A Place in the Country (28 page)

“Temporarily, of course,” Mark said. “Until we get this finally sorted.”

“How,
sorted
?” Caroline asked, knowing she was stuck with a despairing child who only wanted her real mother. “Of course I know we'll have to take care of her, but James didn't leave her any money.”

“Melanie's a nice woman,” Mark said. “James did not do the right thing by her,” he added, knowing that James never did; he simply played the game by ear, or by the moment, shrugging at whatever happened until finally the game had caught up with him. But this wasn't only about Asia.

“There's something else,” Mark remembered. “I almost forgot about James.”

Caroline said, “I don't see how any of us can forget him, especially now.”

“You'll be seeing this in the media. Go online now, Caroline, it's all there. The Hong Kong police have a warrant for the arrest of Gayle Lee Chen for James's murder.”

“
Oh my God.
Then they believe she really did it…?”

“Lieutenant Huang told me they have evidence. There's a witness who saw her go on the boat, heard the shot, saw her running down the gangplank again.”

“Out of the blue, just like that, there's a
witness
?”

“Caroline,
she did it.
That's all the cops are worried about now. Anyhow, Ms. Chen has disappeared. China's a big country. I doubt we'll hear from her again.”

Caroline remembered the elegant ice-woman at the Peninsula Hotel, platinum-haired and ruby-ringed … James's fantasy woman.

Overwhelmed, she handed the phone to her mother, asked her please to talk to Mark, he would explain everything. Then she went and sat on one of the cushions on the river wall because her knees had suddenly buckled.

“How ever am I going to tell Issy?” she asked out loud.

Henry heard her. He did not know exactly what had happened though he was getting the gist of it from the one-sided conversation his wife was having with Mark.

“You'll find a way,” he said. “You always will, you and Issy.”

 

chapter 66

Asia woke with the first light.
She turned her head to look at the girls lying one on either side of her. Both were sleeping, mouths slightly open, eyes tightly shut. They were still holding her hands and she lifted her head to look at this miracle, then lay back again, careful not to wake them. She wanted this moment to go on forever.

When Issy finally opened her eyes she found herself looking directly into Asia's unflinching stare.

“
Jesus!
” she said, startled. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you to wake up,” Asia said truthfully. “I'm hungry.”

Issy remembered they'd had no dinner the previous night. She leaned over and gave Sam a nudge. “Get up,” she said. “Asia and I are starving.”

Sam tried to lift the fog of fatigue from her brain. “Who's Asia anyway?”

“It's me,” Asia had found her voice. “Issy's sister.”

“Oh my God,” Issy said. “How do you
know
that?”

“My daddy told me.”

“
James
? Your daddy?”

Asia nodded. “And yours.”

Issy didn't want to question Asia
directly
about her mother but anyway asked her in a roundabout way, saying, “My mother is Caroline.”

“And mine is Melanie Morton,” Asia said proudly.

Sam caught Issy's eye and they both groaned.

“My mommy is waiting at home for me, in Singapore,” Asia said. “She told me it would be all right to come here with Jackie. She said Jackie would look after me like a mommy, and I should behave myself and say nothing. So I did, except when I got scared and I didn't like it.”

“It's okay now, though,” Issy reassured her. “Come on, I'll bet you need to go to the bathroom, then we'll all wash our hands and comb our hair and go down and see what's happening.”

Asia perched on the loo, hands politely folded in her lap, looking up at Issy who stood by the door waiting. “Is your mommy here?” she asked.

“No she's not.” Issy remembered Caroline would be at the barn.

“My mom's here though,” Sammy called from the bedroom where she was brushing her hair. “She'll fix you some cereal. I'll bet we've even got Froot Loops.”

“Don't like those,” Asia said. She went and washed her hands and Issy helped her dry them, thinking this was what it was like having a little sister.

They found Maggie alone in the kitchen. She had just gotten off the phone with Caroline and knew everything about Asia's real mother, and also that Gayle Lee Chen had shot James.

