The Grace Girls (57 page)

Just looking at him now brought that strange new feeling back into her stomach, the feeling that made her want
to get even closer to him. But Kirsty knew she wouldn’t. Not yet.

They had a long way to go before anything more serious happened. They had months of kisses and cuddles and hand-holding to do before it reached the next stage. As she looked at the bright sunshine peeping around the wine and blue curtains, she thought how it had been the most unexpected and beautiful night. How they had come to be stranded in this hotel together, and how the snow had given them this wonderful opportunity to sort things out, to sort out the feelings they had both been hiding. She was still wearing Larry’s big soft shirt and he was still in his rumpled white shirt and suit trousers. Thank goodness he had plenty of other suits, she thought, because the ones he was wearing would have to go into the dry-cleaners to achieve the sharp pressed look that all his clothes had.

Larry suddenly stirred, and after a while his eyes opened. He stared at her for a few moments and then he drew her close to him again and kissed her on the lips. ‘Thank God it wasn’t all a dream,’ he told her. Then he just held on to her tightly – breathing in her warm feminine smell and delighting in the feeling of her small neat body tucked closely into his.

They both appeared in the dining-room at nine o’clock, dressed in casual jeans and jumpers. Neither had great appetites for the full Scottish breakfast that was put down in front of them, so they only picked at the sausages, bacon, black pudding and eggs on their plates. They took in very little of the hotel surroundings or the other guests. All that mattered was that they were together at this moment, and the plans they would have for the future.

When they wandered out to the car park to check how bad the weather situation was, they were both amazed to see that the strong winter sunshine had already started a quick thaw, and the car looked as though it could be moving fairly soon.

Chapter 56

‘
Have ye heard?’ Mona came bustling in through the front door, hardly giving Fintan a chance to open it properly. Having been up and about for hours, the downstairs windows wide open for fresh air and to let the breakfast smells out, she was now ready to relax into a Saturday-morning chat with her neighbours and relatives. ‘Have ye all heard about the murders? It’s just been on the ten o’clock news again.’

‘No,’ Fintan said, following his brother’s wife down the hallway towards the kitchen, as if it was her house rather than his. ‘We haven’t heard anything this morning. You don’t mean the girl that was murdered in the golf course in East Kilbride?’

‘No, no,’ Mona said emphatically. ‘This is much closer to home – the family are from Uddingston. Seemingly they lived in a lovely bungalow as well.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Sophie asked, coming to meet them at the kitchen door, clutching the front of her dressing-gown. As always, she was conscious at being caught out in her nightwear by the gimlet-eyed Mona, who she knew would have done half a day’s work so far. ‘Is Lily all right? Have you any more news on her?’

‘Bright as a button last night,’ Mona said, ‘and hopefu
lly due out next week.’

‘We were going to take a run in to visit her tonight, if there’s not too many others going.’

Mona folded her arms high up on her chest, for once more interested in talking about another subject than her daughter. ‘I came around to see if any one of ye might know that family that was murdered in Uddingston.’

‘A family murdered?’ Sophie repeated, clasping at her th
roat. ‘Mother of God! It’s only a couple of days since they
found that young girl’s body near Glasgow.’

‘Well, there’s more, and it might even be the same kille
r,’ Mona said dramatically. ‘This time he used a gun.’ She pointed to the middle of her forehead. ‘Shot all three of them stone dead through the head. They went by the name of Smart, according to the news – the man in the house was a Peter Smart.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘Did not one of youse hear it on the news? It was on at nine o’clock then again at ten.’

Sophie’s hand flew to cover her mouth. ‘Oh, dear God . . . I never thought to listen to the news yet. I had a music programme on – it’s nice and relaxing in the morning.’

Mona gave a sigh of exasperation. ‘You should keep yerself more up to date on things, Sophie,’ she chided. ‘There’s more important things going on in the world than music and books, you know. Especially when you think of young girls being murdered and raped and whole families bein’ shot dead only miles from us.’

