by Tammy Bench
Was she unable to finish the message because he had caught her and taken the phone away? Was he going to hurt her? You wouldn’t say ‘I can’t get out,’ if you couldn’t make a date, you would say ‘can’t get away’ or something like that. What was she trying to tell him Stuart had done? Why couldn’t she finish the fucking message?
8.17pm
I’m coming over. I can’t sit here if you’re in trouble, baby – forgive me x
He pulled his other leg in and shut the door. He was about to make a move that could change everything, but he couldn’t stay here if there was the slightest chance she needed him.
Fuck this.
He put his phone on his lap so he could hear any incoming messages and in a cloud of dust he booted the car back down the road he had come.
Rural beauty was quickly replaced by expensive looking housing estates.
As he drove even more images assaulted his brain. Alice with a bloodied face, she was crying and huddled in the corner of a room trying to get away from her husband.
He drove faster.
When pushed, Tom’s temper was bad at best. He feared the odd times he had lost it. Truly Irish in nature and without someone to pull him back he was very hard to stop when provoked. He didn’t doubt that he would kill him and the thought alone had his hands shaking despite the vice-like grip he had on the wheel.
He tried to control himself, but his walls were coming down fast as he turned the corner onto the street where her parents lived. In the distance he saw the big Audi parked in the drive and knew they were still there.
He skidded to a loud jack knife stop at the kerb, crunching the pristine wheels into the concrete and wincing to himself. The back end drifted dangerously close to the expensive 4x4 but stopped inches from the metallic paintwork.
Tom pushed his hands though his hair to try and calm himself. He checked his phone once more and slung it onto the passenger seat in anger before he jumped out.
The first thing he noticed was the smell of barbeque. The next was a trim looking man in his sixties flying out of the side gate holding a pair of large tongs heading towards him. Tom didn’t have a lot of time to think or care and to be honest his only concern was where Alice might be.
‘Was that you?’ the man shouted at him aggressively gesturing towards the abandoned car perched half on and half off of his driveway, the door open and the air pungently fragranced by the smell of burnt tyre rubber, ‘Is that your car?’
‘Yeah,’ Tom replied walking straight past him and towards the gate.
‘What do you think you’re doing, pal? Who are you?’ he shouted again pulling back on Tom’s arm.
Tom looked at him for a second. It was Alice’s dad, they had the same eyes. He didn’t want to cause trouble with him, but he was wired and the older man’s face dropped slightly when he stared back at Tom’s death look.
‘I’m looking for your daughter?’ Tom said his voice was steely and his accent almost inaudible.
‘Which one and what do you want with her?’ he stood in Tom’s way again and within seconds two younger men rushed through the same gate. One of them was Alice’s husband.
Tom instantly ignored her father and turned to Stuart, ‘where’s Alice?’ he whispered with venom, his eyes never leaving the man’s face. He was ready to go at him, but he waited.
‘Who the hell is this guy?’ Max turned to Stuart for an explanation.
‘What’s going on here?’ the stocky man next to Stuart shouted a little louder than he could clearly back up and he started looking backwards and forwards between the two men.
Stuart glared back at him. His hard face told him that he knew exactly who Tom was and like Tom he was equally prepared to fight.
‘You cunt,’ Stuart finally broke the silence.
Tom smiled a small smile that was the tiniest bit impressed. Then he started towards her husband quickly. His eyes had misted over by the time he saw Stuart move too. The scuffle that ensued between Stuart and the stocky guy trying to hold him back lasted only seconds and Tom was glad that he had managed to get free and that her husband was again coming towards him.
Tom had no self-preservation. The other guy was taller, younger and Tom was clearly outnumbered – but none of it mattered.
A few feet away from each other he heard her high pitched shout.
‘Tom, don’t please!’
Alice.
That did matter.
He turned to where he had heard the voice. She was running out of the gate followed quickly by her sister, tears ran down her face, ‘Don’t!’ she shouted again. Her small body was silhouetted by the evening rays and a flowery sundress clung to her hips. She held her mobile in her hand. She looked safe and unhurt.
