The Dinner Party

by R. J. Parker

  Ted barely heard the announcement. Was one of them still alive? Still caught up under the train?

  ‘Ted, what can you see?’ Juliette was closer now.

  Then his eyes detected a movement to the far right of the tracks, only about a hundred feet from where he was standing. It was Connor, lying on his side, his one arm jerking. ‘It’s Connor.’ He pointed for Juliette’s benefit. ‘There!’

  Juliette clutched his shoulder and looked over it. ‘What about Orla?’

  As he hurried back to the top of the bridge steps, he heard Juliette react to what was further up the tracks.

  ‘All passengers on platform 1 please return to the main concourse. The train doors will not be opening. All passengers on platform 1 please return to the main concourse.’

  His heels resounded on the steel steps as he thudded quickly down them. Ted stood on the edge of the platform and for a moment couldn’t see Connor. Then he spotted the blue of his leather biker jacket protruding above the furthermost raised track. Ted dropped down onto the dirty grey gravel.

  ‘Ted, don’t!’ Juliette shouted behind him.

  Ted looked right. No train entering the station. He had to get to Connor.

  ‘Get out of there! You’ll be electrocuted!’

  Ted briefly froze. She was right: the tracks were live.

  ‘Get back on the platform!’ a male voice yelled.

  But Ted only hesitated for a few seconds before stepping forward, jumping between the wooden slats until he’d reached Connor.

  Connor was in a worse state than he’d thought. Even though it appeared the velocity of the train had spun him clear, he’d sustained a serious injury to the left side of his head. Dark blood matted his hair and pooled in the chippings under his face. Then Ted saw the state of the arm as its spasms continued. It had been yanked out of its socket, the blue sleeve the only thing keeping it in place. ‘Connor …’ He reached out a hand but withdrew it. Had to wait for a paramedic. ‘Connor, can you hear me?’

  ‘Ted!’

  He looked over to where Juliette was crouching at the edge of the platform with three men next to her. One, wearing a high-vis vest, was restraining her in case she tried to follow him. A fourth was climbing down onto the track.

  ‘Get an ambulance, I think he’s still alive!’ But Ted couldn’t be sure. His arm movement was decreasing. ‘Connor?’

  He opened both his eyes, his left lid fluttering against the sticky blood. His lips unstuck and he painfully drew breath. His pupils darted, as if he were trying to recall what had happened.

  ‘Connor, it’s Ted. You’re safe. Don’t move, don’t try to say anything. The ambulance is on its way.’

  ‘Orla?’ Connor frowned and a red rivulet trickled over the side of his nose.

  ‘Don’t talk, just hold on. They’ll be here in no time.’ Ted looked back at the bridge. They were safe, tucked away at the side of the tracks. But sitting there he realized how far Connor had been thrown.

  ‘Is she OK?’ Connor’s eyes fixed him intently and he shifted his shoulder to get up but gasped in agony.

  ‘Don’t move, OK? Just wait for the paramedic.’ What else could he say?

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  Ted only registered the scalding heat of the tasteless coffee as it reached his stomach. Juliette sat opposite him in the hospital waiting room. He recalled climbing up into the ambulance with her but had very little memory of the journey to Oakhurst General. The pain from the injury at the back of his head had withdrawn, like it had been sapped by the intensity of what had just happened.

  How long had they been waiting there? He concentrated hard on the face of his watch: 2.33. Through the low hiss in his ears he realized Juliette was speaking.

  She was on the phone and nodded at him as she responded to whoever was on the other end. He peered into the empty paper cup in his hand and gently squeezed against its waxed shape.

  ‘That was Kathryn.’ Juliette was suddenly sat on the chair to his right.

  ‘You told her?’

  ‘Yes. And Renton still hasn’t finished with her.’

  Ted tried to focus. That situation seemed like a week ago. ‘He’ll be here sooner or later. What about Georgie?’

