Lottie smiled to herself before she opened her front door. A bundle of Sean’s hurleys stood in the corner of the porch and the holly wreath was caked in frozen snow, blown there by the wind. The wooden plaque on the wall beside the bell read ‘Penny Lane’. Adam had christened the house. Each of the four bedrooms, named after the Beatles. It seemed cute at the time. Now it was plain sad.

She lived in one of thirty semi-detached houses, midway along a mature, horse-shoe shaped estate. It was near enough to the greyhound stadium to hear the cheers every Tuesday and Thursday evening. But she never ventured the couple of hundred metres down the road to the track. Adam had taken the children a couple of times but they weren’t enamoured by the skinny dogs and their fat handlers. Tonight the area was quiet. No racing until the ground was back in shape. Good, thought Lottie; she needed the peace and quiet.

Silence greeted her as she hung up her jacket, the rap music consigned to Sean’s virtual world. Having worked eighteen hours, Lottie’s body creaked but her mind was wound up.

In the kitchen, a plate with two slices of pizza was left out for her. Chloe had written a note, ‘We DO love you.’

She popped the pizza into the microwave and poured a glass of water. She loved her children, but usually didn’t have the time to tell them. She saw so little of Katie. The nineteen year old commuted daily to college in Dublin. But even throughout the holidays, she was never around. She’d been the apple of her daddy’s eye and had been so moody since Adam died. Lottie didn’t know how to handle her.

Having devoured the soggy food, she climbed the stairs to her ‘John Lennon’ bedroom. Chloe and Sean were in bed. She closed their doors and glanced into Katie’s room. Empty. She would have to talk to that girl. Tomorrow. Maybe.

Katie Parker lay back in her boyfriend’s arms.

His hair tickled her nose. She tried not to sneeze and stifled a giggle. He appeared not to notice as he inhaled deeply from the spliff clutched between his long thin fingers. When he’d filled his lungs, he passed it over. She shouldn’t take it but she desperately wanted to impress Jason. At nineteen, she should have more sense. Her mother would have a fit if she could see her. Tough shit, Mam; always pontificating about the dangers of drink and drugs; maybe her mother should practise what she preached.

Katie brought the rolled taper to her lips, inhaled its acrid odour before sucking deeply. She had expected a lightness in her head, but never had she experienced this thrill.

‘This is so cool,’ she said.

‘Take it easy.’ Jason rose on to his elbow. ‘I don’t want you puking all over me.’

She squinted up at the ceiling and saw little stars painted there. She assumed they were painted, otherwise she was hallucinating.

‘Do you have stars painted on your ceiling?’

‘Yes. A throwback to my Harry Potter days.’

‘I love Harry Potter,’ Katie said. ‘All that mystical stuff. I used to wish I could magic myself into a different world. More so, after my dad died.’

Jason laughed. She glanced sideways at him. He was gorgeous, with his designer jeans and Abercrombie hoodies. She was so lucky. Today, when he had asked her to his home, she’d nearly died. Her house would fit into his sitting room. She was glad his parents were not around, because genuinely she would not have known whether to bow or genuflect. As for his room, it was fantastic. The size of hers, Chloe’s and Sean’s all scrunched into one.

First year of college was a bore, but he’d picked her from all the other girls. She was floating.

‘Here, give me some, you greedy thing,’ he said.

She handed over the spliff and though his arm was hard beneath her head she could feel some of the softness of the pillow. She closed her eyes. Definitely floating.

Yeah, if her mam could see her, she would have a grade A fit.

‘I better go home. It’s after midnight,’ she said, trying to sit up.

‘Are you Cinderella, or what?’ Jason laughed. ‘Will I turn into a pumpkin if I don’t get you home?’

‘Be serious.’ She sat up and felt around for her jacket.

‘All right, spoilsport, I’ll take you home,’ he said.

Katie kissed him on the lips. Now she had wings.

Sean Parker watched from his bedroom window as his sister and her boyfriend curled into each other on the snowy driveway. He witnessed them kissing under the road light and saw the smile on Katie’s face. When had he last seen his gloomy sister so happy?

He couldn’t remember.

Lottie eased her body into bed. She reached over her hand and felt the Argos book there, weighing down the duvet, her trick to keep the bedclothes tight on Adam’s side. She had tried the phone book once. But it wasn’t as good as the Argos book.

She lay awake thinking of Susan Sullivan and James Brown, trying to understand what they could possibly have been involved in to warrant their deaths.

Once she heard Katie turn her key in the door, she immediately fell asleep.