He breathed out, ‘baby,’ he started to move towards her.
‘No, Stuart!’ she screamed suddenly.
Just as her husband’s fist collided with the side of Tom’s face sending him off balance and tumbling onto his hands and knees.
Time momentarily stood still.
Tom couldn’t hear anything. Hot pain shot through his head and his teeth felt like they had just done the Mexican wave. He opened and closed his eyes slowly. He felt like he was swallowing acid and he quickly spat out blood that had pooled in his mouth.
‘Shit,’ he heard someone say and he thought it was the man with the odd voice. He couldn’t move his head to the side to look though.
‘Leave him alone!’ that was Alice.
‘Hold him back for goodness sake,’ her sister?
‘Alice, stay where you are. I want you nowhere near these two,’ her dad sent a strong warning to his daughter.
‘I need to see if he’s okay, dad,’ she pleaded.
‘Who the bloody hell is he?’ her dad.
‘Stuart, don’t go near him,’ Alice shouted again.
Her husband wanted to carry on, despite his low blow.
Okay.
Tom pushed himself up onto his hunches and held his head for a moment. His vision was clearing and the pain in his face was quickly being replaced by adrenaline. Thirty seconds more was all he needed.
‘Let him come, Alice – I fucking owe him one,’ Tom didn’t recognise his own voice. He felt like someone had fired a gun right next to his ear, that or he had been underwater for some time. He stumbled onto his feet and looked around.
He looked towards the two men holding Stuart back. They had been able to manoeuvre him some distance away, ‘let him go.’
‘You heard him, let me go! He’s been screwing your daughter!’ her husband was as angry as Tom and with good reason.
‘What?’ Max asked confused.
Alice turned to her sister, ‘the kids?’
‘Mum’s gone in, but I’ll go check and I’ll ring the police,’ Steph hugged her sister and ran back inside leaving her alone on the driveway.
Alice looked at him then. When he had left her all those years ago he had seen that same look of utter desperation, shock and fear. She knew too within his own look that he was serious, that he would happily fight until he couldn’t anymore. Stuart was confident right now, but she knew that Tom didn’t have an off switch. She looked scared beyond anything he had ever seen. She looked like she knew what he had to do now.
She hurried towards him shaking her head the tears staining her pretty face and pulling at his heart.
‘Don’t go near him, Alice!’ Stuart struggled against his human bonds.
‘Stop fucking telling her what to do!’ Tom shouted back and started towards him again. Alice ran up to him, her tiny body collided with his own. He could have picked her up and set her aside like a doll and carried on but he stopped dead in front of her as soon as her hands touched his chest. He looked down at her. He had never wanted to shout as much as right now, when he saw how clearly and how deeply she was hurting.
‘I’m sorry Tom, I’m sorry. I didn’t see the messages until just now. Please don’t do this. Please don’t hurt him. He’s hurt enough. This is my f
ault,’ she wiped her eyes, ‘we did this to him. Please don’t make it worse, just let it go,’ she looked at the side of his head, ‘are you alright?’
‘I’m fine, baby. But I can’t walk away from this,’ he tried to soften his voice for her.
‘You have to. Just get in your car and drive away, please.’
‘I’m not leaving you here,’ his temper falling slightly.
‘You have to,’ she said again, ‘Steph’s calling the police you’ll get in trouble and so will he. You’ll be arrested.’
‘Come with me?’ he said reaching out and touching her hair.
‘I have to sort this,’ she looked behind her and flinched at the scene that was playing out in this nice curtain-twitching suburban neighbourhood.
‘Get your fucking hands off her!’ Stuart shouted his face turning redder.
An upstairs window opened and Stephanie stuck her head out, ‘just a warning for everyone the police are on their way.’
‘Could someone make sure that they are sending the sex crimes division,’ Stuart locked eyes with Tom and sneered.
