Irene only hesitated for a moment, but the young lady suddenly packed her papers away and told Irene she’d rather not waste any more time; she had other clients to see, other clients who would appreciate her efforts.
Please, Irene said. I do appreciate your efforts.
She knew something was wrong, but she still found herself opening the larder and reaching for the secret place where she kept her cash. She counted it out while the young lady watched, and was embarrassed to find only nine hundred pounds.
She asked if that would suffice.
The young lady said it would be enough to get the process started. She looked very keen to be out of the door all of a sudden.
Irene counted the money once more, to be on the safe side. She handed it over, and asked for a receipt.
And then Andrew came in through the front door, with Tony from the pub. Tony had questions. The young lady tried squeezing past him, out the door.
Tony wasn’t built for squeezing past. He asked some more questions.
*
It went to show, Irene thought, later. People assumed that Andrew wasn’t all there, that he had no idea of the world around him. But the boy was bright enough. He just had a different manner of putting himself about. Sat there with his blank face but there’s a world going on inside. Knows what’s what.
He had that young lady worked out almost as soon as she walked through the door, and he knew what to do to fix it. Smart boy. Irene didn’t know where he got it. He had a nose for trouble. And for keeping out of trouble. At the school, they said Irene idealised this about him. They told her not to build it up too much. Told her to accept his limits. But they didn’t see him like she did.
And so when Andrew told her that the missing girl was fine, Irene believed him. He told her he knew a few things and he knew she’d come to no harm. Irene couldn’t get him to say any more. He wouldn’t talk to the police. He wouldn’t talk to journalists. He would barely talk to her. But he’d said enough for Irene. It had put her mind at ease. The girl would have come to no harm, wherever she was.
13: Ginny
She was sitting right there,
under the tree.
The apple tree.
Eating an apple.
In the summer. Last summer. Before
the girl went missing.
Ginny thought she was imagining it at first.
The girl would have had to climb the wall
at the back of the garden. From the meadow.
It was the girl
the missing girl
Becky Shaw.
Ginny’s sure of that now.
She wasn’t missing, then.
She was sitting under the tree, the
apple tree.
Eating an apple.