The Couple in the Photograph

by Valerie Keogh

Now he looked completely puzzled. ‘My toast?’

  ‘To the business.’

  ‘Yes.’ One word drawled out as if he were frantically trying to make sense of the conversation. ‘We’ve done really well this week. I know it’s been a bit frantic but we’ve tied up two valuable contracts.’

  ‘What about us?’

  ‘What do you mean what about us?’ Irritation flashed across his face. He reached for his pint and swallowed quarter before putting it down. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you recently. Abbie says it’s the menopause–’

  ‘Abbie says! You’ve been discussing me with our daughter?’

  Nathan looked suddenly sheepish. ‘I asked her if she knew what was bothering you, that’s all. When she suggested it might be the menopause I did some research and guessed she might be right.’

  Keri glared at him. This wasn’t the kind of conversation about their relationship she wanted.

  ‘Maybe you should see our GP and talk about your options.’

  ‘My options?’

  Nathan, looking mildly embarrassed, leaned slightly closer to whisper. ‘HRT.’

  Her wine glass was already half empty. She lifted it to her lips, drained it and slammed it down on the bar. A conversation about her aging body was the last thing she needed. He hadn’t finished his pint, but she’d had enough. ‘Let’s go home.’ She didn’t wait for his answer. ‘I’ll be outside.’

  The footpath was heaving with people making their way to the station. She moved to a postbox and leaned against it as she waited for Nathan to finish his drink and join her. When he came out, moments later, she thought how sad he looked.

  Guilt wrapped around her and squeezed. What was she doing? Punishing him for her stupidity. She sighed and slipped a hand into his as he reached her. ‘I’m sorry. I’m being a cow. Put it down to the stressful week, okay.’

  He pulled her hand up to his chest and held it there as he looked into her eyes. ‘I love you, I’m sorry if I don’t always show it.’

  She pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘You put up with my moods, I think that’s a pretty good way of showing it.’

  It was a fifteen-minute walk from Highbury and Islington station to their house in Northampton Park. They walked hand in hand, each of them making a conscious effort to keep the conversation away from the business and were laughing about something Daniel had said over the weekend when they turned into their driveway.

  The stone steps leading up to the front door should have been bare. They certainly shouldn’t have had something dark and ominous on the middle step.

  Keri was searching in her satchel bag for her keys so it was Nathan who noticed first.

  ‘What the hell?’ he said, holding a hand out to stop Keri moving forward. ‘Stop, there’s something odd on the steps.’

  She looked up in alarm, half expecting to see another wreath, her eyes widening when she saw the dark mess. ‘What is it?’

  Nathan had approached the steps and leaned over it. ‘It looks like a mangled dead rat. Pretty disgusting.’ He turned to her with a look of distaste and held out a hand. ‘Come on, don’t look, get by it and go inside. I’ll get something to get rid of it.’

  Keri didn’t want to look but she had to. Maybe it was simply a coincidence that the bloody mess was on the same step as the wreath had been.

  A rat. Was this Barry’s way of hinting that he was going to rat on her? She had no way of knowing, no way of finding out. She might have been able to brush away the wreath as someone’s silly mistake – but not now.

  The card on the wreath had said RIP.

  The dead rat didn’t need an explanation.

  14

  Keri put a couple of ready meals in the microwave and sat to wait for Nathan to finish disposing of the creature that had been left on their doorstep.

  They’d been in business a long time and had dealt with their fair share of churlish, ungrateful and downright menacing characters over the years. In the beginning, it was the ones who wanted to put them out of business, in the later years, the ones who wanted a piece of it. But this was different. Would Nathan guess it was personal?

  ‘I’ll have to put down poison again.’ He washed his hands and stood drying them as he stared through the kitchen window, his eyes scanning the length of the garden as he wondered if there were more rodents living there. ‘It’s a few years since we last saw a rat, isn’t it?’ He tossed the towel back onto the rail. ‘It must have been caught by a dog to be that mangled.’

