Chapter 26

26

October 31, 2:50 a.m.

less than four hours until low tide

“What time is it now?” Lily asks.

“Five minutes since the last time you asked me,” Rose replies.

“Really? It feels so much longer.”

I agree. Time moves more slowly when your heart is broken, and theirs are surely broken now too. Time stretches so that seconds seem like minutes, and minutes seem more like hours. It’s starting to feel as though I’ve been trapped inside this house with my family forever.

Lily shakes her head. “Is there no way we can try to leave Seaglass now? Waiting here like sitting ducks for another three hours seems like madness. My car is parked in the sand dunes across the causeway. We could all drive to the police station in town together? Get help? I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“None of us want to be here anymore,” says Conor.

“You know we can’t leave until the tide goes out,” says Rose. “Not without a boat.”

Lily has started pacing the room. “Can’t we make a boat? There must be something that would float? We could take one of the doors off its hinges?”

Rose sighs. “Can you hear the storm outside? Can you hear the waves crashing on the rocks, out there in the darkness? Do you remember how dangerous Blacksand Bay is to swim in at the best of times? Are you really suggesting that we should try and float to safety on an old door? Should we use wooden spoons for paddles?” There is something unusually unkind about my eldest sister’s tone. Lily goes back to her pacing, and Rose starts biting her nails.

“I think we’re all very upset and very tired, but maybe we could try to be a little bit kinder to each other? Nobody in this room is to blame for what has happened here tonight,” I say, and it seems to do the trick.

“I’m sorry,” says Rose. “I know you’re scared, Lily. We all are, but this situation must be even more terrifying after what happened to Trixie.”

“I thought you said I just fainted in the hall,” Trixie says.

“That’s right,” Rose replies, realizing her mistake. “But it gave us all a fright, especially your mum. We just have to wait a little while longer, then we can leave.”

Rose checks her watch again. She’s been doing that a lot since she arrived last night. And it was Rose who said that Conor’s boat was gone, that the rope tying it to the jetty looked as though it had been cut. She’s the only one who left the house—as far as I know. What if she cut it herself? I try to stop thinking the worst about everyone in the room, but it’s impossible to know who to trust. I’m sure they’re all doing the same.

Trixie shivers. “Why is it always so cold here?”

“I’ll put another log on the fire,” says Lily, standing up and crossing the room. She stares down at the log basket, and I wonder whether she is scared of breaking one of her manicured nails. “There’s another one,” she whispers, not moving.

“Another what?” asks Conor, coming to stand by her side. He slowly bends down, reaches inside the basket, and takes out a VHS tape. “This wasn’t here before, I’d have seen it,” he says, looking around the room at each of us.

“What does it say?” asks Rose.

Conor holds the tape up so we can all see the Scrabble letters stuck to its cover:

NOTICE ME.

“I vote we burn it—” Lily says.

“No!” Rose interrupts. “What if this tape reveals what is really going on? What if we never find out the truth if we don’t watch it?”

“You said that last time,” Lily replies. “Don’t you get it? Someone is trying to mess with our heads, and by going along with it, we’re just making things worse.”

“I’d like to watch it. It’s fun seeing you all when you were younger,” says Trixie.

“I said no!” Lily snaps and Trixie stares at her.

“It’s not her fault,” I say.

“I think we should watch it too,” says Rose. “I want to understand what is happening, and what else are we going to do?”

Lily looks around the room, waiting for someone to take her side, but none of us do. “Fine,” she says. “Do what you want, you will anyway.”

Conor slots the tape into the machine, then picks up the remote control before sitting down next to Rose at the back of the room. I sit on the floor, next to Poppins, just like I did when she was still a puppy. Dogs are much more comforting to be around than humans.

The home movie starts with a shot of Nancy’s garden at the back of Seaglass. It looks like summer, and the flowers are more spectacular than I remember them being. I subtly look over my shoulder, and see that Trixie and Lily are staring at the screen. But Rose and Conor are now sitting very close together. They are whispering—for Trixie’s benefit, I suppose—but I can just about make out their words.

“If this were a murder mystery, then the killer would be the least likely suspect,” Conor says.

I look back at the TV, pretend I can’t hear them.

“You don’t think that Daisy…” Rose whispers.

“No. That’s crazy,” Conor replies, and I feel a strange sense of relief, followed by a rush of anger. The sound of waves crashing on the rocks outside seems to get louder in my head, along with the ticking clocks in the hallway. Having a broken heart doesn’t mean I am incapable of breaking someone else’s.