  ‘I told you, Peta’s going to drop him home and Zoe will be there to look after him.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Now he remembered the conversation. He tried to absorb his surroundings. How long ago had they given their statement to the policeman who had accompanied them? He was nowhere to be seen. The waiting room was a lot quieter than when they’d arrived; only a handful of people were now sitting in the rows of grey chairs in front of them.

  ‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ Juliette put her hand against the nape of his neck.

  The warmth of her light touch seemed to spread over his shoulders.

  ‘Maybe you should speak to somebody.’

  ‘We both should. But let’s see how Connor is doing first.’ A female doctor had told them that he was the only one to survive. Ted assumed the platform was closed while they recovered the remains of Orla’s body. He still couldn’t shift the expression that had been on her face before she’d dropped out of sight. Through whatever drugs she’d taken she’d acknowledged their presence and still gone ahead.

  ‘I thought Orla was so much stronger than Connor …’

  Ted had believed the same. ‘Could it have been the medication she was taking?’

  ‘Maybe. Did Connor talk about it this morning?’

  This morning? He couldn’t believe what had transpired since then. ‘Only that she’d taken some pills to help her sleep.’

  ‘What else did he talk about?’

  Ted racked his brains. ‘The Rohypnol, we discussed that. He didn’t stay long. Said he wanted to get back to her so she wouldn’t wake alone.’

  Ted’s attention was drawn to a surgeon in green scrubs who entered the waiting room area and scanned the people assembled there. But they recognized someone in the second row and gestured. A couple stood and followed him through the swing doors.

  Ted’s thoughts drifted back to the bridge, him coming down the steps and then jumping onto the tracks. ‘I kissed Shawna.’ He anticipated Juliette’s hand breaking contact.

  Her palm remained there.

  ‘At the summer party last year, in the Fire Station bar,’ he continued.

  Juliette hesitated before replying. ‘Don’t do this now.’

  ‘That’s what I wrote on my piece of paper, what you forgave me for in front of the others.’

  ‘Ted, this isn’t the time.’

  He couldn’t look at her. ‘You never came.’

  ‘Georgie was ill,’ she said emotionlessly.

  ‘You called me after I’d got there.’

  ‘I told you to stay. Pointless both of us missing it.’

  Ted felt like his words were coming unbidden. ‘Georgie was ill, and I was at the party.’

  ‘It was a stomach upset, nothing serious. I told you he was fine.’

  She was being too reasonable. Him doing it while she was at Georgie’s bedside was what made him sick with guilt. The drunken kiss had been nothing but that. Too many glasses of wine and their lips held together for a matter of seconds. But she’d offered to wait with him for his taxi to arrive and he’d known why.

  It had been a warm night and her mouth had been hot against his. A few seconds and he’d broken away from her. He’d told her to go back to the party and she’d pouted. Shawna was only in her mid-twenties. He’d met her a few times at Juliette’s office, conceded she was gorgeous, but that had been the night he’d discovered her friendliness towards him masked something else. It hadn’t been premeditated on his part. He hadn’t even wanted to go to the party. But as Juliette wasn’t there Shawna had taken it upon herself to introduce him to everyone. She’d hardly left his side. He hadn’t eaten and he’d drunk too fast.

  All pathetic excuses. And even though their kiss wouldn’t have aroused suspicion in anyone watching, he’d b
een complicit. While Juliette had been nursing Georgie. And that was what he would always regret. ‘After what happened today—’

  ‘Don’t.’ Juliette’s hand still hadn’t lifted away.

  ‘There was nothing there. But for a few seconds … I just want to be honest.’

  ‘Just stop. I knew about it,’ Juliette stated simply.

  Ted met her eye for the first time since the confession.

  ‘How could I not? I know who Shawna is. She told me she’d looked after you, made sure I knew as soon as I got into work the next day. Made it sound so harmless. I guessed she was covering herself.’ She shrugged.

  But Ted didn’t believe the gesture. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘That’s OK.’ She enunciated the ‘OK’ and fidgeted with her phone. ‘I’ve already forgiven you for it.’

  ‘It was just a stupid party game.’

  ‘Then why write it down?’

  ‘It was all I could think of.’ And that was the truth.

