TOYL

was taken when I was in London.’
    ‘Near my flat,’ Lizzy added.
    ‘Then I guess he did,’ said Peter. ‘As I said, he went missing for days at a time, so he could have gone anywhere and we’d have been none the wiser. I’m sorry you had to see his room, with those photos. I wanted to take all those things down, after, you know, but Margaret wouldn’t hear of it. The place is like a shrine, and I haven’t been in that room for years. I just can’t stand it. It’s like that with the whole house now. That’s why I had to get out.’
    ‘What will happen to Margaret? Will she be okay?’
    He shrugged. ‘I hope so.’

    ***

    ‘He didn’t ask why we were looking for Stephen,’ said Lizzy, as they began their drive back down to London.
    ‘ I’m glad,’ Emma admitted. ‘I felt bad enough without him thinking that I suspected Stephen of attacking Richard.’
    ‘But it was a perfectly reasonable assumption.’
    ‘I jumped to conclusions.’
    ‘Anyone would have thought the same, especially after what Mrs Henderson said, with the number one fan thing.’
    ‘He’s been dead for four years, Lizzy. Lying in the ground – all that time when I thought I saw him in the street. I’ve been accusing him of things all this time.’
    ‘You don’t blame yourself, do you?’
    ‘No, not really. Oh, I don’t know, I guess I do feel partly responsible. I can’t help thinking that if I’d handled it differently, then maybe…’
    ‘Don’t,’ Lizzy chastised. ‘There was nothing you could have done. His father said it himself – they were his family and couldn’t do anything to help him. So you wouldn’t have been able to change anything.’
    ‘Maybe,’ Emma conceded.
    ‘You’re too hard on yourself, Emma. Bad things happen, and sometimes you can’t do anything about it.’
    ‘Bad things like what’s happening with Dan and Richard?’
    ‘It might all work out, Em.’
    The journey home was torturous – there had been an accident on the M6 Southbound, closing two lanes. The traffic had tailed back for twenty miles at one point and it took seven hours to get back to London. Emma stopped by her apartment, partly to pick up any phone messages but also in the vain hope that Dan might be there, all apologetic. But the apartment was dark, cold and empty.
    There was only one message on the machine.

    Hi, it’s Marie from Perfect Brides. I’m just calling to confirm the message your boyfriend left on our answer phone last night, about cancelling the wedding dress. If you can give me a call back as soon as possible, that would be great.

24

    Emma took an early-morning tube south of the river, alone. Lizzy had wanted to come with her, but she had to attend rehearsals, and no matter how much she joked about being indispensable there would be limits to the director’s patience.
    The sunshine had returned, and the day was already warming up nicely – it couldn’t have been more different to the weather they had experienced up North.
    She reached the Perfect Brides shop, and paused for a moment outside the decorative window, filled with mannequins sporting expensive dresses and large photographs of happy couples posing in typical English gardens. Her heart sank as she surveyed the shop front, thinking back to all the times she had visited previously, full of hopes and dreams. Emma took a deep breath and entered the shop.
    ‘Hi,’ she said, heading for the familiar face of Marie.
    ‘ Hi, Emma,’ Marie said. ‘I’m sorry about all this.’
    Marie had worked in Perfect Brides for six years now, and was quite an expert in dealing with distraught women coming to terms with an aborted marriage. When she had first started in the shop, she had no idea how much of a counselling role she would have to play. She’d learnt from experience that it was important to curb the sympathy, for risk of upsetting the person too much. And nobody wanted a breakdown scenario.
    ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Marie said. ‘Or we have coffee?’
    ‘I’m okay.’ Emma felt emotionally smothered by the wedding paraphernalia that met her at every turn. ‘I’d just like to listen to the message and leave, to be honest. I can sort out anything else by phone, can’t I?’
    ‘Of course,’ Marie said.
    Usually things happened in the way it had done with Emma, with the potential groom backing out; the unusual part of this case was that the potential groom himself had called them to tell them the news.
    ‘It’s in the