She gave Asia a kiss, told her that her real mother Melanie sent love and that she and Caroline would be looking after her until she went back to Singapore.

“I want Issy to look after me,” Asia said, asserting herself and making Maggie smile.

The child even
looked
different this morning, swollen-eyed of course from all that crying, in fact Maggie had never heard a kid bawl like that before, but now her face was tinged with pink and her dark eyes glittered with pleasure instead of tears.

Maggie shook her head though at the drooping ankle socks and the very slept-in smocked dress, with its dangling sash. “Asia,” she said, “don't you have a pair of shorts, or jeans, or something? You know, a little T-shirt?”

“At home I do. Jackie got me these.” Asia smoothed down the frock. “Don't you like it?”

“It's a party dress.” Issy sat her at the kitchen table while Sam made toast and Maggie brought glasses of juice. “She doesn't like Froot Loops.”

“Then she'll have to have Rice Krispies,” Maggie said, bringing a bowl and getting milk from the fridge and putting them in front of her.

Asia looked at the box, then under her lashes at Issy. “Don't like those either,” she whispered.

“Well, now you'll have to because that's all we've got.” Issy tipped cereal into the bowl and poured milk over it.

Sam managed not to burn the four slices of toast. She put them on the table and went to get the Tiptree Little Scarlet jam, her favorite. She buttered a piece of the toast, slathered on a layer of jam, and put it on Asia's plate next to the cereal bowl. Maggie poured her some juice and then they all just sat back and watched the child eat.

Asia devoured the cereal and the toast in five minutes, drank her juice then looked up at them and said, “Now what?”

“A shower,” Issy said. “Come on.” Being a big sister was becoming a habit.

Maggie drove into Burford, where she picked up a child-size tourist T-shirt that said
COTSWOLDS
on the front and had a picture of a sheep on the back. She also found a tiny pair of cotton jersey shorts and some flip-flops she hoped would fit. At least the kid would look normal now and not like some leftover from a royal event.

Issy's mobile beeped. It was her mother asking how she was.

“I'm okay,” she said. “Asia's okay, she's had breakfast, now she's in the shower. I'll get Maggie to bring us over.”

“No!” Caroline was sharp. “No, don't bring Asia with you. I need to see you alone first. Maggie will bring you over, as soon as she gets back. Then we can talk.”

“What about?” Issy was wondering what else could go wrong.

“Ohh … we'll talk when you get here,” Caroline said. “And Issy, thank you for taking care of Asia last night. You were absolutely right, she should not have been listening to all that.”

“Asia's okay, Mom. She's a good kid.”

“I'm glad to hear you think so.” Caroline sounded amazed. “I'll see you in a bit then?”

“Okay,” Issy said, still wondering why she shouldn't bring Asia because after all that woman Jackie was still here at the pub, sleeping in Caroline's old room. Nobody had seen her so far this morning and Issy hoped to get out of there before
she
did.

 

chapter 67

It was Jesus
who finally drove Issy to the barn; Maggie had elected to stay with Asia and Sam, and await the emergence of Jackie. It was already almost noon and so far no sign of her. Asia didn't seem troubled though. She told them her real mom never slept late because she had to drop her off at preschool before she went to work.

Sam said she would take Asia for a walk and they ambled off together down the high street, Asia stumbling in the too-large flip-flops, happily clutching her hand. “Will there be ice cream?” Maggie heard her asking and Sam saying of course there would be.

Maggie thought it was time Jackie got up and went and knocked on her door. There was no reply and she knocked again then opened it and poked her head round. The curtains were closed, the bed un-slept-in and Jackie's suitcase was gone. Maggie thought if Caroline were here she would have said Jackie had
flown the coop
! She ran back downstairs and went outside where Jackie's rental car was usually parked directly in front of the pub. Of course it was gone.

She immediately got on the phone and told Jesus who had just reached the barn.

