Silent, The Legacy

Two Years Earlier, Lucy

'How did my father get in so much debt?’ she said.

'Well, it's a long story,' Arthur said. 'Gambling, I'm afraid. He kept it a secret from your mother.'

Exactly what her adoptive parents had said, minus the gambling.
‘How long did he have a gambling problem for?'

'I really don't know. I was quite astonished to discover his gambling habits.'

'Didn't the police investigate the gambling debts?’

'Indeed. The police treated the unpaid gambling debts very seriously. They did a thorough job.’

'But they didnt find anything?'

'No. Listen, Lucy, I'm afraid not. I'm extremely sorry to say this, but I don't really see how any other explanation fits, other than the official one.'

'You believe my father did it, don't you? Started the fire or paid someone else to start it?’

'I don't want to believe it, Lucy  I really don't  but I'm afraid I can't see any other alternative, all things considered. Please, hear me out. I loved your father very, very much. He was like a son to me. Naturally, I feel responsible for what happened.'

More silence. She wanted to get up and leave in a fit of anger. Stand on a corner and scream.  It was so unfair. She'd gone to all this trouble just to hear the truth.  The ugly truth.  Arthur was right. Dad had planned to leave her and Mum alone to deal with his debts. Over fifty thousand pounds!  She should have accepted the truth years ago and moved on.

But Dad wouldn't have put her life in danger.  He couldn't have started the fire or paid someone else to. She mustn't just give up on him, even if he had intended to leave her and Mum. She had to clear his name, even if he had devastated her by the way hed treated Mum.

'So Mum didn't know about the gambling then?'

‘No, I very much doubt she did.'

'He rang you that night, didn't he? About twenty minutes before the fire.'

'Yes, he did.'

'Why?'

'Well, he was upset. Extremely so.'

Exactly what she remembered...Dad carrying her out of the flat, struggling to remain upright in the smoke. Sobbing, I'm sorry, Lucy.  I never meant for things to get this bad.  But at some point that night, she'd become aware of Dad having a conversation with someone outside the flat, a man. Later, a man had peered in at her through the bedroom window.  Dad.  A man in a balaclava. Whichever way she looked at it, she had to admit that Dad appeared to have had something planned that night.

'Upset and heartbroken,' Arthur went on.  'I was alarmed. My Lily was asleep beside me and I didn't want to disturb her, so I took the rest of the call downstairs.  This was when mobile phones were becoming fashionable, although I didn't then own one. Never really liked them to be perfectly honest. Always ringing at the wrong moment.  Are you sure you want me to go on?  It's quite distressing.

'Please.'

'Very well, Lucy. Your father said he'd reached a point in life where he could no longer go on and that he was very sorry.  He told me he'd done something utterly unforgivable.'

'Did he say what?'

‘One would presume he was referring to the entire problem - for instance, having kept his gambling habit a secret from your mother, the resulting debts that neither he nor your mother would be in a position to repay, the plane ticket he'd bought, and the effects his absence would have on you and your mother. Naturally, I could only draw one conclusion from these words: that he intended to take his own life.'

'And you didn't call the police?'

Arthur emotional. 'How I wish I had. Oh, yes. I will never forgive myself for not having done. Instead, I called Terence, my son, and woke him. I told him to go straight to the House and I'd meet him there. I drove over to Lyme House as fast as I could. Terence did the same. By the time I got there, the flat was on fire and Terence was desperately trying to find a way in to rescue your parents. You were lying on the grass, barely conscious.  A little girl of seven. If either of us been any later getting there, you wouldn't have made it. Absolutely not.'

Arthur took a deep breath and continued in a shaky voice.  'Please, Lucy, go back home and get on with your studies. You have so much to look forward to. We can keep in touch by email if you like and keep it a secret from your adoptive parents - for now, anyway - but you really don't want to be here, digging around in a past that no one can change.'