Fragile Minds. Claire Seeber

      WEDNESDAY 19TH JULY SILVER

      His ex-wife was at the hairdresser’s in Frogley when Silver called. He could hear the chorus of hairdryers in the background, imagined the girls moving in perfect choreographed precision in front of the long mirrors, whilst the immaculate Allana scrutinised her manicure critically. Her shell-pink nails that were never chipped and certainly never naked, her hair all caramel and tawny, streaked within an inch of its life. They had been a well-matched couple in this respect at least; both beautifully turned-out at all times, until Lana had her breakdown, and even then she’d managed perfect hair. It was only beneath the surface things had been so different than they seemed.

      ‘Lana,’ he twiddled with a biro on his desk. ‘The girl in the photo. The girl you saw on TV.’

      ‘Jaime,’ she said, calmly. ‘It was Jaime. I knew it.’

      ‘Don’t be silly. It’s not Jaime,’ he took a deep breath. ‘Jaime’s dead, Lana, we both know that. But it is – it’s Sadie Malvern. Her big sister Sadie.’

      ‘I know who Sadie is,’ she said. She didn’t miss a beat; she was still calm. He didn’t know what he had been expecting; for her to lose it, start crying and screaming. Of course she didn’t. ‘Sadie was in the car that day too, Joe.’

      ‘So,’ what else was there to say? Sadie was still alive. Jaime was long dead, but then, Lana had only killed one sister. Sadie had survived; traumatised but alive, and now she was missing. That at least was nothing to do with the Silvers. ‘I just wanted to set your mind at rest.’

      Lana said something that he couldn’t catch, the noise in the salon increasing behind her as she spoke, a cacophony of women’s voices fighting the hum of the dryers.

      ‘I can’t hear you.’

      There was a pause; the sound of the salon door opening and closing. He saw her now on the narrow high street, pacing.

      ‘My mind’s never at rest, Joe. It’s never been at rest. Not since that day.’

      ‘I know, Lana,’ he sighed. ‘But try not to go back there again.’

      ‘Where?’

      ‘To that dark place. To all this self-flagellation.’

      She hung up.

      Now Silver had satisfied himself that Lana’s worst nightmare hadn’t come true, there was no reason for him to have any more to do with Sadie’s disappearance. He could easily pass it back over to his colleagues and be done with it; he had more pressing matters at hand.

      But the situation really bothered him. Seeing Sadie Malvern’s face again after all this time, well, it flipped the proverbial can of worms wide open: and now they were out, they’d be bloody hard to recapture. Right now, in fact, they were slithering all over the damn place. He couldn’t just leave it now to others.

      As Silver retrieved his suit jacket from the hanger on the wall, Ian Kelly stuck his head round the door. He’d been seconded for the week from Fraud; Silver had only seen him once or twice since the Finnegan baby case. Silver felt a fleeting twinge of nostalgia for the feisty Jess Finnegan, whose baby son Louis he’d helped recover after a kidnap attempt two years ago.

      ‘Come and have a drink with me and Lorraine,’ the portly DI was as pink-faced as ever. ‘Be good to catch up.’

      Leaning against the fruit machine in the pub whilst Kelly queued for a round that included the wholly un-thrilling prospect of a pint of tepid diet Coke, Silver called Julie against his better judgement. When she didn’t answer, he left her a short message, but before he’d even pocketed the phone, he felt ashamed. There really wasn’t much to be said for a relationship entirely based on sex, whatever Craven or some of his younger colleagues might have felt. Silver sighed heartily. Maybe, at the grand old age of forty-five, he was getting old. He thought briefly of Jessica Finnegan. There had been an undeniable attraction between them, but Jess had been married still to the despicable Mickey, and neither Silver nor she had been ready for anything serious. Plus Jess, for all her tough façade, had been far too fragile to mess around with. But Silver had been drawn to her more than any other woman since Lana. He wondered where Jess was now.

      The truth was he was tired of being alone – but he never met anyone who really excited him, not the way Lana had excited him once, before she slipped from reality. Silver suppressed another sigh and joined the others at their table. Briefly they discussed the latest claimant of the explosion.