‘Fucking hell, Rosa, you scared the shit out of me.’
‘And you, me. What an earth are you doing here at this time of night? You’re shivering, Nate. What’s going on?’
‘I got thrown out of my place.’
‘I thought you were staying with a mate.’
‘Yeah, umm…well, she was kind of more than a mate and she caught me with Mad Donna from the bookmakers so she’s an ex-whatever she was now.’
‘Oh, Nate!’
‘And I thought if I hooked up with her – Mad Donna, that is – then she might understand and give me a little loan for my gambling debt, but she didn’t, so here I am. Cold and bloody skint. And, as I had the café keys, it kind of made sense to come here.’
More lies, Rosa noted. He had clearly said that he was staying with a friend and not a lover before. She also noticed the rolled-up sleeping bag on the floor and the headphones draped around his neck that were belting out that tinny noise they make when they are not in someone’s ears.
‘What’s that you are listening to?’
Nate put one of the headphone buds to Rosa’s ear. ‘James Arthur. I bloody love this track. It’s sic. I’ve been playing it non-stop since its release.’
A shiver went through Rosa, and it wasn’t just because she was cold. ‘So, when did you move out of the pub then?’
‘You know when – I told you. There are rumours circling that old Ma Hannafore jumped, aren’t there, down those steep old steps?’
‘Nate, you should have learned by now not to pay any attention to gossip.’ Rosa’s loyalty to Sheila surprised her, or maybe it was Luke she was protecting. ‘So, where are you going to sleep tonight?’
‘If you don’t mind, I was hoping I could stay here. I wasn’t going to take the piss out of you and Sara and put the heating on or anything. And look at the bonus: I’ll be here to open up first thing for you.’ Nate smiled that familiar smile.
‘Nate, this may sound weird, but would I have met you somewhere before?’
‘I can’t see how. I’ve only stepped over the Devon border a couple of times.’
‘You managed to escape the Devonian accent then?’ Rosa queried.
‘Er, yeah. My old man, he sent me to public school. They beat it out of me.’
Rosa’s compassion took over her common sense. ‘Look, Nate, I would say come and stay at mine, but Josh is on his way home, as I’ve got to go to the police station tomorrow, and it would take too much explaining.’
‘I’m fine here, but what’s this about the police? What have you done, you naughty girl?’
‘They don’t think it was an accident, the whole Sheila thing.’
‘Shut the fuck up!’ Nate exclaimed. ‘What do they think then?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it. I have to say it does look a bit suspicious that I was the one who found her.’
‘Rosa, go on, tell me more. Tell me everything.’
Rosa suddenly had a feeling of nausea go through her and went running to the toilet. She only just got there in time and came out white as a sheet.
‘Jesus, I thought it was called morning sickness,’ she said weakly, ‘not any-time-of-the-bloody-day-or-night sickness.’
Nate came forward to hug her awkwardly. ‘You’re pregnant! That’s so amazing, Rosa. Hey – I’m so made up for you. And you can’t be getting stressed now with a little baby on board.’
‘Please don’t say a word, will you, Nate? I want to tell everyone close to me before my news does the rounds of the Cockleberry Bay gossips.’
‘Mum’s the word, so to speak.’ Nate put a finger to his lips. ‘Seriously though, about this police thing – have you got a brief? You can tell them No Comment, you know.’ He sighed. ‘You’ve done a lot for me, Rosa, and I’d hate it if you got into any trouble.’
‘And you’ve got far too much experience in all this by the sound of you.’ Rosa shook her curls at him and headed out to the big storeroom at the back. ‘Here.’ She brought through an old Lilo that needed blowing up and a beach towel from one of the cupboards. ‘Make yourself as comfortable as you can, put the heating on, help yourself to food and I’ll tell Sara to have a lie-in and come down at eight tomorrow so you can open up.’
Nate nodded. ‘You can trust me, I promise.’
‘And if I’m not locked up in a police cell tomorrow night, we need to get you sorted out with somewhere to live.’
Rosa put her phone torch on and headed out into the dank November night. With a fake smile, Nate waved to her – then, looking across to the black silhouette of the Ship Inn, he slammed the table with his fist.
CHAPTER 31
Mary enjoyed her daily morning ritual of putting the radio on to listen to the local news. Sitting down at the kitchen table with a large mug of milky coffee and two pieces of wholemeal toast – lightly done, with a thick layer of real butter and chunky marmalade – she let out a comfortable sigh, despite her chest feeling tighter than usual. Sensing that fireworks night was almost upon them, even Merlin was happy just to be at home, and was purring loudly in Queenie’s old chair by the crackling open fire.
Their peace was broken by a call from Rosa. ‘Mother, it’s me. I thought I’d better let you know in case anyone else does that I’ll be going to the police station later today. They want to interview me about Sheila.’
‘Oh, OK duck. Be honest, won’t you? About everything.’
‘Yes, of course. Josh is flying back to Bristol so he can come with me too. He should have landed by now.’
A feeling of dread rushed through Mary, causing her to shiver. ‘He’s coming back? Before the fireworks? What’s going on, Rosa? This doesn’t sound right to me. You can tell me anything, you know that.’
‘It’s fine, Mum. Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll pop in and see you later.’ Rosa paused. ‘Saying that, I haven’t heard from Josh yet. I can’t believe he didn’t even let me know which flight he was on. I just trusted him when he said he’d be able to get here on time.’
When she’d said goodbye, Mary reached for the inhaler in her apron pocket. Her chest was as tight as a drum by now and she couldn’t seem to get the air into her lungs. She tried to force the vision of what she had seen the other day out of her head, but it was stuck there: the snow, a plane skidding across the runway. Josh.
Wheezing heavily, she turned to Merlin. ‘I told her to tell him to come back after the fireworks.’ The kitchen light flicked on and off. A spark shot out of the fire onto the black stone hearth.
The South Cliffs News reporter carried on doing his job. ‘We’ve just had some breaking news in from the east coast of America.’ Mary stopped mid-mouthful. ‘Due to the extreme weather conditions at JFK airport in New York…’ Holding her piece of toast static in the air then noisily coughing, she managed to say, ‘No, no, this can’t be happening – not to our Josh.’ She repeated, ‘I told her – I warned her…’ Then, coughing uncontrollably, she started gasping for breath.