by Karen Botha
Something flashes in my eye again and I head towards the police car without even realising I’m moving. The smoked windows had hidden the occupants. Wyndham is in the back seat - in cuffs. I could swear he’s shrunk by several centimetres. I struggle to comprehend the situation as I tuck the keys I'd been jangling into my pocket. They were after Giles, but now Wyndham is handcuffed in the rear? Did they arrest Giles and Wyndham got in the way? My brow furrows as I hedge closer. As I do, I spot Mo in the driver's seat.
‘What’s happening?’ I stoop down to the half open window, it hums as Mo releases it fully. I’m so relieved to have someone who can clear this up.
‘Hi Lucy,’ Mo smiles, ‘we have a bit of a situation here.’
‘I can see that, what’s happening?’ I repeat.
‘Ah, I can’t really go into details.’
‘I’ll tell you what’s happening,’ Wyndham pipes up, his mouth hooks upwards, sneering. ‘They just burst into my house, bloody thought I was being broken into so I did a runner and they only went and fucking arrested me.’
‘Huh?’
‘You’re not arrested, you’re helping us with our enquiries.’ Mo says all this without turning. ‘Are you confused?’ he directs at me.
‘I am, why are you breaking into Wyndham’s place?’
‘Oh, have you not spoken to Paula?’
‘No, what’s going on,’ that's the third time now and I’m starting to get antsy.
Wyndham chimes in again helpfully, ‘They’re up for proving I had something to do with Steph's death. They’re ripping my home apart and banging me up whilst they no doubt plant their evidence.’
Nothing is making a lot of sense right now and I study Mo, head tilted to one side, eyes scrunched trying to understand. ‘Why are you searching Wyndham's house?’ My chest is pounding and my brain races struggling to tie dots together.
‘OK, so it’s a long story and I can’t go into detail. I’m sure our friend here,’ he gesticulates with his head towards the back seat, ‘will happily fill you in on his side.’
‘Thanks…’ I flit my eyes towards Wyndham whilst inwardly cringing. I’m not one hundred percent I really want to hear what’s coming.
‘They were going on about the CCTV footage. Don’t know why they’re so caught up about some grainy old films of Steph being ill, anyway; but they seem hell bent on getting it.’
‘Because it will help to clear up whether Steph's passing was suspicious,’ I shoot back before realising what I’ve said. ‘So, Paula may not have been mad with jealousy after all?’ I ask, almost to myself.
Mo smiles, ‘Oh, she’s mad with jealousy alright,’ and he nods his head, pulling his mouth closed into a tight smile, ‘but you’re her best friend, she would die rather than let any harm come to you. Unfortunately for you though, she also has a nose for things not adding up like no one else I've met. In this instance, her gut instinct and her drive to protect you means you are well and truly stuck in the middle.’
I reach through the open window and squeeze his shoulder.
‘Where’s Giles in all this?’ I suddenly realise he may be in this up to his neck.
‘He’s at the station.’
‘What’s he doing there?’ comes a hollow voice from the back seat.
‘Helping us with our enquiries,’ Mo says elevating his volume but not giving any clue as to what he means by his use of such a generic line.
I screw my face up asking for more, is assisting with the investigation a good thing in this instance? He shrugs his shoulders and tips his head backwards, he can’t tell me any more with Wyndham being all ears.
Paula stomps out of the house, all business, and heads over to us. She is as confused to see me as I was a few minutes earlier. ‘I was driving by.’
‘Ah, right?’ She’s unsure of how she should be with me. Her awkwardness radiates and I mirror her tension as I struggle to put all this new information into context.
‘Your blue light is still flashing,’ Paula reminds Mo.
‘Ah, jeez,’ he curses flipping a switch. ‘I forgot it with all the commotion, hey, Mr Farrow’ he raises his voice so Wyndham can catch it and chuckles lightly to himself at his joke.
‘Mr Farrow?’ Does Wyndham have another name?
‘Yeah, fancied himself as an Olympic runner earlier did our Wyndham.’ Mo is still chuckling, and despite myself, I join in.
