by Susan Lewis
Thanks for letting me know, she texted back, and she’d have tried to think of more to say if Martin hadn’t just driven into the forecourt below.
Her nerves were still annoyingly jumpy as she quickly put on the only coat she had and raised the hood before making her way down the outside steps to meet him.
‘Hey,’ he said, coming to shield her with an enormous umbrella. ‘Maybe we should go by car?’
‘But the rain’s not heavy,’ she pointed out, ‘and it’ll only take us a few minutes to get there.’
‘OK, you’re the boss,’ and holding out an arm for her to take, he tucked hers in closely and set off in the direction of the marina.
It did indeed take only a few minutes to reach Luca’s – a cosy trattoria overlooking the south side of the marina where most of the leisure boats were moored – and for just about every step of it he was on the phone. Angie didn’t mind, conversation at this point would have been difficult against the roar of the waves and speeding traffic, and she was quite enjoying holding his arm and listening to him giving instructions or opinions to the person – it sounded like an architect – at the other end.
‘Sorry about that,’ he said, ending the call as they arrived under the restaurant awning. ‘I’ll turn it off now, and I’ve asked Luca to give us a table where we’re less likely to be interrupted. I’m afraid it’s one of the drawbacks of being out with me, I never seem able to go anywhere without running into at least half a dozen people I know.’
Finding that easy to believe, Angie assured him she didn’t mind and watched with amusement as the instant they stepped inside the restaurant he was greeted like a long-lost brother by a short, portly and very effusive Italian.
‘Luca, this is my friend Angie,’ Martin told him. ‘Angie, this is Luca. Try not to mind if he flirts with you, he can’t help himself.’
‘For the ladies it is necessary,’ Luca assured him, and taking Angie’s hand he treated it to a flamboyant kiss.
The place already seemed full to bursting – how different it was at this end of the Promenade to the station end, Angie couldn’t help thinking – but after their coats were taken Luca himself showed them to a beautifully laid table set into a niche towards the back of the noisy room. No sooner had their candle been lit and menus produced than Martin’s phone rang.
‘Sorry, I thought it was off,’ he grimaced, and without checking who it was he kept his promise and closed it down.
Feeling she should do the same, she was taking hers from her bag when a server came to speak quietly into Martin’s ear, and Martin immediately looked out across the restaurant.
‘My ex-mother-in-law,’ he explained to Angie, ‘I ought to go and say hello. I’ll be right back.’
Realizing it must be Andee’s mother, Angie tried to get a glimpse of the woman, but Martin’s retreating back was blocking the way. However she did see how warmly he greeted her and the man she was with.
Deciding to use these few minutes to text goodnight to the children, Angie pressed the home button on her phone and noticed that Grace had tried to call about fifteen minutes ago. It would have been while she was walking here so she wouldn’t have heard it ring in her bag, and now wasn’t a good time to call back unless there was a message requesting this. There wasn’t, so she sent texts to both children telling them she loved them and wishing them goodnight. To Grace she added, I should be home by ten, if you’re still awake call me then.
Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare!
Lois was standing in the doorway of her parents’ sitting room, phone in hand as she watched the Corrie credits roll. There was no point trying to talk to her mother while the programme was on, but now it had ended Becky turned to offer her full attention.
‘Are you OK?’ she asked. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
Lois’s hand tightened on her phone as she said, ‘I can’t get hold of Grace. She’s not answering my messages or my calls.’
Puzzled, Becky said, ‘Have you two had a falling-out?’
Lois shook her head impatiently.
‘Maybe she’s out somewhere with her mum?’
Becky looked down at her phone and taking a deep breath, she said, ‘I don’t think so. I mean …’ Her eyes came up, bright with fear. ‘Mum, there’s something I have to tell you …’
Angie was telling Martin about her meetings with the debt adviser, Rudi Granger, trying hard not to feel embarrassed by her misery, but feeling it anyway. ‘He has everything now,’ she said, ‘but I have to see him again to go through something that came to light today.’
