Chapter 6: Where Emily Actually Was
The question no one had asked yet was the one Clara had been carrying since four that morning.
If Diane was in the coffin — then where was Emily?
Marsh asked it first, after Richard had been taken out.
Diane looked at her hands.
"I don't know," she said.
"I promise you, I don't know."
"But you know something."
A pause.
"I know that Emily found out about me.
About Richard and me — the history of it." Diane looked up.
"She came to see me.
About three months ago.
She wasn't angry, which surprised me.
She was very calm.
She said she had known for some time and that she had been gathering information."
"What kind of information?"
"About the property.
About the loan.
About what Richard had done to both of us." Diane turned the ring on her finger again — that slow, deliberate turn that Clara was beginning to understand was how she steadied herself.
"Emily said she had documents.
She said she was going to a solicitor.
She asked me if I would be willing to add my name to a formal complaint."
"And were you?"
"I said yes.
We exchanged numbers.
We agreed to speak again in two weeks." Diane's voice tightened slightly.
"Two weeks later, I was told Emily had d*ed.
And then I became ill."
Marsh was quiet for a moment.
"Do you believe Emily's d\*ath was genuine?"
Diane looked at him directly.
"I believe that Richard needed both of us gone," she said.
"I don't know which of us he dealt with first."
Clara set down her tea — she had made tea, because it was the thing she knew how to do when everything else was beyond her — and looked at Marsh.
"Emily's d\*ath certificate was also signed by Alderton," she said.
Marsh nodded slowly.
"I know."
"Two d\*ath certificates.
Same doctor.
Same family.
Six weeks apart."
"I know," Marsh said again.
He stood and walked to the window.
Outside, a police car was still parked at the front of the house.
A neighbor stood on the pavement across the street, pretending not to watch.
"Mrs.
Hargrove's body," Marsh said carefully, "was cremated four days ago."
Clara had not known that.
She felt it land somewhere in her chest.
"Whose decision was that?" she asked.
"Richard's.
He cited Emily's prior wishes." Marsh turned from the window.
"We're going to need to verify whether those wishes were ever formally documented."
"They weren't," Clara said.
Both Marsh and Diane looked at her.
"Emily told me once that she wanted to be buried near her mother in Shropshire," Clara said.
"She was very specific about it.
She said she had never written it down because she didn't like thinking about it, but she had told Richard." She paused.
"She told me he had laughed at her for being morbid."
Marsh wrote something down.
"Did Emily ever mention keeping documents at a separate location?
A solicitor's office, a safety deposit box, a friend's address?"
Clara thought.
"She had a sister," she said.
"Margaret.
They weren't close — there had been some difficulty years ago, I never knew the details — but Emily mentioned her occasionally.
She mentioned that Margaret had moved back to England from Australia about a year ago."
"Do you have a surname?"
"Same as Emily's maiden name.
Calder." Clara paused.
"Emily Calder, before she married."
Marsh was already reaching for his phone.
He stepped into the hallway to make the call.
Diane sat very still in the center of the room.
The blanket was still around her shoulders.
The ring was still on her hand.
She looked like someone who had survived something and had not yet fully understood what came next.
Clara sat down across from her.
"Are you all right?" Clara asked.
Diane considered the question seriously.
"I'm not sure yet," she said.
"Ask me again when I know where Emily is."
Clara nodded.
From the hallway, Marsh's voice — low, controlled, professional — said a name.
Margaret Calder.
Then, after a pause: *"We need to speak with you about your sister."*
May you like
The silence that followed lasted long enough that Clara knew, before Marsh came back into the room, that Margaret Calder had not been surprised by the call.
She had been waiting for it.
