The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly

Author:Erin Kelly [Kelly, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 9781473680906
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2022-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 58

It is half past eight by the time they release me, and it takes them twenty minutes to give me back my phone. I text Billie before any notifications have had a chance to load.

Back in 30

I look at the screen, expecting at least one message from her, but there’s nothing. A dark flower of unease blooms in my belly. I pocket my phone and step over the police station threshold to stand under the darkening sky and into the cool air of a Kentish Town evening. I close my eyes and inhale a lungful of second-hand vape and fried chicken.

When I open them, Bridget is facing me, her whole body clenched so that ropes of sinew connecting her square jaw to her collarbone stand out.

‘Shitting hell!’ I press my hand to my thumping heart. ‘What are you—’

‘How long had you known that there was a dead body in my attic, Eleanor?’ In contrast to my yelp, her voice is cool and even. ‘It feels like the kind of thing you could’ve called us about? My God, Eleanor, we are your family.’

‘I can – it’s – look, can we walk and talk? It’s just that I need to check Billie’s OK and—’

‘Sure,’ she says. We walk past empty shop fronts – so many empty shop fronts. Bridget’s back is ramrod-straight, her steps measured and deliberate. I tell her everything as we turn from the side-street on to the main road and head towards Camden where I can access the towpath. Kids jostle each other outside McDonald’s, glowing phones in their hands.

I text while I’m walking. I’m coming home. Is Dylan still with you?

‘I understand your not wanting to tell the police what you’d found before the social worker and everything. But us?’

‘I had Billie stuff to deal with. But also, I wanted to give you a chance to get rid of your stash. The last thing I wanted was that in the headlines as well. I didn’t think it was worth dragging you back from your tasting menu. Obviously I didn’t think the police were going to search it straight after I had.’

‘Why the hell were you even up there, though?’

I explain that I thought that decoding the catalogue might shed some light on the jewel theft. ‘Because – and this seems incredible to be even saying it – until yesterday that’s what we thought it was, isn’t it? Just your regular everyday priceless world-famous jewel theft. And remember I was trying to see if there was anything Bonehunters could interpret. I didn’t believe Frank would’ve really put some Easter egg in there, right?’

‘Mm-hmm,’ says Bridget thoughtfully.

‘What?’

She stops to give a couple of quid to a guy with no legs and a dog on a string. ‘I’m not as convinced as the rest of you,’ she says.

‘Really?’

‘When your father was sleeping with someone else, he always found a way to drop their name in conversation. He’d say, I saw Adeola in the street today, or he’d mention some anecdote

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