by A J Waines
‘What about you?’ I asked, trying to blink the spinning sensation away.
‘I teach at Edinburgh University. English Department.’
‘Oh – do you know Stuart Wishart? I’ve just met him. He’s in one of the other cottages. He lectures in Classics and Archaeology.’
Uncertainty hovered in her eyebrows as she ran the name through her internal directory. ‘It doesn’t ring a bell, but the University is a big place.’
‘Yes, of course.’
She looked engrossed in the changing shapes in the fire as the flames sizzled, then she inhaled sharply. ‘Did you hear about the little boy who was abducted on Monday afternoon? It wasn’t far from us at all. Look...’ She got up and led me through to the kitchen. The sunlight caught the backs of copper pans and pots, lined up in rows of ascending size as we walked past, making me think of a Gamelan orchestra.
She pointed out of the back window towards a group of buildings in the distance to the right.
‘Cleve Cottage,’ she said. ‘The Minters are sheep farmers, apparently. Brody Holland was whisked away while Mrs Minter’s back was turned for half a minute. He lives in the next cottage along – you can’t see it from here.’
‘The police came to question us,’ I said.
‘It’s dreadful, isn’t it? We come away to a remote, tranquil part of the world to escape from city life and something like this happens on our doorstep.’ She blew her nose on a handkerchief. ‘That’s crime for you – wherever there are people, it’s just around the corner.’
We wandered back to the fire. ‘I’ve been tuning in to the local news, but I haven’t heard anything.’
She wrung her hands together. ‘No – they haven’t found him. Not yet. We joined the search on Tuesday and again yesterday – but the snow is so thick.’
Why hadn’t I thought of that? I should have been out there, like any other decent human being, helping the police find him. Then I remembered why. We’d been preoccupied with the dead body that had appeared overnight at the end of my bed.
The daylight was fading fast when Malcolm returned. After brief introductions, I said I needed to head back. Malcolm offered to take me over to the cottage and I accepted gladly.
‘Nice to meet you,’ said Nina, squeezing my hand. ‘Give me a call if you’re at a loose end.’ She handed me a slip of paper with her mobile and cottage phone numbers.
I thanked her and followed Malcolm round to his jeep. He was probably about the same age as Stuart, but by no means as attractive. He had a block-like head that melted into his shoulders without the apparent need for a neck. His thinning mousy-to-grey hair had already given way to a glistening bald spot on his crown. But, he was cheerful and kind to me, which was what mattered.
It wasn’t far and Malcolm chatted all the way. On the main road we passed a police car. My heart-rate doubled. Had they been back to the cottage? They’d already checked over the byre searching for the missing boy – they wouldn’t want to check again, would they?
‘You must have heard about the boy who’s been taken,’ said Malcolm.
I cleared my throat. ‘Yes.’
‘We’re going out again tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I forgot to tell Nina.’
‘When?’ I said. ‘I’d like to come.’
‘Early – as soon as it’s light. We’re all meeting at The Cart and Horses at 8.30. Shall we pick you up?’
‘Yes, please.’
We drove up the track and the lights of our cottage came into view. It was the last place on earth I wanted to be.
Malcolm came to a halt behind Karen’s car. ‘Great – we’ll see you tomorrow. Come to the end of the track – we’ll pick you up there. We’ve already been over the local fields with dogs and drawn a blank, but we have to keep looking. He might have been moved. We’ve had the police round to our place several times,’ he said, his hands still on the steering wheel. ‘They have a good idea who they’re looking for.’
‘They know who did it?’
‘Not exactly, but they’ve got a decent description. Nina thinks she saw who took him – didn’t she tell you?’
Chapter 23
‘Stop the bus!’ came Jodie’s voice from the sitting room.
‘Nah – you’re cheating,’ Mark retorted, laughing.
They were back, playing cards by the sound of it. I envied them, with nothing more serious to worry about other than getting a score of thirty-one.