‘So what are you doing?’ I ask Paula.
She studies me for a solid second, then grabs my arm, pulling me out of earshot of the car.
‘I guess this as good a time as any,’ she explains what has happened since we were last together.
‘I don’t know how to feel about all this,’ I choke, ‘it’s too much to take in.’
‘Yeah, try not to dwell on it. We have such a huge amount of stuff to go through, the team are in there bagging any relevant belongings now. We won’t understand what this all means until we’ve done the real detective work.’
‘So, you’re sure that Giles is at the station only because he’s helping you to make sense of this muddle?’
‘That’s right. He found the discs, gave them to me and is waiting to help us run through them. It will save time with understanding who we're watching.’ Paula explains.
‘I’m sorry,’ I tip my head as I smile, asking for forgiveness.
‘It’s OK, me too. It’s been a difficult few months and I can see why you were the way you were.’
My heart fills with love and before I realise it, I throw my arms round her shoulders. Her body bumps into mine as I pull her tight. I’ve caught her off guard. When she’s on her feet again her arms wrap tightly around me and we take a few seconds to re-bond.
When we finally move away from each other, Mo is smiling from the front of the car.
‘Come on you two, there’s work to be done you know.’
‘OK,’ and that’s it, we’re back on track as we both burst out laughing.
Wyndham’s face screws up in the rear of his confinement. I’m not sure if he was hoping for more sympathy when I turned up, but after the few weeks I’ve had, I just want some solid answers. I don't care what those answers are right now as long as I know where I stand.
‘I’ll be here for a good few hours, you might aswell go home and get some rest,’ Paula instructs.
‘OK, will you call me if you need anything from me, or if you make any progress?’
‘Sure thing,’ she squeezes my arm.
It's weird, waving bye, too many situations for there to be a right way to handle it. Instead, I turn and wave at Mo and Wyndham and make my exit, hoping that Wyndham hasn’t spotted me driving Giles’ car.
It’s only when I’m half way home that I wonder where on earth Penelope was throughout this pandemonium.
GILES
‘You’ll want to watch this one,’ I call out to Mo. Paula is off getting some more coffees. The one’s from the machine at the police station are as bad as all the movies portray.
‘What is it?’ he heads over to where I’m seated at a spare desk in the incident room.
‘Oh, something else I wish I’d never seen.’
‘Oh,’ he retraces his steps and grabs a chair from one of the empty grey desks.
‘I’m growing immune to it now,’ I can hear the weariness in my own voice.
Mo finally sits next to me at the screen. I’ve re-wound to the correct place in the video, he presses play. It flashes to life. Hugh is on top of Steph. They’re in our bed, a silent symphony of passion. I screw my eyes tight shut so as not to have to watch again.
‘Are you OK?’ Mo asks.
‘I'm flat. I know I should be hopping mad but I am so tired of this whole episode. My brain is scrambled egg. You could show me anything I’d not react.’
‘Well, shout if you need a minute,’ Mo offers kindly.
‘Yeah, maybe it’ll hit me in a bit, but right now I'm drained.’
Right on cue Paula walks in with fresh coffees.
&
nbsp; ‘Giles will have a brandy in his,’ Mo directs. I thought he was joking, but Paula heads over to Mo’s bottom drawer and pulls out a half empty bottle.
‘We could all do with some actually,’ Mo corrects.
‘Why what have you found?’ Paula asks as her head jolts upright, beady eyes staring.
‘Pour the drinks then come and see at this,’ Mo signals her with his hand.
And so I watch it again. I sip my coffee-laced brandy. Slowly.
‘When I called you with the results of my exploration, worried about destroying my relationship with my brother, I didn’t expect to be tying in my best friend aswell.’ Giles rubs his mouth.
‘Yeah, right now, you’re dead set on losing pretty much every person you trusted, it’s a tough one,’ Paula replies.
Mo stops the tape.
‘Go pick him up,’ Paula orders Mo.
