Michael stepped forward. ‘Craddock.’ And they shook hands.
Graham took one look at him, smiled warmly and before he knew it Craddock was wrapped in a bear hug the like of which he couldn’t remember having experienced before. Graham stood back to appraise him. ‘Sorry we’re late, the traffic was horrendous. But we’re here and glad to be. Your wife? Where is she?’
‘In the kitchen checking the soup.’
‘Which way?’
‘Right through to the back.’
Graham marched past the toilet queue and straight into the kitchen where they could hear him greeting Kate. ‘Anita! Come and meet Kate.’
The soup was ready so Kate decided with Graham’s approval that they should sit down immediately as the children had declared themselves starving hungry. Craddock had imagined chaos with so many children at the table, but they all made conversation, had beautiful table manners, apart from Ross who was too young to have beautiful manners although he tried hard. Conversation flowed easily, although Michael remained a little withdrawn, but it was scarcely noticeable with so many squeezed round the table. Kate’s salad and especially her puddings were greatly appreciated by everyone.
‘Now, look, you haven’t got long I know, but shall I take the children to our very new playground here in the village so the grown-ups can have a talk. It’ll do them good when they’ve another long journey to face.’
Anita wholeheartedly agreed but with reservations. ‘It’s rather a crowd. Will you be able to manage?’
Kate smiled. ‘I’m the head of the primary school here in the village, so, yes, I shall be able to manage.’
‘Oh, sorry! You will be able to cope then. I didn’t know.’
So Kate left them to talk and she marched round to the playground with the children, much to Grandmama Charter-Plackett’s surprise who was heading off for a very late lunch at the Royal Oak with a friend from her schooldays.
Kate had left Craddock and his guests with a huge pot of coffee and they sat together in front of the fire in the sitting room with Anita playing hostess.
Michael decided to speak. ‘Strange this, sitting here together, when I’ve resented you all these years for letting mother take us away like she did.’
‘I didn’t let her, Michael. Without any warning, she simply wasn’t there when I got home from work, and neither were you and Graham. I was working on a building site about five miles away, and I came home in my van expecting you all to be at home, and you weren’t. There wasn’t even a note to explain.’
‘But why?’
‘I honestly don’t know. You all went in the old banger we used. I had the van; it was mucky and had no proper seats for anyone other than the driver and one passenger. Where did you go?’
Graham said, ‘We don’t know. We were too young to understand. We thought, I suppose, we’d gone out for the day. But we just never went home. She did it again when I was about twelve and Michael ten. She palmed us off on a neighbour for the morning, she said. But we never saw her again. We still haven’t.’
‘Again? Dumped you on a neighbour? I can’t believe it. What about Cosmo?’
‘The neighbour took us round when he came home from the office and that was that. We’d been dumped again.’
Michael spoke up. ‘You’ve no idea what it feels like. Your whole world destroyed. You never feel safe again. It’s as if you don’t count any more. There’s no security, no safe haven.’ He clammed up after this sudden outburst.
‘I can’t believe it. Do you know where she is now?’
Graham replied because Michael obviously found the situation too difficult. ‘We have no idea. She has never communicated. If it hadn’t been for Cosmo, I don’t know what we would have done. Been put in a children’s home, I suppose.’ The pain in Graham’s face as he remembered was unbearable for Craddock to see.
‘He cared for you then, even though your mother had disappeared?’
‘Yes. They never married, you know, but he told us he thought of us as his own and so he brought us up. School fees, the lot. We couldn’t have had a better dad.’
Craddock had to do a rapid on-site revision of his opinion of Cosmo. ‘Three cheers for Cosmo then.’
‘Absolutely.’ Michael smiled properly for the first time and Craddock saw in that smile that he would have an uphill battle to make a real friend of Michael, never mind a son.
‘You’ve never married then, Michael.’
‘Couldn’t take the risk after the example our so-called mother set us. Makes you feel like rubbish, complete and utter rubbish. Might as well be thrown in the bin for all she cared. It’s extremely hard to trust anyone at all. Without Cosmo . . .’ Michael lapsed into a reverie and stayed that way, leaving Graham to enlighten Craddock about their lives when Cosmo took over.
