It isn’t long before the theories start. The consensus is that Heather was injured. A few speculate that one of the daughters went for her. It’s a fair assumption, as it’s no secret they weren’t happy about the wedding. But a man in a bowler hat is adamant that Pamela attacked Heather. Someone else is sure that Stephen had a heart attack. My money is on the thin daughter being involved. Very neurotic girl, apparently. Mental problems, I think.

Two paramedics unload a stretcher from the back of the van. A police car arrives. Everyone moves out of the way to make space.

7

TULLY

Heather Wisher has been added to the group.

Tully was searching her family WhatsApp for a photo of one of Rachel’s wedding cakes when she saw it. Heather had been added to the family WhatsApp chat.

So many questions went through her head. First, who had done this? Dad didn’t know how to add people to the family chat – he could barely reply to a message via the family chat. When he did manage to respond to one of Tully’s pictures of the boys, or one of Rachel’s pictures of a wedding cake, it was usually with one word, all lowercase – ‘wow’ or ‘cool’ or even just a thumbs-up emoji (oddly, Dad loved emojis; often his one-word messages were accompanied by no less than four of them). But emojis notwithstanding, Dad’s technological capabilities were pitiful. There was no way he was adding someone to the family chat on his own.

High on the list of reasons this was inappropriate was the fact that Mum was still in the group. She didn’t interact in it, obviously; they had taken her phone from her before she’d gone to live in the nursing home, and even if she did have the phone she would not have understood how to use it, but that wasn’t the point. They’d left Mum in the group as a matter of principle. The same principle that said Heather Wisher had no business in their family chat.

Tully tossed her phone back on the table and tried to ignore it. She and Sonny were sitting at the back of her garden, in the paved area that butted up against the outdoor kitchen. They were being civil to each other – even pleasant – but it was for the benefit of their lunch guests, Rob and Michelle. It was almost as if they hadn’t spent the last twenty-four hours ignoring each other entirely.

‘You paid for lunch?’ Sonny had cried when she’d explained the charge on the credit card. ‘Why on earth would you do that?’

The truth was, she had no idea why she’d insisted on paying. It was a spontaneous gesture, a burst of desire for her father’s approval, maybe. A mistake – she could acknowledge that now – but a well-meaning one. ‘I . . . don’t know.’

‘You don’t know? Tully, we don’t have any spare money at the moment, do you understand that? None. We have to sell our house, our cars – I’m not sure how I’m going to make the mortgage payment. As it stands, we’re well short.’