Piper was standing in the queue in Starbucks the following morning when her phone rang. A Merseyside number. She answered it.

‘Is that Piper?’ a man’s voice asked and Piper felt her stomach flip over.

‘Yes,’ Piper said, shuffling forward as the queue moved a little. ‘Who’s this?’

‘My name’s Jim. I’m one of Connie’s neighbours? She’s okay. You don’t need to panic.’

‘Oh,’ Piper said. She stepped out of the queue and sat down at a nearby empty table. ‘What happened?’

‘She… I brought her to the walk-in centre. She’s just in with them now. She told me not to phone you but—’

‘I’m glad you did,’ Piper said. ‘Thank you. So what happened?’

‘When I got up this morning, her door was open. I called out to her, but she wasn’t there so I went downstairs to see if she was outside with the dog and she was, but she was… confused.’

‘God,’ Piper said. She reached for a cup on the table, remembered it wasn’t hers, and pushed it away.

‘She was in her nightdress. And barefoot. And when I approached her, she didn’t know me.’

Piper squeezed her eyes shut, tears burning her throat.

‘She seemed to think she was at the house she grew up in. She… she was asking for her mum and her sisters. She said the house had changed and she didn’t know who’d done it. She was quite distressed.’

‘Okay,’ Piper said, her voice tight. ‘Okay.’

‘I knocked on one of the other neighbours – do you know Beryl? She took her up to the flat and helped her get dressed and then in the car, coming here, she seemed like her normal self again. But… I don’t know. I don’t know if she had a stroke or… we’ll find out, I suppose.’

‘Thank you,’ Piper said. ‘Thank you for finding her and taking her to hospital.’

‘It’s not the hospital,’ Jim said. ‘Just the walk-in centre.’

‘Yes, sorry,’ Piper said. ‘But thank you. I really appreciate it.’

‘I didn’t want to worry you,’ he said, clearing his throat. ‘But I thought you should know.’

‘Thank you,’ Piper said again. ‘If there’s any news can you call me? Or ask her to call me, if she’s up to it? I’ll phone her later, but just in case there’s something…’

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’ll let you know.’

Piper stayed sitting for a little while, taking deep breaths and waiting for her legs to stop trembling. Then she headed to the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face and sat on the loo, lid down, until her heart rate returned to normal.

Connie couldn’t die. Not yet. Piper wasn’t ready. There were so many things they still needed to talk about. Piper had so many questions. She knew Connie had boxes of her parents’ stuff that she’d told Piper she and Holly needed to go through, but there’d never been a right time.

She should call Holly.

---

‘One of us should go up there,’ Holly said.

Before ringing her sister, Piper had bought herself a latte and a cheese toastie and texted work to tell them she was going to be late.

‘That’s what I thought,’ Piper said.

‘I can’t,’ Holly said. ‘Not this weekend. James has got a dinner tomorrow night –someone from the New York office, and then on Sunday morning I’m playing tennis—’

‘Oh yeah,’ Piper said, picking a chunk of melted cheese off the crust of her toastie. ‘Wouldn’t expect you to miss tennis.’

‘It’s not just tennis,’ Holly said. ‘It’s a networking thing. It’s important.’

‘Right,’ Piper said.

‘Are you doing anything?’ Holly asked. ‘This weekend?’

She’d actually been planning a RuPaul’s Drag Race marathon with Matt, pizzas, Haribo, and wine – they’d been looking forward to it all week – but she wasn’t going to tell Holly that.

‘Not really,’ she said instead. ‘I could probably go.’

‘I can pay half your fare, if—’

‘I can pay my fare, Hol, thanks,’ Piper said, rolling her eyes. ‘I’ll go up in the morning.’

The faint feeling washed over Piper again – what if that was too late? What if Connie died in the walk-in centre? What if she was dead now?

‘She’ll be okay,’ Holly said. ‘She’s hard as nails.’

Piper laughed. ‘She’s old. I keep forgetting how old she is.’

‘I know. But this… if this is the first time something like this has happened… Did he say?’

‘No.’

‘And she was okay last time you saw her?’

Piper tried to remember when that had been. February? For Connie’s birthday? She wasn’t sure she’d even made it up then. So it would’ve been Christmas. Nine months ago. Guilt curled her stomach. Although Holly hadn’t even made it then: she and James had spent Christmas in Morocco.

‘She was a bit forgetful. And she’s always repeating stories on the phone. But I wasn’t worried, no.’

‘Okay,’ Holly said briskly. ‘So try not to worry too much now. I bet you’ll get up there and she’ll be her usual self.’

Piper nodded. ‘You’re right.’

‘Let me know, okay? Ring me when you get there.’

‘Yeah,’ Piper said. ‘I will.’

‘Cheers,’ Holly said. And ended the call.

Piper finished her latte and toastie and wondered how her sister always seemed to weasel out of any family obligations. Not that they had many any more. But Piper was always the one who phoned Connie and then passed any info on to Holly. Piper certainly didn’t visit enough, but she visited a lot more than Holly. Neither of them ever wanted to go back to New Brighton, but somehow Holly had mostly managed that, whereas Piper was now booking a return train ticket on her phone.

It was only one night. She was a big girl. She could cope with just one night.