The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

57

September 2018

Kim and Sophie are sent away before the body bag is brought from the house. Noah has cried himself into a stupefied sleep and is snoring gently in the back seat as they turn onto the main road back to the village.

Kim’s hands grip the steering wheel hard, her knuckles like nubs of ivory through her skin. ‘Those people,’ she says. ‘That woman. That girl. I knew. I knew when I was there. They were bad people. I could feel it in my gut. You know? That house, it had badness in it. Even on that perfect summer’s day. And there they were! In the swimming pool! Laughing! Drinking beer! It sickens me. But why? Why, for God’s sake? And then to carry on living there for weeks afterwards. With that … down there …’ Kim starts to cry again.

‘Shall we pull over?’ Sophie suggests softly. ‘Just for a minute.’

Kim nods and signals and tucks the car into the kerb. She flops her head on to the steering wheel and cries for a short while. After a minute or two she pulls herself together and moves the car back into the traffic and back towards the village.

At Kim’s house, Sophie messages Shaun.

They found a body. A male. And Tallulah’s mobile phone. I’m waiting with Kim until there’s news. I’ll stay in touch.

Shaun replies simply with OK and a kiss.

Kim sits in the kitchen with Noah and gives him something to eat while Sophie sits in the living room, looking around her at the photos in frames on shelves and on the walls, all of which show a family that was once unexceptional, in every way other than in their happiness. Tallulah is a pretty girl, but looks like the sort of girl who likes to blend into the background, who doesn’t like compliments or fuss, the sort of girl who likes routine and normality and simple food, who doesn’t experiment with clothes or make-up in case she gets it wrong. Yet somehow she found herself embroiled in a Bohemian, self-centred family like the Jacqueses. How did it happen? When did it happen? And why did it end the way it appears to have ended?

She checks her phone for messages, for updates. She goes to the link for Mimi’s YouTube video again to see if she’s uploaded anything new. But the video is gone. The whole account is gone. Mimi has been made to disappear by Scarlett Jacques, still somehow wielding her inexplicable power from a boat in the middle of an ocean.