Page 43 of Don't Believe A Word

CRISTY: ‘And she disappearedafteryour mother told you about the little girl at the sisters’ house?’

ROBERT: ‘I’m afraid the order of things is far from clear in my mind after all this time, but I can tell you that I had no reason, then, to connect the so-called niece with Janina’s little girl. It was only when Mum told me about an awful row she’d overheard between the sisters and Mia’s husband that we both started to feel … I guess, uneasy?’

GITA: ‘Yes, I should have mentioned him just now when you asked if they had any visitors. I actually only saw him once and he wasn’t there for long … Edward, I think he was called, or something like that. I know Lottie didn’t like him, the way she talked about him made that clear. She thought he’d only married Mia for her money and I got the feeling Mia thought the same, although she never said so. Anyway, I don’t know what started the row off, I walked into the middle of it when he was shouting about them being insane and thinking that rules didn’t apply to them. Islipped out before anyone knew I was there. I didn’t want it to seem like I was eavesdropping. I went back to my car and gave it a few minutes before going in again, this time through the kitchen. I assumed Sadie was upstairs, or in the sitting room, but I couldn’t get to her without letting it be known I was there, and they were still shouting. I couldn’t make out what was being said, but it was very heated, and someone – Lottie, I think – said something about calling the police. He ended up storming out, and he hit Lottie’s car with his own as he drove off.’

CRISTY: ‘What happened after that?’

GITA: ‘Well, they were very upset, of course, but they didn’t talk to me about anything. It wasn’t until Mia and I were on our own in the kitchen that she told me I shouldn’t take any notice of what he’d said about Sadie not being their niece. He was just trying to make mischief, she said. I suppose she thought I’d heard that, but I hadn’t, and it never entered my head until that day that Sadie might not be who they claimed she was.’

CRISTY: ‘What did you do when Mia told you that?’

GITA: ‘I went home and talked to Robert and Charles about it. Charles thought I should mind my own business, but then Robert told me about the young woman he’d met a few times who seemed to be taken with the sisters, and she had a girl of around Sadie’s age …’

ROBERT: ‘It seemed too far-fetched to think they were one and the same child, and I couldn’t come up with a single reason why Janina would let her little girl go. Nevertheless I remember keeping an eye out for her after that, hoping to run into her again, or at least to spot her somewhere with her child, but I never did.’

GITA: ‘You went to Butlin’s to look for the brother.’

ROBERT: ‘Yes, I did, and I was told he’d left, quite suddenly, no forwarding address.’

CRISTY: ‘Did you happen to get his surname?’

ROBERT: ‘It’s possible someone told me, but if they did, I can’t recall it now. It almost certainly wouldn’t have been English.’

GITA: ‘Then the next thing we knew the sisters had gone, taking Sadie with them – and Robert was getting ready to go back to Australia and I suppose … we just got on with our lives.’

Realizing they were at the end of what Gita and Robert could remember, Cristy signalled for Connor to stop recording. She was thinking now of what it was going to mean to Sadie to learn her mother’s name – and that the man in a hat whose shoulders she was riding in one of the photos was probably her uncle.

Where were Janina and Lukas now?

What had happened to them?

What about Sadie’s father?

Connor was saying, ‘We need to get Gita’s account of her time with Sadie on record. Is that OK with you, Gita? We haven’t worn you out, have we?’

‘Not a bit of it,’ she retorted. ‘I’m happy to go over things again. I’ll probably find better ways of saying them second time around. And while we’re doing that, perhaps Robert could take Cristy over to the coast path to show her the house?’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘If you’re thinking my mother is a very unsubtle, in fact shameless, matchmaker,’ Robert commented as he drove himself and Cristy out of Monksilver, heading for the coast, ‘then I can only apologize if she embarrassed you as much as she did me.’

Cristy had to laugh. ‘To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d read it correctly. I mean, aren’t you married?’

‘I am, but that never stops her. She keeps hoping I’ll meet someone here, in England, preferably Somerset, get myself a divorce and move back to be closer to her.’

Blinking in surprise, Cristy said, ‘I hardly know what to say to that. A mother wanting her son to divorce.’

He laughed. ‘Obviously, she knows it isn’t going to happen. It’s just a little fantasy she has and would probably have let go of a long time ago if she felt warmer towards my wife.’

‘Ah, so they don’t get on?’

‘Let’s just say that being on opposite sides of the world works for them both.’

As he slowed to turn onto the A39 Cristy checked an incoming text and choked back a laugh when she saw Connor’s message,Will I ever see you again?

Deciding that no answer would suffice, she quickly pulled up her emails, found nothing urgent, and returned to the conversation. ‘So how come you’re in England now?’ she asked. ‘Is this a regular visit to your mother – don’t tell me you flew over just to be here for the interview.’

He laughed. ‘I arrived in the UK about a month ago, always with the intention of visiting Mum , of course, but I’m also researching a paper on emergency cardiothoracic surgery. Currently, I’mworking with colleagues at the Bristol Heart Institute, so I wasn’t far away when she rang to tell me you’d been in touch.’