It was a harsh lesson. She cried at night for weeks, feeling cheap and used. But maybe it was a worthwhile lesson, because she had never let any other man or boy treat her that way since. Of course, Cassie had said she saw nothing wrong in having sex before marriage, as long as you made sure the man used a Durex. As Molly couldn’t imagine ever being bold enough to ask a man if he had one, she had told herself she wasn’t ever going to go that far. Yet even at Cassie’s funeral she’d been having erotic thoughts about Simon. If he had made a pass at her, might she have succumbed? She thought, to her shame, that it was likely.
A little later that morning her mother came into the shop and, between customers, Molly told her about Enoch Flowers.
‘My word, that’s a turn-up!’ her mother exclaimed. ‘He doesn’t normally give anyone the time of day.’
‘He’s a bit of an outcast – I expect that’s why he understood Cassie,’ Molly said. ‘I’ll go up to the cottage after we close and look around.’
Mary looked anxious. ‘I don’t like to think of you up there alone,’ she said.
‘Don’t be daft, Mum. The person who killed Cassie and took Petal won’t be hanging around there looking for another victim.’
‘Perhaps not, but go now and get it over with.’
Molly was pleased to get out, and jumped on her bicycle. Ever since she had decided she was going to go to London she had found the days in the shop endless. Only last night her mother had told her she had withdrawn some money from her post-office account for Molly and that she ought to go soon. Molly’s plan was to write to Bourne & Hollingsworth, a department store in London’s Oxford Street, to ask for a job. The reason she’d picked that shop was because she remembered from Margaret, an old schoolfriend, who had gone to work there years ago, that they had a hostel where the staff lived. Margaret had worked there right up till last year, when she got married, and she had been very happy.
The bushes either side of the track to Stone Cottage had grown thicker since she last came up here and appeared to be doing their best to hide the footpath. It was also eerily quiet. Molly felt a little nervous, and looked all around her as she approached the cottage.
‘Don’t be silly,’ she said aloud. ‘There’s nothing here to harm you.’ Yet, all the same, she retrieved the key quickly from its place by the pump and hastily unlocked the door.
Looking around inside, she found a multicoloured silk scarf in a drawer which she’d always admired on Cassie, and put it to one side. There was also a pretty little gold-and-white hand-painted wooden horse she seemed to remember Cassie saying came from India. Amongst Petal’s things she found a blue cardigan that Cassie had knitted for her daughter and embroidered down the front with daisies, and the book Ameliaranne and the Green Umbrella by Constance Heward, one Petal had wanted read to her time and time again.
In a small leather box she found some amber beads, a silver bangle and a gold ring with red stones set into it. She had no idea if the ring was valuable, but if Petal was ever found she would like something of her mother’s, so she put the box with the other things.
There didn’t appear to be anything else worth taking but, all the same, Molly pulled all the drawers right out to check behind them and looked at books on the shelves. Cassie had had surprisingly literary taste in books – Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway – but she also liked A. J. Cronin and had got Molly to read The Citadel.
Seeing Hatter’s Castle by the same author, Molly pulled it out to take home to read. As it came off the shelf, a letter fell out of it on to the floor.
There was no envelope, just a single sheet of paper with a London address at the top and no date. She had no way of knowing whether Cassie had received it here, or before she came to Sawbridge.
‘
Dearest Cassie,
’ she read:
I was so very relieved to finally hear from you. I had been desperately worried about you and you have been in all my prayers.
I do understand why you felt you must go – the East End is not an ideal place to bring up a child. You said that you felt you were in danger, and I do so wish you had talked to me about this, as I’m sure the pair of us could’ve found a solution to whatever the trouble was. I can only hope that you are with good people now who are kind to you both. I miss you, and if it doesn’t work out for you there I hope you know there will always be room for you both back here.
You are a remarkable person, Cassie. You’ve come through so much and yet somehow managed to keep your compassion for others and your sense of humour. Most would have crumbled or become very bitter. I wish I was in a position to help you more. All I can offer is my affection, a listening ear and the promise that God is with you. Kiss Petal for me and write back soon.
Your loving friend, Constance
Molly felt like shouting aloud in glee at having finally found something that was a lead into Cassie’s past. She hastily pulled all the other books off the shelf and shook them to see if any other letters might be hidden there, but she found nothing more.
She stood for a few minutes looking around her, remembering Cassie. She could see her lying full length on the couch, her red hair shining in the light from the oil lamp, and hear her laughter as she related something funny she’d overheard or read in the paper. The brightly coloured crochet blanket she would tuck round Petal when she didn’t feel well was there on the back of the sofa, and a pencil pot made from an old baked-bean can and covered by Petal in fabric and trimmed with braid sat on a side table. Everything in the cottage had Cassie’s hand on it, and it hurt to think it would all be taken out and thrown away, wiping out the character of the strong woman who had been so dear to her.
What would the police do with the letter from Constance? Would they send someone to see her to try to find out more about Cassie? Maybe they would, but they’d almost certainly be heavy-handed, and Constance might just clam up on them, as she sounded, from the letter, like a very sensitive soul.
It might be better if she went herself, and if Constance did know anything useful about Cassie then she could pass her name and address over to the police and let them take it from there.
With nowhere else to search now, she picked up the few things she’d collected and left the house, putting them into the basket on her bike. Then, after locking the door and replacing the key by the pump, she rode home.
After supper she wrote to Bourne & Hollingsworth, and to Constance. The first letter outlined her experience in her father’s shop and her interest in display, and asked that she be considered for a job interview.
In the letter to Constance she explained how she had found her address and that Cassie was dead and Petal missing.
It is plain to me that you are very fond of Cassie and Petal, and I’m sure this letter coming from a total stranger is a huge shock to you
[she wrote]
but I was very fond of Cassie and Petal, too, and I would so much like to talk to you and discover a bit more about her. I am hoping to come to work in London soon and, if you are agreeable, I could come to your home for a chat.
Yours sincerely
Molly Heywood.
Finishing the letters at nine, Molly decided to slip out, post them and take the letter from Constance round to show Simon. He might have already left his flat, if his wife had made him go home with her, or she could even be there, but Molly really wanted his opinion about the letter and, besides, she needed to prove to herself that he was nothing more than a friend and, if he was leaving, to say goodbye to him properly.