Little Woodford

by Catherine Jones

  ‘Thank you,’ he said out loud. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Blimey, Reverend, you made me jump.’

  Brian snapped his eyes open. ‘Joan!’ Joan Makepiece was standing near the lectern with a box of polishing clothes and an industrial-sized tin of Brasso clutched in her hands.

  ‘What are you so grateful for, then?’ she asked.

  ‘Everything,’ said Brian, joyfully. ‘Everything.’

  Joan eyed him as if he’d lost his marbles but Brian grinned at her like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

  ‘It’s a glorious day and everything is just fine. Don’t you feel it, Joan?’

  ‘I do. And I ought to tell you, those pills the doc gave me have worked a treat. I feel so much better.’

  ‘Oh, Joan, I am delighted. Yet more things to give thanks for.’ He beamed at her.

  ‘If you say so, Reverend. Although, I could do with the Good Lord sorting out my arthritis if He’s got a mind to. I’m a martyr to it and the doc says there’s bugger all he can do – pardon my French – it’s cos of my age. Now, if you’ll excuse me, these brasses won’t clean themselves.’

  45

  Olivia let herself back in to her house and slipped off Oscar’s lead. The collie padded over to his water bowl and drank noisily for a few seconds before flopping back into his basket and shutting his eyes. Olivia looked at him with envy. If only life was so simple for her, she thought – sleep, eat, walk, play. No worries, no money problems, nothing. Bliss. But this wasn’t reporting what she’d recently overheard to the local police. She went over to the desk, picked up the phone and rang the non-emergency number.

  ‘It’s about the break-ins that have been happening around Little Woodford,’ she began. ‘I think I may have some information...’

  It was gone five when Leanne appeared on Olivia’s doorstep.

  ‘You’d better come in,’ said Olivia. ‘Tea?’

  ‘No, you’re all right.’

  Olivia led Leanne over to the sofa. ‘Take a seat.’

  Leanne sat, took off her uniform hat and got out a notebook. ‘So, I’ve been told you overheard two men talking, Dan and Billy, and they seemed to be referring to stolen goods. Is that right?’

  Olivia nodded.

  ‘But you have no idea who these two are.’

  ‘No, not a clue. But one of them said something about the other having to look for another fence and there was also a mention of keys.’

  ‘Keys?’

  ‘Yes.’ Olivia thought back. ‘One of them said something like... “what do you know about risk – you had keys to half of them.” And then the other said, “only two.”’

  ‘I see.’

  There was a noise from upstairs and then the sound of footsteps.

  ‘Oh,’ said Zac from halfway down the staircase. He looked worriedly at his mother then at Leanne. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘It’s all right, Zac,’ said his mum. And the little sod might well look guilty, she thought, given what he’d been up to recently, but he wasn’t in the frame this time. ‘I heard something today which might have a bearing on the burglaries. Leanne’s come to talk to me about it.’

  ‘Like what?’ asked Zac. He still looked wary.

  ‘I overheard a couple of guys talking, that’s all, up at the nature reserve, at the lump of woodland in the middle of the meadow – where the drugg—’ Olivia stopped. She remembered that amongst the drug paraphernalia had been bottles of Malbec and that she’d blamed the council estate kids for nicking it from the local supermarket when, now she knew what she did, she realised that it had probably been her son nicking it from her wine rack. ‘Where some of the local youths hang out,’ she said.

  Zac reddened. ‘Yeah, well...’

  ‘Do you know anyone in the town called Dan or Billy?’ asked Leanne.

  ‘Dan?’ There was a pause. ‘Er, no.’

  Leanne stared at him. ‘Really?’

  ‘No, why? Should I?’ He sounded defensive.

  ‘No.’

  Zac loped off to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water before calling Oscar. The collie bounded out of his bed and trotted over to Zac, his tail wagging.

  ‘I thought I’d take Oscar out for a quick walk.’

  ‘What about your homework?’ said Olivia.

  ‘It’s revision – I need a break. And exams don’t start till next week.’

  ‘Don’t be too long.’