Eventually Kate came back with the children, and after a while of desultory conversation everyone was toileted again and then moves were made to leave.
While Kate sorted out drinks and treats for the children to have on the next part of the journey, Anita went in to the kitchen to talk to her. ‘Would you be willing to come to stay with us later in the winter? In the New Year perhaps? We’d be delighted if you would. I’m sorry about Michael; he’s one of those who has never got over losing his dad, and then his mother abandoning him. I don’t think he ever will. Cosmo would like to meet you both, I’m sure, and that would be a chance, wouldn’t it?’
‘It would, and we’d be pleased to come to visit. Cosmo must be a very special man.’
Anita agreed he was special. ‘He certainly has been to Graham and Michael, very special. He’d no need to do what he did, school fees, school trips, paying for Graham to go to university, and that’s a big commitment as medicine is eight years. It’s a long time. He cared for them as if they were his own. They called him Dad too.’
Kate packed the children’s treats into a bag and handed it to Anita. ‘It’s meant so much to Craddock you all coming. There you are, will that be enough?’
‘More than enough, thank you so much. It could all have been very awkward this meeting, but instead it’s been lovely. I’m just sorry about Michael; he may not ever get over it, you know.’ Anita reached forward to kiss Kate and Kate kissed her back.
The children came to find their mother and say their goodbyes. Sarah spoke for them all. ‘Thank you so much for having us for lunch, it’s been great. Say goodbye, children, to Granny Kate.’
Unaccustomed to her newly acquired role, Granny Kate blushed bright red with surprise, said her goodbyes and went with Craddock to wave them off.
The two of them collapsed in the biggest armchairs and breathed a sigh of relief, not because they were disappointed in the success or otherwise of their day, but from the sheer exhaustion of having all those young children in their home.
‘I was a little disappointed with Michael. He could have made more of an effort.’
‘Anita says he has never got over losing his dad and then his mother just disappearing. That’s why I assume he’s never married; he just can’t trust people any more.’
‘I hope he isn’t blaming me. I didn’t make her go. She went, it was her choice.’
‘Craddock, take it easy. Anita didn’t lay blame on anyone, and neither should you. It was your Stella who did the departing.’
‘If Cosmo was the kind of man who paid the school fees and looked after those two boys even though he and Stella weren’t married and he’d never adopted them, I’m sure he would have been reasonably easy to live with. What is the matter with the woman? She must be unbalanced.’
‘I’m looking forward to meeting Cosmo.’
‘Are we? Meeting him I mean?’
‘Anita has invited us to go and stay sometime in the New Year.’
Craddock sat bolt upright. ‘She has?’
‘Yes, in front of the children, so I expect she’ll keep her word.’
‘That’s better than I had ever hoped. What were the children like in the new playground?
’
Kate smiled at her memories. ‘Lovely. Little Ross needs a lot of attention but then he is the youngest of five and he’s only two. I suppose he feels left out sometimes and he has to make sure everyone knows he’s there. He’s a very dear little boy.’
‘They are all lovely. Gemma is very quiet, Sarah has a lot to say for herself, and I can’t separate the two older boys as they’re so alike.’
‘Be honest, aren’t you pleased you found them all, Craddock? You do realise they’ve come more than sixty miles out of their way to visit you, remember that.’
‘No. I didn’t realise. I’m so chuffed and so glad it went off all right. I’m sorry about Michael. But underneath it all I think he’s quite a nice person. He’s a computer programmer, you know, he told me but only when I asked.’
Kate smiled. ‘Well, that explains a lot. They get very introverted, computer programmers, he needs a good woman.’
‘All I have to do now is find out where that damned stupid inconsiderate woman is.’
‘Who do you mean?’
‘My ex-wife Stella, and find her I shall. Stella Fitch, presumably, if she never married Cosmo. She was definitely married to me, although she was more than fifteen minutes late getting to the registry office and we nearly missed our slot.’