Martin cocked an interested eyebrow, but she waved a dismissive hand. She wasn’t going to mention the horrific increase in her council-tax debt; she wasn’t even going to think about it, at least not tonight.
‘OK,’ he said, ‘I’m glad he’s turning out to be helpful,’ and seeming still to be mulling it he picked up his wine. It was white and came from the same region of Italy as Luca – Timorasso, Angie thought he’d said, but he might have been referring to the name of the grape rather than the place. It was delicious, anyway; she just had to make sure she didn’t have too much and end up saying more than she should.
‘And Jerome’s going to appear in court for you?’ he prompted.
Angie tried not to wince. ‘He says I don’t need to be there. He’s going to pay the outstanding bill – I’ve already given him the money – and then he’ll explain my situation in the hope of reducing the fine.’
Martin’s intense eyes were studying her closely, seeming to see, she felt, more than she wanted him to. It wasn’t making her uncomfortable exactly, but she’d very much like to start steering the subject away from the mess she was in. Before she could attempt it, he said, ‘Tell me more about Roland Shalik and the eviction.’
Smarting, she tried to work out how to voice the worst of her humiliations without sounding bitter or pathetic, but before she could begin he told her, ‘I knew Hari, his father, pretty well. He was a good man, tough but fair, and I know how fond he was of Steve. Everyone did, including Roland, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some jealousy there.’
Though Angie had long suspected this herself, she still had to say, ‘Whatever nastiness Shalik has going on in his head, and I know there’s plenty of it, I can’t get away from the fact that I fell behind with the rent. And everything he’s done to get me out has been above board; he gave me all the proper notices, he even offered to lend me money or find me somewhere else to live.’
Martin’s expression showed what he thought of that. ‘I can guess which properties he had in mind,’ he said, ‘and most would be on the north side of the Temple Fields estate, so you were right to turn them down. Please tell me you didn’t accept a loan from him.’
‘I didn’t,’ she confirmed, ‘but I came very close. I even …’ She faltered, realizing she was about to go a step too far with her admissions. He didn’t need to know that things had got so bad she’d actually considered working for Shalik – and as recently as the morning she’d ambushed him, Martin, at the Seafront Café.
Seeming to suspect at least something of what she’d been about to say, Martin shook his head as if further condemning Shalik. ‘It beats me how someone like Hari could have had such a thoroughly unpleasant son,’ he commented. ‘Nothing I ever hear about him is good, that’s for sure, and plenty of it is downright despicable.’
Angie was on the point of telling him about Sasha, but since she didn’t actually know if Shalik had been the one to exploit her she decided to let it go; the last thing she wanted this evening was to start discussing Shalik’s involvement in vice.
After the waiter had ground pepper over their starters, Martin asked, ‘Do you still have all the paperwork leading up to the eviction?’
Trying not to wince at the second use of the word, she said a simple ‘Yes’, while thinking if they had to keep talking about Shalik she was going to lose her appetite.
‘I’d like to see it,’ he explained. �
�Can you bring it to the office?’
Knowing she didn’t want anyone to see it, least of all him, she said, ‘The lawyer has it right now, so if you’re thinking there might be something I missed I’m sure he’d have picked it up.’
He didn’t disagree. ‘OK, I’ll give him a call. Is your furniture still in the house, by the way?’
She shook her head. ‘We moved it out last Friday. A friend of my sister’s has it stored in his warehouse. He sells kitchens …’
‘What’s his name?’
‘Melvin Humphries. He lives …’
‘I know Melvin. We’re about to award him a big contract to fit out the apartments in the new retirement village.’
Angie felt a beat of pleasure for Melvin, and relief that she hadn’t had to try and put in a good word for him – Emma’s last instruction before they’d parted company earlier. Emma had also behaved as if Angie were going on a date tonight, which had ended up making Angie lose her temper.
‘Just stop!’ Angie had snapped at her. ‘It’s not a joke and if you liken me to Eliza Doolittle or Cinderella or some other absurd fairy-tale airhead again, I’ll whack you.’