  ‘I won’t.’ Zac grabbed the lead off the hook on the back of the door and headed out.

  Leanne stared at Olivia. ‘I know he’s your son but when I mentioned Dan’s name... do you think Zac’s answer was the truth?’

  Olivia pursed her lips into a thin line. ‘I don’t know.’ She sighed. ‘The thing is... the thing is, Zac’s had some problems recently.’ She stared at her hands.

  ‘Like?’

  ‘Like he’s been getting up to stuff I don’t approve of.’

  ‘Like?’

  Olivia raised her eyes. ‘Drugs. But he’s promised me he’s trying to kick it now.’

  ‘He won’t be the only one in town, as you know yourself.’

  Olivia nodded. ‘I think it’s been going on for a while but I keep kicking myself for not spotting anything.’

  ‘He’s hardly likely to have gone round with a placard announcing what he was up to, though, was he?’

  ‘Even so.’

  ‘I think lots of kids get up to stuff their parents know nothing about. Didn’t you?’

  Olivia thought back. ‘No, no I don’t think I did.’

  ‘Really? Blimey. No misspent youth?’

  Olivia shook her head. ‘I must have been so prim and boring.’

  ‘Not getting into trouble isn’t something to be ashamed of.’ Leanne grinned at her. ‘Unusual, though.’

  ‘And it has made me spectacularly naive about my own kids. So... this Dan bloke – might he be someone Zac associated with, someone on the drugs scene?’

  ‘Dan’s not an uncommon name – so it doesn’t mean there’s a connection. I’ll have a quiet word with one or two people.’ Leanne stood up. ‘Thanks for getting in touch. It may be that nothing comes of what you heard but you never know.’ She put her hat back on and headed for the door. ‘I’m glad Zac’s seen the error of his ways.’

  Olivia nodded. ‘After I found out, he realised he was in a mess. To be honest, I think he knew he was ruining his life and wanted to stop but he didn’t know how. He’s finding it tough, though.’

  ‘It is tough coming off drugs – horrible.’

  ‘He says he feels miserable a lot of the time.’

  ‘If he sticks with it it’ll get better. Trust me.’ Leanne gave her a significant look.

  ‘You?’

  ‘Oh yes. But it was a long time ago now and I’m not proud of it.’

  ‘At least you’re not utterly clueless like me. Maybe having a misspent youth isn’t such a bad thing.’

  ‘Maybe. Right,’ as she opened the front door, ‘I’m off. And thanks for coming forward. Let’s hope it leads somewhere.’

  *

  Zac and Oscar walked down the hill towards the town centre. He was fed up with staring at his books and he wasn’t sure how much good trying to revise was going to do after several terms of doing the bare minimum. And he dreaded his dad’s reaction when the results came out. Life was such a mess, he thought. He was such a mess. Beside him trotted Oscar, oblivious to Zac’s turmoil. They reached the bottom of the hill and the gate to The Beeches. The sound of happy shrieks wafted out of the garden, audible even over the steady stream of cars that trundled up and down the road.

  Zac stopped to look over the gate. At the side of the house was a paddling pool and Megan’s brothers were having a water fight with super-soakers and buckets. As he watched, Megan walked into view and caught sight of him.

  ‘Hello,’ called Zac tentatively.

  Megan walked over to the gate. ‘Hi. Have you apologised to Ashley yet?’

  ‘Not yet. I have
n’t seen him.’

  ‘You mean, you haven’t made the effort.’

  ‘Don’t be like that.’

  ‘You could go round his right now, couldn’t you?’

  ‘I suppose.’

  ‘Like I said, all of this is your fault and you’re the only one who can put it right and until you do and until you apologise to Ashley I’m having nothing to do with you. And I want my money back.’

  ‘But I can’t – my allowance has been cut.’

  ‘Then get a job.’

  ‘When – when can I work?’

  ‘Saturdays, after school. Lots of kids do, why shouldn’t you?’

  ‘Because—’

  ‘Sort it out, Zac.’ Megan turned her back and walked off.

  ‘Megan!’

  But she went into the house and shut the door.