  ‘Yes,’ Keri agreed, relieved when the ping of the microwave distracted them. She took out plates and cutlery, emptied the contents of the packets onto two plates and pushed one across the counter towards Nathan.

  He picked up his fork and shoved it into the moussaka. A spout of steam made him reconsider eating immediately. ‘I’ll take care of it at the weekend,’ he said as he pushed the food around the plate to cool off.

  Keri almost smiled. Her action man. He’d put down the poison and never think of it again. He certainly wouldn’t dwell on it, wouldn’t wonder why a rat had been left spread across their doorstep, would never consider it was a message. ‘I think I’ll have a glass of red with this, you want one?’

  ‘No, I’ll stick to beer.’

  Keri stood and crossed the room to the wine rack. She was trying to find the bottle she wanted when she was distracted by the buzz of a mobile and looked over to see Nathan taking his phone from his shirt pocket. Not for her. She could concentrate on her search. Finally, right at the bottom she found the bottle of Merlot she’d known was there.

  She replaced the screw-top lid when she’d poured a glassful and returned to her seat. Nathan, she noticed, was staring into his food. ‘Something wrong?’

  ‘What?’ He looked at her with a frown.

  ‘I heard your phone buzz with a message. Is there a problem?’

  ‘No, it was nothing important.’ He picked up his fork again and concentrated on his meal.

  She sipped on her wine. Nathan had always been a terrible liar. He became instantly shifty, his eyes slinking away as they were doing now. He had a reputation for being completely honest which amused Keri – he had no choice, the alternative wasn’t an option for him. As a result, he’d never been the one who promised a job would be done by a certain date knowing there wasn’t a chance in hell. That had been down to her. Down to her too, had been the tough business decisions, the hiring and firing of staff. Nathan’s honesty may have contributed to the good reputation they enjoyed, but it was her steely determination, her ability to see problems and instantly search for a solution and fix things that had made Metcalfe Conservation the success it was.

  Her fingers tightened on the stem of the glass. He was lying about the message being unimportant, wasn’t he? Or was it the guilt that was twisting her brain and affecting her ability to think straight. Guilt that made her see lies everywhere, making her paranoid? She put the glass down. More alcohol was not the answer.

  After dinner, they tidied up together. They were past the need to make conversation but usually the silence between them was comfortable. That night, as they tiptoed around one another, it was tense and fraught with the possibility that one or the other of them was going to boil over and say something they would regret.

  ‘I’m going to watch TV and relax. You coming?’ Keri was almost relieved to see him shake his head.

  ‘No, I’m expecting a confirmation email from that new company we’re going to be working with, and I wanted to read through it. Plus, there’s a couple of other things I want to check.’

  Working at home was something they tried to avoid but at times it was necessary. It wasn’t now, and Nathan’s shifty expression made it clear he was lying. As he had been earlier. She was sure of it.

  She picked up the remote to switch on the TV, then walked to the French doors to stare into the garden. When Abbie and Daniel had grown too old to want to play in it, she’d had it redesigned by a well-known gardener. Now it was filled with a variet
y of planting, with something in bloom almost every month of the year. It was looking good now but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d sat out in it.

  Restless, she dropped the remote on the sofa and went upstairs to change from her work clothes. She pulled a silk robe on, enjoying the feel of the fabric against her skin until a memory slipped into her head. A bedroom, silk sheets, her naked body entwined with Barry’s. The thought made her shiver in self-loathing.

  Forcing thoughts of their writhing bodies out of her head, she concentrated on the mystery that was Barry. She’d never brought him home, of course, he knew she was married. But why had they never gone back to his apartment? Hatch Lane, where he’d said he lived was only a thirty-minute journey away. It would have been convenient. She’d never questioned it, happy to meet in the discreet boutique hotel in Walthamstow where she’d ignored the knowing look of the reception staff in her belief that what they were doing was something romantic. Not a tawdry adulterous affair that meant nothing and could cost so much.

