All the Little Things by Sarah Lawton (the best books to read txt) 📕

forget. Vivian’s anger, the police visit. It frightened me to see her like that. It brought up bad memories of before. I kept picturing Lexie’s mother, Lucy – how she’d looked when I’d seen her a few weeks before. I was so worried about how exhausted and worn she had looked. I had been so hopeful that Lexie would have recovered, learnt to cope with her injuries, that the scars had healed and could be masked, but there had to be a reason for Lucy to have looked so heartsick.

I’d managed to get as far as the kitchen table, wrapped in my dressing gown despite the stifling weather, and I was sitting wallowing, when there was a knock at the front door. I ignored it, but the knocking came again, insistent.

I edged my way along the hallway feeling like an old, worn-out husk. My head was light, my vision tunnelling, bile at my throat. I opened the door into the blinding light.

It was the police, again. DS Henderson and her henchman.

‘Ms Sanders? May we come in?’

‘Vivian isn’t here. She’s gone to school.’

‘We wanted to speak to you, Ms Sanders.’

Feeling more than slightly confused I let them both bustle into my house and down into the kitchen. Not wanting to speak to them straight away, trying to gather my thoughts, I offered to make them tea. My hands shook as I picked teabags out of the little clay pot Vivian had made at school. It was an ugly little thing but I treasured it: one of my only clear memories of my father was his delight when I presented him with some small and lopsided object I had myself made at school. I made us all a cup and we sat at my small kitchen table in a stuffy, uncomfortable hush. DS Henderson broke it.

‘Ms Sanders. Can you remember what time Vivian came home on Saturday night? We are still trying to establish a clearer timeline of Molly’s disappearance.’

‘So you’re taking it seriously then? It’s taken you long enough, she’s been missing for four days!’ I didn’t want to answer the question. I had absolutely no idea what time Vivian had come home. I just knew it was dark – it had been pitch black in my room, everything I remember was touch, hands in the darkness and the taste of the salt on his skin.

‘What time did Vivian come home, Ms Sanders?’

‘I can’t be sure. It must have been late, well after sundown anyway. I just remember it was dark and I had already gone to bed, and been asleep, but I don’t know how long for.’

‘Were you alone?’

‘What! Yes, I was alone. I woke up when the front door opened. I heard her come up the stairs and into the shower.’ The lies slipped out of my mouth easily, but my heart was pounding wildly, remembering the kisses on my body that had woken me, not Vivian.

‘The shower?’

‘Yes. She had a shower when she got in. She said yesterday, didn’t she, that she’d left Molly’s because she was hot. She probably wanted to cool down, rinse off. The weather’s awful, isn’t it?’ I tried to laugh, but their faces remained stern.

‘Are you aware of any issues Molly and Vivian may have been having recently?’

‘With each other? None, as far as I know. They are very close – they have been for years. I think all the girls have been struggling with Tristan’s accident, though. It’s so awful.’

‘Ms Sanders, we are fairly certain at this point that Tristan Beaumont’s car had been tampered with before the accident.’

‘I just can’t believe it. Who would want to hurt him? I don’t understand – surely it was something he did by accident? He was always tinkering with the stupid thing himself.’

The man was scribbling in his notepad. I could see his handwriting, a tiny illegible scrawl scattered across the page ignoring the lines. He pressed too hard with the pen; that must have made his hand ache, the grip.

‘After we left you yesterday, we spoke to several of Molly’s teachers. We were told that Vivian and Molly had a detention in the week before she disappeared. For fighting in the canteen. Did you know about this?’ My eyes told them that I did not. Vivian’s lies, coming to the surface. I could feel panic juddering in my chest – did they think Vivian was involved in Molly disappearing? Did I?

‘Why are you even questioning me about this? Is this because of the accident? That’s supposed to be sealed!’ I blurted it out and then fear hit me with an almost physical shock. I felt like I was on a tightrope without a safety net, nothingness yawning beneath my feet.

‘What accident, Ms Sanders?’ The man spoke suddenly, looked up sharply, keen eyes piercing me. I couldn’t answer, just shook my head, pressed my stupid lips together tightly. They didn’t know, and I had told them. The scribbling went on again, question marks, the only noise in the room.

‘I’m sorry to upset you. You’re sure there wasn’t any trouble brewing between Vivian and Molly?’ DS Henderson took over again.

‘No! Nothing, I told you! She didn’t even mention the fight, and they were together same as always last week. It obviously wasn’t anything serious.’ I had to make an effort not to screech, and I put my shaking hands under the table. ‘My daughter had nothing to do with Molly disappearing – she obviously has issues none of us knew about. Vivian adores Molly, she would never do anything to hurt her, or make her run away. This is ridiculous.’

They exchanged a cynical look, and then drained their cups at the same time. Standing up, looming over me, they thanked me for my time and then left, letting themselves out and leaving me nervous and worried.

No. There was no way she was involved in this, I refused to believe it. Before, in London, it had been an accident, the strain Vivian had been under that I had