LIFE has begun to return to some kind of normality, Ana thought, though not entirely sure now what normal had been.  She and Daniel were sitting upstairs on their terrace with Lynette, watching a firework display in the port and drinking coffee and brandy,  relaxed after a dinner with Dominic and Tony. Lynette and Daniel’s two sons who had arrived on Monday and were staying until Friday were, Ana considered, pleasant companions, fluent in Spanish and always friendly towards her. She knew it could so easily be different, and she thought it a tribute to both Daniel and Lynette that their sons seemed to harbour no ill to either parent.

 

The previous weekend had been a godsend, a space to allow Ana and Daniel to resume their life together  It was only when Sarah’s funeral was over and they were at home alone was Ana able to count how much the trauma had cost them,  individually and as a couple.

 

When they had made love on Saturday morning, it was the first time since the beach party. Before the party followed by Sarah’s disappearance and death. The week before the party, thinking seriously about this baby she wanted, she was conscious that it would be a good idea to become pregnant soon.  Thirty-eight was not so old to become a mother for the first time but it wasn’t young either.  So when she woke on Saturday morning, knowing she was mid-period, she decided she would put to one side all her concerns about their relationship. So her fears about secrets Daniel might be hiding and her reasons for keeping her relationship with Max hidden, all these were put to one side. She had been at her most seductive.  

Daniel's passionate response had told Ana that he too wanted to create a permanent embodiment of their love. The weekend had been as romantic as their first time away together, a week in Collioure, in the south-west of France, a month after they first met. 

 

Ana had begun to worry that the traumas of the past weeks had created a barrier between them and sex was the last thing on her mind. His passion had brought her so much pleasure on Saturday and Sunday, that she no longer feared that the presence of Lynette so near to them had revived Daniel’s feelings for his ex-wife. But although their lovemaking had kept its sweet intimacy Ana had felt there was a barrier between them, preventing discussion of any of the things that had happened and how his friends were reacting. 

 

After the funeral, Daniel had told her Mark made a decision not to look further at the files that Sarah kept about their friends. At least not for the present. Manuel Camps had informed Mark that at present they saw no need to examine Sarah’s computer but they must keep it available. So Mark and Daniel had locked the laptop and the flash disk away in a safe,  hoping they would never be needed as evidence. From the way Daniel gave her the information, Ana got the clear message that the subject was closed. For now anyway. 

 

Lynette was a very attractive woman. Looking at her now across the table, Ana acknowledged that few men would remain unaffected.  But was there something hard about her expression, a little too much determination in her chin perhaps, and was she wearing a tiny bit too much green eyeshadow, as it emphasised the creases above her eyes?  Enough of this,  Ana chided herself, how childish! The visit was going well so far and she admired Daniel’s determination to ensure it was a success. He and Lynette were a model of how ex-spouses should behave with their children and that too caused Ana pangs of jealousy.

 

The five of them had eaten in the boys’ favourite restaurant in the town. Dominic was delighted that not only were most things unchanged but that José, the proprietor remembered him,  after several years of absence. After the meal Dominic and Tony walked on to the port, where fiesta celebrations were taking place, knowing the bars along the seafront would be open and lively until late. 
 

“The boys are really enjoying being here with you,” Lynette said to Ana. “They’re getting to know the town now, and walking back and forward to the port is good for them; they can walk off the alcohol on the way home. I’m looking forward to them coming to my place and then they’re off to Benidorm for a few days; they will have a good time there.”
 

“They will love that,” Ana said, “They are a credit to you - two very nice people. I enjoyed their company tonight; their stories about university life in Brighton were hilarious. I am so glad they liked the food Rabo de Toro is a speciality there, but the boys enjoyed it so much in José’s. I eat so little meat,  I forgot "

 

As Lynette was about to leave she asked Ana if there was any more news from the police about Sarah’s death because she was worried about Carole.  
 

“Have you noticed how gaunt she has become, and so withdrawn? It reminds me of the time after Tom left her; she acted the same, somehow. You know, on the surface she behaves as if everything is tickety-boo, goes about her life quite normally, but you get the feeling that she is not really with you, somehow. And then sometimes she snaps if you ask her if she is OK. She was angrier than I have ever seen her the other day, over nothing. And she even shouted at those dogs. It’s probably all in my imagination, but what happened to Sarah, the things she hid so well, showed me how little you know about what’s going on in people’s heads, even people you think are close friends.” 

 

Ana walked with Lynette to her car. “you’re right, we need to all look out for each other. I guess a phone call, an invitation at the right moment, can make all the difference when people are feeling near despair.”  She promised to ring Carole the next day, and invite her round while the boys were with them.  “I’ll invite Ivan too, if he is back; I am sure the boys will find him amusing.”

Lynette gave her a hug and then Daniel put his arms around his ex-wife and kissed her cheek.

 

Lynette drove out of the gates; “Look, cariño” Ana pointed at the sky, “the stars are so clear tonight. I wonder if there are people up there somewhere, in the Milky Way, looking down at us and wondering why we humans make such problems of our lives, when we live on such a beautiful planet. Do you think all the bad things are finished for us now, we have passed the worst?”