“Good,” he said. “Saves us the trouble of chucking her out.”

*   *   *

It was a fine morning
and Caroline was sitting with her parents on the terrace, enjoying the sun. Henry was reading the
Telegraph
and Cassandra was helping herself to more coffee from the drip-pot, thinking she really should tell Caroline to get herself one of those new Italian machines where you slotted in the little container of the flavor of your choice, and out came the perfect cup of coffee, with frothed milk on the side. She had one at home and it was so good she often drank two cups. She either had to make the change to decaf or she'd be up dancing all night. She sighed. Those days were over, but at least she could dance the
early
part of the night. She looked affectionately at Henry whose eyes were closed, dozing over the newspaper as he did every morning. She had loved him a long time and found herself wishing Caroline could find that kind of love, some way along life's too-short route.

Caroline was wearing sunglasses, watching the river uncurl itself onto the tiny weir in a flurry of foam, thinking about how she was going to have to tell Issy that her father had been murdered.
And
who the killer was. It wasn't fair. To know your father had died was one thing; to accept that he had killed himself quite another; and then to understand he had been murdered … It not only would be hard on Issy, it was hurting Caroline. She couldn't bear to think about James's final moments, what happened, what he must have gone through. She hoped he had not suffered. All she knew was he had not deserved it. James was never a
bad
man.

“It'll be all right, she'll understand,” Cassandra said, watching her, knowing what was going on in her mind. “It's what Issy always thought anyway.”

“It was the first thing she said when she heard about it. Somebody killed him.”

Cassandra nodded; she knew. Jesus's truck was coming up the drive. “Well, here she is. We had better leave you two alone.” She nudged her husband who opened his eyes. “Time to go, Henry,” she said, and realizing he got quickly to his feet.

“Good luck, darling,” he said to Caroline. “Call if you need us.”

Issy got out of the truck and waved goodbye to Jesus. She stood for a minute by the front door, remembering when she and her mom had stood in the pouring rain looking at the sign that said
Bar, Grill and Dancing,
like a roadhouse in an old American movie transplanted to a field in the Cotswolds. The sign was still there, a faded weather-beaten plank of wood that had triggered off her mother's plans for an uncertain future which Issy had decided there and then would not include her.

Now, looking at the honey-colored stone barn sheltered by the big chestnut tree, its windows gleaming, flowers blooming, instead of being angry at her mother's seeming inability to look reality in the face, Issy had finally to acknowledge Caroline had worked miracles. She wasn't sure about the restaurant but at least her mother had created this place.

She was still standing there, taking it all in, when she heard her mom crunching across the gravel toward her.

“It's lovely now, Mom,” she called. “I think I'm seeing it for the first time, the way you did right at the beginning.”

“At least now it's a home.” Caroline linked her arm with Issy's and they walked back through the house to the terrace.

“I know about Asia,” Issy said, “but something else is wrong.” She dropped onto the yellow and blue striped cushion on the river wall. She almost didn't want to hear Caroline's answer. She turned away and threw a small stone into the water, saw the ducks come paddling, thinking it was food. Their own personal restaurant, she thought, wishing she could smile, but she knew this was something serious, she could feel it.

“It's about Dad, of course,” she said. “Is it about Asia, too?”

“Not this time, sweetheart. This time I have to tell you that you were right. Your father did not kill himself.”

Issy sat up straighter.
Thank God, oh thank God
 … she thought. Then, “I'll bet I know who did. The ice-woman.”

Caroline nodded. “Mark told me the police have a warrant for her arrest. I had to tell you before it's on the Internet, or the news or anything. I'm so sorry, baby, this is so hard for you.”

“And you.” Issy went and knelt in front of her mother. She put her head in Caroline's lap, felt her hand stroking her hair. There was just the sound of the river, the shrill whirr of a cricket in the grass, the rustle as the ducks paddled away … A feeling of peace came over her.

“It's all right, Mom,” she said. “It's good that we finally know the truth.”