‘Precisely my thoughts,’ Mo busies himself with getting ready.
‘Why now? It’s not exactly urgent after all this time.’
‘Catching people in the middle of the night, is when they least expect it. They are off-balance so tell you snippets they would never have dreamed of if they had a chance to pull themselves together.’
‘Are you OK to carry on here?’ Paula is half way through the door.
It would appear I've been accepted.
I watch more footage and mull over Wyndham’s interview. He didn’t act any different to how I expected. He’s outraged that the police had the chance to seize his private property. He apparently doesn’t understand what anyone could want with some old tapes. They’re irrelevant he says.
My brother is bright though, I need to work out why he’s playing dumb.
The CCTV continues to play in the background. There are various insignificant comings and goings. A few visits by my Mum bringing shopping, preparing lunch, chatting whilst Steph lays in bed; that kind of thing. There’s a handful of illicit rendez-vous between the two cheating couples, nothing that I particularly consider enlightening anymore. I make a note of the time points anyway so they can be double checked by the team if they choose.
It’s not as dramatic as TV. Hugh shows up in sweat pants. He has a bald patch at the back of his head from his pillow. If I were in a different frame of mind I would marvel at how far my relationship with Paula has come in such a short space of time; but it’s not about my relationship with her.
I sit in the tiny box room and watch the video of Hugh's interview play out. Mo switches the tape on and begins with formal introductions.
‘Why am I here?’ Hugh enquires.
‘Look, I’m going to cut the bullshit,’ Paula crows, ‘we found CCTV that shows you having a personal relationship with Steph Harrington before her death.’
Hugh’s eyes don’t blink as he considers this information. ‘What does that have to do with why I am here?’ He thinks better of denying it.
Paula continues, ‘The nature of the footage would suggest that you were about to be found out by Giles and this my dear gives you a strong motive.’
‘Strong motive for what?’
‘We’re not messing about, you understand what’s going on, and why. It's best to co-operate and quit any plans of game-playing you may be considering.’
I see what people mean about Paula, she is as tough on Hugh as she was on me. At least it wasn’t personal.
Again there is a pause whilst Hugh considers his options. He’d be a fool to underestimate Paula and I guess he knows that because he replies, ‘OK, so I had an affair with Steph. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it happens all the time, I’m not unique. It doesn’t make me a murderer.’
Paula is prepared, ‘Having an affair doesn’t, but being found out and losing not only your family but your best friend is motive in my book.’
‘It’s not like Giles didn’t know. Steph was special, she needed special attention. Giles knew this when he married her.’
‘Why do you claim that?’
‘Because if he didn’t he’d be the only man alive.’
‘Doesn’t sound like you have an awful lot of respect for her, did you love her Hugh? Did you love Steph?’
As Paula spits their names, it hits home what has been going on under my nose. I suddenly want to ask the questions, to learn how long, and why did it seem OK to tarnish the only thing that I held special in life. I couldn’t ask, but neither could I listen to anymore.
I get up, knocking my leg against the metal table and walk out of the room letting the door swing shut behind me. Neither the clang of the door or my knee registers.
When I pull up on my Mum’s gravel driveway it clicks, it’s still only just past five in the morning. I sit in the driver’s seat for I don’t know how long, embracing the sun as it starts its daily rise to the side of the house. The cheerful orange glows hope over the horizon.
I’m roused from my trance by Mum clicking her finger nail on the drivers window. My brain is engulfed in fog as I register her wildly gesticulating to wind down the glass.
‘What are you doing?’ Mum asks.
‘Ah, it’s a long story, I’ll tell you inside. Put the kettle on?’
She manages a smile, but I see the hood of concern behind her eyes as she turns on her heel.
‘So go on?’ she presses as the contents for our cups rumbles towards boiling heat.
I start at the beginning. I run through the fight with Lucy, then me moving into Wyndham’s.
‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this?’ she asks.
‘I didn’t want to worry you, I was hoping it would pass.’
‘Paula is a dangerous person if she’s not on your side.’