‘Why bother? You’ve got what you want, contact with your two sons and a positive heap of grandchildren. Isn’t that enough?’
A vicious sneer crossed Craddock’s face which he quickly changed to a smile, but not before Kate had caught sight of the sneer. ‘She’s responsible for a lot of heartache, Kate. I’d like to see how the years have treated her after the tricks she’s played on me and Cosmo and those two boys of mine.’
Kate heard the pride in his voice when he said ‘those two boys of mine’ and rejoiced for him.
Chapter 18
Zack Hooper in his position as verger at the church was still upset about the theft of lead from the roof. Though several weeks had passed, the police had no news about any arrests, and Zack had decided to pay Ford a visit to see if he could help, considering he’d once been a scrap metal merchant.
Marie was horrified. ‘You simply mustn’t. I know exactly what will happen. You’ll lose your temper, he’ll think you’re accusing him of stealing it himself, and before we know where we are you’ll be in hospital with a broken jaw.’
‘For goodness sake, woman, you’re letting your imagination run away with you. I’ll do no such thing. I’m going to get him to help me find out who did it that’s all. After all he won’t have forgotten who is and who isn’t in the business nowadays; they haven’t all dropped dead since he was here last.’
‘Please, Zack, please don’t do it.’
‘I have to, Marie, it’s my duty. I’ve no alternative, we’ve waited long enough. I’m sure our Kitty would make a better job of it. Makes my heart bleed every time I look up and see it missing. And as for the insurance, we might as well not have bothered to pay the premiums; they’re twisting and turning about paying.’
‘You are right about the cat making a better job of it. She’s very bright is our Kitty. Won’t they pay up, the insurance, I mean.’
‘All I can say about that is the rector’s been to see ’em, and you know how persuasive he can be in his lovely way; but it’s had no effect. All sorts of loopholes they’ve discovered. So after I’ve done my jobs in the church, I’m off to see Ford.’
‘Zack, please keep your cool, we don’t want any trouble.’ Marie laid a gentle hand on his arm and squeezed it, adding, ‘Think about your mum. At her age I don’t know how she’d take it if anything happened to you.’
‘I shall be very careful, I promise. In any case she’s so far gone is my mum she’d probably say “who’s Zack, do I know him?” See yer later.’
All his tasks completed to his satisfaction, Zack put a comb through his hair, checked the body of the church to make sure nothing was amiss and went out before the tourists, at the moment reading the inscriptions on the gravestones, went inside. Past experience had taught him they’d question him about anything and everything, and take hours of his precious time. Today he had more important matters on his mind, and why he hadn’t thought of taking such dynamic action before, he couldn’t imagine.
The front garden of Glebe House was immaculate as usual thanks to Merc’s tender loving care. Everyone knew she loved flowers and made sure something or other was flowering in every possible corner of her beloved garden. Zack rang the bell and tried the doorknob, but the door was locked. This was unusual in Turnham Malpas, as hardly anyone bothered with door locking unless they were out for the day or something.
Zack went round to the back door and found Ford painting it a vivid orange, a positively eye-stabbing colour, necessitating sunglasses to prevent going blind if you stared at it for too long.
‘Morning, Ford, how’s things?’
‘I’m painting, as you can see. Nearly done. Come to see me about something, Zack?’
‘I need your help.’
‘Here I am. Ready and waiting.’
‘Well, Ford, when I ask you this question I’m not inferring you’ve done anything wrong, you must understand that, nothing meant by it. But I’m wanting information and you’re the man to give it.’ Zack paused a moment waiting for reassurance from Ford, but he didn’t get it so he stumbled on. ‘You see, we’ve never solved the problem of who stole the lead off the church roof, if you remember? Well, you don’t remember because you didn’t steal it, I didn’t mean it that way, but you know what I mean.’ Zack stopped speaking, he couldn’t find any more words to explain and he was certainly not getting any help at all from Ford who was solemnly putting the final brush strokes on the back door.