  *

  Nigel got home from work around seven.

  ‘Hiya, Ol... Olivia,’ he said as he dropped his briefcase by the front door. ‘Good day?’ He went over to Oscar’s basket and patted the dog, who got up, stretched and licked Nigel’s hand in appreciation.

  ‘So-so. Had an estate agent round.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ Nigel loosened his tie and took it off, shoving it in his jacket pocket. ‘And?’

  ‘Well, he wasn’t very upbeat. Apparently there’s a slump in the housing market and, while he’s happy to put it on the market for one point three million, he thinks we’ll be lucky to make that. We’re far more likely to get one point one.’

  ‘Oh. Well... that’s all right, I suppose.’

  Olivia shook her head. ‘No it’s not. We can buy somewhere else and clear your debts but your pension pot will remain empty, we’ll have nothing left for emergencies and, without the income we used to get from your investments, we’ll struggle with Zac’s fees. And we can’t afford to hang about and wait for someone to give us the asking price, we need a quick sale.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Nigel.

  Olivia was tempted to snap that so he bloody well should be, but what good would it do? ‘So am I,’ she said. ‘Gin?’

  Nigel nodded. ‘I suppose we ought to cut out luxuries like that,’ he said.

  ‘We’ve given up holidays, we’re giving up this house but I draw the line at gin and wine. We may have to live in reduced circumstanced but I’m not going to be miserable too.’

  Olivia thought about telling him that, since she’d caught Amy knocking back their drink, the bottle was lasting longer than it had before. And, as their son had stopped nicking money from her handbag, the housekeeping was stretching a bit further too. But she reckoned that Nigel’s reaction to such news would be to sack Amy and yell at Zac, which wouldn’t help anyone.

  She sloshed out the gin and added ice and lemon. ‘So...’ she said as she handed Nigel his drink, ‘how’s it going?’

  Nigel snorted. ‘You’d think it would be easy, wouldn’t you, to walk past a betting shop and not go in, or to go into a pub for a drink and not put money in a machine but it’s not.’

  ‘And have you? Weakened, that is?’

  Nigel shook his head and took a gulp. ‘I’ve taken to going for walks in the park in my lunch break because the others always go to the Ship. They think I’m on some kind of fitness drive.’

  ‘The office doesn’t know.’

  Nigel shook his head. ‘Given that I work in the financial sector I think they’d have a pretty dim view if they found out.’

  ‘Maybe. But it’s ironic, isn’t it? It seems to me most high finance is gambling.’

  ‘Ha. But only on their terms. They’re not keen on employees gambling with their own money – not if it gets out of control.’

  ‘But it isn’t, not now.’

  ‘But it was. That’s all that matters. They turn a blind eye to drinking – even snorting coke seems to be the norm – but losing one’s own money in one’s own time, well... close the door quietly on your way out.’

  ‘Have you done drugs?’

  Nigel looked up. ‘Shit no. That’s for real losers.’

  Even more reason, thought Olivia, for Nigel not to find out about Zac. She felt that the last thing Zac needed, on top of the misery of kicking his addiction, was to have a massive showdown with his father.

  She went into the kitchen to start cooking supper. Before she did, she opened a tin of dog food and then called Oscar in for his dinner.

  Nigel got up and wandered over. He leaned on the counter. ‘What I don’t understand is why, given that things are now tight, you suddenly decided to get a dog?’

  ‘I did it for Zac.’ Which was true. ‘I didn’t think he was getting enough exercise – now he has to walk Oscar he has to get out and about.’ Which wasn’t entirely correct but was plausible. ‘And what’s more, because dogs aren’t allowed at the park, it stops him going to that wretched skatepark all the time. I don’t like the kids that hang out there.’ Which she knew Nigel would completely swallow. ‘And he’s a nice dog.’ Also true.

  ‘I worry,’ said Nigel, ‘that Zac doesn’t seem to have many friends. He never seems to bring anyone home these days.’

  Olivia began to rummage in the fridge. And if Nigel knew the types Zac had been associating with he’d understand the reason why. ‘There aren’t that many kids in town that go to St Anselm’s.’

