Page 54 of Lost Luggage
‘Shall I search the dining room next?’
Dolly locked up the box file. ‘I’ll help you. If you give me that I’ll put it away in Greta’s room.’
Phoebe turned the frame over. The colour drained out of her face. She held it closer.
‘We look alike, don’t we?’ said Dolly. ‘Everyone used to say how Greta and I had the same thick lips and snub nose.’
Phoebe’s hand shot up, to cover her mouth.
‘Sweetheart?’ said Dolly.
Tears sprung into Phoebe’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks. A sob shuddered through the young woman’s body.
‘What’s the matter?’ Dolly passed her a tissue.
‘She’s really gone. Gone for good.’ Phoebe gulped. ‘I don’t understand.’
Dolly’s heart raced. ‘YouknewGreta?’
‘No. Yes. This is my library friend. Maisie.’
34
Dolly strode into the kitchen, ran the cold tap and picked a tumbler up from the side of the sink, not caring if it was clean or dirty. The girls were at the dining-room table continuing with their badge work.
‘What’s up, gal?’ asked Leroy after she’d taken several gulps. He put down the dishcloth and listened. ‘Nah. No way. Greta may have had secrets, but to carry off a double identity? That’s on a whole different level. It must be a misunderstanding. They do say we’ve all got a doppelgänger out there.’
Dolly wiped her mouth and headed back to the lounge. Fred had his arm around Phoebe. She suggested the two of them go outside to clear their heads. Phoebe grabbed her hoodie. They sat at the loveseat.
Dolly studied the photo frame. ‘You’re sure she looked like this?’
‘The hair, the glasses… She used to…’ Her voice caught.
‘I know love,’ said Dolly quietly. ‘The past tense hurts.’
Phoebe took a moment as a robin swooped on to the lawn.
‘She used to smell of sandalwood and always looked smart, especially in her favourite tweed coat. Does that ring any bells?’
Dolly’s chest tightened. ‘Did she wear nail varnish?’
‘Yes, clear.’
‘Jewellery?’
‘A gold cross around her neck.’
‘Tell me about the places she said she’d visited,’ Dolly asked, numbly.
‘I don’t get it. I liked Maisie from the off. She didn’t need to pretend to have this amazing life. In fact the first few weeks when we got talking she didn’t mention travels at all.’
‘Did she ever talk about a sister?’ asked Dolly quietly.
‘Never. Describing all the foreign countries she’d been to, it changed her into someone different, I often thought that. She took on a more animated… younger expression.’
‘She introduced herself as Maisie?’
Phoebe pulled up her top’s hood. ‘Kind of. I was in the queue behind her in the library and saw her card and the name Margaret. The librarian said her cousin was called that and had shortened it to Maggie. I chipped in, said I’d had a lecturer at uni who’d shortened it to Maisie and had backpacked around the world. That’s when your sister said that’s what she was known as, too.’
