They are all eating cheese downstairs, yuck. I like seeing the room all glowy with the tall candlesticks burning bright and people laughing a lot. Mrs Hoskine says that the wine might have something to do with the laughter. She saw me scoot under the table again when she brought the silverbelle back into the kitchen, but no one else had. I loved watching and trying to figure out who was bored because Mummy said it happens a lot at dinner parties. Daddy was chatting to Lady Fox but he was looking down the table. He hadn’t really liked his birthday cake. He frowned when he first saw it. Maybe he didn’t like the dolls on it, but then he laughed. He did like his book though and he called me a clever girl. Maybe we shouldn’t have made the cake like Moscow. Maybe we should have made seashells to put on it, or sailboats like last year. Last year Daddy had been happier but Mummy had sailed with us then.

They think I don’t know Mummy lost a baby. I don’t know how she did, but she cried a lot about it and they fought. Daddy slammed doors and she cried more. But things have been better since we have come home.

Diana closed the diary and put it under her pillow. She pulled out her book. The band had begun downstairs so it was too noisy to sleep.

60. Lottie

60

Lottie

4 August 2018, 9.55 p.m.

The phone rang and Lottie dashed to the office.

‘Hello, Boskenna.’

‘Is that Diana Trewin?’

‘No, I’m her daughter, Lottie.’

‘This is Pat Treneer.’

‘Mum was talking with you earlier.’ She leaned on the desk.

‘Yes, she was asking me what I remembered about Allan Trewin’s death.’

‘She mentioned it.’ Outside in the garden she saw Alex chatting to Gramps but her mother was heading down the path to the beach.

‘Is she there? It’s just that I remembered something else.’

Lottie leaned forward to see if she could call out to her, but she had disappeared from sight. ‘She’s just gone for a walk in the garden. Can I take a message?’

‘Well, I hadn’t thought about the case in many years, you see.’

‘I can imagine.’

Alex sat on the bench next to Gramps now. They appeared to be in a serious conversation.

‘And I was angry at the time I handed over to CID and they didn’t listen.’

‘Oh.’

She stood straighter. ‘But it was an accident.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But my gut told me all wasn’t right.’

‘Are you sure?’ She turned from the view. She didn’t want to hear this.

‘I’ve seen enough poor souls that have accidently fallen off cliffs, but he didn’t look like any of them.’

‘It’s a pretty steep cliff.’ She thought about what was there now. Was it a straight drop or more of a slope then?