Zack tried opening his mouth but when he did no words came out so he shut it again.
Ford carefully hammered the lid back on the tin of paint, having already placed the brush in an old jug kept specially for that purpose, judging by the multi-coloured streaks of paint they had never managed to wash off it.
He straightened up and looked Zack straight in the eye. ‘And?’
Zack cleared his throat. ‘Well, it occurred to me that because of your past, I mean, when you were in the scrap metal business, you would likely be able to tell me who might be guilty of stealing our lead round here. After all we’ve no main road through the village so no one sees the church as they’re passing by, so it must be someone local, don’t you think?’
Ford remained silent.
Zack said, ‘I intend to find them myself as the police have made no progress at all in that direction.’
Ford mulled over what Zack had said. Well, at least it appeared that was what he was doing, but he still didn’t reply.
‘Anyway, if you can’t help, I’ll be on my way.’ After a moment’s hesitation Zack decided to go home. If the chap wouldn’t even speak . . .
‘Come in. Merc’s making coffee.’
Zack’s spirits rose. He slipped off his shoes as Ford did and followed him into the house.
Seating himself at the kitchen table Ford pulled a pad of paper towards him and took a pen out of his shirt pocket. ‘In a twenty-mile radius of Turnham Malpas there are four scrap metal merchants. I shall write them down on this paper in the order of the likelihood, in my opinion, of them being guilty. So the one at the top is the most likely, the least likely is at the bottom. Right?’
Zack nodded. He’d always been able to read upsidedown writing and he watched with interest. As the list lengthened his eyebrows rose up his forehead. Them? Surely not? Never. Couldn’t be, not them.
Ford tore the sheet off the pad and passed it to Zack. ‘That is as far as I am prepared to go. You don’t know me and I don’t know you. You do not mention my name because I could possibly be a goner if you do. But, for the sake of the village, which I love, I am prepared to point you in the right direction. If you fail, don’t feel disappointed. Everyone on that list will tell you nothing but lies, they don’t know what truth i
s, believe me.’
‘You mean they’re all . . .’ Zack didn’t know how to say guilty without inferring. But Ford said it for him.
‘All guilty. Yes.’
Zack raised questioning eyebrows, asking Ford if he knew more than he was letting on, but Ford avoided his eyes, and instead of answering his unspoken question, asked Merc if the coffee was ready.
‘It is. Here we are. Sugar, Zack?’
‘Just one, please.’
Merc began telling Zack about the hanging they were stitching for the new church the other side of Culworth, and the atmosphere changed completely. Ford appeared to drink his coffee in peace, while Zack seethed in turmoil. Had Ford confessed to him or not?
Ford suddenly interrupted their conversation. ‘Zack, you do know you won’t actually find the lead. There are no names on pieces of lead, and the turnover at the moment is so fast after perhaps three weeks it will have been sold on. You do realise though that his own workmen could be stealing for the business with the owner’s connivance?’ Ford winked, excused himself because he had some more painting to do, he said, and left Zack with Merc to finish his coffee.
‘Does he mean that?’
‘What?’
‘That sometimes the workers in the scrap metal yards steal lead, and the owners buy it from them?’
‘Ford doesn’t lie.’
‘I see.’
‘Don’t ask me any more. Ford’s said more than he should. Finished your coffee? I have to press on. Housework, you know. That list you have in your pocket, you don’t tell a living soul where it’s come from, right?’
‘OK.’
‘In fact, I’d like it a lot better if you wrote it out in your own hand and I burned his original list. Here, another piece of paper.’
So Zack copied the list out on to a sheet of writing paper Merc found in the kitchen-table drawer, and she got the matches and burned the original.
It was only when he was walking down Shepherd’s Hill on his way home that Zack realised that Ford and Merc were actually scared, really scared, and a shiver ran down his spine. Maybe he wouldn’t use this list; it all appeared far too dangerous to him. Anyway, he’d think about it.
Village Fortunes (Turnham Malpas 17) Page 16