But… Ayesha—what’s going on there? Tucking into her breakfast. Not arguing about the radio. She seemed—lifeless, uncertain… Something more than a bad night… And whenever I mention Mrs K! She’s bitter, really bitter. Happy to see the end of Mrs K. Ayesha should take a more balanced view. It wasn’t personal, it was just some of those old people… They’re used to… They don’t mean… Of course, I wouldn’t like it if it was me… But Ayesha… She must feel… She must feel…
Mary came to a sudden stop. Oh. No, no. I mean, I know Ayesha’s angry, but… She wouldn’t, she wouldn’t… She was there last night… It could’ve been her. She could have done it.
Mary shook her head and walked on slowly. Ayesha’s not like that. She’s a caring person, a professional, she’s been working as long as me… But if she felt hurt? She does feel hurt, after that sort of thing, I know that, I’ve seen that… If she felt hurt, she could hit back, couldn’t she? Did she…
I’ll have to tell the police. But I don’t know anything, it’s for them to identify suspects and all that. It could have been anyone last night, anyone. I’ll say nothing, it’s not my business, I don’t know anything. But I share an office with her! I’ll have to see her again and again, maybe for months… I can’t sit next to some bloody Harold Shipman type, I just couldn’t… And I couldn’t let one stay in the hospice. So I’ll have to talk to the police, it would be confidential, no one would know—but if Ayesha found out!
Mary followed the road round another curve and then stopped. There was another marooned car, on the other side of the road, stuck on a little dry island with water gushing all around it. Somehow, it looked familiar. There was someone in it—there were two people in it.
‘Are you okay?’ called Mary.
The passenger door opened and, to Mary’s surprise, Miranda stepped out. She looked grey and tired: she must have slept in the car overnight. For a moment, she stared over Mary’s head at the trees behind her and then she turned to look at her.
‘Hi, Mary,’ she said cautiously.
‘What happened?’ asked Mary. ‘Were you caught by the floods? But I saw you yesterday afternoon, the rain wasn’t so bad then and all the roads were still clear…’ Then she remembered. ‘Do you know? Do you know what’s happened to your mother?’