Behind Closed Doors Read Free Page B

after Frank! The biggest thrill of all was going in search of new friends in the holiday parks who were visiting from all over the country. How they used to envy those kids being able to spend a whole two weeks
in a caravan
.
    As she rounded the first bend past an old shack calling itself Saucy Spicy Ribs, a crazy-golf course and a crowded café, her memories became so clear she could almost taste the candyfloss and toffee apples of bygone years, and hear the squawk of Punch and Judy. Certainly she could smell fish and chips, and the blare of music punctured by shrieks, bells, sirens and laughter seemed almost as thrilling with the memory doors open as it had in reality over twenty-five years ago.
    How could she have been back in Kesterly for more than a year without coming here once? She knew her kids had been down, probably more often than they told her, but though she passed the place almost daily, generally out on the ring road on her way to the notorious Temple Fields estate, or to the motorway if she was heading further afield, surprisingly nothing had brought her here.
    ‘Wouldn’t it be brilliant to live in this place all the time?’ Frank used to gasp during their escapades, when they’d help their new friends struggle huge urns of water back to their caravans for washing or cooking. If it rained they’d play snap or old maid or spoons, all snugged up in the cosy banquettes of someone’s holiday home, or go to watch a magician, or a fire-eater, or a clown with cute dogs at one of the Entertainment Centres. (It turned out their grandparents had always known where they were, and since the world had been a rather different place back then they’d trusted the stallholders, park managers and various other adults to keep a watchful eye on the adventurers.)
    It was hard to imagine allowing young children such freedoms today. In fact, Andee would rather not try, given how many more predators there seemed to be out there now. As far as she was aware, though, there had never been any trouble, or certainly not of that sort, in Paradise Cove.
    Which brought her back to Sophie Monroe and exactly who the mysterious friends she’d mentioned in a text might be.
    Passing three banners for Eli Morrow’s Dare Devil Show Tonight at 6.30 and a huge blue elephant inviting all takers to eat as much they could for a fiver, she followed Barry into the recessed entry of Blue Ocean Holiday Park. Had she been told it was called Golden Beach she’d have known exactly where it was, but it had apparently changed names since her day.
    It had also, she noticed, as they drove under what appeared to be a permanently upright security barrier, acquired some fancier caravans than those she remembered, and a rather quaint red-brick bungalow near the entrance which, she knew from Barry, was home to the manager, Heidi Monroe, and her family.
    Pulling into a reserved spot outside the dwelling, while Barry and Simon Lear, who was with him, drove on to the site offices and entertainment complex, Andee turned off her engine and was about to gather up her bag when her mobile rang. Seeing it was her mother, she clicked on. ‘Hi, everything OK?’ she asked.
    ‘I’m fine,’ her mother assured her. ‘Just wondering what time to expect you this evening.’
    ‘Hard to say. Why, do we have something on?’ Please don’t let her have forgotten her mother was entertaining, she managed to let her down often enough as it was.
    ‘No, not us, but I’ve been invited for drinks at the Melvilles’ and I wondered if you’d like to come with me.’
    ‘As your date?’
    Her mother’s laugh rarely failed to make Andee smile. What a sweet, beautiful, courageous woman Maureen Lawrence was. How could life have treated someone so gentle so cruelly?
    ‘How about as my significant other?’ Maureen suggested, having recently learned the phrase from her grandchildren and been tickled to bits by it.
    Still smiling, Andee asked, ‘When do you have to let them