, Penn tried to hold my hand, but I carefully pulled mine away. I didn’t need that whole other box of questions to be opened right now.
I looked again at the camera footage on my phone, desperately trying to find something that proved it was Olivia. I still fretted that we’d made a mistake – hoped, even. But the only thing I achieved was complete exoneration of Christa. The time stamp was wrong – she’d still been at Visage Unique at the time it happened.
Eventually, we pulled up outside a small terraced house, the address that Olivia had given me when I took her on. One light was on downstairs, but the curtains were drawn. I took a deep breath – part of me wanted her to admit it, but another part of me wanted none of this to be true. Sweet, innocent Olivia couldn’t have done this. She couldn’t. But if she had, then why? The only thing I could do now was ask her.
Everyone unbuckled their seat belts, but I held up my hand.
‘Guys, is it okay if I do this on my own? At least until I’ve got her to open the door and told her why we’re here. I don’t want her to think we’re a lynch mob.’
There were murmurs of assent, but Penn still got out with me. I opened my mouth to tell him no, but he looked at me with his intense eyes, and I couldn’t speak. Without a word, we walked up the little scrubby path to the front door and knocked.
After only a few seconds, the door opened, and a girl was framed by a bright light from the hallway. But it wasn’t Olivia. And she was far too young to be Olivia’s mam.
‘Can we speak to Olivia, please?’
Her brow wrinkled. ‘Olivia? Nobody called Olivia lives here.’
Penn and I exchanged a look, and my heart sank even lower than I thought it could go. A fake address. It seemed like any hope I had of Olivia being innocent had finally dropped away.
Then I had an idea. I showed her the photo of Olivia on holiday.
‘Oh, that Olivia. We used to hang out when we were in sixth form. She went off to uni, but she used to live over at Rowan Park. That posh estate?’
I knew of it – an exclusive development near Forest Grange.
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘We’ll head over. You don’t happen to know the exact address, do you?’
She looked at us suspiciously. ‘I don’t. I’d better text her to ask and make sure she doesn’t mind me passing it on.’ She dashed off a message, and Penn looked at me with alarm.
‘Look, don’t worry about it,’ he said. ‘Thanks anyway.’
Penn and I both pasted on stiff smiles and headed back to the car as the girl called after us.
‘Drive,’ I said to Sophia. ‘We need to get to Rowan Park quickly. She might know we’re coming.’
Sophia roared out of the street, throwing all of us back in our seats.
‘I bloody love this,’ she purred. ‘I feel like a younger, sexier Miss Marple.’
After a hair-raising and possibly illegal race through the streets, we ended up in a quiet, very classy cul-de-sac. Large red-brick houses surrounded a circular lane with a well-tended central island stocked with herbaceous plants. The estate was small, and as soon as we saw Olivia’s little Fiat 500 in the driveway of a large double-fronted house, we knew we were in the right place. The windows of the house were pitch-dark. This time we all got out and assembled on the doorstep as I knocked.
There was no answer. I leaned on the bell, hearing it ring inside, but still Olivia didn’t appear at the door.
‘Olivia, I know you’re in there,’ I called through the letter box. ‘I just want to talk to you.’
No response. I looked at everyone else, my shoulders slumped. We weren’t going to get anywhere.
‘I think we should call the police,’ said Christa. ‘She’s sabotaged your shop, framed me, and stolen or damaged most of your stock!’
I pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘I know… I know. I just want to hear what she has to say first.’
‘Well, if you don’t call them, I will,’ said Jake. ‘I’m not having her drag my lass into all this.’
I looked from Christa to Jake, deciding this wasn’t the time to question them on their surprise relationship, but just asked them to give me a minute. I walked down the path and sat heavily on the low garden wall. After a moment, I felt Penn sit beside me.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked.
I shook my head. ‘Are you?’
‘No,’ he said, sighing. ‘But for many more reasons than this.’
He took my hand, just like he had in the car, trying to weave his fingers between mine. My heart throbbed as I peeled mine away.
‘Annie, please. We need to talk.’
‘No,’ I said, my voice tight with frustration. ‘Unless it’s about this absolute shit-show of a situation, it’s not the time.’ Now that I’d sat down and let the adrenaline subside, I started to feel the cold. I shivered.
