Chapel Field by Paula Hillman

Author:Paula Hillman [Hillman, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Summer 2018

Laurie

It’s a beautifully faded summer’s evening. Laurie decides she should go and retrieve her mother’s step-ladders from the Diamond Hall fence. She’s not heard from Ed again, and she’s leaving for London in a few days.

The forecourt gardens along the street have fuchsia and buddleia bushes dripping with dying blooms, and some spill out over walls and through gates. One seagull chick is still whistling from a nearby roof; late, Laurie thinks, and no parents in sight. The air tastes of smoke and earth.

It is only when she’s on the shingle path to the beach that a sound puts her on high alert, a shout, coming from somewhere inside the wood. More than one voice and drifting from a direction she can’t quite work out. She clambers up the bank to where the ladders should be. They’re still there and none the worse for being out in the rain for a few days. She hears another shout. It judders across the stillness of the evening, and she cocks her head to try and clarify where it is coming from; something is happening at the gates of Diamond Hall.

She leaves the ladders and follows the line of the fence, pressing down nettles and brambles carefully with her trainers so none reach up and catch at her bare ankles. There’s no sign of anyone on the other side, but the shouting is getting louder, and rhythmic. Then she realises it’s not shouting at all, it’s chanting. The smallest frisson of fear starts to make its way from her stomach to her throat; whatever is happening doesn’t feel good.

At the gates, she finds a group of people, Pete O’Connor included. They are facing in the direction of the house and calling Diamond out at the tops of their voices. Some have grabbed the bars of the gate and are yanking them backwards and forwards. Laurie dashes towards Pete.

‘What the hell are you doing,’ she cries, pulling at his arm. ‘This is private property. Ed’s property.’ She turns to the small crowd. ‘Whoever’s in charge of this shit-storm, you’d better call off your posse. I’ve got my phone here and I’m about to get in touch with the police.’ She waves the device in front of her, hoping none of them will realise she’s quite scared.

‘I’m in charge.’ Pete takes her to one side. ‘And since when did that imbecile Diamond become Ed. Oh, yeah, that’s right. He’s your boyfriend now, isn’t he.’ The words fire out of his mouth, then he sticks out his tongue in a fake gag.

‘Don’t be so pathetic. Oh, wait. You’re jealous.’ Laurie isn’t quite sure what she’s saying, but anger is digging into her mind and finding words she wasn’t expecting. ‘I knew it then, and I know it now. If anyone’s got a screw loose, it’s you.’ She thumps two fingers against her temple. Adrenaline is zipping around her body and putting her on the highest alert.

Pete stares and puffs out more snide laughter. ‘Diamond is a nutter, Loz.

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