Alice swung round with rage and ran back to where her husband was standing and Tom followed her quickly.
‘If you ever say that again…’ she screamed at his face, ‘how many times have I got to tell you!’
‘You’re so blind Alice – look at him,’ he shouted back at her.
‘I remember you… you were one of my Alice’s teachers weren’t you?’ her dad said stepping away from his son-in-law slightly and turning his body towards Tom, ‘…did you… have you, did you abuse my daughter?’
‘What?’ Tom looked shocked.
‘The penny drops,’ Stuart smiled smugly.
‘No,’ Tom felt his face beginning to burn.
‘I think they call it statutory rape,’ Stuart added.
‘She was seventeen – it wasn’t fucking statutory anything!’ Tom clenched his back teeth together.
‘Seventeen?’ her dad looked horrified.
‘…and sleeping with her teacher,’ there were tears in Stuart’s eyes now.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ her dad said quickly making connections in his head.
‘Dad, it wasn’t like the way Stuart is telling it, I can explain,’ Alice gripped her hair in frustration and turned to stop her father. Her dad didn’t meet her eyes he just rested a hand on her forearm to comfort her and instead he turned to Tom.
‘I didn’t rape her,’ Tom looked at her father and shook his head.
‘He didn’t, I swear to you,’ she pulled on her dad’s hand.
‘You better get off my property right now, you little son of a bitch. If, when my daughter tells me what happened between you two I think you’re to blame – I’m coming for you. If you have ever hurt her in any way I’ll kill you,’ her father levelled a stare on Tom that he had to admit was disconcerting.
‘That’s fair enough,’ Tom nodded, ‘I haven’t raped your daughter. I would never hurt her or abuse her. She’ll tell you if she wants to, but hear her out when she does. She hasn’t done anything wrong and she thinks she has. She’s a wonderful person and sometimes the decisions we make don’t always reflect the best part of ourselves… help her to see that.’
‘Is that how you talked her into bed for the second time?’ Stuart struggled again cutting Tom off. Her dad put a calming hand to his chest and told him to stop talking. He wanted this over, out of the view of the neighbours and most of all he wanted the truth.
‘Have some respect for your wife. She didn’t get talked anywhere,’ Tom argued back.
‘Just listen to how he gets himself into stupid little girl’s knickers. Charming isn’t he, Alice? So heroic – it’s sick if you ask me,’ her husband wasn’t giving up.
‘Shut up, Stuart,’ she hissed.
‘I can’t believe the woman that I thought was intelligent and honest actually buys this arsehole’s crap. He’s a smug twat that has had his own way all his life, got away with abusing a student, not to mention how many more he might have fucked with…’
‘Stop it, please,’ Alice begged.
‘Hope you enjoyed sleeping with another man’s wife? Good was it? Can’t you get your own woman?’ Stuart was doing his best to call Tom into the fight. He breathed deeply and prayed his hands would stay at his sides.
‘Just leave it now, Stuart,’ her dad warned.
‘Come on, Tom! You bastard!’
Tom had heard enough, he turned her away from the other men and grabbed her face in his hands and forcing eye contact with her, ‘Fuck this guy, Alice… divorce him and marry me?’
‘What?’ she stared at Tom open mouthed and for a moment it felt like someone had hit a time-out.
Seconds later and someone whispered ‘shit,’ under their breath. Like before he thought it was the other guy and suddenly the spell was broken.
‘What have you done to our daughter, Alice?’ Stuart looked on shaking his head slowly, searching for anything he could hurt her with.
Tom watched her face crumble in his hands and he couldn’t do a single thing to stop the sting of her husband’s cruel words.
Like lightening he pushed past her father and grabbed Stuart by the throat. Stuart seized Tom’s hands just as fast and tried to prise them from his neck. The stocky guy ducked out of the way and grabbed his phone and started dialling quickly.
