Part 10 (2/2)

'London? Oh, you're the boyfriend, are you?' Her eyes lit up with interest.

'She mentioned me?'

'Only briefly. We were discussing men.' She grinned.

'Ah, well ... anyway, when I got back we decided, Anna and I, to try to remember her on the fourth anniversary of her pa.s.sing with a little book of memories, of people who knew her, especially in that last month. Something for her family to have, you know?'

Her very full lips turned down as if she'd tasted something unpleasant. 'Oh, right. That's really ... sweet.'

'Yeah.' I gave her a sad smile. 'So if you have one or two memories of her, a shared laugh, a special thing you remember about her, that would be really great.'

'Um, well, let me see.' She put a perfectly shaped long nail to her chin and stared upward in thought. 'She loved her birds, the seagulls, you know? Said she wanted to be as free as them, high up in the air all the time, never coming down to land.'

I was writing dutifully. She came out with a few more fairly ba.n.a.l memories.

Then she said, 'She showed me your picture, standing on the edge of that cliff, you know? And one day I met her out walking, and she asked me to take a photo of her standing in the same sort of position, with the sky behind. I think she wanted to stick it onto your picture, so it would look like they'd been taken together.'

I stopped writing, a lump in my throat.

'Oh, sorry,' she cried. 'That's so tactless of me!' She reached out a hand to touch my arm.

'No ... it's okay, Sophie. It just catches me sometimes, you know.'

'Yes, of course! I'm so sorry. I still have a little cry about her sometimes too.'

'Do you? It must have been terrible for you all when it happened.'

'Oh yes, everyone was devastated. And the boys! Being there when she fell! Watching her ... They were a mess. They locked themselves away that night and got totally smashed. Well, you couldn't blame them.'

'No, of course not. And do you remember how Luce was herself in those last days before the accident? I mean, did she seem depressed or anything?'

'Not really, but I didn't see her after the party at the Kelsos' house.'

'Right. I just feel so guilty, not having been there. It helps talking to someone who was.'

'Oh.' She smiled sympathetically. 'I can imagine. She did seem a bit run-down physically, you know, like tired? She had a tummy bug, and saw the doctor a couple of times.'

Sophie had striking, attenuated features, and I guessed that Damien must have made a play at her. 'I suppose you got to know them all pretty well? Damien?'

She smiled. 'Oh, Damien was fun. Of course he only came for the last couple of weeks, but he livened things up.'

'I wondered if he might have been, well, comforting Lucy, after our break-up?'

'No, actually,' she grinned, 'he and I got together for a while. Then ...' She ducked her head.

'What?'

'Oh, when the racing yachts came in, there was this really dishy guy on one of them, and when they had the party I went off with him. Damien got pretty annoyed.'

'Luce was at that party, wasn't she?'

She thought. 'Ye-es, she must have been. Yes, I remember her talking to one of the yachties, an American I think.'

'Do you remember anything else about that evening?'

Another big smile, half-embarra.s.sed. 'I was pretty preoccupied-but I remember Lucy was very quiet, not drinking. I think she got upset with something the yachties said. But I pretty much had my hands full with ... Do you know, I can't even remember his name now.'

'They were due to fly out on the Sat.u.r.day. Didn't she say goodbye to you?'

'Not that I can remember. Anyway, they stayed on, didn't they? The weather turned foul.'

'So, did you see them again after that?'

'Ye-es. At least, I saw Damien. It was the night before the accident. He was pretty annoyed with me, but it wasn't just that. Something was wrong, something to do with their work. They were all p.i.s.sed off.'

'And Lucy?'

'No, I'm sure I didn't see her. I think she was feeling ill again.'

'What, they told you that?'

'I suppose so.'

'And the next day, the day of the accident?'

'No, I didn't see her, but she must have felt better.'

'How do you mean?'

'Well, she went climbing with them, didn't she? I thought I might have seen her when I went to the house that day-that was my regular cleaning day-but she wasn't there, because she'd gone with them. It's terrible to think, isn't it-if she'd been a bit sicker she wouldn't have had that accident.'

'Yes, true enough. How about the Kelsos, were they nice people?'

She screwed up her nose. 'I was glad to leave, frankly. Muriel-Mrs Kelso-seemed all right at first, but she was a hard b.i.t.c.h if you were working for her. I didn't have much to do with Stanley, but he's an important man on the island and you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him.'

'How about the sons?'

'Not my type. Bob was okay, I suppose; didn't say much, spent all his time with his boat. I did think he might have had a bit of a crush on Luce, the way he looked at her sometimes. Harry ... he tried it on with me a few times, until I finally got it into his head that I wasn't interested.'

'Bit pushy, was he?'

'Yeah, seemed to think I'd make myself available as part of my contract.'

'Was there some rumour that they were into something dodgy, smuggling or something?'

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