Where the Memories Lie
By: Sibel Hodge
‘When is the funeral going to be?’ she asked sadly.
‘I don’t know. The coroner has to release the body first. There will be an inquest but that probably won’t take place for ages.’
‘What, do we have to wait until the inquest before we can bury him, then?’
‘No. As soon as they let us know, we can organise things. He wanted to be cremated.’
‘I want to be cremated,’ she said morbidly.
‘Oh. Why?’
‘Because I don’t like the thought of being eaten by bugs.’
A picture of Katie in the ground underneath the concrete flashed in my head, her hollow eye sockets writhing with beetles and worms and larvae. I shook it away.
‘Yes, well, you won’t have to think about that for a long time yet.’
‘How do you know? I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I could fall off a cliff, just like Granddad.’ She stopped eating and stared at 188
Where the Memories Lie her bowl, blinking to stop the tears. ‘Or you could. Or Dad. What if something happens to you both?’
‘Sweetheart, nothing’s going to happen.’ I reached out and squeezed her forearm.
‘You can’t say that, though, can you? You don’t know what’s going to happen. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Granddad!’ She slid the stool back with a scraping sound that made Poppy cower, leaped up and ran out of the room.
And that was how the next few days in the Tate family went.
Anna was up and down; Ethan was pretty much silent and didn’t want to talk; Nadia was efficient, organising everything and bringing round casseroles and pasta bakes she’d made for us. Lucas was somewhere in America on a flight he couldn’t find cover for, probably shagging his bit on the side, and Chris was drunk.
Our once-happy family was unravelling.
189
Chapter Twenty-One
I was walking home from work three days later past Chris’s house when I spotted DI Spencer and DS Khan about to get into their car, which was parked outside. From the path, I glanced up at Chris’s open door and saw him leaning against the frame watching me. He was in paint-splattered jeans, work boots and a black T-shirt. His face was pale and drawn, his eyes sunken, as if sensitive to the sunlight.
‘Is there any news on the . . . um . . . body? I mean, skeleton,’
I asked DI Spencer. ‘It was Katie, wasn’t it?’
He gave me a pensive look before he said, ‘We checked the dental records, which confirmed the remains were from Katie Quinn.’
‘Oh, God.’ I blinked as his words slammed into me, my hands flying to my cheeks. An overwhelming heaviness made my limbs feel like lead. ‘Don’t you have to do a DNA test?’
‘There were viable bone cells and teeth pulp collected from her remains, but a DNA test would’ve been tricky. Rose doesn’t have anything left of Katie’s to compare it with, such as a hairbrush with strands of hair. And Jack is no longer alive. To be sure it really was Katie, we’d need a sample from both parents for a true analysis.’
Where the Memories Lie He glanced briefly at DS Khan. ‘Actually, we were going to come and speak to you later. Are you free now?’ he asked.
I thought of Anna at home, parked in front of the TV, and Ethan off God knows where walking for miles again. He’d barely been in the house since Tom’s death and finding Katie. I didn’t want to hear what the police had to say. Not yet. I wanted to bury my head in the sand and forget. Switch the clocks back a few days to before Tom chose to spill his ghastly secret to me. Go back in time and protect my childhood friend. But I didn’t think I’d have much of a choice in the matter. There was no way back now.
‘Um . . . yes. But we haven’t said anything about this to Anna yet so I don’t want to talk at home. Can we go somewhere else?’
‘Of course. Let’s go for a drive.’