Stuart couldn’t get a good enough grip on Tom’s arm’s to free himself and Tom used his body weight to press against the other man’s chest at the same time. He felt a savage kick against his leg, followed by another but he didn’t stop, the sharp pain only made him madder. He looked up and their wild eyes met in close quarters for the first time.
‘Now you’ve said enough. Do you want to ruin a father’s impression of a daughter? Make me out to be some kind of monster and use your own child as a weapon? I don’t think so – just keep it to yourself, you fucking righteous bastard,’ Tom said clenching his teeth together and pushing down harder on the man’s windpipe.
‘Fuck you,’ he choked.
Alice started pulling wildly at his arm, ‘Tom, let him go or I’ll never see you again I swear it.’
‘Alice!’ her dad shouted and pulled her away from Tom.
‘Let him go, Mr Chambers! Damn, you heard my sister. If you love her at all…’ a voice shouted from the window above.
‘Please, Tom,’ she screamed again.
He looked to the side and into her eyes.
She meant it.
Stuart started bucking against Tom’s hands and his face was pink.
‘Fuck!’ Tom shouted at the top of his voice and pushed himself off her husband who slumped down gasping for air. He looked between her father who was rolling up his sleeves himself and then back to Alice. There was relief and anger on her face and he was well aware of what he had done.
‘Go,’ she mouthed.
Tom pushed down every bit of emotion he could. He swallowed all thoughts of retribution for the first time in his life. He nodded once sharply in her direction and walked quickly towards the car.
There was a strange silence as he did. No one behind him spoke. He didn’t think they even moved. He could hear her husband coughing and a window close. He felt eyes at his back, but not one word was uttered.
Wow…
It was certainly a surreal moment when you realise you just fucked your life up.
THE PIECES
Friday 6th August
Alice stumbled to the kerb. She sat down clumsily and watched as Tom drove away from her parent’s house.
He turned left without indicating and was gone. She could still hear the distinctive dip in the engine noise as he changed gears, but after a few seconds she couldn’t even hear that anymore.
She closed her eyes. Surely what had just happened was a really awful dream. In a few seconds she would turn around and be met with the sight of cartwheeling clowns and her dad dressed as a ringmaster, or something as bizarre?
Not this
time.
Why had he come? She knew why. He loved her, and to him only her safety mattered. He was always going to be the kind of man that would risk all to save her and in the process happily say to hell with everything else, including her life. But it wasn’t his fault this time, it was hers. She was the married one, she had led him on and he had only reacted the way he believed he should, as the man that loved her.
‘Alice?’
‘Dad.’
‘Are you okay? Let’s get you inside,’ he said picking her up under her arms.
‘I’m sorry dad,’ she was crying, ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t worry about any of that now,’ he shushed her and led her back to the house. Stuart and Tony were no longer outside and her sister had disappeared from the window. She leaned into her father and he hugged her against his side tightly.
‘I’m just going to ask you this once,’ he whispered, ‘did that man ever do anything that wasn’t what you wanted?’
‘No daddy, I swear. I loved him. I can’t help myself.’
Her dad thought for a moment, ‘well I’m not happy, I can’t lie. But I also understand nobody ever gets given a book of instructions in these matters.’
‘Don’t hurt him okay?’ she begged.
Her dad nodded, ‘What about your husband? That Chambers fella gave him a scare I can tell you, not that he didn’t half deserve it, the way he was talking about you and my granddaughter like that.’
‘He’s hurting. I’ve hurt him so badly.’
‘You have. You’ve done some shitty things by the sounds of it. But the heart wants what the heart wants.’
‘What do I do?’ she asked.
‘Only you can answer that, love.’
‘He’s going to be so mad when we get in there,’ she wanted to scream.
‘He won’t say another hurtful thing to you – not in my house – or he can leave right now, until he’s calmed down. The minute I hear any raised voices I’ll knock him out,’ he laughed trying to make light of an extremely heavy situation.
They reached the back gate and they were met suddenly by Stuart coming the other way. He had a gym bag slung over his back and sunglasses pushed on top of his head.