The Silence Read Online Free Page B

Always supposing we can reach her.’
    ‘Nor do I,’ said Michael, frowning. ‘But she was going to stay at the house – Stilter House – I do know that.’
    ‘Is the call genuine? I mean – is Emily West genuine?’
    ‘I think so. She’s the elder sister or cousin of the aunt who set this up. That was Margery West.’
    ‘Emily sounds perfectly lucid and intelligent, doesn’t she?’
    ‘Well, yes. That last part though – she sounded as if she said all that on an impulse. As if she’d written out what to say, then gave in to some impulse.’
    ‘That’s what I thought.’
    ‘Is there a time on the call?’
    ‘Yes, wait a minute – eleven o’clock this morning,’ said Henry, having peered at the machine’s display screen. ‘Are you going to ring her back?’
    ‘I think I’d better try. She said she was going away, but I’ll phone her. What time is it – quarter past nine? That’s not too late, is it?’
    ‘Try anyway.’
    But when Michael rang the number Emily West had given, there was no reply.
    ‘Then she’s gone to her health farm,’ said Henry.
    ‘I’ll try again in the morning,’ said Michael. ‘And I’ll try Nell again later, but I don’t want to alarm her. I’m sure it’s nothing.’
    ‘The letter Emily mentioned might turn up tomorrow, as well,’ said Henry. ‘Nell did tell me to open anything addressed to the shop – particularly anything that looked urgent or important. I’ll phone you if it does arrive.’
    ‘It might give a bit more information,’ said Michael.
    ‘Do let me know if it’s anything dramatic, won’t you,’ said Henry hopefully. ‘I love a bit of drama, and you don’t get much drama flogging silver and engraving charm bracelets and watches. Well, it depends on what people want engraving. You wouldn’t believe what some of them ask for and half the time they can’t spell it anyway.’
    Michael stayed long enough to hear some of the more scurrilous tales about Henry’s customers, then went back to Oriel where he tried Nell’s mobile again but still with no success.
    He ate a belated meal in his rooms, and tried to work on Wilberforce again, but Emily West’s phone call kept intruding, and he was aware of an uneasy prickling at the back of his mind.
    It was, of course, some fantasy imagining of an elderly lady; Michael thought he would not pay too much attention to it. Or would he? Emily West’s words ran through his mind yet again.
Esmond never left Stilter House,
she had said. The prickle of unease increased, and Michael thought if he had not made contact with Nell by this time tomorrow, he might try to track down Margery West.
    It was all nonsense, of course, and he was overreacting. Nell would phone tomorrow, and in any case she would be home on Wednesday evening, and they would have supper together. Michael would cook for them as he always did when Nell had been away on a buying expedition, and she would relate all her exploits as they ate, which was also a small tradition. This time he would try not to have a culinary disaster, although it was remarkable how easily things got burned in his cooker, or did not cook at all.
    But the words on the answerphone kept replaying.
Esmond never left Stilter House . . .
And,
Beth is so very like Brad was at that age . . .
    Esmond . . . The unease at the back of his mind stirred again.
    Nell and Beth had scrambled eggs for their supper, after which Beth seemed happy to go up to bed. She had picked out one of the children’s books, and Nell had found a box of old-fashioned night lights in a cupboard which would be quite safe for Beth to read by. She tucked her in, left her absorbed in the long-ago world of plucky schoolgirls to whom rap and boy bands and text-speak would be a foreign language, and thought she would take a look at the rest of the children’s books while she was up here. It was already almost dark, but if she lit a couple more candles she would be able to read titles and authors.
    The small