He put his arm around me, pulling me close, and this time I didn’t object. The warmth of his body was so enticing, I couldn’t stop myself from settling into the side of his chest. When his chin rested on top of my head, the reminder of our connection was too strong to fight against. My breathing slowed, my pounding heart throbbed a little less; I felt like I’d come home.
‘I know it’s not the time,’ he murmured. ‘But I’m right here. I’m with you, no matter what happens.’
I stiffened. I knew then that he didn’t just mean tonight, and I couldn’t open that door again.
‘I can’t…’ I whispered.
‘You can .’
I pulled away from him and looked up into his eyes. He didn’t need to speak because the way he looked at me was loaded with everything that had gone unsaid at Ashcliffe. He was silently urging me to listen. All I could do was shake my head.
He let go of the breath he’d been holding and looked down. ‘Okay. I won’t push anymore. But promise me, once this is sorted out’ – he flicked a nod at Olivia’s house – ‘you’ll talk to me. I’ve got something important to tell you – about the music centre.’
I flinched. I’d got what I wanted – he was going to take the job. So why did I feel like I wanted to go back in time and tear up that letter? To let myself say the words that refused to be spoken? He’d made his decision, the one I’d hoped for, but instead of feeling triumphant, I felt empty. I needed to put some physical distance between us in case I weakened.
But before I could get up and walk away, a sleek Mercedes pulled into the street and parked outside the house. The door opened, and a slender leg appeared, followed by the hem of a sequinned, beautifully cut black dress.
‘I suppose you should all come inside,’ said Melissa as calmly as if we’d arrived for afternoon tea.
Inside, Olivia hovered by the kitchen island, her face white, as we all stood there amongst the glossy cabinets and soft spotlights. Olivia could barely look at me and mostly flicked nervous glances at Melissa.
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘What are you both doing here?’
Melissa said nothing but tipped her head towards a photograph on the wall. She and Olivia were framed in black and white, seemingly on a cruise ship, both wearing evening gowns and holding glasses of champagne. Then I saw another smaller picture beside it – a younger-looking Melissa with a miniature version of Olivia sat on her knee, auburn curls nestled against Melissa’s chest.
‘She’s your mum,’ I breathed, and Olivia nodded.
‘That’s right,’ said Melissa. ‘And I wasn’t going to let a pack of wolves surround her alone. She rang to let me know you were on your way.’
‘But why?’ My mind cast back to Olivia coming into my shop, ingratiating herself with me. Then day after day, listening, watching. ‘You were a plant.’
‘Yes. But I didn’t mean… I didn’t realise it would go this far.’ She looked anguished and then, as she glanced at her mother, cowed. She seemed to shrink in size under Melissa’s gaze.
‘Be quiet,’ she said smoothly.
‘You set this up,’ said Penn.
‘And you framed me,’ barked Christa. ‘What the hell is this all about?’
‘Well,’ said Melissa, going calmly to the fridge, extracting a bottle of white wine and pouring herself a glass. She sat at the island and sipped it. ‘I suppose I should explain, since the baying mob is here.’
‘Aye, you should!’ shouted Jake. ‘Is this some kind of fuckin’ joke?’
‘Far from it.’ Her finger circled the edge of her glass while she regarded me and Penn. ‘But it’s less about you two than you’d imagine. It’s Mike that I wanted to hurt. Your silly little shop just complicated things. I wanted to burn Mike to the ground, and stopping short of actually burning the arcade to the ground, running him out of business was the next best thing.’
‘I know you wanted to buy his shop to expand, but this is a pretty extreme way of going about it,’ I said.
‘Yes, I wanted the shop, but he wouldn’t give it up no matter what I offered. So I started an affair with him, thinking I might persuade him that way.’ Her face grew pinched. ‘Trouble is, I grew… fond of him. And he wouldn’t leave his wife, broke up with me. So I wanted to get my own back.’
‘That’s… ridiculous,’ said Penn.
She shrugged. ‘A woman scorned… I knew that Arthur and Sven were due to retire, and Neil had been given the boot. Christa and Jake… well, neither of you were going to set the world on fire with your tin-pot shops. But when you two turned up, I could see there was potential for a successful shop at last. I needed to get rid of you.’
‘You left all those awful comments on our social media,’ I said.
‘And the graffiti….’ Penn’s voice was brittle.
