Chapter 9

NINE

Lottie awoke on Monday to the sound of leaves blowing off the trees. She twisted in the bed and squinted out through the slit in the curtains, which refused to close in the middle. Her mother had told her she needed to buy size 90x90 curtains, but they weren’t on special offer so Lottie had plumped for the 65x90. As usual, her mother had been right.

The narrow slit acted as her alarm clock. An orange glow lit up the backdrop to the trees at the end of the garden. Two wood pigeons nestled on a branch and Lottie shot upright. Had they followed her from her old house? The new place was in a quiet, secluded area. It had a low-maintenance garden and the trees on the lane behind it made it feel like home. It was home now, Lottie thought, though for how long, she had no idea, because she was still waiting for the insurance payout following the fire.

She listened to see if Louis was awake. No sound. Katie had had a short relationship with Louis’ dad, Jason Rickard, before he’d been murdered, and Jason’s father, a local developer now living in New York, had provided them with the house at a minimum rent. Lottie had wanted nothing to do with Tom Rickard, but as Rose was apt to say, beggars can’t be choosers.

Once Lottie had showered and dressed in her usual outfit of jeans and long-sleeved white T-shirt, she pulled on a pair of flat black leather boots, At five foot eight, she didn’t need the addition of heels. She headed down the stairs to the kitchen, where she pulled up the blinds and filled the kettle. Chloe had bought a coffee machine with money she’d made from her part-time job, but Lottie didn’t have the patience to follow the instructions. As she took out a mug and fetched the milk from the refrigerator, she was almost afraid to admit that for the first time in a very long time, she actually felt almost happy.

But she didn’t want to jinx her happiness by over-thinking. She made her coffee and sat at the table debating with herself on the need to have a proper breakfast. She opened a box of cereal bars and munched one in the silence, admiring the kitchen’s stark white walls. This place was such a contrast to the well-worn house she had lived in with Adam. She didn’t think of him as often as she used to. His memories were housed in the ash of their old home. But she kept him locked tightly in her heart, and that alone kept others out. Except Boyd. At last she was beginning to let him in, just a little bit. And it filled her with a warm feeling. Or maybe that was just the coffee.

She drained her mug, grabbed her jacket and keys, and went to see why Sean and Chloe were not yet up and ready for school. Some things would never change.

Leo Belfield had arrived at the Joyce Hotel early that morning, and now he sat on one of the single beds and stared at her. His sister. His twin sister. After so many years of searching within himself for the reasons why he felt only half a man, now he knew why.

He was a captain in the New York Police Department, and his blood flowed with curiosity. It had taken a multitude of emails and a slew of corrupt officials to get his sister released into his care. He had made it his mission, especially after the woman he believed to be his half-sister, Lottie Parker, had refused to answer any of his questions. But at least she had sent him in the right direction. The Central Mental Hospital.

A slight smile curled at the corner of Bernie Kelly’s cracked lips.

‘Well, brother dear.’ Her voice had the rasp of someone who had not spoken for a long time. ‘You succeeded.’

Leo wasn’t at all sure that he would describe what he had done as a success. It had been hard work, but in the end, he had secured a day of freedom for his sister. He hoped that would be long enough to find out the truth.

As she pulled herself upright, he noticed the thinness of her legs encased in jeans a couple of sizes too big; the strip of flesh sagging at her chin; and her eyes … the way she looked at him. The stare was cold and bitter. But it wasn’t his fault she had endured such deprivation while he had lived a happy life in New York. She had been committed to the mental facility following a series of murders. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that she’d actually committed the horrors he’d read about. But now he had the opportunity to find out the truth.

‘How did I succeed?’ he said.

‘Getting me out of that hellhole. I swear to God, I thought I was going to rot away in there.’

‘Bernie, you realise you are only out on day release, don’t you?’

She laughed then. Long and harsh. And he, a cop of twenty-five years, having served in the toughest districts the NYPD could throw at him, felt a shiver crease his chest in two.

‘That’s what you told them. But I know you’re not going to let me go back inside. I can tell you the family secrets, but only if you guarantee I will never have to live behind bars again.’

She lay back on the bed and drummed a long finger against her temple. And Leo Belfield wondered just what the hell he had done.