‘And she’s not the first. The first companion was a girl called Matilde. She lasted two years. She died in an apparent hit-and-run last summer. The second girl, Jemima, arrived in October. By Christmas she was dead. Suicide. And now Una …’ Her best friend’s name catches in Courtney’s throat on the end of a sob. She composes herself. She can’t cry. She needs to take action. ‘She texted me, just before it happened, to tell me she was meeting Peter – Jemima’s brother – on the bridge. Peter, apparently, didn’t believe his sister would have taken her own life. It wasn’t until the next morning that Una was found. The police think she’d bashed her head on the ground after falling because it was foggy … It was foggy that night, you see. And cold. She died of hypothermia while unconscious.’
And she can’t prove it, but Courtney knows. She knows with all her heart that Una hadn’t just fallen on the bridge in the fog and banged her head. She’d gone out to meet someone – to meet Peter. Courtney had told the police all this. She’d ranted at them about Kathryn and Elspeth, and about Jemima and the bag, when she’d got to the hospital that day, but the police had looked at her as though she’d gone insane. And, of course, Kathryn denied the existence of a bag and this Peter Freeman denied the existence of any text messages to Una. And now Una was dead. Her best friend, the girl she’d grown up with, gone to school with, laughed with, lived with, was dead, her life, the essence of her, snuffed out in an instant. The girl who was kind, funny, who hated social media, who was private, who loved spreading butter on Rich Tea biscuits, who was a bit ditzy, who had never learnt to ride a bike, who wanted to see the world – gone. And everyone expected life to go back to normal when she, Courtney, knew her death was no accident.
‘I’m so sorry,’ says Willow, her eyes large in her petite face – blue, whereas Una’s had been grey. ‘That’s awful. So she never met this Peter on the bridge?’
Courtney shakes her long ponytail. ‘Nope. He denied ever sending a text. The police took his phone, analysed the history. All the usual stuff. But there was no evidence to suggest he had texted her that night. Just a panicked message on his voicemail from Una saying that she needed to speak to him because she’d found something. But he’d been busy with work. He’s a firefighter. He’d never had the chance to return her calls or messages. Or so he said.’
‘And what had she found?’
‘A bag full of Jemima’s clothes. In the cellar at Elspeth’s house. She was convinced Kathryn took them.’
‘Why would she do that?’ Willow looks confused, so Courtney fills her in on what Una had told her, about the argument Jemima had apparently had with Kathryn before she left, how Kathryn had made out she’d done a runner and taken her stuff with her.
‘So Kathryn knows more than she’s letting on? She’s a cold fish, that one, that’s for sure.’
Courtney remembers. She remembers getting to the hospital after Una was found – she had been Una’s emergency contact. A fruitless exercise, as it turned out, because Una was already dead and it had done nothing but give her false hope. Una had died on the bridge, enveloped in fog, like the embrace of the Grim Reaper, hidden from the world until the sun came up and chased the fog away. Kathryn had remained stony-faced while the doctor informed them of Una’s passing. She hadn’t reacted at all, while it was all Courtney could do to stop herself collapsing in a sobbing heap on the white-speckled hospital lino.
The next day Courtney had gone to the police station, propped up by a reluctant Kris, to tell them everything. About the bag, Una’s suspicions, Peter’s apparent text message asking to meet. The police had been interested yet noncommittal in their response. They took the details she gave them, diligently without rushing her, and then they thanked her and said they’d let her know of any developments. Except they didn’t. A week passed, and in the end, in desperation, she’d had to call them. That was when they’d told her about Peter and how there had been no messages on his phone arranging to meet Una. Una’s own mobile, apparently, hadn’t been found on her when she died. They think it must have slipped over the edge of the bridge and into the Avon Gorge, maybe when she fell. It all seemed rather too convenient for Courtney to swallow.
Kathryn had rung her shortly after Una had died, asking if she wanted Una’s stuff. Not that there was much of it. Una lived lightly. But Courtney had said yes and had gone to Clifton to pick it up. It was the first time she’d seen the house where her best friend had worked. It was grander than she’d ever imagined. She hadn’t met Elspeth. Kathryn told her that she was ‘very upset’ and was ‘upstairs resting’. Then Kathryn had handed her a large backpack with a stony expression. Not even a ‘sorry for your loss’. Courtney had almost snatched the bag from her before stalking off.
And now here she is. A new companion. A new victim.
Courtney had failed her best friend but she could help this girl, this stranger. She couldn’t allow Kathryn or Elspeth to harm someone else. The police might not want to do anything but she’ll avenge Una’s death if it’s the last thing she ever does. Una had a life, and someone took it. She won’t give up until she finds out who – and why.
28
Willow
The house has taken on a new perspective now that I know the truth. It no longer looks like some elegant, benign building but a place linked with death. Where skeletons are locked in closets and nobody is as they seem. All very dramatic of me, I know. Arlo always said I should be an actress. Arlo says a lot of things, and usually he’s being disparaging. Still, I can’t stop thinking about what that hairdresser told me, and underneath the horror a little excitement bubbles, the kind of feeling you get when a neighbour has been arrested. You’re not part of the action but you’re near enough to it. And I don’t feel in any danger from Elspeth or her daughter. Una sounded a bit na?ve, foolish even, to put herself in that position. Maybe she really did fall and bang her head. Maybe Courtney’s just looking for a link because two other girls who worked for Elspeth died.