I directed her to another tea shop, one as far away from my friends’ usual haunt, Reeves, as I could think of, with lots of upstairs nooks and dark little corners. We ordered a pot of tea and toasted teacakes and found the most distant table, in a top room that only held two, the other one unoccupied. Once the elderly, cross waitress had struggled up with our tray and dumped it accusingly in front of us, Samantha poured the tea. Then she stopped, mid-pour, leaned forwards and kissed me before I had a chance to ask her where she’d been, what she’d been doing, why she hadn’t been in touch, whose camper van she had been sleeping in, whose pillow had her head been on for the past two months…

‘My dad died,’ I said instead, when we came up for air. I waited for the gasps of sympathy, but all she said was, ‘Move to London with me’ – more of a command than a question. ‘My mate Marsh has got an awesome squat in Willesden we can live in. I’ve been sorting it all out these last few weeks. Sorry about your daddy, he seemed real nice.’

‘OK,’ I replied, all the questions fleeing, forgetting that I had four more mock exam papers to sit; forgetting my promise to Dad to look after Mum, forgetting that Pete would be left to cope on his own. ‘When do we leave?’

So this was what being in love felt like. No wonder people raved about it.

29

Present Day
Meredith

The woman detective, Gemma, texted Meredith that afternoon asking if she could come over and see her at Minstead.

Now what? thought Meredith, but she texted obediently back to say yes, of course, and to remind Gemma that she was at home in the cottage, having taken a few days compassionate leave. She couldn’t face being in the shop, knowing that Ralph wasn’t upstairs in his office, or around for coffee, or to have a laugh with in staff meetings.

She had been in the front garden, ostensibly weeding, but also trying to make sure that none of Ralph’s shirt buttons were visible after she’d thrown them into the flowerbed in panic the previous week. The weather had changed, banks of dark grey clouds rolling across the hills, heavy with threatened rain, casting a pall over the grounds. Her mood felt as dark as the sky and wasn’t helped by Paula, who rang her as she was wrestling with the root of a stubborn bramble.

‘Why did you ring the police to tell them about the lion?’ Paula demanded as soon as Meredith answered. ‘I told you I’d let them know! Now they’re all suspicious, like I’m hiding something!’