“It tastes delicious,” Mitchell told Sheila.
“But it’s July—”
“Oh, Mum,” Naomi interrupted. “We’re all here, and we’re all eating together. It’s not easy for me to leave the kids behind and get out of the house.” She pulled out a chair and sat down with a thump. Her hair was messy and she had a smudge of green paint on her cheek.
Liza eyed her with concern. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?” Naomi replied sharply.
“We’re not all together. Yvette isn’t here,” Sheila said. “I had no idea what had been going on, about her showing up on the bridge and then falling into the river like that. You’ve kept me in the dark.”
“It was with the best intentions, Mum. You know how you get all worried and panicky,” Liza said firmly. “Only eight days ago, we’d reached a dead end looking for Yvette. We now have a sighting and a couple of names as clues. It’s a big leap forward, and it’s a relief Mitchell was there to come to her rescue.”
“I bet there’s a lot more I still don’t know about this,” Sheila said.
Naomi glanced at her and toyed with her fork.
“Let’s enjoy our food, then talk properly. It’s great we’re all here,” Liza said with exaggerated cheeriness.
While the four of them chatted about the heat wave, Liza spooned the chili out of a big bowl sitting in the center of the table.
Sheila made a show of looking around her. “No rice?” she asked.
“Just bread,” Liza said.
“It looks delicious.” Naomi attempted a smile. “A nice change. I swear I eat so many spaghetti hoops my skin is turning orange.”
Sheila side-glanced at her. “You should feed those children properly. I managed it, even when I was working. It’s all junk food these days.”
Naomi’s lips pinched. She stared at her plate.
There was silence until Sheila started up again. “Why on earth would Yvette use Jean’s lyrics on a padlock anyway?” she asked. “It’s not even a good song.”
“It’s a lovely song,” Naomi replied. “Perhaps there’s no meaning in her use of it. She might just like the words.”
Mitchell noticed how Liza didn’t tell her mother that Yvette had visited Jean before her disappearance. He wasn’t sure if she was protecting Jean from her mum’s wrath, or trying to prevent Sheila from having another panic attack.
“Is there anything else anyone wants to tell me?” Sheila asked.
Naomi dropped her fork onto her plate. Her hand shook as she picked it back up.
Sheila studied her. “What is it?” she demanded.
“Well, we know that Yvette had a boyfriend,” Liza said slowly.
“I didn’t know that.” Sheila frowned. “Did you know, Naomi?”
Liza turned to her sister.
Naomi looked down at her coffee cup and hesitantly shrugged. “A couple of months before Yvette vanished, I bumped into her in a café. When she waved at me, she knocked over the salt pot and this man she was with shot her a look, as if she was useless. She introduced him to me as Victor, someone she knew through work. There was something in the way he looked at her that was really intense, as if he owned her. I never saw him again after that, and Yvette never spoke about him. I didn’t think to mention him to the police.”
Liza studied her. “Is there anything else...?”
“Um, no.”
“Are you sure?”
Naomi rubbed her chin. “Um, I don’t know if...”
“If you know something, just say it,” Sheila cut in. “Stop dillydallying.”
Naomi shrank back. “I remember Yvette said Victor’s surname was Sonetti. So last night, after I got off the phone to Liza, I looked him up online. It took a bit of searching around, but I found an article about him...”
“What was it?” Sheila asked.
Naomi took a deep breath. “Victor was sent to prison for embezzlement. He stole funds from the company he worked for. It was discovered just before Yvette vanished and, after a court case, he got sent down for six months.”
“To prison?” Sheila gulped.
Naomi nodded.
Mitchell remembered Jean’s words, about Victor’s photograph having a bad aura. He was relieved his imprisonment wasn’t for anything violent, but wondered why Jean was so worried about him.
Liza sat back in her chair. “Well, that’s good. If he’s been locked up, Yvette can’t have been with him during that period of time.”
Naomi frowned, seeming to wrestle with her thoughts. “I believe Yvette was the one who discovered he was skimming off the funds.”
Liza narrowed her eyes. “How on earth do you know that...?”
Naomi looked quickly away. “Um, I believe Victor was released two weeks ago,” she mumbled.
“You didn’t answer my question—”
Sheila let out a gasp and her cup fell, splashing coffee on the table and Mitchell’s shirt. She clutched at her neck. “What if he finds Yvette?”
Liza rushed to get a cloth. Naomi dabbed her mother’s place mat with a napkin and Mitchell patted his chest dry.
“Everything is probably okay,” Naomi said quickly, though her face suggested she thought otherwise. “As I said, I only saw Yvette and Victor together the once.”
“What if Yvette was trying to escape someone on the bridge?” Sheila’s hands began to shake. “What if her fall wasn’t an accident? Someone might have pushed her.”
Mitchell remembered Yvette smiling at him and her trying to reach for something. “I’m sure that wasn’t the case,” he assured her. “I saw her fall, and she was alone.”
“But her lock...those song lyrics...and Victor out of prison, too,” Sheila stuttered.
“Please try to stay calm, Mum,” Liza pleaded.
However, Sheila clamped a hand to her chest. Her breathing quickened until she was gulping for air. “My heart,” she cried out.
Liza sprang up. “It’s okay, Mum. Are you having one of your attacks?”
Sheila nodded, her head lolling.
Mitchell rushed to the kitchen to fill a jug with more water.
“My heart is breaking... I can’t take this much longer,” Sheila’s words tumbled out.
“It’s okay, Mum. Close your eyes and take long deep breaths,” Liza said. “Remember what the doctor told you. Nice and gentle. Come on, you’ll be okay.”