  Keri jerked the belt on her robe and fastened it in a tight knot. Maybe they didn’t go to Hatch Lane because everything Barry had told her had been a lie.

  Desperate to get him out of her head, she went downstairs and picked up the wine she’d abandoned earlier. Grabbing the remote, she sank onto the sofa and tucked her feet under her. There was a crime series on the TV. It was gripping, and normally she would have lost herself in the story, but fear over what Barry might do, guilt over her infidelity, and worry over Nathan’s lies all chased round her head as they vied for first place.

  Unable to concentrate on the crime series, she switched to reruns of a property show she liked and reached for her wine. One sip, and she put the glass down again. Maybe a cup of camomile tea would soothe her anxieties. It couldn’t hurt.

  It didn’t help either, but she sat sipping it as she flicked from channel to channel in search of distraction. The tea was drunk and the 10pm news had started by the time Nathan joined her. He looked preoccupied and sat on the other end of the sofa, eyes fixed on the screen.

  ‘Did it come?’ she asked him.

  ‘What?’ He didn’t turn to look at her as if the report about yet another government fiasco made riveting news.

  She didn’t know why she persevered, he obviously wasn’t going to talk about whatever was worrying him. About whatever was making him lie. ‘The email you were expecting.’

  ‘Oh, yes, yes it did. That’s what kept me. I had to reply and send a few other emails.’ He glanced at her then. ‘Before I forget, I won’t be going in with you tomorrow morning. I’ve an early appointment in the city.’

  ‘Really?’ Keri frowned. She hadn’t remembered seeing anything in the diary.

  ‘Yes, Simon Nicholl rang before I left the office. He apologised for the short notice but he had a free hour and wanted to meet up.’

  ‘Oh, him.’ Keri didn’t like the president of the Stone Federation but he was an important man to keep on their side and had to be placated. ‘Good luck with that. You don’t need me to come, do you? I can if you like, I’ve nothing particularly important on tomorrow. Nothing that can’t wait anyway.’

  ‘No.’

  She blinked, surprised at the sharp tone.

  ‘I mean, you hate the guy,’ Nathan said with a smile. ‘You struggle to hide it and I’m not sure he hasn’t cottoned on. There’s no point in your coming. It’s only a routine catch-up.’

  Since when did the self-important Simon Nicholl meet anyone as a matter of routine?

  Nathan reached for the remote and increased the volume as the sports results came on. She would have reached over, grabbed the remote and asked what was going on, if their short conversation hadn’t worried her.

  Nathan was lying about the meeting in the morning. He’d lied too about the phone call earlier and the important email. It didn’t take a vivid imagination to link the lies together.

  Something was wrong.

  She relaxed back and stared at Nathan. He was still focused on the screen as if he were really listening to the sports results but his rigid posture and set expression told her differently. They’d always been able to talk about problems but usually they related to the business. This time, whatever was worrying him was personal.

  In that moment, she remembered how much she loved him. Whatever was wrong, whatever was making Nathan need to lie, she’d find out what it was, and she’d do what she did best.

  She’d fix it.

  15

  The following morning, Keri watched Nathan as he ate his breakfast. He had tossed restlessly all night and was obviously preoccupied. She knew there was no point in asking what was worrying him. If it had been something he’d wanted to discuss, he’d have done so by now. There had never been secrets between them before. No room for them in the early days when they’d done everything together, when they’d spent so many hours making a success of the business.

  And now?

  She had hers, did he have his?

  It had to be something personal. Another woman? Nathan was such a terrible liar she’d always thought he’d be incapable of having an affair.

  Maybe she’d been fooling herself. After all, on his frequent overnight stays he had plenty of opportunity.

  The thought of him with another woman made her squirm.

  Was that where he was going that morning?