I couldn’t face their high spirits just yet, so I went straight upstairs. I hesitated outside my bedroom, still carrying visions in my head of what had been lying so recently on the floor. He’s gone, I told myself.
I eased the door open. I could smell nothing but residual air-freshener. The carpet was unstained and felt dry under my palm. The rug was probably still wet in the lean-to, but we had a reasonable excuse for that. Everything had the pretence of being back to normal.
I tapped on Karen’s door. She answered, dragging the belt of her bathrobe around her middle. The curtains were closed and she looked bedraggled and annoyed.
‘What is it?’ she snapped.
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I was going to make hot drinks. I didn’t know you were asleep.’
‘Well, I am. I was.’
‘I saw a police car – they didn’t call back did they?’
‘No.’ She dragged me inside. ‘Look – you’re going to have to stop asking questions and looking so bloody guilty all the time. Just be normal, for fuck’s sake.’
I bit my lip, ready to leave. She’d never sworn at me before.
‘Sorry, Alice…’ She let go of my sleeve. ‘I’m just tired.’ She beckoned with her head towards the cot.
‘How’s she doing?’
‘She’s crying a lot,’ Karen said, sinking her fingers into her hair and pulling at it. ‘I had to ring the doctor, but she said there’s nothing to worry about. Mel’s teething and not used to being outside the ward. The doctor said it’s just a matter of time before she settles down.’
Mel was fast asleep, a cute frilly mop cap framing her face. I watched her body rise and fall in the dim light, envious of her oblivion.
‘And how are you?’ I asked. We’d both been pushed to the brink emotionally in the last few days. ‘It’s been tough.’ I took a step forward for a comforting hug, but she lifted up her arm like a barrier.
‘Yep – look, I need some sleep. I’ll catch you later.’ She hustled me back out of the door and shut it, without looking up.
Jodie was alone in the kitchen when I went down.
‘Good time at the Gleneagles Centre?’ I asked.
‘Brill,’ she said. ‘Well – Mark went snowboarding and I bought these.’ She carefully tipped a bag of trinkets on to the kitchen table. A glittering collection of diamanté brooches and pendants.
‘They’re for my stall – aren’t they lovely? I found them at a place in Fort William. Managed to haggle the guy down to a fiver for the lot.’
They weren’t my thing – too bling for me – but I could imagine plenty of women would pay a good price for them. I picked up a hairclip in the shape of a swan. Jodie certainly had a good eye. ‘You’ve got your heart set on getting this market stall up and running, haven’t you?’ I said.
She nodded seriously and sat down, resting her chin in her palm. ‘Mark is always having a go at me for having “crazy” dreams, but this is what I want. The stall is only the first step. He thinks I should stay in the department store because it’s a steady income. He says we shouldn’t both be self-employed. But I really want this. He doesn’t know, but I’ve got it all worked out. I’ve got a five-year business plan, a loan arranged, a financial advisor – the whole thing mapped out.’
‘You haven’t told Mark all this?’
She sighed. ‘Sometimes I think he doesn’t want me to do well. I’ve carried on being the dizzy, hapless, silly young thing he knew at Leeds. He wants me that way, but I’m not that person anymore.’
For a moment, I almost liked her. ‘Go
on.’
‘I play along…that’s all. But it’s not me.’ She threw me a shamefaced look, keeping her voice down. ‘Don’t say anything, will you?’
‘Of course not.’ Jodie had never confided in me before. I was touched. ‘How would he react if you got your act together and you really started to shine?’
‘He’d hate it. I know he would. Every time I suggest something, he pooh-poohs it.’
‘Why do you think that is?’ I was thrown by their relationship; I couldn’t get a handle on it.
She trailed her index finger idly through a pile of spilt sugar. ‘I’m not sure. It’s like he doesn’t want me to have much say in things. He wants to be in charge the whole time.’