  Juliette’s fingers slid away from his back. ‘You could have scribbled anything.’

  She was right. Despite his reservations about playing he’d been an opportunist.

  ‘I think we can survive your secret.’ She turned away from him.

  ‘Mr Middleton?’

  Ted noticed that a diminutive, balding middle-aged man in green scrubs was standing in front of them.

  ‘Mr Lowney is out of danger now. His arm was broken in three places and he’s lost a lot of blood but he’s in a stable condition.’

  He felt at least one knot loosen. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘His lack of serious trauma leads us to believe that he probably rolled across the top of the train.’

  ‘Is he conscious?’ Juliette asked.

  ‘Yes. But barely, we’ve administered morphine for the pain.’

  Juliette took Ted’s hand and squeezed.

  Ted put his over hers but was immediately considering the reality that Connor had woken to.

  ‘He’s asked to see you.’

  Ted frowned. ‘So soon?’ What would they say to him?

  ‘Normally we wouldn’t allow it, but he says it’s of some urgency. If you’d just like to follow me.’ The surgeon headed for the ICU.

  Ted looked at Juliette and they both stood.

  The surgeon swivelled back to them. ‘Just Mr Middleton, he was specific.’

  Ted frowned again, but Juliette released his hand and nodded.

  ‘Go on, quickly,’ she said.

  Ted followed the surgeon into the recovery area.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  Ted struggled to keep up as he was led past several curtained-off sections of the ward. The surgeon slowed as he reached a set of blue drapes and gestured for him to make his way behind them.

  ‘He knows about his wife?’ Ted couldn’t be the bearer of that news.

  ‘He’s just been informed, so he’s still in shock. Please take that into consideration. Two minutes only.’

  Ted stepped past him and entered the area. A masked nurse was making clipboard notes on the other side. She nodded and vacated the tight space.

  Connor was lying in the bed on his back, his bandaged head raised and his pulverized arm in traction. He had an oxygen mask over his face and was connected to a drip. He wasn’t asleep or unconscious though. His eyelids were squeezed shut in pain.

  Ted stood there for a few seconds before he spoke. ‘Connor.’

  He immediately opened them, and they were blurred and full of anger.

  He took a pace closer to the bed. ‘Looks like you had a lucky escape.’ Ted regretted the words before he’d finished uttering them.

  Connor breathed faster and the oxygen mask blurred around his nose.

  ‘Whatever it is you’re feeling …’ Ted felt his own eyes burning. ‘However helpless you’re feeling, we’re right here. All that’s important now, before anything else, is you recovering.’

  Connor croaked something, but it was incoherent. He lifted his good hand with the cannula in the back of it and tried to remove the mask.

  ‘I don’t think you should do that.’

  But Connor dragged it off and took a gulp of fresh air. His complexion was pale and shiny with sweat.

  ‘Just take it easy.’ He wondered if he should summon a nurse.

  ‘I don’t know what she was taking …’ Connor slurred. But he didn’t appear to have the strength to speak.

  Ted guessed the morphine had kicked in. ‘You don’t have to do this now.’

  ‘When I got back from your place …’ he inhaled and flinched, ‘she’d got out of bed.’ He let his head fall back on the pillow as if the exertion were too much.

  Ted waited.

  ‘I told her about the Rohypnol. She went quiet. She dressed and said she needed some fresh air. Wanted to go for a walk. She still seemed strung out on whatever pills she’d taken. I offered to go with her, but she said no.’ Connor closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he regarded Ted as if he was surprised to still find him there. ‘I knew something was wrong. I followed her. She walked through town, wandered aimlessly round. Then she went to the station.’ Tears rolled down both his cheeks. ‘I saw her standing on the bridge and I realized what she was doing there.’

  ‘We all tried to stop her.’ Ted knew it was no comfort.

  Connor’s head lolled forward, but he fought the drowsiness. ‘Orla got up on the wall and wouldn’t come down. I thought Juliette could talk some sense into her. Orla just kept saying sorry.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She wasn’t making much sense, said it was her fault. That she should never have tried to get even.’

