The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

Author:Megan Goldin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760143640
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

A policeman and a grief counsellor brought the suicide note to Cathy three days after Lucy’s death. They expected that she’d open it and read it in their presence so they could comfort her.

She offered them coffee. They politely declined. They hung around for a while longer, sitting on the edge of the sofa and making small talk. She clutched the letter in her hand so hard that her knuckles turned white. Even standing at her living room window, watching them drive off into rush hour traffic, she made no effort to open the envelope.

When they were out of sight, Cathy put the unopened letter inside a book on a shelf in her bedroom. A part of her still hoped that, if she didn’t read the letter, it wouldn’t be true. Her daughter might still walk through the door and explain how it was all a big misunderstanding.

Cathy opened the letter three days later, not long before dawn after another sleepless night. She realised through the haze of insomnia that she would never sleep properly until she’d read Lucy’s last words.

She climbed out of bed and found her way in the grey of night to her bookshelf. The book she’d placed the letter in was called The Grand Secrets of Chess Masters. It had been a present for Lucy’s ninth birthday.

Cathy opened the envelope sitting on the edge of her bed. The paper inside was folded with razor-like precision. She wouldn’t be the first to read it, the police had told her they’d opened the letter and made a copy for their investigation. She’d bristled at the thought that others had read Lucy’s last words before she’d seen them.

Cathy swallowed hard as she unfolded the paper. Her hands trembled. Lucy’s familiar tight handwriting blurred as tears welled in her eyes. She wiped her tears on the polyester sleeve of her nightgown. Cathy curled up on her bed with the letter pressed to her chest. She felt lost and alone. Dawn broke over her neighbour’s rooftop laundry line.

Later that day, after considerable thought, she telephoned Vincent and asked him to meet her the following morning. There was something she wanted to ask.

Vincent suggested they meet at a cafe in midtown, near the optometrist where Cathy worked. Knowing Vincent, he chose the sterile cafeteria-style cafe deliberately because he wanted to avoid a scene and wasn’t sure what Cathy wanted, or how emotional she would be.

A slow news week had kept the story of Lucy’s suicide in the media spotlight. One newspaper published what it called an ‘expose’ on the real life of bankers, the pressures and long hours that led to them dying young. Stanhope was not happy. It hated publicity at the best of times. It especially hated gratuitous tabloid stories that cheapened the exclusive cachet of its brand.

As Jules had predicted, there had been something of a backlash at the firm against Vincent after Lucy died. He was the one who’d hired Lucy. Mentored her. He had to bear some

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