Chapter 59 Rene
Rene
When he sauntered down her path that crisp, cold morning she thought she must be hallucinating. But no. It was him. All the flesh and blood and bones of him. After nearly fifty long years, there he was. Her brother.
He looked surprisingly well – all that sunshine, she imagined.
Living it up on a beach somewhere. He still had his thick head of hair, grey now instead of golden brown.
But he’d kept his looks, albeit with more lines and jowls.
He was dressed in a beautiful cashmere coat with a satin teal lining and polished brogues that looked handmade.
He’d always resembled a movie star, had her Bobby.
When he disappeared that summer of 1976, she hadn’t asked too many questions, even though she suspected it had something to do with Dorothy and her allegations.
‘You need to promise me, Reney,’ he had said as he called her from a phone box in the countryside somewhere, ‘not to tell anyone you’ve heard from me. Not even Edwin. You gotta promise. I’m being paid handsomely to disappear. It’s what I want. What I need.’
She knew Dorothy didn’t have the money or the means to pay him off.
And she never really got to the bottom of what had gone on between them.
But she’d kept her promise; not that anyone came looking for Bobby.
That was what had surprised her the most. Nobody reported him missing.
Everyone just assumed he’d left his job and his marriage and buggered off somewhere.
But Rene blamed Dorothy for all of it. She was the one who had sent her brother away.
She was the reason why they’d only had sporadic contact over the last five decades.
Rene had no choice but to watch in disgust as Dorothy Falkner, née Bird, became Dorothea Roe, a famous artist. The resentment had burned and burned inside her.
And now here he was at last.
When she opened the door she fell into his arms, pressing her face into his soft coat, taking in the expensive scent of tobacco and Marc Jacobs.
‘Oh my Gawd,’ she cried. ‘I can’t believe it’s really you.’
‘Surprise,’ he laughed. ‘Can I come in?’
She ushered him inside out of the cold. She’d been lonely since Edwin had passed on five years ago and her world had become very small. She was hoping Bobby was back for good, to give her a new lease of life.
‘What are you doing here?’ she exclaimed, taking his coat and fussing over him, making him tea and then cranking the heating up. ‘After all this time.’
‘I had some unfinished business to attend to,’ he said with a wide smile showing off a perfect set of white teeth. ‘And I could use your help, Reney.’
She clasped his hand between hers. ‘Anything,’ she said. ‘As long as you promise to stay.’
‘Tell me everything you know about my ex-wife,’ he said, his eyes lighting up. ‘I’m thinking of paying her a visit.’