‘Guilty,’ she trilled then took a sip of wine. ‘But once you started all that Jean-Luc business and people began flocking in, it didn’t seem so easy. So I sent Olivia to keep an eye on things. She’s been studying in America for a few years – nobody in Pilgrim Street would have had any idea she was related to me.’
‘I’m sorry,’ interrupted Olivia, looking at me with big, sad eyes. ‘I started to like you, but she wouldn’t?—’
Melissa cut her off with a harsh look.
‘But the burglary…’ I breathed. ‘You couldn’t have.’
‘I didn’t. Some of my slightly less cultured contacts did. After that, I didn’t want Olivia to be attached to the shop anymore, so I told her to pretend she’d been whisked away on a holiday. Then when you found Christa’s earring, it seemed like a good opportunity to shift the blame.’
Olivia looked at me, tears streaming down her face. She looked distraught, and although I felt angry and betrayed, I could see how intimidated she was by her own mother. She was simply a pawn in Melissa’s game.
‘You bitch,’ hissed Christa, stalking forward. ‘You were willing to get me locked up to stick it to your ex-boyfriend?’
‘Except it didn’t pan out,’ I said coldly. ‘We figured it out straight away. We’re not as stupid as you thought we were.’
‘Those outdated photos of Dubai were the giveaway,’ said Sophia acidly. ‘You should really keep up to date with your knowledge of luxury destinations, darling.’
Melissa sighed, and I saw the first signs of exhaustion, as if by telling us the whole tale, she’d deflated, like an emptying balloon. ‘So what happens now? You call the police, I’m led off in handcuffs? To be quite honest, I’m almost past caring.’ She slugged the last of her glass of wine and looked at us defiantly.
‘Mum…’ said Olivia, her voice shaking. ‘Mum, I’m scared.’
‘Oh, give it up!’ Melissa snapped at her before facing us again. ‘Thanks to you and your iffy choice of holiday snaps we’re both fucked.’
‘No,’ I said, almost involuntarily. I couldn’t take my eyes off Olivia. ‘You’re not. Or at least Olivia won’t be.’
‘Annie, what are you doing?’ asked Penn.
‘We aren’t going to the police. Olivia, I’m not going to do that to you. Anyone can see what a nasty, bullying bitch your mother is. I don’t think you’d have hurt a fly if she hadn’t put you up to it.’
‘Hold on,’ said Jake. ‘They’ve committed a crime. Quite a fuckin’ few of them.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But Olivia’s a victim too. An idiotic victim, who should have known better, but she’s been forced to do this by her mother. And we all know now how conniving Melissa is.’
She’d poured herself another glass of wine and raised it in an ironic way, which would have been funny if she wasn’t such a nasty piece of work.
‘I won’t have your daughter’s life ruined any more than it already has been. God knows she’s drawn the short straw being brought up by you.’ I looked at Penn; his mouth was a grim line, but he nodded. ‘We won’t go to the police. But you have to pay us back everything you’ve stolen and some compensation over and above that. Then you need to pay out your lease and get out of Pilgrim Street for good.’
Melissa sat back on her stool, holding my gaze. I bolstered mine with steel. She thought she could get the better of us, ruin our businesses, our friendships. The only thing I could thank her for was her attempts at sabotage bringing me and Penn closer together. But then thinking of Penn almost made me lose my nerve. Whatever bond we’d forged over all this mess was now a thing of the past. Although I wouldn’t give Melissa the satisfaction of seeing it on my face.
Finally, she spoke.
‘Fine. I’ll give you what I owe you, and I’ll leave. The reputation of Pilgrim Street is on its knees anyway. Gone to the dogs with all these bargain pop-up shops.’ She sneered in my face.
‘You know what, Melissa,’ I said smoothly. ‘If there’s anything I’ve learned since starting my “bargain pop-up shop”, it’s that it doesn’t matter how flash your shop looks, or how much cash you’ve got in the bank. It doesn’t make you a better person than me.’
I looked at Olivia, whose cheeks were still pink from tears, but she’d stopped crying. ‘Thank you,’ she mouthed. I shook my head, feeling sorry for her but not ready to listen to her apologies.
‘Come on,’ I said to everyone else. ‘I’ve got a shop to clear up, or I won’t be ready to open up next week.’
Penn’s eyes met mine, and they were full of admiration and longing. He took me by the hand, and this time I didn’t let go.