‘Yeah. Thing is, Paula and I have pushed forward now.’
‘How so?’
And so I plough into the real crux of my problems. As I talk, I try to make sense of what is going on. Wyndham was seeing Julie, a woman I was having an affair with. I’m waiting for Mum’s lips to purse as she bites back reproach at both her sons, but it doesn’t come.
Instead she surprises me, ‘I can see why you would need to find comfort, but I’m surprised at Wyndham. If anything, I would have thought he’d also be with Steph, you always went for the same types of women at school. Julie was something and nothing.’
It’s been one of those days, rapidly turning into one of those weeks, so this statement of fact from my Mum is no more than another layer on top of the chaos already running amok.
‘Steph wasn’t with Wyndham Mum, it appears she was with Hugh.’ I rest my chin in my hands. My temples pulse an arterial pain behind my eyes and back again. Mum is quiet. I look up trying to gauge her response.
Her arms are folded across her chest and her head is tilted slightly forward. Her eyes are dark pools of anger. I guess we can do what we want, but no-one else must touch her boys.
‘So this explains a lot,’ is all she says.
I wait whilst she formulates her own thoughts. ‘I always wondered why Jennifer didn’t really like Steph, just thought she was the jealous sort, but women do have a sixth sense for this type of thing.’
‘I didn’t know Jen didn’t like Steph?’
She puts her hand on my arm, ‘Darling, not many women liked Steph, surely you must have seen that?’
‘No?’
‘Oh dear. She had such a knack for alienating other women. Not surprising really, it’s usually the way when you flirt outrageously with their husbands.’
I’m flabbergasted. ‘Did you like her?’
‘She was your wife, and therefore our family and so I loved her. I did not love the lack of respect she had for you though my darling.’
That’s my Mum’s way of saying that she did not like Steph at all.
‘Oh, OK,’ a random thought floats into my consciousness, ‘how do you feel about Penelope?’
‘Ah, well Pen is good for Wyndham, she’s strong and capable of giving him what he needs. It’s partly my fault you see for being such a dominant figure, you boys now nee
d that quality in a wife, I’m afraid.’ She looks at me, aware that she has answered my real question about who she prefers. I ruminate whether this comes down in part, to the financial success of my brother and his wife, and whether this was due to my choice of partner.
My Mum doesn’t see any of this and carries on, ‘You rebelled by choosing Steph. That’s why I always had my suspicions that Wyndham may have a soft spot for her too - a bit of light relief so to speak. Well, that and her ways.’ She tilts her head to one side and deepens the tone of her voice as she says ‘ways’ making it clear these ‘ways’ were not good.
‘Ach Mum, life is such a mess right now. And to top it off, the whole shebang is unravelling and there’s still no evidence that anything other than natural causes were to blame for Steph dying.’
‘Indeed,’ Mums' face is set, contemplating my situation. ‘I'll grab what we need.’ she's bright, taking me by surprise as she stands, knocking her farmhouse chair with her ferocity.
‘What?’
‘A glass of wine!’
‘Mum, it's still only first thing in the morning!’ I’m not really outraged, I’ve been around her long enough, if needs must, the time on the clock has no relevance.
‘Needs must,’ she chirps already on her way to her fridge.
‘I have one more question before wine, Mother.’ She stops rattling the ice she mixes with her drink.
‘Do you like Lucy?’
Without hesitation she replies, ‘Lucy is a keeper. You need to sort this out with her. She’s caught in the middle through no fault of her own. Don’t let Steph's demise hinder your future. Find a way to make it work with Lucy.’
‘Thanks.’ I smile, perking up already. ‘But tomorrow, pour the wine now.’
LUCY
I didn’t sleep well last night. Reading between the lines of the snippets I've pieced together from Paula, I’ve sussed out that Wyndham had CCTV footage. But, that he didn’t divulge it. Not only could this have been helpful to the investigation either now or historically, but it’s also suspicious that he actively denied owning it. Paula does not seem impressed with him.