To Catch a Rabbit by Helen Cadbury Page A

took a deep breath and got out of the car. The house was in the middle of the row. It was rented from a local farmer. She noticed that the windows and door had been recently replaced with PVC double-glazing. She’d come this far with the conviction that she should do something, support Stacey, help her and help Phil, if he could be helped. Now she wasn’t so sure. She rang the bell. The chime triggered the frantic barking of a dog and a weight hurled itself against the door.
    ‘Marvin! Get back, you stupid mutt!’
    After a scuffle, Stacey opened it. She’d become thinner, but harder. Still pretty, but some of the effortlessness had gone.
    ‘Karen. Hi.You’d better come in.’
    ‘Marvin? I didn’t know you’d got a dog.’
    ‘She’s Phil’s.’ Stacey said. ‘Silly bugger didn’t ask what sex it was. Got her from a feller whose house he was decorating. Called it after Marvin Gaye.’
    Typical Phil, Karen thought.
    Stacey disappeared into the kitchen to put the kettle on, while Karen sat down in the front room, taking in the tidy toy corner and the neat row of framed pictures on the mantelpiece. One was a photograph of Phil on a beach with Holly on his shoulders, her white blonde hair against a sky full of rain.
    ‘Cleethorpes.’ Stacey handed her a mug of coffee. ‘You wouldn’t believe it was July. He had a summer season with an end-of-the-pier band.’ Karen winced at the chemical smell of instant. ‘Is that all right? You do take milk, don’t you?’
    ‘Yes, it’s lovely. Thanks.’ They sat in silence for a moment. Karen wasn’t sure how to frame her questions. Max said she mustn’t be too bossy, so she chose her words carefully. ‘Have you thought any more about talking to the police?’
    Stacey looked into her mug. ‘I told your dad. There’s no point.’
    ‘What about a helpline? There’s a missing person’s helpline.’
    Stacey pressed her toes into the pile of the carpet. Her nails were painted the same shade of purple, like chameleons disappearing into their habitat. Karen could see Holly’s features in her, the same wide brow and open face.
    ‘Would you like me to do something?’ Karen offered. Stacey shook her head. ‘Are you in some kind of trouble? I don’t really understand.’
    ‘Look, Karen, I don’t want to be nasty, I thought we were all right, me and Phil, apart from the fact he’s never had a proper job, but it turns out it’s worse than that, he’s been a right bastard and I didn’t know the half of it.’ A rush of air and water gurgled through the radiator. Marvin pushed through the kitchen door and wagged hopefully at Stacey’s feet. ‘Now he’s buggered off and I haven’t even had the chance to have it out with him, face to face.’
    Getting no response, the dog turned to the visitor and pricked up one ear. Karen reached out a hand and Marvin sniffed it.
    ‘I’m sorry…’ She wanted to say something else, defend her brother, but she wasn’t sure what the charges were.
    ‘It’s okay. I was proper worried and all, the first couple of days. But then a friend set me straight. Told me a few home truths. I think he’s just legged it, if you must know.’
    ‘Has he gone off before?’
    Stacey shook her head.
    ‘Dad said...’
    ‘I’m sorry for your dad. He looked, right, I don’t know, disappointed. I told him Phil gets cold feet about marriage, and being part of a family and that, because it didn’t sound as bad.’ She took a slurp of coffee. ‘Look, this friend of ours, Johnny, came round and told me some stuff about Phil and, well, it weren’t just one other lass, but a few. Johnny says he’s been covering for him ever since we’ve been together.’
    ‘And Phil’s with one of these women?’
    ‘There’s a married one. Don’t know her name. Her husband left her and she was doing up her house to sell. Phil worked out there for a few weeks, decorating. I never thought.’ Stacey rubbed a mark on the arm of her chair with her thumb. It