 

Daniel said nothing. He switched off the outside lights, and they stood in silence, hands clasped, looking up at the moon and the stars. 

 

                   

TRUE to her promise to Lynette, Ana rang Carole to suggest that she and Ivan came over for a drink that evening as Tony and Dominic were staying with them.

 

“That’s very kind, Ana and we would love to see them but I have to drive Ivan to the airport late this afternoon and I won’t be back till late.”

“In that case, Carole, why don’t you come and have lunch with us tomorrow? Then you won’t need to cook. The boys will be delighted. Bring the dogs and we can go for a walk before we eat” 

 

Carole sounded enthusiastic about the idea and Ana was glad of Lynette’s nudge to her conscience.  As she was about to hang up, Carole said Jonathan was there and that he wanted to speak to Ana. He needed, he said, to talk to her about the book contract and they agreed to meet in the Port in half an hour’s time.  Ana needed to stock up on food, she had forgotten quite how healthy the appetites of young men could be.

 

As she watched Jonathan threading his way through the café tables towards her, she realised she had missed his company, his quiet wit and his enthusiasm for writing. They had not been alone together since the morning of the beach party. He kissed her on both cheeks and took her hand as he sat down.

 

“What a couple of weeks!”. He told her how he had found the strain of Sarah’s disappearance and death almost unbearable. The trip to the beach when Sarah’s body was recovered had reminded him so much of Philip’s death that he had, he said, feared a descent into the depression that had dogged him then. “But I didn’t go there. I was able to talk myself out of it and that’s really important to me, that I can survive something so bad. God” and he swept his hair back from his forehead, “I sound so selfish. I can’t believe I just said those words.”

 

Ana smiled and took his hand, giving it a squeeze “What good would it have done anyone if you’d gone under? You have been a rock to Mark and I can see how much he appreciates it. Now, tell me about this contract.”

 

For the next hour, over several coffees, he described the outline of the book he had been contracted to write, by a prestigious academic publisher. For the first time, he said, they were planning simultaneous publication of the Spanish version with the English. His editor had suggested they work together, Ana translating as Jonathan wrote. ”Sounds like a good idea, I thought we could keep the styles harmonious.  It’s unconventional but I wondered if you would be up for it?”

 

Warmed by his enthusiasm, she felt a small lightening of her heart.

“So you will concentrate on the artists who left during the civil war and as it ended? That sounds promising. Just before we moved here I read a book called “The Disinherited”. The author suggests that in Spain we have always exiled our artists, beginning when the Jews and the Moors were expelled in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He thinks there has always been a kind of artistic death wish, if you like.”

For the first time since they had arrived in Spain, Ana's sense of purpose returned. This was who she was, wanted to do; this work gave her the challenge of keeping someone’s story fresh and true in another language. She could organise her own work time as she needed;  the high powered level of work as a simultaneous interpreter at the European Commission would never fit in with her idea of managing motherhood.

 

Ana wondered about the wisdom of telling Jonathan of her doubts about their move. She thought he would understand, although she couldn’t be sure. And her worries about Daniel and his place in their group of friends? Jonathan was his closest friend. That might not be fair. 

 

But he seemed to have read her thoughts. “You must wonder what on earth you have moved into. The last time we talked in Brussels you were full of getting to know your family all over again, setting up home, getting involved in town life and here you are, right into the middle of the English ghetto, working full time as an unpaid interpreter. I think you have coped marvellously, you have won all our hearts, but I bet inside you can’t help resenting the time and space we have stolen.”

 

She laughed and told him he was a born writer because he was so good at observing people. “You have got me pegged”. Feeling her way carefully,  she admitted that Sarah’s death had thrown all her plans, that she had wanted to introduce Daniel’s friends to her family, particularly her mother and father. And Lynette too, because now that Dominic and Tony were here it would have been logical. “But Mama and Papi, they don’t understand what has happened at all. Unexplained deaths, let alone violent ones, are so rare here. So I want to protect them. I call in to see them, on my way to the shops when I can, not more. And Mayte, well, she is my best friend and here we are, separated by the roles  allocated to us in the tragedy of this death.” 

 

She thought for a moment and then said she also realised how difficult it was for Daniel, wondering whether he had said anything in private to Jonathan and whether Jonathan would, could, tell her if he had. But there was no change at all in Jonathan’s expression as he said, “Yes, I was thinking yesterday about Daniel yesterday. Returning to live near your ex must be hard enough without wondering whether one of your old friends might have done another friend in.”

​

 

DOMINIC and Tony loved the idea of the walk with Punch and Judy and  Daniel suggested they decide the route. Mountain, or even hill, climbing was out in view of the heat but in a leaflet he had picked up in the Tourist office Dominic had found a valley walk that looked shady and ran past small local vineyards to an olive tree reputed to be a thousand years old.

 

Carole’s visit started well. Ana had prepared much of the lunch in advance and the boys persuaded her that she must come on the walk with them. Tony told her with mock sternness “you are not staying here, slaving away in a hot kitchen” and so Ana saluted him; “Right captain” she said and packed water bottles for all and packets of biscuits in Daniel’s backpack. 