  When she received a series of monosyllabic answers to mundane questions, she put her spoon down. Maybe she needed to give him an opening to talk to her. ‘Is everything okay?’ She waited with her fingers crossed under the breakfast bar, hoping that he would mention something work-related, something she could laugh off, or help him solve.

  But he merely looked up from his half-eaten cereal. ‘Everything’s hunky-dory.’

  She wanted to push it, to say he looked a million miles away from hunky-dory. Instead, she got to her feet and put her bowl in the dishwasher. ‘Right. Are you coming to the station with me?’ The Stone Federation’s head office was in the city, if that’s where Nathan was going he could get the Victoria line from the same station.

  ‘Sure.’

  They parted in the station: she heading for platform 3, he for platform 5. Rush-hour busy with commuters, it was easy to get lost in the crush. Easy for Keri to double back and follow Nathan, pushing through the crowd to keep him in view. When he turned for platform 4, she knew she was right. The Northern line wouldn’t take him to the city.

  Half-tempted to continue her amateur detecting and follow him, she shook her head at a sudden descent into farcical Inspector Clouseau territory when she was pushed past the entrance to platform 4 by a sudden swell of impatient commuters. Extricating herself, she retraced her steps to platform 3 and caught the underground to Walthamstow Central.

  Roy was standing behind the reception desk when she arrived at the office a little after nine, Tracy Wirick at his shoulder listening intently. Keri said a distracted hello and went into her office where she sat behind her desk, rocking her chair gently as she tried to think of her next step.

  Nathan’s office would be locked but Roy kept an emergency set of keys. If Nathan were away it wasn’t too unusual for her to want access to his office to look for something she’d mislaid or to search for contact details for someone. But this was different, this was snooping.

  Guilt made her shoulders tense and her smile become rigidly fixed when she crossed to the reception desk to ask for the keys. ‘Nathan’s in later, but I don’t want to have to wait till then and need to check something in his diary.’

  Roy didn’t seem to think anything of her request. He opened the bottom drawer of the cabinet behind him, took the keys out and handed them to her without comment.

  In fact, he was unusually quiet and looked distracted. Maybe Tracy was being harder work than he’d anticipated.

  The thought made Keri smile briefly as she searched through the bunch of keys for the correct one to open Nathan’s office door.

  Their offices we
re a similar size, fitted with the same furniture and decorated in the same shades of grey that were in their Metcalfe Conservation logo of a hammer and intertwined M and C. The stylist had insisted it would look professional and luxurious. Nathan had been pleased with the result but Keri had thought it was cold. She’d counteracted the feeling by hanging large colourful paintings on the back wall of her office but Nathan had left his as it had been finished.

  She sat behind his desk and picked up a sheaf of reports from his tray. If Roy looked her way, he’d think she was looking for something. Which she was, of course, but she wasn’t going to find it in the mass of letters from suppliers.

  His desk diary was where it always was. They both used one as well as their iPhones to keep track of various meetings and contract deadlines. She flicked the diary open, not really surprised to see no mention of a meeting that morning. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. What had she expected? To see a note in his diary saying secret assignation?

  Feeling stupid, she left and went back to the reception desk to give the keys to Roy. There was no sign of Tracy.

  ‘You haven’t frightened her away already?’

  ‘No. I sent her for coffee, thought she might as well make herself useful.’

  ‘How’s she doing?’

  His sigh said it all. ‘I’ve never met anyone who asked so many questions. Why this, why that. Where does this go, why does it go there; who’s he, what does he do, and on and on.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m trying to keep an open mind.’

  ‘It’s only her first day. She’s probably trying to impress you.’ Keri didn’t think it was the time to tell him that she’d promised Tracy remuneration if she succeeded in making a good impression. Maybe that hadn’t been one of Keri’s better ideas.

  Handing back the keys, she returned to her office no wiser. It was possible that Simon Nicholl had arranged a meeting with Nathan at the last minute. And, although unusual, he may have asked to meet somewhere else apart from the Stone Federation’s city headquarters. There was only one way to find out.