  ‘Maybe he’d be better off at the comp; at least all the local kids go there.’

  ‘I very much doubt it,’ said Olivia with a sniff. ‘And let’s hope,’ she added firmly, ‘it doesn’t come to that.’

  46

  Amy made her way over the smart, newly raked gravel of Olivia’s drive and let herself in. In the corner of the front garden were two estate agents’ boards advertising the house was for sale. That’d get the town talking, she thought. Mrs L might have asked her to keep quiet about the sale – which she had done, apart from telling her mum, but that didn’t count, did it? – but now the For Sale boards were up everyone was going to know.

  ‘Coo-ee.’

  ‘Morning, Amy,’ replied Olivia from the kitchen. Amy could see she was adding ingredients to what she supposed must be a bread machine only she’d never seen it being used before. ‘We’ve got a viewing this afternoon,’ continued Olivia.

  ‘So you’re making bread.’

  ‘Exactly. Every little helps.’

  ‘What, people buy houses because they smell nice?’ Amy was astounded.

  ‘First impressions, Amy, first impressions. People aren’t only buying a house, they’re buying a lifestyle.’

  Yeah, right. ‘If you say so.’ Amy shrugged off her cardigan and put on her apron. ‘Where do you want me to start?’

  ‘Lots of polishing, please.’

  ‘Let me guess – so it smells nice.’

  ‘And I’m going to pop into town and buy some flowers as soon as I’ve got the bread on.’

  Olivia whirled around the kitchen finding the ingredients for her loaf and then as Amy got started in the sitting room came the rhythmic whump-whump of the bread machine mixing the dough.

  ‘I’m going out now – back in a few minutes.’

  Olivia sped out of the house leaving Amy grafting. She considered taking her bike but decided that, because she had so much to do, it would be quicker by car – assuming she could find somewhere to park, which wasn’t a given at this time of day. She jumped into the driver’s seat and two minutes later she was trawling the car park for a vacant spot. Finally, she struck lucky and pulled into the bay.

  She grabbed her bag from the passenger seat and headed to the florist’s. She knew that a bunch of flowers might be cheaper in the little Co-op but the selection generally only ran to carnations or maybe some roses but invariably they never smelt of anything and Olivia wanted scent. And lots of it. Freesias, she thought, as she opened the door with a ping.

  ‘Hello,’ said Belinda, who was standing by the counter.

  ‘Belinda. What a surprise.’

  ‘It’s my great-aunt’s birthday,’ said Belinda. �
��And what do you get a nonagenarian who lives in Edinburgh?’

  ‘Flowers?’

  Belinda nodded and tapped the Interflora catalogue on the counter which she’d been browsing. ‘Mind you, given what this bouquet is going to cost it might be cheaper to fly up there and wish her a happy birthday in person.’

  ‘But she’ll love the thought.’

  ‘I know. What are you getting?’

  ‘Oh, only some flowers for the sitting room. Nothing wildly extravagant.’

  ‘And what’s this I hear about you moving?’ asked Belinda.

  ‘Seeing there are two estate agents’ boards outside my house I can hardly deny it.’

  ‘But you love it here.’ Belinda was astounded.

  ‘We’re not moving away – we’re getting something smaller.’ Olivia faked a bright expression. ‘We’re rattling about in that big house now most of the children have left home. Soon it’ll be only me and Nigel and we don’t need all those rooms.’

  ‘Even so,’ said Belinda. ‘What are you looking to buy instead? There’s a fabulous cottage down near the church up for sale – you know, the one by the cricket pitch.’

  Olivia knew it very well indeed. She also knew that it was going for much the same price as she was hoping to get for her place. And what was the point of telling a half-truth – everyone would know her new address soon enough. ‘No, we’re going to Beeching Rise.’

  Belinda’s eyes actually goggled for a second before she composed herself. ‘Oh.’

  The florist appeared from a back room. ‘Sorry to keep you, ladies. I had to take a telephone order.’ She looked brightly from one to the other. ‘Now, who’s first?’