Where Everything Seems Double by Penny Freedman (popular romance novels .txt) 📕

keep me in this time. But then that’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?’

I am about to mumble that I am doing my best, but he turns away with a little wave of dismissal. ‘Off to see Eve,’ he says, and turns towards her studio. I scamper after him and tug at his sleeve like an importunate toddler. ‘Colin,’ I say. ‘What’s the matter with Eve?’

‘The matter?’ he asks, looking down at me.

‘The cough,’ I say.

‘You’ll need to ask her, won’t you?’ he says. ‘Patient confidentiality, you know,’ and he seems to be about to go striding on but then relents. ‘Eve would like everything to be your fault, but you and I know it isn’t. And you didn’t cause the cough either.’

I don’t go straight back into the hotel but take a detour to the car park to see if I can find the sweet spot where my phone will work. I ought to communicate with Ellie myself and not just leave it to Freda, and it has just occurred to me that Freda’s low spirits this morning might have been to do with something going on at home. So I trawl the car park and realise that I have a connection only when a message comes pinging through:

‘Are you two all right? Odd message from Freda last night and you don’t answer my calls. Ring me!’

I stand where I am and call.

She picks up on the first ring. ‘Ma? What on earth is going on? All I’ve heard from you is that message from Freda about being in a car park. I’ve been calling you both all morning and—’

I interrupt. ‘This is a mobile black spot. Nothing’s wrong but you have to stand in the corner of a car park to get a connection.’

‘Well you might have made that clear last night. That message from Freda’s phone wasn’t helpful. ‘Cant say much because its dark in the car park but we are ok xx’ Couldn’t you have done better than that? I couldn’t work out why you would be in a car park at nearly midnight.’

My brain is churning. How can Freda have been in the car park at nearly midnight? I don’t know what’s going on. How do I hide from Ellie the fact that I don’t know what’s going on?

‘It’s a long story,’ I say with a thoroughly unconvincing little laugh. ‘We’d been to the theatre and hung around for the ferry and then had a hot drink and then—’

‘All right. I don’t need the whole rigmarole. As long as you’re all right. Can you put me on to Freda?’

‘Well, she’s…’ I say, and then realise that I don’t actually know where she is. Still on the jetty? I didn’t look for her as I came past. I need to get a grip on all of this. Ellie is assuming that Freda never leaves my side and Freda is assuming she can do whatever she likes. Ground rules. I should have laid down ground rules. In the past I wouldn’t have let Freda out of my sight, but the other kids here seem to be free to wander and Freda is thirteen after all. And so was Ruby Buxton says the mean little figure with the big, red warning flag who lurks in my head.

‘She’s back at the hotel,’ I lie breezily. ‘We’re just going to have lunch. Do you want her to call after lunch?’

‘No, don’t worry. I’m out later. Give her my love. Is she having a good time?’

‘Oh yes,’ I say blithely, and I think it’s true though, frankly, what do I know?

I speed back to the jetty to find Freda not there. The jetty is empty in a way that seems suddenly sinister. I pant up to the hotel and ask at reception whether she has picked up our key. She hasn’t. How can I have been so stupid as not to make a proper arrangement with her? And why doesn’t this bloody place have mobile coverage?

I am about to run back to the lakeside but as I’m passing the entrance to the bar I catch a glimpse of kingfisher blue – the colour of the crop top Freda was wearing this morning. I look in and there they are, the group of them, cool as you like, sitting drinking cokes in one of the prime spots, a bay window looking out on the lake. As I move towards them, Freda jumps up and comes to head me off.

‘What are you doing?’ she hisses, backing me urgently into the foyer. ‘You weren’t going to talk to us, were you?’

‘I was only going to offer to buy you all lunch,’ I say self-righteously and untruthfully, ‘and to find out what your plans are for this afternoon. I do need to know where you are, Freda, and without a phone signal—’

‘I’ll just be around, Gran. The others don’t have to keep saying where they’re going. And thank you for the lunch offer but there’s no need. Venetia says we can have it on the house.’

‘And Venetia is…?’

‘Her dad owns this place.’

‘How convenient.’

‘We’re having a party tonight, so I expect we’ll be getting ready for that this afternoon.’

‘A party?’ I am instantly alert to the possibilities of danger.

‘Nothing big, just the gang and a few others. We’re having a barbecue on the jetty. The play’s over and the jetty will probably be out of bounds soon if the police decide to drag the lake.’

I can’t really blame Freda for the callousness of this response since she didn’t know Ruby, but I am shocked at the others. Let’s have a party before we’re inconvenienced by the police dragging the lake for our friend’s dead body. But I am as much relieved as shocked, to be honest. If they are partying on the jetty, it will be pretty public. I could, if I wanted, watch the whole thing from my window. But you won’t, will you? I tell myself, and to compensate for the thought I say,