‘Oh dear, there’s no easy way to tell you this … so I’ll just get on with it and then it’s out of the way.’ Lady Bee straightened her back and fixed her eyes on Grace. ‘I’m afraid your friend passed away some time ago. She had a fall in the street and an ambulance took her to hospital where she later died. I’m so very sorry for your loss,’ she stated, stoically. Grace gulped and felt grateful for the sunglasses she was wearing as she could feel her eyes stinging with the threat of tears, which was ridiculous really as she hadn’t even known Connie in real life. But she had felt a connection. She identified with Connie, knowing she had a controlling mother and that they shared the same birthday as well; she felt as if she knew Connie intimately, too, through reading her personal diaries and notes. So now Grace felt a loss on realising that she really would never get to talk to the woman whose life she was piecing together.

A short silence followed.

It was Jamie who spoke next.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he soothed, looking at the elderly woman before placing his arm around Grace’s shoulders. ‘Do you know when she, um … moved on?’

‘I’m afraid I do. You see, I was away when it happened.’ She glanced apprehensively at Grace. ‘When it’s winter time here I stay with my son at his villa in Spain every year … the sunshine, you see; it helps with my joints. But when I came home in the springtime, poor Constance had already gone. This would have been nearly two years ago now.’

‘I’m so sorry, it must have been a shock for you,’ Jamie said.

‘It was. Yes, it really was. A dreadful business.’

‘Do you remember meeting any of her family? Did anyone visit here perhaps?’ he asked carefully.

‘On no, dear. Like I said, there was no one, and I don’t even think there was a proper funeral. It was certainly all over by the time I came home. You see, I would have gone to her funeral if I had known about it. It’s not nice to think of anyone going without any loved ones to give them a bit of a send-off now, is it?’ Grace shook her head emphatically. ‘And then her apartment was cleared out and the contents collected by one of those house clearance companies – I saw their van come here; not that there was very much to take away. Such a shame … there wasn’t any furniture to speak of – just a rusty old metal bed frame with a worn-out mattress and a few bags of clothes. One of the men said all her kitchen cupboards were empty and there was only a carton of sour milk in the fridge.’ Lady Bee shook her head and Grace’s heart sank further as she processed all this information.