‘You’re right,’ Sophie said, looking as contrite as an errant schoolgirl. ‘I must make myself listen to the news and read the papers more often.’

Mona stared at her sister-in-law for a moment, always amazed that Sophie could admit to her faults so easily – and yet do nothing most of the time to change them. Mona certainly wouldn’t feel so comfortable owning up to faults, but she supposed that in her own way, she tried hard not to have any.

‘I wonder how long that’ll last for!’ Fintan joked. ‘The only paper she likes is the
Sunday Post
because it has all the nice wee stories in it.’

Mona threw a look of despair in Fintan’s direction, w
ondering how he put up with such a vague, disorgan
ised wife. Pat Grace wouldn’t stand for it, that’s for sure. He was a man who appreciated the ship-shape way things were run, where meals were ready on the dot and things
were cleared and washed up the minute they were finished.

Mona glanced around the busy, cluttered kitchen now. ‘I suppose Kirsty’s gone off to work?’

‘Not this morning,’ Sophie said. ‘It’s her Saturday off . . .
and anyway she stayed the night at the hotel she was si
nging in up in the Clyde Valley. Seemingly, they got a ve
ry bad fall of snow out there last night, and the roads weren’t safe to travel on.’

‘It’s amazing that the weather can be so bad only an hour away,’ Fintan said. ‘We only had a light fall of snow last night, and you’d hardly know it this morning. There’s only the odd wee bit at the side of the roads.’

Mona looked from Sophie to Fintan, her mouth gaping open. ‘You say Kirsty stayed the night in a
hotel?
’ she repeated.

Sophie nodded, suddenly beginning to feel uncomfortable. ‘Oul’ John the postman came to let us know just after nine o’clock. Kirsty phoned the post office to ask them to tell us she was safe. She didn’t want us finding her bed empty this morning,’ she explained. ‘But I probably wouldn’t have looked in anyway, because I always leave her and Heather sleeping in on a Saturday if they’re not working.’

Fintan looked up at the round wooden clock on the wall that had come as a wedding present from Ireland over twenty years ago. ‘She said that the roads were a lot clearer this morning and they’d be setting off as soon as the smaller roads had been
gritted.’

Mona’s head moved from side to side in thought. ‘I’d be wary letting a young girl go off on her own for the night,’ she said, ‘now there’s murderers and rapists on the loose. Who else was with her?’

Sophie glanced at Fintan. ‘I suppose that Larry fellow was still there, he picked her up as usual . . . and then there would be the band.’

‘All men?’ Mona asked, her voice high.

‘All working men,’ Fintan said. ‘Men that would look after Kirsty, the same way the local band looked after her when she was out with them.’ He went over to the back door now and lifted a galvanised bucket and a small shovel, and then headed into the living-room to attend to his morning task of emptying the cold ashes from the grate, and then relighting the fire with paper and thin wooden sticks and any hot cinders that were left.

‘Will you have a cup of tea?’ Sophie asked, holding the teapot up. ‘I just made a fresh one for Heather. She’s just getting washed, she’ll be down in a minute.’

‘Go on,’ Mona said, pulling one of the chairs out from the table. ‘I might as well. The lads have all had their breakfast, and there’s only our Patrick left. He can sort himself out.’ She smoothed down the skirt of her apron. ‘We’re all going to have to be more vigilant now, with a madman on the loose. God knows when or where he could strike next.’ Mona tutted several times to herself, a tortured look on her face. ‘Ye’ll have to keep a close eye on them girls now. You wouldn’t want them to be travelling around too late at night, or walkin’ home in the dark or anythin’ risky like that.’

‘Oh, we’ll be keepin’ an even closer eye on them,’ Sophie assured her. ‘Who would believe that we’d ever have to worry about murderers near Rowanhill?’

