‘Oh … yeah, I did. It was all over the news.’
‘Perhaps that’s how we’ll end up. Bones in a basement. Perhaps nobody’ll come for us and we’ll die down here, of starvation. Perhaps that’s what happened to her. Perhaps Lawrence knew all about it.’
‘Don’t be daft, Kayley,’ said Deano, his local intonation coming back in sympathy with hers. ‘They said the skeleton was more than a century old.’
‘Yeah, but they’re all the same, those Harvilles. Aren’t they?’
Deano sighed. ‘So we always used to say.’
‘I should never have touched him with a bargepole.’
‘Who, Lawrence?’ Deano drew back a little, wondering if she could see his quizzical expression in the dark.
She sighed. ‘Yeah. I was gullible and he dazzled me.’
‘Seduced you, then threw you into a cellar? Seems like a Harville way to go about things.’
‘It was a long time ago. That’s not what this is about. This is just revenge for grassing him up.’ She drew a quick breath. ‘But I wish I knew what he had planned.’
‘He’ll let us out soon. He’ll have to. He’s in a whole world of trouble already – no point making it worse.’
‘Or – in for a penny, in for a pound,’ said Kayley gloomily.
Deano pulled her closer, wanting to shut out the dark for her, wanting to bring in some light and some hope. Just for her.
‘Well, do you have any idea where he might be?’
Jenna waved away Linda’s offer of a dented can of Coke and looked around the tiny coop of a living room as if Jason might be hiding beneath the coffee table.
‘Not me, duck. He could be anywhere. I’m surprised he ain’t told you where he’s gone. You two had a row, have you?’
‘Just some silliness,’ said Jenna, trying to convince herself. It was, wasn’t it? Just silliness. He was being touchy and she had more than a genuine right to be agitated over the Facebook photo.
The vultures had been gathering when she left the Hall to come and look for Jason, who had left the phone that had caused all the trouble on the floor in the bedroom.
‘The thing is, Linda,’ she said uneasily. ‘Shit. You’re going to hear about this from someone, so it might as well be me. The thing is, a … compromising … photograph of me has turned up on the web.’
‘Nudie shots? Jealous, is he, of your past?’ Linda’s glee rather overrode her clumsy attempts at sympathy.
‘No, it was him that took the photograph,’ said Jenna. ‘Just thought I ought to warn you.’
‘Eh? What the bloody hell did he put it online for? Daft beggar. I’m not surprised you had a row. I’ll give him a row when he turns up here.’
‘No, no, it was an accident. The wrong buttons were pressed. I panicked, and he thinks I overreacted.’
‘Overreacted? I don’t think so, love. You’re a big star. This could hurt you.’
‘Exactly, exactly, that’s what I said, but he just didn’t seem to get it.’
Jenna began to pace, then noticed somebody staring up at the window from the back of the shops and pulled the curtains tightly shut.
‘So he marched off in a strop,’ continued Jenna. ‘And I thought he might have come here. That’s all.’
‘Well, I wish he had, but he didn’t,’ said Linda. ‘Look, let me put the kettle on, at least. You look like you could do with a sugary tea.’
‘Oh, all right. While I’m here, there was something I wanted to talk to you about anyway.’
‘Ooh,’ said Linda absently, wandering over to the little galley kitchen off the living room and getting mugs sorted. ‘That sounds official.’