Emma had laughed. ‘Why don’t you just loosen up and make up your mind to enjoy yourself? He’s an attractive man who’s taking an interest in you …’
‘It’s not that sort of interest, and the reason he’s helping me is because of Steve.’
‘OK, because of Steve, but he doesn’t have to take you to dinner to find out how his rescue mission is going, does he?’
Though Angie had bristled at rescue mission she’d forced herself to let it go, because Emma was right of course. He didn’t have to take her to dinner, in fact he didn’t have to do anything for her at all, but she was beginning to understand just how unconventional and generous and unselfconsciously charming Martin was. He would take her, a virtual stranger, to dinner just as he would take one of his children, or a client, or anyone else if it was that time of day and he was hungry.
‘I’m hoping to hear back from the chief housing officer next week,’ Martin was saying, ‘but I’m already reliably informed that there are only half a dozen council-owned properties on the Fairweather estate, which was where I was hoping to swing it. They’re all occupied at the moment, and I’m not being led to believe that one will come free any time soon. Having said that, until I hear from them we won’t know what is, or isn’t, possible. I just want you to be prepared for the likelihood that you will have to leave the estate.’
Angie’s heart clenched as she attempted a smile. ‘I’ve been trying to prepare myself for that for a while,’ she assured him, ‘but I don’t think it’ll really sink in until I actually know where we’re going.’
‘Well, wherever it is we’ll make sure it’s not a temporary B & B, because we all know that temporary in those circumstances can mean two years or more with no kitchen and shared facilities.’
Feeling embarrassed and anxious again, Angie was grateful for the interruption of their plates being cleared to make room for the main course. She couldn’t stop thinking of how beholden she was to this man, of how few people were swept clear of the gutter, as she had been, just as they were falling into it. How was she ever going to repay him? How long would his patience and generosity last?
‘Have I upset you?’ he asked softly.
She looked up in surprise, and seeing he meant it she smiled. ‘Not at all,’ she replied. ‘I was just wallowing in the shame of what I’ve brought on myself, and how fortunate I am to be where I am … I don’t mean here, in this restaurant, well I do, of course, because it’s lovely, but I’m thinking of the flat, the job with Martha and how much you’re paying me … There are so many people out there right now, this minute, in far worse situations than I even want to imagine, and I keep wondering who’s helping them. The answer is no one, of course, or certainly no one like you.’
Though his eyes were gentle, they were starting to dance. ‘So is this you asking me to rescue the whole town?’ he asked.
She smiled again. ‘Sorry, I just couldn’t help thinking that way.’
‘It’s OK, I understand, and it’s not that they don’t matter, because of course they do, but just for now can you try to look a little less glum or people will think I’m boring you.’
She had to laugh, and as the moments of sad reflection receded she picked up her glass to drink more wine.
‘Now I’m going to ask about Andee,’ he told her. ‘I find that’s always a good way to go when things get awkward.’ She wasn’t sure whether he meant that, or was being ironic. ‘She filled me in on your meeting after it happened,’ he said, ‘but have you heard anything from her since?’
Angie shook her head. ‘Before I left she said it would probably take a while, so I’m not expecting anything yet.’
Apparently unsurprised by this, he sat back in his chair as their mains arrived – for her a pine-nut-crusted sea bass, for him a succulent tagliata (one of Steve’s favourites).
‘I was wondering,’ she said, picking up her fork, ‘how much your mother is enjoying having you around?’
Clearly amused by the question, he said, ‘She took off for Majorca the weekend after I moved in, so she’s not getting the real benefit of it. Anyway, it’s her grandchildren she really loves having under her feet. Luckily my sister’s kids are not far away, so she gets to see them more regularly than my two.’ He went on, more gently, ‘Do your children have grandparents?’
She shook her head. ‘My mum would have adored them, and Steve’s mum definitely did, but she passed away five years ago. It was awful, we were all very close to her, but at least she didn’t see how bad things got with Liam, or what happened to her son.’ Before he could respond in any way, she said, ‘We can’t keep talking about me; apart from it being all doom and gloom I really don’t want people to think I’m boring you. So please can we talk about something else for a while?’
