Back to the 80s novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Under the Chandelier

"Stay with Posy," I said.

Russell was already pulling on his boots.

"I'm coming."

"If she wakes up and nobody's here, she'll think everyone left."

He stopped with one boot half on.

"Where do you think he went?"

"To the only person who told him something about me he wanted to hear."

I took the car keys from the hook.

He caught my wrist.

"Lorna. If you're not back in an hour, I call the police and I come."

"Deal."

He kissed me hard once, fast and ugly with fear, and let me go.

I drove to Round Hill Road with the windows down and the radio off.

The Ellacombe house was lit up.

Every window glowed, and the driveway was packed with cars.

A dinner party.

I should have known.

My father would throw a dinner on the night he called a note, and invite everyone who might ask about it.

I parked across the front walk and went in without knocking.

A maid in a gray uniform started toward me, and I walked past her.

The dining room had twenty people at a table under the big crystal chandelier, eating veal.

Bank directors and their wives.

The head of the club.

At the foot of the table, in the same pale blue dress, sat Vivian, with a wineglass in one hand.

"And of course," she was saying to the table, with a lovely sad little laugh, "Russell Dunleavy was never for sale, exactly."

"But a man in his position, with that yard? You can't blame the poor dear."

"He was bought, and Lorna was the bonus."

A few people tittered.

Margaret saw me in the doorway and lost her smile.

"I'd like my stepson back," I said.

Twenty heads turned.

"I beg your pardon?" said my father.

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