Part 29 (1/2)

'Can I help you today?' Katie said, the words coming out in a rush.

'Really?' Gwen said. 'I mean, of course you can if you want to. As long as your mum says it's okay.'

Ruby shrugged. 'Fine with me. You need the help.'

Katie was a trouper, helping Gwen unpack Nanette and set up the stall.

'That's everything,' Gwen said. 'Now we put our feet up and wait for the punters.' She realised that she should've brought another folding chair. 'You can have first go in the chair.'

'What about these?' Katie climbed out of the van with a Clarks shoe box.

'They're spare bits waiting for homes in my boxes.'

'You have a lot of bits.' Katie lifted the lid and raked through. 'How many guns do you need? Or anchors?'

Gwen shrugged. 'I've been collecting for a while.'

'You don't say.' Katie held up a small apple charm on a silver jump ring with a couple of silver leaves attached. 'I like this.'

'You have a good eye. That's Murano gla.s.s. Hold it up to the light.'

Katie did so and the swirls of red and green glowed. 'Pretty.'

'It's been too big for my boxes so far, wrong scale, but I'm glad I picked it up. Apart from anything else, the guy didn't know what it was. He had it in with a load of plastic bracelets and a Sindy doll.' Gwen shook her head at the memory. 'I mean, it's Murano gla.s.s.'

Katie squinched her face. 'Is it valuable?'

'Oh, yeah, but more than that it's beautiful. And unusual.' Gwen stared at the apple, remembering vividly the day she'd found it. It was like that with all her best finds: the feeling tingling, the moment caught in Technicolor, surround-sound detail. Caught and filed.

'What are you going to do with it, then?' Katie was asking.

Gwen blinked and looked at her niece. 'Give it to you.'

'Cool.' Katie held up the apple to the light. 'Can I put it on a leather thong or a ribbon or something?'

Gwen suppressed a shudder. 'I'll get you a silver chain. Hang on.' A few minutes' work with a pair of needle-nose pliers and a jump ring and the apple was a pendant.

'Can I make something else?' Katie said. 'With this.' She held up a dark grey charm in the shape of a revolver.

'If you like,' Gwen said. 'Have whatever you fancy.'

Katie took her time, selecting a tiny white bone die, a dark blue crystal and a silver feather to go with the gun. Gwen showed her how to attach jump rings to make a cl.u.s.ter and how to attach the whole lot to another length of silver chain. By the time they'd finished, the market had opened and was getting busy.

Two hours later, Gwen sat on her folding chair and watched Katie. She was a natural. She smiled h.e.l.lo, but then faded un.o.btrusively into the background, rearranging part of the display in a relaxed way while the punter browsed. She sensed when they were looking for her to interact too, and made eye contact, offering help or encouragement or making a joke to put them at their ease.

A girl not much older than Katie leaned over to look at a bracelet that was draped over a statue of Dionysus. Without the slightest prompting, Katie plucked it off the bronze and put it straight into the girl's hands and said, 'Try it on if you like. And then, in a voice so completely genuine Gwen could hardly believe she'd heard the same line, delivered the same way to the previous twenty customers, Katie said, 'It looks so good on you.'

'You should have a break. You must be knackered,' Gwen said when Katie turned to give her a victorious smile.

'I sold it! That last one wasn't going to buy anything, I could tell, but then she saw that bracelet and it was just perfect for her and she bought it!'

'I know,' Gwen said, smiling at her enthusiasm. 'You're my ace sales a.s.sistant, but you still need to take a break. I think this counts as slave labour otherwise.'

Katie's face fell. 'I hope she likes it.'

'What?'

'The bracelet.' Then, just as quickly, her expression cleared. 'Of course she likes it. She definitely did.'

Gwen could vaguely remember what she'd been like at Katie's age: her moods changing at the speed of light and energy and enthusiasm set at either zero or one hundred million billion and nothing in between. She smiled. Cam would probably say that was still the case. 'And you sold all your necklaces,' she said to Katie. 'You're really onto something with those.'

'I need to pay you for the materials, though; I used your stuff.'

'That's okay. Take it as part-payment for helping me out today.'

Katie brightened even further as she calculated her profits.

Gwen smiled, allowing herself to imagine Katie helping her out regularly. She'd always thought that she preferred to run the stall on her own, but now she wasn't so sure. It was nice to be part of a team for once.

It wasn't until she was at home, making a well-earned cup of coffee when she realised something: Katie had been too good on the stall.

Chapter 19.

Back at End House, the air was still and a crow sat on the wall watching her calmly. Lily was at the back door.

'I had the locks changed,' Gwen said, by way of greeting.

'I brought you something,' Lily said. 'Thought you might be interested.' She looked altogether too cheerful for Gwen's liking.

'Come in,' Gwen said. She flipped on the lights. 'Would you like to sit down?' She was determined to be polite, to show Lily that she wasn't frightened by her.

'You're a dark horse,' Lily said.

'What do you mean?'

'This.' Lily reached into her handbag and put a stack of papers onto the table. Clippings. 'I had Ryan do a little bit of research for me.'

Gwen touched the topmost paper. A grainy black and white picture of a smiling boy. Sixteen years old, his whole life ahead of him. She still felt guilty that she didn't remember him from school. Whatever the papers had said, she hadn't known him at all. He'd been two years below her and that was like another species at that age, but still, she would've felt better if she could've pictured him alive. Or perhaps not.

'That was very sad,' Gwen said, pleased with how steady her voice sounded.

Lily smiled widely and Gwen suddenly realised why her teeth looked so oddly childlike. There were tiny gaps between her front teeth.

'This is my favourite bit.' Lily spread out the clippings and pointed to a piece that Gwen didn't remember seeing before. Despite herself, she leaned in for a closer look. Schoolgirl held in connection with river boy death.

She straightened up quickly. 'What do you want, Lily?'