I knew so little about the dynamics of relationships, but this felt like some kind of oppression. They were all lovey-dovey with each other and clearly had an active sex-life, yet he was so mean to her. Why did she put up with it? He constantly stepped in to make decisions for her, snuffing out her plans before they were even fully formed. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t fight back.
‘And are you happy with that?’ I said.
‘I used to be. I loved having this all-powerful macho guy protecting me, leading the way, but…’ She sat back. ‘I’ve grown up a bit – like you.’ She dropped her voice even further. ‘Thing is, I’m scared of losing him. If I change and start making decisions on my own, he’ll dump me. I know he will. I couldn’t bear that.’
So, Mark was only interested if Jodie was under his thumb. She wanted to grow and Mark didn’t seem to want to let her. She was keeping up a pretence all the time; playing the part of a brainless piece of arm-candy.
She was about to say something else when Mark strode in.
‘Where’s my beer?’ He saw me and lifted his hand. ‘Hey, Candyfloss – what’ve ya been up to?’ He swung a chair around and sat on it backwards. He seemed to be a different person each time I saw him – chummy one minute, cold, distant or playful the next. Was it the cannabis? I remembered he’d offered me some at a party once at Uni and I’d politely declined. He’d never offered again.
‘I took a walk down to Loch Tierney and met a couple staying over in a cottage on the other side,’ I said. Jodie was whispering something to Mark and I realised halfway through my sentence that they clearly weren’t listening to me. I carried on, anyway. ‘We’re going out tomorrow to join the search for that missing baby. Did you want to come?’
‘What?’ said Mark.
‘How about it? Help find the little boy?’
‘Um. Nah. We’re probably going off somewhere,’ he muttered, pulling a packet of tobacco from his pocket and rolling up his next joint.
‘That’s news to me,’ said Jodie. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ he said, leaning over and giving her a sloppy French kiss.
I looked away.
‘Want any help with supper?’ I offered, getting up. Anything to take my mind off things. It was Mark’s turn, but I knew Jodie would end up doing it. She and I went into the larder to see what was left. There were sprouts, parsnips and a swede on the shelf. I remembered there was a piece of pork shoulder, defrosting, in the fridge.
‘What can I make with these?’ she said, faltering.
‘A hotpot?’ I suggested.
‘You’ll have to show me,’ she said.
I patted her arm. I knew she was struggling with the rustic farmhouse food; it certainly wasn’t what she was used to. She probably lived off a macrobiotic diet at home – from the size of her, it certainly wasn’t meat and two veg.
An hour later, Karen joined us and Mark sloped in, reluctantly slapping the cutlery on the table. Karen’s skin tone had drained to grey and her hair hung like sprigs of parched wheatgrass on her shoulders.
She didn’t even try being jovial. She chuckled once, but her laughter was flat and she kept squeezing her eyes shut as if she was in pain. Jodie and Mark probably put it down to Mel being a handful and were undemanding as a result.
Not engaging in the usual throwaway conversation made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t think of anything light-hearted to say. Eventually, Jodie broke the oppressive silence, pointing to my neck with a smile. ‘You kept that chain we got you years ago, Alice.’
I reached inside my collar and pulled out the locket.
‘Of course. That was in our first year. I don’t know how you knew it was what I wanted. It was perfect.’
Karen looked up and let out a soft murmur of recognition.
I wrapped my fingers around the warm oval shape, remembering my glee and amazement when I’d peeled open the tissue paper and found it inside.
The very next day, of course, I’d done something for them I wasn’t exactly proud of, but it felt like it was for a good cause at the time. I sighed at the memory of our time at Leeds. What I wouldn’t have given to be back there, instead of here.
As I went over to the sink for a glass of water, I screwed my face up at the irony involved. Back then, having someone like Karen in my life meant everything to me. And for Karen and me to actually share something – just the two of us – I would have seen it as the ultimate triumph.
Well, I’d finally got my wish. It just happened that in the end, all we shared was a vile secret.
