don’t, but if I had to choose, it would be a cat. They seem less needy.’
‘You make a good point,’ Tara said as she watched Dexter slink away from Faith to hide behind April. His lower half was caked in mud and he no longer looked like a teddy bear that anyone would want to cuddle. Perhaps she should have brought Molly with her.
‘Which way should we go?’ asked April when Dexter resumed tugging on his leash.
They had the option of walking upriver for a closer view of the bridges spanning the Mersey at Runcorn, but Tara turned her back on the sun, and they set off on the path that skirted the edge of the pasture and led to an ancient duck decoy cut out of the salt marshes to attract water fowl. ‘We might be able to spot Hale lighthouse across the marshes.’
‘I imagine this would be quite a nice route for a jog,’ said Faith.
‘You’re taking up running?’ asked April.
‘No, I meant for you,’ Faith replied. ‘You seemed very interested in Nick’s fitness regime. I thought you two might have formulated a plan by now.’
Faith’s comment sounded innocent, but Tara picked up an undertone. Did she think there was something developing between the group’s newest members? Tara had seen April and Nick talking after the last meeting, but when she had gone over to join them, April had looked relieved to have the extra company. If there was any interest, it was one-sided.
‘He hasn’t been pestering you, has he?’ asked Tara.
April’s laugh held no mirth. ‘No. And how could he? He doesn’t have my number.’
‘But he—’ Faith snapped her mouth shut before she could finish her sentence.
‘What?’ demanded Tara. ‘You didn’t give it to him, did you?’
‘Of course not,’ she said. It wasn’t often that Faith was wrong-footed, but she sounded unsure when she added, ‘He mentioned setting up a WhatsApp group, that’s all, and I presumed you’d all swapped numbers.’
‘He never mentioned it to me. Do you think he needs more support than a monthly meet-up?’ asked Tara. ‘According to Justine, his only family is one sister. Could he be reaching out?’
‘He’s not shown any interest in going over to the pub whenever Steve’s asked,’ April said. ‘I get the impression he’s the type who prefers women’s company.’
Tara was inclined to agree. Nick did appear more at ease talking to the female members of the group, in fact she could remember him making a point of saying goodbye to Faith. She could see Nick with his phone in his hand. ‘Did he ask you for your number, Faith?’
She huffed rather than give an answer. ‘Was there a point to coming out today? I thought you had some news for us, April.’
When April dug her hand into her pocket, Dexter’s ears pricked at the rustle of the treat bag, but the object she pulled out was smooth and white.
‘I found this on Jason’s grave,’ she said, unfurling her fingers.
The three women stopped to gather around April’s open palm. Her hand shook, not least because Dexter had lost interest in them and was straining on his leash again.
‘Here give me that,’ Faith said, taking the leash and yanking it hard. ‘Hey, you!’
Dexter froze immediately. The leash relaxed.
‘Come here, sit down, and be quiet.’
The dog crept towards her, tail between his legs.
‘I said sit!’
White crescent moons rimmed the dog’s eyes as he sat down and gazed up at Faith. For the moment at least, they could concentrate on the object in April’s trembling hand.
‘What is it?’ asked Tara.
April lifted the stone between her finger and thumb and turned it from side to side so it caught the light. ‘It’s a heart,’ she said. ‘I found it on Jason’s grave. Someone had hidden it there.’
‘Can I?’ asked Faith. She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and held the stone inches from her nose. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Are those random scratches, or could it be writing?’
‘I’ve been staring at that bloody thing all night,’ admitted April. ‘I can make out a J and what might be a T for Jason’s initials, but it’s in the middle, so maybe it’s a plus sign.’
‘I think it’s a plus sign,’ agreed Faith, ‘and there are more scratches to the left of it, but that’s harder to read. Is it an S?’
‘It could be,’ April said with a shrug.
Taking back the stone and the leash from Faith, April set off again and the others followed. Dexter kept checking for Faith’s approval. He was no longer leading the pack.
‘It doesn’t matter what the scratchings say, at least not completely. It’s what they represent. Jason plus someone else – someone who isn’t me,’ April said. ‘I’d almost convinced myself I was being paranoid and the cash withdrawals meant nothing. What an idiot am I? Totally trusting while he was alive and still ignoring what my subconscious has been screaming at me for the best part of a year.’
‘I’m so sorry, April,’ said Tara. She wanted to put an arm around her, but Faith was between them and as yet, she hadn’t realised that April needed the human touch.
‘I notice neither of you has said there’s some other explanation.’
‘It’s possible the stone ended up on Jason’s grave by accident,’ Faith said, digging her hands into her pockets. ‘A child could have picked it up from another grave and discarded it in the wrong place. But, when you consider the coincidence that the inscription includes the letter J, together with the bank account evidence and the doubts you had before Jason died, it does make for a compelling case.’
‘What about you, Tara? What do you think?’
Tara walked in silence for a while. She wanted nothing more than for April to find some form of resolution and the simplest and least painful way for that to happen was to give up on the idea that Jason had secrets. Unfortunately, the heart-shaped stone pointed down a rockier path. ‘No amount of talking is going to convince you one way or the other,’ she said. ‘You claim the letter that might be an S doesn’t matter, but is there a name that springs to mind?’
‘I don’t know everyone in Jason’s life, particularly his working life,’ April said. ‘I never audited the Highways Section because of the conflict of interest. I’ve met some of the staff, and I’m friends with a few, but Jason was on site a lot of the time and he dealt with all kinds of contractors.’
The tone of April’s voice was off. Faith picked up on it too. ‘But is there someone you do know?’
‘I could list a dozen,’ said April. ‘There’s a Sophie and a Siobhan, two Staceys, a Suzanne. Shall I go on?’
There was one name Tara noticed was