Heather came down the stairs now and into the k
itchen. ‘Who’s been murdered?’ she asked, her eyes moving from her mother to her aunt. She was grateful that Mon
a wasn’t still going on about Gerry’s funeral or making sly digs about Liz being in hospital. Although she’d had a good night’s sleep, she still felt very fragile over the whole thing.

‘Did I hear somebody saying there’s been another murder?’

‘A whole family!’ Mona stated, delighted to have someone who was as interested in the shocking story as herself. She would have preferred Kirsty to chat it out with, but since she wasn’t available, Heather would just have to do. And at least she would have a better grip on what was happening in the world than the feather-headed Sophie.

Chapter 57

When they heard Larry’s car pulling up at the gate, Sophie an
d Fintan had gone rushing to the door to make sure it was Kirsty home safe and well. The talk of the nearby murders had circulated all around the village, and was now the main thing on people’s minds. Larry had come out of the car to assure them that Kirsty had been well looked after by the hotel and that no harm had come to her.

‘The weather is something you’ll have to take into accou
nt from now on,’ Fintan said, his face dark with worry. ‘And if you’d set off and got stuck in one of those back roads you could have been frozen to death by the morning.’

‘That’s exactly why we didn’t set off,’ Larry agreed. He then reiterated Kirsty’s point about the staff having to stay the night as well, and how it was a case of being sensible and practical about the situation.

‘It’s different for a man being out all night,’ Fintan continued, ‘but anything could happen to a young girl in these hotels. You don’t know who could be watching what room she went into, especially now we have that madman on the loose.’ He shook his head. ‘We’ll have to think carefully about the singing until he’s caught, or until the long dark winter nights are over.’

Kirsty’s stomach clenched at the thought of their nights out together coming to a halt. She bit her lip, terrified of saying something that might antagonise her father any further. Most of the time Fintan was fairly placid, but she knew he was more than capable of putting his foot down if he thought it was necessary.

‘We’ll certainly be very careful about the bookings after this episode,’ Larry agreed in a low, serious voice. ‘And I’ll warn the more remote places that we’ll be cancelling if there’s any threat of severe weather.’

‘Fair enough,’ Fintan said, brightening up now, ‘fair enough.’

‘Will you come in for a cup of tea or a bowl of home-made hot soup or something?’ Sophie offered. ‘You’ll need something to warm you up.’

Larry paused. Then, without looking at Kirsty, he said, ‘A bowl of soup would be lovely, Mrs Grace, and it might just give me the chance to tell you both how well your daughter is doing.’

Kirsty caught her breath. This was the first time Larry had got involved with her family. He had just had a few polite words with them before, letting them know where Kirsty was going and assuring them she would be seen home safely. But coming in for a plate of her mother’s soup was a different matter, and Kirsty wondered if they would be in any way suspicious.

There had only been the four of them around the kitchen table, and as they all sat enjoying the soup and bread, Fintan asked Larry about what part of Dublin he was from and all the things that people from the same country who live in another country ask. Then, they moved on to chat more generally about the weather and the murders and the terrible tragedy that had happened to Gerry Stewart.

Kirsty had been terrified to look Larry too closely in the eye, in case they gave anything away, but any time she did look across the table at him, she was amazed at how easy and relaxed he was with her parents. She wondered just how they would react if they knew how their business relationship had suddenly changed into something much more. She wasn’t too worried about her mother, but she had a feeling that her father wouldn’t take to it too well – especially if his attitude towards her staying in the hotel was anything to go by.

When the meal was finished they sat for a few more minutes and then Larry got to his feet.

‘That lovely soup was just perfect for a cold winter’s day,’ he said to Sophie, bringing a pink tinge of delight to her cheeks. Then he shook hands with Fintan and said he must head home and get things sorted out for the evening, as he had a new band playing in Glasgow and he wanted to take a run out for a couple of hours to see how they got on.

‘As long as you don’t hit snow again this evening!’ Sophie laughed. ‘You wouldn’t want to be stranded two nights in a row, and definitely not out in Glasgow.’