Book Extract, from Chapter 1

 A flash of fluorescent yellow made them both gasp as the shop door to Blue Moon Vintage was opened just then by a female police officer wearing a hi-vis vest.

‘Does this belong to you?’ she asked as she led a dishevelled Nana Rose into the shop.

The policewoman appeared weary and only stopped long enough to confirm that Rose did belong to Lilian and Daisy before she disappeared back to more serious police matters. Her powers of deduction had been severely tested as Rose had refused to volunteer any information when she’d been spotted stealing someone’s coffee from a table outside Costa. It was only when the old woman insisted on repeatedly singing the song ‘Blue Moon’ that the enterprising officer remembered the name of the shop around the corner and reached a logical conclusion. Promotion to CID was surely just a matter of time.

Once the policewoman had gone, Rose stood smiling sweetly at her daughter and granddaughter as if butter wouldn’t melt. Lilian chose that moment to ask the least important question.

‘Why were you stealing someone’s coffee? You don’t even like coffee?’

Rose shrugged. ‘Yes, as the saying goes, I’m a cup of tea in a world of skinny lattes.’

Lilian goggled at the lucidity of the old lady’s response and simply turned and headed to carry out the one activity guaranteed to bring a semblance of normality to any given situation. She put the kettle on.

Daisy guided Rose into the changing cubicle, sat her on a high-backed chair and looked for something more suitable for her to wear.

‘Here, Nana, try this.’

She handed her a pale-blue twinset in soft cashmere and Rose stroked the fluffy fabric with her cold hands.

‘Oooo, lovely.’

‘What were you up to, Nana? You know you really can’t wander around the town like this. You’re not properly dressed or anything?’

Daisy tried to keep her tone light, but her voice caught in her throat as she watched Rose pluck at the pearl buttons on the cardigan. Seeing her nana like this was excruciating, there was no denying something was very, very wrong. Rose was looking at her with such a strange expression on her face, as though she was trying really hard to remember something. The old lady opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again and shook her head as though whatever it was had disappeared from her mind, again.

Daisy’s attention was suddenly caught by the sight of what looked like a massive wound on Rose’s bare upper arm.

‘Oh, Nana, what have you done?’

Rose followed Daisy’s gaze and then bizarrely started to chuckle. She looked up with a fresh light in her eyes as though she now knew exactly what she wanted to say. She put a finger to her lips.

‘Shhhh,’ she said, her eyes darting towards the back room where Lilian was still making tea. ‘Promise me you won’t tell your mother?’

Daisy made no such promise but Rose carried on anyway.

‘I’ve kept this a secret for years. I don’t know how I’ve done it but once you keep a secret for so long…’

She tailed off as she turned her body and stuck out her arm so that Daisy could get a better look. There on the freckled skin at the top of Nana Rose’s wrinkled skinny arm was the last thing Daisy expected to see, a rather faded but still-beautiful tattoo of a blood-red rose.

Daisy stood in open-mouthed shock as she stared at the tattoo on her grandmother’s arm. She barely noticed Lilian pull back the velvet curtain of the changing cubicle and take in the scene with one cursory glance.

‘Oh for heaven’s sake, cover that up!’

Daisy whipped her head towards her mother, ‘You knew about this? You knew she had a… tattoo?’

‘Of course I knew, but I made her promise not to show it to you in case it gave you any more silly ideas.’ Lilian put down the mug of tea and deftly pulled the blue cardigan sleeve over her mother’s skinny shoulder. Her careful actions were in marked contrast to the coldness in her tone.

Nana Rose reached out and patted Lilian’s hand. ‘There’s something you don’t know though, my girl.’

Lilian remained brusque, but the concern in her voice for her mother was beginning to break through. ‘I expect there are many things I don’t know, but let’s see about getting you home, shall we? I think we ought to call the doctor.’

‘NO!’

Lilian and Daisy were taken aback as Rose raised her voice, her whole body now clenched and taut.

‘I have to tell you… before… too late.’

‘What is it, Nana? You’ve not had your belly button pierced as well, have you?’

If in doubt, make a joke. It was Daisy’s default setting, but Lilian shot her a look that said, ‘Not now’. Rose took no notice of Daisy’s lame attempt at comedy anyway.

‘It’s… your father…’

Now it was Lilian’s turn to look confused.

‘My… what?’

Daisy could not imagine where this was going. Her mother didn’t have a father, she didn’t have a grandfather. Rose had been a single mother in the Sixties and no one had ever wanted to talk very much about all that.

‘His name…’ Rose left a dramatic pause that Lilian found completely maddening.

‘You have never told me my father’s name… never once in my whole life…’

Daisy flapped her hand towards her agitated mother. ‘Let her finish.’

Rose looked steadily at them both; she suddenly seemed composed.

‘His name…’ She took a steadying breath in and out before continuing. ‘… was Elvis Presley.’