The policewoman scraped her chair as she tucked it back against the table.
“She’s obviously extremely distressed. She’s moved to a nearby hotel with her daughter, and our liaison officer is keeping her apprised of any developments.” She turned back to me. “We’ll probably need to come back and talk to you again, Matthew. Okay?”
I shrugged. I couldn’t think of anything else I could add that I hadn’t already said.
Back in the office I was hoping to see an email from Melody about my gloves, but no such luck. Instead:
To: Matthew Corbin
From: Jake Bishop
Subject: WARNING!
All right? I just wanted to warn you to stay away from that nutty girl living opposite you. She has an UNNATURAL interest in the dead. Know what I’m saying? And what’s this about you two “investigating”? How you going to find anything out with a loon like her?!?!
Jake
I got some tissue from the bathroom and quickly wrapped each finger before I typed.
To: Jake Bishop
From: Matthew Corbin
Re: WARNING!
She’s just different, that’s all. Surely you know what that’s like?
Matthew
I hit Send and stood up to see what was going on outside. The policewoman was getting back into her car and Mum was heading over to number one, probably to fill Penny in about how Melissa Dawson had moved into a hotel. She rang the bell and Penny came out, closing the door behind her as they stood on her driveway with their arms folded, chatting, Mum turning around every now and then to take a look at number eleven.
Officer Campen, the policeman who had knocked on our door and asked me questions the day Teddy disappeared, was standing at Mr. Charles’s front door.
To: Matthew Corbin
From: Jake Bishop
Re: WARNING!
Well, I’m warning you now. Melody Bird is EVIL. Have you seen how many times she goes to the graveyard? Do you actually know what she does there? No, of course you don’t, cuz you don’t go out, do you?
I stopped reading. Something was going on outside.
“Officer! Officer!”
Melody’s mum, Claudia, was running across the street, her long skirt flowing as she dragged her dachshund behind her.
“Excuse me! I’ve found something! My little dog has found something in my yard! Haven’t you, Frankie? There’s a good boy.”
Claudia waited by the gate as Officer Campen walked toward her. She held something up in her hand. It was filthy and ripped almost in two, but I recognized it straight away.
Dangling from her hand was Teddy’s blue blanket.
To: Matthew Corbin
From: Melody Bird
Subject: Gloves
I’ve got them.
I’ll be in the churchyard from 1 p.m.
Melody
The clock on the computer read 1:06. I needed to be quick. I’d just get the gloves and come straight home—easy. I paced around the office, shaking my hands by my sides. My heart was racing and I felt like I did before I fainted at the doctor’s office. I forced myself to stand still and take a few deep breaths. I shut my eyes, but it felt like the floor was moving so I opened them again. If I didn’t go now, then Melody would probably come here to see what was keeping me, and Mum would answer and see the box. After the episode in Dr. Rhodes’s office and Dad crying, she’d never forgive me. No, it was now or never. I took a final, deep breath and then ran downstairs.
As I sat on the bottom step and pulled on my white, barely worn sneakers Mum appeared from the kitchen with Penny. They both had mugs of tea in their hands.
“Oh hello, Matthew,” said Penny. “How nice to see you face-to-face for a change and not through a window.”
Mum laughed awkwardly but Penny just stared at me, her nose in the air.
“What are you doing, Matty?” said Mum. “Are you going somewhere?”
I stood up and used my elbow to open the front door.
“Yep,” I said, as casually as I could.
Mum and Penny looked at each other, stunned.
“Out? But he doesn’t go out, Sheila. Does he?” It was as if I wasn’t there.
“Well, I am now,” I said and I took a final deep breath and stepped out into the hot, humid air.
In the graveyard there was a large horse chestnut tree with a hexagonal bench surrounding its trunk. The bench was old, but the tree was ancient. I wondered if it had been mortified to find a bench being built around its base after all those years of being perfectly happy without one.
A girl in a blue dress was sitting on the bench in the shade of the tree. I hadn’t seen her in color before.
“Hi, Melody,” I said and I perched beside her on the very edge of the seat.
She didn’t say anything, but I noticed her slip a small white card into a pocket in the skirt of her dress. Next to her there was a white plastic bag, which I tried not to stare at.
“Some of these are amazing,” I said, looking at a gray stone cross with a weeping woman draped over it. Strangely I didn’t feel as threatened here as I had at the doctor’s or the therapist’s. You’d have thought being surrounded by graves would make me more anxious, but this part of the cemetery was so ancient … I imagined that any germs around here were long gone.
We sat in silence for a while and I watched a few crispy leaves scuttle along the path in front of us. The breeze blew in my face like a hot hair dryer.
“Thanks for getting the gloves.”
She nodded. The bag sat between us untouched, and I resisted the urge to grab it and put a pair on.
“I really do appreciate it. I know it was an odd thing to ask.” I laughed nervously and she raised her eyebrows. I was expecting her to start asking questions, but she didn’t.
“Come on, I’ll show you my favorite gravestone,” she said. “Now there’s an offer you can’t refuse!”
She jumped up off the bench and went to grab my hand, but I instinctively folded my arms against my chest. She looked hurt.
“I’ve—I’ve got this problem. A fear of germs. That’s why I needed the gloves. I’m sorry. It’s not you … There you go, you know my little secret now.”
Melody looked away for a moment and some of her hair fell in front of her face. She tucked it behind her ear before looking back at me. She smiled but still didn’t say anything. I think she was shocked that I was saying so much, and now that I’d started I couldn’t stop.
“And numbers. Well, one number actually. I get anxious if I hear or see the unlucky one. That fear isn’t as bad as the germs, but it’s still there and it’s been getting worse. If I see or hear the bad number I just need to count to seven in my head, which takes it to twenty so then it’s all fine again.”
I stopped as I realized I was rambling. Melody just stood there, wide-eyed. Then she spoke.
“It must have been hard for you to tell me all of this,” she said.
“Well, yeah. Kind of,” I said.
A big smile stretched across her face.
“No one ever tells me stuff like this. You know, private things about themselves.”
I shrugged.
“I thought you had a thing about fingernails,” she said.
“What?”
She nodded to the bag.
“I thought that’s why you wore gloves all the time. Because your fingernails creeped you out or something. I thought you couldn’t bear to look at them.”
We both looked down at my hands.
It was then I started to laugh. It began as a giggle, an almost silent chuckle to myself, and then it swept over me and I couldn’t control it. I clutched my stomach and I laughed until tears sprang in my eyes. At first she looked at me like I was mad, but then her shoulders began to shake and she laughed along with me. Every time we calmed down a bit I looked at her and we started again.
“Fingernails?” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“I didn’t know, did I?” she replied and we both collapsed into hysterics again. It felt good to laugh. Really, really, really good. We eventually quieted down and she wiped her eyes.
“So, how does it feel to be outside? Properly outside,” she said, smiling at me.