 

The dogs were ecstatic, loving the route they took, following smells, imagining rabbits, running back and forward to receive the plaudits of their human companions. “I have haven’t seen them so happy since  ...” Carole paused “for a long time. They love it here, Ivan and I must bring them again. Better than the cliff top all the time”.

 

The path narrowed and the group split up, Daniel walking alongside Carole, Dominic and Ana behind them, with Tony in front, throwing sticks for the dogs.

 

Ana saw how intently Daniel was talking to Carole, putting an arm on her shoulder from time to time and by the obvious comfort Carole was taking from him. She tried to remember the things Daniel had told her. Hadn’t Daniel been responsible for introducing Carole and Ivan?  She thought he had vaguely known Ivan, he was certainly not a friend, and had invited him to a party to see if Carole, and he would get along. Carole was just getting over Tom's desertion Daniel had said and single men under seventy were at a premium.  He had thought Carole and Ivan were so different they just might click. And they had.  Now, seeing them walking close together, she remembered Daniel had told her he was very fond of Carole and had worried about whether she would survive on her own after Tom left. 

 

Dominic, it seemed, had been thinking on similar lines. “Sarah’s death must be very hard for Carole. I remember how devastated she was when Tom left her"  he looked at Ana, doubt on his face, at the wisdom of his words she thought, "Mum and Dad were very close to her so,  in a way, I know her better than any of their other friends. Except for Jonathan of course.”

 

And then he told her that it was strange for him, and for his brother, to see the three of them together, Ana, Daniel and Lynette. He confided how much they enjoyed being with Daniel and Ana; it made, he said, his father seem younger, closer to them, but he wasn’t sure how much Ana knew of the life the family had lived here, in her town, when she had lived far away. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing and risk causing trouble.

 

Ana was touched by his concern, almost to tears. Carole and Daniel were by now far enough ahead on the path to be out of earshot and so Ana turned to Dominic “I am finding it all difficult, cariño, I wanted to get to know your father’s friends, to please him, I suppose, and now I find myself totally entwined in their lives, not sure what I should do anymore. Daniel didn’t talk much about them in Brussels so I was surprised at how close he is to them. I just wish that the police find out  what happened to Sarah Harris, so that we can all move on.” 

 

Dominic gave her arm a squeeze and as he opened his mouth to speak Daniel shouted from down the path “come on, you two, the dogs have already arrived at the tree” and they could talk no more.

​

 

ANA was walking along the Port promenade when she spotted Kevin Somerset sitting alone at a table in one of the many cafes. Holly had told her how depressed Kevin seemed and she intended to get in touch with him. Her many other tasks had got in the way. She asked him if she might join him. His face lightened when he saw her and she felt a pang of guilt.

 

“How are you, Kevin?” she asked cheerfully. “It’s so hot this morning, I was looking longingly at the water and wishing I had brought a swimsuit.  Have you been for a swim today?” She saw immediately, from the way he was sitting, that he was feeling low; his shoulders were slumped, and the grey T-shirt he wore only emphasised the greyness of his skin beneath his tan. 

 

“I can’t go swimming since they found her, Ana. I just can’t stop thinking of her, lying in the water, waiting for me to rescue her, but I didn’t rescue her, I didn’t find her, I didn’t know where she was. How could she have drowned, Ana,  and me not be able to save her?”

Kevin told Ana he had never met anyone who could swim like Sarah.

“Sometimes she would say ‘race you across the harbour, Kev’, and she did. She always won, she had such a powerful crawl, not like a woman. Oh dear, oh dear, it just doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t.” 

 

Ana saw he was very close to tears and, hardly knowing him, she wondered what to say for the best. In the end, she did what came naturally. She pulled up a chair next to him and put her arm around him. “Kevin, you couldn’t have done anything to help her, you weren’t there. Maybe we will never know what happened to her, but whatever it was, you are not to blame.”

 

He told her how agitated Sarah had become before she died, always talking about other people and their bad deeds. “Leave it alone, Sarah gal, I said to her, over and over again. Don’t bother with them. What does it matter what they’ve done?” He had impressed upon her what a great life they lived in Spain, so close to the sea, which they both loved. They thought there was nothing better in the world than a fast swim out to the island, or around the harbour. “And it’s all free. But it’s not the same without her, it just isn’t.” 

 

His voice was becoming increasingly emotional, and Ana doubted sitting in the café in the Port was such a good idea. She thought he lived nearby, and so he presumably knew some of the people around.  “Do you know what, Kevin? I’ve got a good idea. Let’s not stay here. Why don’t we go for a walk by the sea, to the beach and have a coffee in a bar there?” 

 

They walked along the promenade to the popular sandy beach, always crowded. The palm-fringed crescent bay was edged by a paved promenade, all the way to the far side, where the shady terraces of some of the small cafés overhung the water. A wind from the south had blown up during the night, and there were big enough waves to cause the small children bathing in the shallow water to scream with delight as they jumped up and down over the surf, the adults gripping their hands.

 

Ana chose a table where they would not be overheard.