  ‘With who?’

  Connor shook his head. ‘I had her …’ He was back in that moment, the panic suddenly vivid in his eyes. ‘I was holding her. She wriggled free.’

  ‘I think you should leave now.’ A nurse was at Ted’s shoulder.

  Connor looked through Ted, as if staring at the drop below the bridge. ‘She didn’t want me to save her.’

  ‘That’s enough.’ The young nurse went to Connor and tried to fit the mask back over his mouth.

  Connor’s eyes remained open.

  ‘He should rest now. The doctor will let you know when you can see him again.’

  But Ted loitered at the curtain.

  ‘Can you go back to the waiting room, please?’ the nurse said sharply.

  Connor blinked heavily and then he was out again.

  Ted returned to Juliette, who stood as soon as she saw him.

  ‘How is he?’ She lowered her voice, so the other people couldn’t overhear. ‘Did he speak to you?’

  ‘He’s pretty sedated. But he said that Orla was apologizing to him on the bridge. Saying she shouldn’t have tried to get even.’

  Juliette sat again. ‘Did he know what she was talking about?’

  ‘No. Sounded like she was doped up on her strong sleeping pills.’ Ted seated himself and scanned the waiting room. ‘Where’s the police officer gone?’

  ‘He was taking a call the other side of reception the last time I saw him. Maybe he’s speaking to Renton.’

  ‘I’d better let him know when he comes back.’

  Juliette quickly stood again. ‘I need to go to the bathroom.’

  ‘Are you OK?’ Ted thought Juliette looked as white as Connor had.

  ‘I’ll be fine.’ But she headed off immediately.

  Ted watched her go. He decided to give her a few minutes and then see if she was all right. His phone buzzed in his pocket, so he took it out and looked at the display.

  Grant Tulley has accepted your friend request.

  CHAPTER SIXTY

  Juliette got out of Ted’s Corsa in front of Kathryn and Rhys’s house in Dixon Street. It was just before five in the afternoon and already dark.

  ‘If he approaches you, just get in your car.’ Ted looked beyond her to her Fiat 500 and Rhys’s red Lexus on the drive. There were no lights on in the windows of the pro
perty. Maybe Rhys hadn’t returned.

  The policeman at the hospital had said that Renton wanted to interview Ted first about the incident at the railway station at six o’clock and that Kathryn was still with him. It was six hours since they’d dropped her off. Why was he holding her so long? With Connor heavily sedated they’d decided to pick up Juliette’s car so that she could go home and relieve Zoe while Ted went to the police station.

  Juliette edged cautiously up the drive to her yellow car and it beeped twice as she unlocked it.

  If Rhys came out, they’d have to tell him what had happened to Orla. But Ted hoped they could avoid any confrontation with him until Kathryn had set him straight.

  He kept an eye on the front door as Juliette slid into her car, but nobody appeared. Even though he was beginning to believe she might have already forgiven him for Shawna, Ted wondered if she would ever reveal her secret.

  She closed her door, started the engine and reversed down the drive.

  At the end of the road, they both turned in different directions, Juliette towards home and him back to town and another conversation with Renton. But Ted had over an hour before he was due in the detective’s office and as he waved and accelerated away from Juliette, he again felt guilty about where he was headed in the meantime.

  Ted had passed The Mason Arms in Brayford every day on the train for the past seven years, but he’d never been inside the place. Brayford was a nondescript village with only a tyre centre, a new estate that dwarfed the original houses and the pub.

  He parked up on the street outside and walked through the entrance. The gloomy interior told him it was one of those dives you marvelled at still being open. There were a few guys in work-clothes laughing noisily at the bar, but the remainder of its considerable floor space was full of empty tables with dog-eared menus on them. Looked like Grant Tulley hadn’t arrived yet. The barman eyed him warily, so he ordered a Coke and sat in the corner furthest from the others.

  When he contacted Tulley via Messenger from the hospital waiting room, he’d got an instant response. He opened his phone and re-examined it.