Page 37

I’d honestly never seen Dad look so scared.

We’d snuggled down for the evening, looking forward to a cosy night in watching a new drama that we’d been waiting for with great anticipation.

I’d bought us a big bag of crisps each, and made us both a mug of hot chocolate, and we were settled in our respective armchairs, eyes glued to the television screen.

Then in she stormed. Aunt Polly.

She’d never struck me as scary before, despite being a ghost. Tonight, though, she looked different. Her mouth was set in an angry line, and her eyebrows knitted together in clear fury.

Dad just managed to save his bag of crisps from spilling onto the carpet as he jumped to his feet in alarm.

‘Pol! What the heck’s the matter?’

Aunt Polly was shaking, and I placed my hot chocolate and crisps on the coffee table and turned the television off. We could catch up with the drama later. It looked like we had enough of our own to be going on with.

More than enough, judging by the way she glared at me suddenly.

‘What do you think you’re playing at?’ she demanded.

Dad and I exchanged nervous glances.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘So you bloody well should be! What gives you the right to go meddling, eh? What gives you and that man you’re suddenly so cosy with the right to interfere in my business?’

Dad groaned. ‘What have you done, Shona?’

‘Nothing,’ I said indignantly. ‘Well, nothing much.’

‘Casting aspersions!’ Aunt Polly cried, turning to Dad. ‘That’s what she’s been doing, Jimmy. Blaming Sir Edward, of all people!’

‘Ah,’ Dad said heavily. ‘Well, yes. I know?—’

‘And you just let her get on with it, did you?’ she demanded. ‘You didn’t put a stop to it?’

‘Put a stop to it?’ Dad asked. ‘Be reasonable, Pol. She’s not a kid any more.’

‘You should keep her in line,’ she said coldly.

‘Hang on,’ I said, my own anger stirring. ‘What do you mean, “keep her in line”? I’m a grown woman!’

She didn’t even seem to hear me. She was pacing up and down now, shaking her head.

‘You’ve got it all wrong. You couldn’t be more wrong if you’d tried. And what business is it of yours, anyway? It was my life and my death!’

‘I thought you’d want to know who…’ I hesitated, not wanting to say the word, but plunged on as my anger and indignation soared, ‘murdered you!’

I heard Dad gasp, but my blood was up now. ‘Why don’t you, anyway? Any normal person would want to know, but you?—’

‘Normal person?’ She came to a standstill in front of me, shaking her head in anger. ‘So I’m not a normal person? That’s it, is it? That’s the way it is? Well, thanks very much. I’m so sorry if my reaction to being shot dead isn’t the correct one. I must have mislaid the rule book. Silly me.’

‘She didn’t mean anything by it, Pol,’ Dad began, but I didn’t need him to speak up for me.

‘You know perfectly well I didn’t mean that,’ I said. ‘What’s got into you anyway? And who told you what we said about Sir Edward?’

One look at Dad’s ashen face told me it hadn’t been him, so who? Only Max and I knew about our conversation. Unless…

‘Isaac told me, if you must know,’ she said.

‘Isaac? The landlord from The Quicken Tree? You mean he was spying on us?’ I could hardly believe the cheek of him. ‘Well, of all the?—!’

‘Don’t be blaming Isaac. This isn’t about him, anyway. It’s about you. You and that man. You’re getting too close to him, if you ask me. Were you canoodling with him?’

‘ Excuse me? ’

Dad looked horrified. ‘You weren’t, were you?’

‘Why doesn’t she ask Isaac?’ I suggested bitterly. ‘I’m sure he’ll tell her every word of our conversation and she can report back.’

‘Don’t be cheeky to your Aunt Pol,’ he said.

‘Don’t be cheeky to your father,’ Aunt Polly said at the same time.

I dropped back into my armchair. ‘Wow. All we’re trying to do is find out what happened to Max’s grandad, and how he’s mixed up with your murder. I honestly thought you’d want to know who killed you. I thought I owed it to you to find out. That we’d let you down somehow by not pushing for justice.’

Aunt Polly sagged suddenly. She rubbed her face and sighed. ‘Well, you haven’t. And I don’t want to know, do you understand? It was a horrible time for me, and I don’t want to have to think about it again. Just drop it, Shona. Please.’

‘But are you sure Sir Edward?—?’

She glared at me again. ‘Get this through your head, Shona Deakin, or Bannerman, or whatever the hell you want to call yourself. Sir Edward Davenport was a good man. The best. And he did so much for our family that we could never repay him for. But the one thing I can do for him now is to tell you to back off and stop blackening his name. I won’t have it, do you hear? ’

‘We hear you, Pol,’ Dad said heavily. ‘Don’t we?’ he added, giving me a ferocious look that dared me to disagree.

I tilted my head, staring at Aunt Polly in confusion. ‘So,’ I said slowly, ‘you and he weren’t?—?’

‘Say that out loud,’ she cried. ‘I dare you! Have you heard this, Jimmy? What’s her mind like? She didn’t used to be like this, did she? This is all since that Max Meyer arrived, poking around in things that don’t concern him.’

‘But Gerhard was his grandad,’ I pointed out.

‘For God’s sake, Shona, will you just drop it?’ Dad said wearily. ‘Can’t you see how upset your auntie is? She’s still traumatised and doesn’t want to know who killed her, and that’s that. Have some respect for her wishes, will you?’

I had to admit, Aunt Polly looked really shaken, and I hated seeing her so upset. Shame overwhelmed me. This must be really hard for her if she was behaving so out of character. What had I done?

‘All right,’ I said quietly. ‘I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to hurt you, Aunt Polly. I’ll stop digging.’

‘You promise?’ she asked, her green eyes fixed on mine. ‘Swear it?’

‘I swear it,’ I said reluctantly.

‘Well, good,’ she said at last, after studying me for what felt like forever to assess whether I was telling the truth or not. ‘Because the thing is, Shona, if you don’t let this go, I’ll never speak to you or your dad ever again.’

‘You don’t mean that, Pol!’ Dad protested, shocked.

Aunt Polly’s chin jutted in defiance as she faced him. ‘Oh, but I do, Jimmy,’ she told him. ‘Just you try me.’

‘Shona…’ He gave me a pleading look.

‘Like I said, I’ll stop digging.’ I didn’t have much choice, did I?

I couldn’t cause Dad and Aunt Polly to fall out.

It would break both their hearts. Whatever she said, Aunt Polly needed us.

We were her family, after all. I couldn’t put her through any more trauma. ‘And I’m sorry,’ I added. ‘Truly.’

She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them again and nodded.

‘Thank you. We’ll say no more about it, then. As long as you keep your promise, we’re fine. But Shona, stay away from that man. No good can come from it, you know.’

With that, she turned and left as suddenly as she’d arrived.

Dad almost fell into his chair, looking dazed by the whole thing, as if he could barely believe what had just happened.

He wasn’t the only one. I’d had a gagging order put on me by my aunt, and there was no choice now but to let sleeping dogs lie.

How was I going to explain that to Max? But even though I’d sworn to stop digging into the mystery of her death, I’d made no such promise about not seeing Max again.

I just hoped he’d still want to see me when he knew I could be of no further use to him.