Chapter 24
Shit! A massive spanner in the works has knocked me sideways. I’m trying to keep up a calm front, but underneath I’m frantic as hell. I’ve got to block it out of my mind and carry on. There’s so much to sort out. I must keep focusing on one step at a time and ride the storm.
I’m going to have to keep an eye on Alice – I hope she’s not going to ruin everything.
Over supper, she reminded us of the time we got her a silver locket for her birthday at Leeds. What she didn’t know was that Jodie had been snooping around in her room and had got hold of Alice’s diary. There wasn’t much there of any interest, apparently – just a lot of rubbish about how hard she was finding the course, but how brilliant it was to have ‘real’ friends.
Jodie did, however, hit on something useful. Alice had written down what she would have loved to get for her birthday – some jewellery. What she’d wanted more than anything was a silver necklace. Jodie decided straight away that we could use it as a bribe to win her over for our next little task.
The day after we gave it to her, Alice did exactly what we agreed and got hold of the fashion design paper for the end of term exams. Frankly, how was Jodie going to get into her second year without it? It was too big a job to hack into the computer system, so we had to wait until the papers had been printed out. We knew they’d be in the locked filing cabinet in the main office, but Jodie managed to ‘borrow’ the keys from Freddie while she entertained him.
All Alice had to do was get in, find the right paper, copy it, put it back and get out – without being seen.
Thinking about it, it was a pretty tall order. Alice isn’t a natural when it comes to breaking the rules, but we got her to agree that if anything went wrong she’d never mention our names – ever.
Somehow, I can’t see that kind of tactic working with Alice, anymore. She seems to have developed a mind of her own in the last few years and I get the feeling she won’t be so easy to buy off. Pity. I’m going to have to tread very carefully.
Chapter 25
After supper, Stuart turned up at the door – all grins and good humour.
‘Fancy a drink?’ he said.
I almost fell into his arms. I needed to get away for a while; Karen’s oppressive mood was dragging me further and further down just when we needed to be strong for each other.
The Cart and Horses was extra busy and we didn’t manage to sit near the fire. We settled for a bronze table with a hammered top in a cramped corner by the Gents’ loo. The couple behind us were playing backgammon and a few feet away there was a rowdy group celebrating someone’s birthday. A woman kept taking unsteady steps backwards and I held my elbow out to make sure she didn’t end up sitting o
n our table.
‘So – feeling better?’ Stuart asked. He was casually sitting astride a stool, his thick hair tossed charmingly askew by the wind. He was at the opposite end of the stress spectrum compared with how I felt.
My hand trembled as I reached for my glass. ‘Feeling better?’
‘Karen said you’d banged your head the day you got here and you’d been having headaches.’
‘Did she?’ I felt my forehead crumple into a frown. ‘When did she tell you that?’
‘When I popped over.’ He saw the bewildered look on my face. ‘Yesterday morning. She said you weren’t feeling too well, so I didn’t disturb you.’
‘Oh…’ I backtracked to the hours when we were waiting for the police. Someone had come to the door, but Karen said it was Mrs Ellington. Had I got things mixed up?
He dismissed it with a shake of his head. ‘Anyway, what else have you been up to, apart from recovering?’
What had I been doing since we last met? I ran the words through in my mind in answer to his question; Well, Stuart, only hours ago, I helped move a dead body from my bedroom to the byre…and before that, I woke up in the middle of the night with a knife in my hand. I might have killed the guy. Not sure. Anyway, how about you?
I felt the skin under my eye twitch and hoped he hadn’t noticed. I had to hold my nerve. I told him about meeting Nina near the loch. I told him she’d seen who the abductor was.
‘Really? Did she give you a description?’
‘No – not yet. Her husband mentioned it.’ Another thought – a question – presented itself. ‘By the way – where’s the landline in your cottage – you said you had one?’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘In the sitting room.’ He studied his beer, swilled it around. ‘What’s troubling you?’