‘Gosh,’ says the woman. ‘A grandmother! You look far too young to be a grandmother. Anyway. I’m Joss.’ She puts out a hand for Kim to shake and then says, ‘Come on, then. Let’s go and see what Scarlett has to say about all of this. Follow me.’
She leads them across the courtyard and through a tall wrought-iron gate set in an ancient brick wall grown over with ivy. The huge dog pads heavily behind them. The courtyard is smattered with tiny white stone figures set on Perspex plinths. They follow her down a flagstoned path lined with sculptural plants in cobalt-glazed pots and then turn a corner.
In front of them is the pool.
It’s set in a cream marble terrace with a curtained pagoda at one end housing a huge cream-cushioned day bed. At angles along its length are wooden steamers with matching cream cushions. Floating at the pool’s centre, inside a bright pink inflatableflamingo, is a tall, thin girl with lime-green hair and a black bandeau bikini top. She peers at Kim and her entourage curiously. Then she says, ‘Oh,’ as the penny drops.
‘Tallulah?’ says Joss, shielding her eyes from the sun shining off the pool’s surface with her hand. ‘Apparently, she was here last night. Any idea where she got to?’
Scarlett pushes herself to the pool’s edge by paddling her hands through the water; then she dismounts the flamingo and ascends the stone steps. She pulls a black towel around herself and sits down at a teak circular table covered with white candles in glass jars.
Kim sits opposite her. ‘I know’, she begins, ‘you said that you don’t know where they went. I know you said that Tallulah was sick and they got in a minicab. But the cab firms are all saying that they didn’t pick anyone up from here. I just wondered if there was anything else that happened last night that might explain where they are.’
Scarlett picks at the wax on the top of one of the candles and makes no eye contact with Kim. ‘Genuinely,’ she says, ‘honestly. That’s all I know.’
‘And did you see them getting into a car?’
‘No. I was out here, with Mimi. And Zach came and said Lula had been sick and he was going to take her home, that there was a taxi coming.’
‘He said that? That the taxi was coming? Or did he say he was going to call one?’
Scarlett shrugs. Kim watches crystal beads of pool water coalesce and collapse on her angular shoulders and run down her arms in rivulets. ‘I’m pretty sure he said one was coming.’
Kim can see Ryan hovering in her peripheral view. She pulls out a chair for him and he sits down, bringing Noah’s pushchair close to him. ‘So, is there a chance, do you think, that Zach tried to call a taxi and no one could send one so they ended up walking?’
‘Yeah?’ says Scarlett. ‘I guess?’
Kim turns to Scarlett’s brother, who is perched on the end of a steamer across the pool, with a bottle of beer hanging between his knees. ‘Were you here last night, at the party?’ she calls over to him.
He puts out a hand defensively and says, ‘No. Not me. I just got home this morning.’
Kim sighs. ‘And if they had walked, where might they have ended up?’
Scarlett shrugs again. ‘It depends, I suppose. On which way they went. If they went up the driveway they could have ended up on the main road, or Upley Fold if they turned the wrong way. If they went the back path, they would have ended up back in Upfield Common.’
‘The back path?’
‘Yes,’ she replies, waving her hand in a vague arc behind her. ‘There.’
Kim gazes over her shoulder. All she can see are lawns and flower beds and hedges and gravel pathways and pockmarked stone steps and sundials and arbours.
‘Where?’
‘Beyond,’ says Scarlett. ‘Behind. There’s a path there that goes through the woods and into the back end of Upfield Common. Near the Maypole. I used to walk that way to go to school sometimes when I was there.’
‘How far?’
Joss interjects. ‘A mile, just over. But I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially not with a baby. You really need to know where you’re going, otherwise you’ll get lost.’
‘Did Tallulah know about the back path?’
Scarlett shrugs. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘She’d never been here before so there’s no reason she should have known about it.’
‘And who else,’ Kim continues. ‘Who else was here last night?’
‘Just us three,’ says Scarlett, ‘and Mimi. Lexie Mulligan was here before they left. She lives at Maypole House. Her mum’s the matron there. You know, Kerryanne Mulligan?’
Kim nods. She knows Kerryanne well. Everyone in Upfield Common knows Kerryanne. She’s larger than life.