Page 79 of Right Place, Right Time
Barney nods.
‘Yes,’ I say. ‘It must be. Well, at least someone who has a shop.’
‘Why not the others who use the buildings as offices and flats?’ Adam asks.
‘They come and go,’ I say. ‘But the shops have all been here for … well, as long as I can remember.’
‘What, all of them?’
I think about this. ‘When I started helping my grandparents out, Harriet and Rocky were here, and Luca too.Orla had been here for a while, I think, and Ben has been here for ever, as we all know.’
‘So the shops haven’t changed much, then?’
‘No, not really. Actually, not at all. Gerald owned the bookshop next door before you did, and Ben said before that, Ozzie, Gerald’s father, had owned it. So that’s been here ages too.’
‘Right then, so what do we know about all these people?’ Adam asks, sounding like a detective in charge, summing up the case so far with his team. ‘Do any of them have families?’
‘Not that I know of …’ I say, suddenly realising that I don’t know that much about any of my fellow shopkeepers. ‘But they must do, I guess. Do you know, Barney?’
‘No, come to think of it, I don’t remember any of them ever talking about families. But then I’m not here as much as you, Eve.’
‘Harriet and Rocky are married … but don’t have any children,’ I say, trying to add something useful. ‘I think Orla’s family must live in Ireland … not that I remember her actually saying that, though. Luca … I mean, I know he has partners, I’ve met some of them before, and we both met some friends of his from the States, didn’t we, the other night at the pub?’
Adam nods. ‘Yes, they were friends, weren’t they, not family?’
‘I guess. And I don’t think Ben has family either … when he was ill a while back, Orla went to look after him because he had no one else.’
‘So not one of us has ever heard any of the others talking about a family?’ Adam says, his eyebrows raised.
‘But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything,’ I say quickly. ‘I mean, you and I don’t have any direct family still alive, do we?’
As what I’m saying begins to register in my brain, I stare at Adam, and he, looking equally as surprised, gazes back at me. I turn to Barney.
‘Barney, please tell me you have family somewhere?’ I ask desperately.
Barney slowly shakes his head. ‘Not blood relatives, I was adopted when I was a baby. So I’ve only ever known my adoptive parents.’
As we sit silently trying to take in exactly what this means, the doorbell rings, making us all jump.
‘That must be the takeaway downstairs,’ Adam says. ‘I’ll be right back.’
‘What’s happening, Eve?’ Barney asks. ‘I’m getting a really weird vibe about this.’
‘I don’t know, Barney. I wish I did, but I don’t.’
Adam comes back up with the Indian takeaway we’ve chosen tonight and after we’ve plated everything up, we sit back down to eat.
‘Do you want to continue our discussions?’ Adam asks. ‘Or shall we wait until after we’ve eaten?’
‘I don’t know about you two,’ I reply. ‘But it’s all I can think about right now.’
‘Me too.’ Barney picks up a poppadom. ‘I don’t know how we can’t continue to talk about it.’
‘Right, then.’ Adam takes the lead once more. ‘So apart from the family thing, which we don’t know is relevant yet, what else do we know?’
‘What about these doors you have in the shop?’ Barney asks. ‘Should we discuss them a bit more?’
‘The Venus and Mars doors,’ I say. ‘With the tree in the middle of both of them. We’ve had a lot of tree symbolism and this is just the latest one.’
