Private London

Chapter 47

Penelope Harris could never have been described as a cheerful woman

And that Saturday was no exception. She worked as a dental nurse in a small clinic in Old Amersham and was due to have the Saturday off. But due to staff shortages – caused by a stomach bug that had been doing the rounds though had mercifully passed her by – she had swapped her rota and agreed to come in.

Most lunchtimes she would have had a packed lunch in the staffroom. A cheese-and-pickle sandwich with a packet of crisps and a black-cherry yogurt. She never varied her routine. Routine was important to Penelope. Without routine you had chaos, as far as she was concerned, and Penelope Harris abhorred chaos as much as nature abhorred a vacuum. And one of the things Penelope did every Saturday afternoon was her weekly shop at the big Tesco.

So that Saturday lunchtime found her there – pushing her trolley round in a foul mood.

The place was busier than ever and Penelope had to manoeuvre her way around hordes of extremely overweight shoppers. But Tesco stocked a ready meal called Finest Spaghetti Bolognaise, perfect for one. It was her Saturday-night treat when she settled down to watch Casualty, her favourite soap, and she would be very put out if she missed out on it. Luckily they had some in stock. She had backup in the freezer, but it wasn’t the same thing as fresh. Not the same thing at all.

Still, she was a bit flustered, a bit hot and not in the best of tempers when she returned to the surgery.

She had left her mobile to charge and there were three missed text messages on it waiting for her return, and one voice-recorded message.

As Penelope listened to the message the fragments of any remaining hope of a better day vanished quickly. The phone fell from her hand to clatter on the hard floor of the dental surgery’s staffroom.

Her colleague Debra Brooking turned in surprise as she poured hot water from the kettle into a Pot Noodle.

‘Everything all right, Penelope?’ she asked. ‘Not bad news, is it?’

Penelope nodded, her face ashen. ‘It’s my brother. He’s just been run over by a train.’