Grinning, he said, ‘Sure. Do you have anything in mind or shall we just see where things go?’
She shrugged, a show of nonchalance that she didn’t actually feel. ‘Why don’t you tell me more about you and your family?’ she suggested. ‘I know your dad was one of the most popular mayors we’ve had in Kesterly, so do you ever think about following in his footsteps?’
He gave a cry of laughter. ‘Good God no. Unlike him I can’t stand politics, so believe me, the town is safer if I stick with building up his business.’
‘Did you always work for him?’
‘No, in fact I never did. It passed to me when he died and because I knew it was what he and my mother wanted – and because Andee and the children were here in Kesterly – I decided to move back and do the right thing.’
Puzzled, she said, ‘So where were you before that?’
Sighing, he picked up his wine and studied it for a while. ‘I guess you could say I was out there screwing up my life.’ He smiled ruefully and drank. ‘Of course I didn’t see it that way at the time,’ he continued. ‘I thought I was … Hell, I don’t know what I thought I was, apart from pretty damned clever and living the life I’d always wanted, regardless of what it was doing to anyone else.’
‘And it wasn’t the life you’d always wanted?’ she ventured.
He shook his head and shrugged. ‘I guess I did for a while, or at least I thought I did. Andee and I met at sixth-form college, here in Kesterly. We moved to London together, started a family, and when she set her heart on becoming a detective – following in her father’s footsteps – I decided to sort myself out with a job working from home so I could take care of the kids. It all went along fairly well for a good many years, but over time I got to hate being a house husband. I might well have had to lump it if I hadn’t made a success of an Internet security system I created while waiting for the kids to come home, but I did make a success of it, and when I was bought out by an American company it kind of went to my head. Not in a good way, I hasten to add. I decided I’d had enough of living with a woman
who was married to her job, and kids who were teens by then and hardly ever at home. It was time for me, I told myself, and so off I went into the big wide world to get a taste of what freedom felt like.’
Quietly stunned by this, Angie said, ‘So you just upped and left your family?’
He nodded. ‘That’s what I did, and now it’s hard to put into words just how ashamed I am of it, and how much I regret it.’
‘So how did Andee manage after you left?’
‘With difficulty for the first year or so. She had money, I made sure of that, but it’s not everything, in fact it doesn’t even come close when you’re feeling betrayed, abandoned, furious, trapped … She felt a lot of things that weren’t good, especially towards me, and who can blame her? Then she got herself transferred from the Met to Kesterly CID and things slowly started to get easier for her. Her father had already passed away by then, but her mother was here, my parents too, of course, so they helped with the children while I carried on swanning around the globe on my freedom trip. Then my father died and when I came back to sort out the funeral I saw Andee and I realized straight away what a terrible mistake I’d made. I still loved her – actually I kind of knew that all along – and I’d missed out on so much of the children’s lives that I knew even then that I’d never forgive myself. I thought they’d never forgive me either, any of them, but luckily for me they did.’ His eyes had lost focus as he gazed at his memories and Angie could sense the remorse in him almost as deeply as she felt her own for sending Liam away.
‘I wish,’ he went on sombrely, ‘that I could tell you it wasn’t too late, that when Andee agreed to marry me after all those years of living together followed by a pointless separation we went on to live happily ever after, but I’m afraid it didn’t work out like that. Oh, she married me, but only because it was what everyone wanted. You could say she sacrificed her own happiness for the sake of mine and the children’s and our families’, and I let her, even though I knew she didn’t love me any more, or certainly not in the way she once had, or in the way I loved her. Added to that was the fact that she’d met someone else. She gave him up when I asked her to marry me, but her feelings for him …’ He took a breath as he raised his eyes back to hers. ‘He’s a good guy, and frankly he deserves her far more than I do, because I can’t see him walking out on her the way I did, or letting her put his happiness before her own.’