Mrs. McMaster looked less convinced than ever.
“Really, Mrs. McMaster,” Keiko said. “You must believe me: Fancy is always discreet about anything that could hurt anyone.”
“Oh?” said Pet. “Like what?”
Keiko flushed. “That girl-Tash-who left,” she said. “Fancy could have spoken about that and she didn’t. Ever.” Keiko swallowed. “She didn’t even tell me her last name.”
“Turnbull,” said Mrs. McMaster, her face clouding briefly, before the arch look returned. “Well, she’d hardly have dwelt on Tash to you now, would she?” she said.
“To me?”
“You’re stepping out with Murray Poole. And Tash was Murray’s first love. Broke his heart for him. No wonder Fancy didn’t have much to say.”
It took a few moments for Keiko understand. “Tash was Murray’s girlfriend?” she said. Her thoughts were reeling. Tash who left was the same person as Murray’s girlfriend who broke up with him? “He didn’t tell me,” she said. Then she remembered something even worse. “He said he didn’t know her!” She could hear his words again in her head: No can do. I don’t know their names.
“Sounds like he didn’t want to talk to his new girl about his old one,” said Mrs. McMaster. “It’s hardly surprising.”
Keiko didn’t answer. She was gone, reliving every conversation with Murray. How many times had he lied to her?
“I don’t think that’s what it was,” she said at last. “He said he didn’t know Dina either. And she left too. Or Craig’s-”
“Who?” said Mrs. McMaster. “Oh, you mean Dina Taylor. Mabel’s girl?”
“Taylor,” said Keiko.
“That’s right,” said Mrs. McMaster. “Nadine Taylor. Dina for short. Aye, she hung around him a while. But it didn’t last. What’s she got-”
“Nadine?” said Keiko, feeling her face changing colour.
“Now why would that surprise you?” said Mrs. McMaster. “What on earth are you up to together, the pair of you?”
They weren’t up to anything together, Keiko thought. He had hidden so much from her, even while he dropped all those hints of trouble.
“What ‘pair’?” she said with a dry laugh.
“You and Fancy,” said Mrs. McMaster. “What’s Nadine Taylor got to do with this?” She tapped the paper with her pen.
Fancy. Keiko felt a chill as if a door had been opened on a winter night. As many times as Murray had lied, Fancy had lied even more. She had spoken of Tash and of Murray’s girlfriend and never admitted that they were the same person. What was going on?
“Mrs. McMaster,” Keiko said. “Do you think I should cancel the profiling? Scrap all of these questions and start again?”
Mrs. McMaster blinked in surprise. “What?” she said. “Och, no. There’s nothing in there that wouldn’t be just the same in any small town in the land. As long as the names are changed, there’s no harm to anyone.”
“So… it’s not something terrible? I’m not in danger if I carry on?”
“Danger of what?” said Mrs. McMaster.
“Oh, being sued” said Keiko. “For example.”
Mrs. McMaster threw back her head and let out a merry peal of laughter. “What an imagination you’ve got,” she said. “You and Fancy are as bad as each other. No, you’re not in any danger. There might be one or two red faces here and there, but you’ve worked hard on this, so go ahead and don’t worry.”
She did go ahead. Full steam ahead now that she was able. She only wished she had remembered to ask Nicole’s other name while Mrs. McMaster was laughing. All day long, she let her subjects take their time while she hunched over her laptop, Googling.
She got Tash Turnbull out of the way first, aware that her interest might only be because of Murray. Tash Turnbull + foster + Painchton + McMaster, she typed and then, in desperation, missing girls. Of course she didn’t know how common a name Tash Turnbull might be, how odd it might be that she found nothing.
Then she turned to the real task at hand. She took the gold chain out of her pocket late in the day and held it tightly as she typed. Nadine Taylor + Painchton + Dina. She clutched the pendant so hard she could feel the points of the N digging into her palm. Again, there was nothing. Pages of businesswomen-realtors and attorneys-in Canada and Arkansas. Pages of Taylor genealogies.
She was alone by this time, the last of her subjects gone away. She opened her fist and spoke to the pendant.
“Where are you?” she said. “Who are you? Nadine or-”
She jumped at the sound of footsteps inside her flat and only just managed to get the chain back into her pocket as the living room door was opening
“Knock, knock,” said Murray. “You’re late. I’ve been waiting for you.” He was wearing warm-up trousers and a sleeveless tee-shirt, even though the night was cold with a squally rain lashing against the window.
“Sorry,” said Keiko.
“D’you always leave your door unlocked? That’s a bit too trusting for this town.”
“I wish you were a bit more trusting,” she said, blurting it out before she could think better. And without giving him a chance to answer she went on: “You did know Tash’s full name. Of course you did. And I bet you knew Dina’s name was really Nadine. I bet you know Nicole’s name too.”
Murray had taken a step backwards as she started talking. Now, he pulled in one long deep breath and let it go, hissing. “Sneddon,” he said. He came over and sat down at one of the other dining chairs set around the table. “It’s Nicole Sneddon. And I’m sorry.”
Nicole Sneddon, Keiko typed. Painchton.
Murray bumped his chair around to look over her shoulder.
‘You could try Nikki too,” he said “N-I-K-K-I. I’m sorry, Keiko.”
“Good,” Keiko said, watching the results scroll by. More realtors and executives, more genealogy.
“I should have just told you straight and asked you straight.”
“Yes,” said Keiko, still scrolling. “Asked me what straight?”
“To leave this alone,” he said. “What did you Google for Tash?”
“Tash Turnbull,” Keiko said. “Her name. The one you said you didn’t know.”
“I’m sorry,” said Murray for the third time. He paused. “Did you find her?”
“I didn’t find any of them,” Keiko whispered. “Nothing at all. All three of them are just… gone.”
Murray took her hand, lifted it from the mouse, and clasped it in both of his. “Please leave it to me,” he said. “Promise me you won’t put yourself in danger.”
“If you would tell me what the danger is,” began Keiko, but he was shaking his head. So she shut the laptop and went to change into her workout clothes. But she promised nothing.
twenty-nine
Saturday, 23 November
It was two days before she could face Fancy. But at last she steeled herself and walked around the corner. Fancy was trotting back and forward with a delivery of dry-cleaning when Keiko came hurrying in out of the rain.
“I’ll need to tape these up,” she said, “keep them out the puddles.” She heaped the clothes up on the counter in a slithering bale and folded the bottom halves up to the shoulders, leaning down on them to push out the air. She looked over her shoulder at Keiko. “You okay?”
“Not really,” Keiko said. “Mrs. McMaster did my questionnaire.”
“God, yeah, she told me,” Fancy said, straightening up. “I nearly got put on the naughty step.”
“I’m not talking about the gossip,” Keiko said. “That’s not the problem.”
Fancy pulled a long strip of tape from the dispenser with a screeching sound. “Oh?” she said.
“She told me Tash was Murray’s girlfriend,” said Keiko. “Why did you lie to me?”