‘That’s what I hoped to hear. Here’s what we want to do. The first step is for you to move back home. One of us will be with you at all times. And then we’ll seek help. Find someone who can help fix you.’

It sounded like the closest thing to Hell on Earth that Andrea could imagine. And fix her? She wasn’t broken.

But it seemed – for now – she had no choice but to agree.

‘You need to pack and come with me, now,’ her mum said.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’ll come.’

Perth was a big enough city to disappear in, at least for a while, and she had a few days before anyone discovered her parents’ bodies.

It had been almost as good as the very first time. Her mum had acted betrayed and hurt when she saw the hammer and realized what her daughter was going to do. Her dad had been almost grateful.

What mattered was that they were both dead, and she was free to go anywhere and be anyone.

She sat at a bar, sipping a glass of lemonade, waiting.

It was the second night when she met her. Tall, long, blonde hair, same eye colour, a more than superficial similarity in looks – certainly enough to get through a passport check. She introduced herself with a smile and asked the woman for her name.

She was called Brenda.

And she was going to England in a few days’ time. Ticket bought, passport ready.

Perfect.

Stockton Heath, 28 December 2013

Alice

Local Woman Drowned in Boating Lake

The woman drowned in the Highlands Boating Lake has been identified as Marjorie Blundell. Police divers dragged the lake late on Christmas Eve after Mrs Blundell was reported missing by her husband and her car was found near the water.

A police spokesperson said they believed the tragedy to be the result of a suicide. Mrs Blundell’s son, Ned, disappeared in the late summer and she had been suffering with depression since then. It is not uncommon for feelings of loneliness and loss to intensify during the holiday period.

‘What are you reading?’

Mandy was in her living room, a mug of tea in each hand.

‘The news,’ Alice said.

Mandy looked over her shoulder.

‘Local Nottingham news. Keeping up with events in your old stomping grounds? A drowning, huh? Exciting stuff.’

‘Kind of,’ Alice said. ‘I knew the woman who killed herself.’

‘Really? Who was she?’

‘I had a boyfriend at university. A guy called Ned. It was his mum.’

‘Jesus,’ Mandy said. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

‘Don’t be,’ Alice said. ‘We weren’t close.’

Sunday, 29 August 2021

Tom

She finished telling him the story of who she was, where she had come from, how she had met the real Alice Barnes, whose body was somewhere in the lake underneath them.