Page 57 of Don't Believe A Word

Would that be Janina? Or Lukas? It was hard to imagine, almost impossible in fact after all these years, but with no reason to rule it out Cristy wasn’t going to.

Starting as her phone vibrated, she looked down half-expecting it to be Matthew, but it was a text from Robert Brinkley.

Great first episode. Hope you’re happy with it. (Am I right in thinking the Brinkley interview runs next week?) Only just picked up your email, and no problem about speaking to Sadie. Do you want to record it? Or will it be a private chat? Happy either way. Please feel free to pass on my details. Best, Robert.

Wondering if it would be a good idea to record him and Sadie when they met, Cristy got up to put on the kettle. Another glass of wine might be more welcome, but she’d had enough earlier, any more would end up making her maudlin – as if she wasn’t already.

Replying to Marley was going to do nothing to cheer her up, but unfortunately it had to be done, so she might as well get on with it.

She’d got no further thanDear Marley, I’m sorry not to have been in touch sooner,when her laptop’s FaceTime app burbled into life. Seeing who it was she immediately clicked on. ‘Mia,’ she said, as the connection focused, ‘this is a surprise. How are you?’

Mia’s face was slightly averted, as though she didn’t really want to engage, but she surely wouldn’t be calling if she didn’t have something to say. And on a video link too. ‘I’m very well, thank you,’ she said, her voice a little clipped, though not entirely unfriendly. ‘I thought it was about time we spoke before things start to get out of hand.’

Wishing she was recording this, Cristy said, ‘Out of hand in what way?’

‘This …nonsenseSadie is feeding you. It really can’t go on.’

‘Why do you say it’s nonsense?’

‘Because it is. If you’d known my sister, if youknewSadie …’ She sighed irritably, seemed to reset and said, ‘My niece has hadissuesfor most of her life … Of course we’ve always got her the best help, done everything to make her feel as special as she is. I thought we were getting somewhere, but now, with all of this … It must be some sort of delayed shock following Lottie’s death. They were very close and Sadie misses her terribly … We both do …’

When she didn’t continue, Cristy said carefully, ‘I take it you’ve listened to the first episode?’

‘Yes, of course. Very well done, and a gripping tale, if any of it were true.’

‘So there was no child on a beach? No hooded person running away? No mysterious envelope coming through the door?’

Mia’s mouth tightened.

‘I believe you’ve seen what Lottie wrote …’

‘How do you know it was Lottie? And did it not occur to you that Sadie herself might have put the photographs into a box to present them as something … they aren’t?’

‘So you’re saying that the young couple featured in them, with Sadie, arenotrelated to her?’

‘As I told Sadie when she showed them to me, they were very nice people who babysat her from time to time, during our first year here, in Guernsey. They left even before we moved into this house and we never kept in touch.’

Cristy didn’t want to call her a liar, so instead she said, ‘OK, I could perhaps be persuaded of that if the young woman didn’t look so much like Sadie, and if I hadn’t interviewed Gita Brinkley and her son, Robert. I showed him the photos and he remembers seeing the couple, in Minehead, at the time Sadie came to live with you on Exmoor. He’s even named them.’

Mia’s face seemed to twitch; her hands bunched tightly together. ‘I’ve no idea what Gita Brinkley and her son have told you,’ she retorted sharply, ‘but all you’re doing, all of you, is feeding into Sadie’s fantasy of having a mother, or father, who could be out there somewhere wanting to know her. I can assure you that she does not need to know them, and nor should she be encouraged in this quest for information that will only end up causing her a lot more harm than good.’

Taking it carefully, Cristy said, ‘That sounds as though you’re admitting your brother was not her father …’

‘We told her that because it was easier and it would have stayed that way if she hadn’t suddenly decided to question it. Since finding out she’s not related to us by blood she’s cast us variously as villains, fairy godmothers, crazy people, glamorous benefactors, whatever comes into her head on any given day. I ask you, please don’t let her draw you any further into her illusory world. As I’ve already said, it won’t end well, especially not for her.’

‘But you’re clearly hiding information about her parents that she surely has a right to know.’

‘That is your understanding of things, no one else’s. I have spent many years protecting my niece, and believe you me, I won’t stop now.’

‘But what does she need protecting from?’

‘If you value your reputation, Ms Ward, and I’m sure you do, then ask yourself this: how is it possible that these extracts, supposedly written by Lottie and randomly hidden amongst Lottie’s papers – how is Sadie managing to find them in the correct order? Isn’t that what’s happening?’

Cristy felt a beat of unease. It was true, they were coming up in a kind of linear way, although she had no idea if any further extracts were missing from what they had so far.

‘Sadie is writing them herself,’ Mia repeated, tartly. ‘Now, I’ll leave you to the rest of your evening and I hope all this digging about in a fabricated past will soon be at an end.’

CHAPTER FOURTEEN