by Welfare, Sue
‘Do you know who they were?’
‘No. He didn’t say. He was defensive – said he didn’t want me jinxing it for him. And to be fair I’d been really hard on him in the past.’
‘Seems to me justifiably so. But you wanted to believe him this time?’
‘Yes, like I said I was hoping that maybe that thing with the jewellery had shaken him up. And Ryan was different, more confident, more like the person he had been before Mum died, and then he bought a van. It was nothing special but it seemed like a turning point.’
‘Did you ask him where he got the money for the van?’
‘He told me that he’d picked up a decent cash job.’
‘And you believed him, did you, Sarah?’
‘Honestly?’
‘Honestly.’
‘No, at least I wasn’t sure what the truth was, but I decided not to ask him, in case – I don’t know – I suppose it was all going so well. I didn’t want to upset him and I didn’t want to know if it wasn’t. And even though he can be an idiot, Ryan could be really clever when he wanted to be, and he was an adult even if sometimes he doesn’t behave like one.’
‘Okay, and so then what happened?’
‘I tried to persuade him that we should take another lodger in anyway. I know he didn’t want to do it but it would mean for the first time in god knows how long that we’d have some spare money, but Ryan said no. He was adamant. He liked it as it was with just me and him and Woody, and in the end, to be honest, I just couldn’t be bothered to argue. Life settled down.’
‘When you say settled down, Sarah, what do you mean by that exactly?’
‘Ryan was going to work every day. I started to see Josh regularly.’
‘And was Ryan okay about that?’
‘Yes, I think so. I didn’t really ask him. And my friends at work were really pleased. Anessa was over the moon. She was always trying to fix me up with people. I’d been on my own a long while.’
‘And Woody?’
‘What about him?’
‘Did Woody seem jealous or upset that you’d started seeing someone else?’
‘No, not at all. Why should he? He was my lodger not my boyfriend and I didn’t really see Woody that much. He was mostly out or upstairs in his room, or at college.’
‘And did he have friends. Bring anyone home?’
‘No. Never. Not that I’m aware of.’
‘Did you think that was odd?’
‘Not really. I mean I assumed he had friends on his course but he kept himself to himself most of the time. He was quiet, didn’t say very much. He didn’t strike me as very outgoing.’
‘Okay, and did you?’
‘Bring friends home? Sometimes, Anessa came round once in a while, but to be honest I work all sorts of odd hours and I’ve never been someone who has had a lot of friends. My dad being ill meant I was different from other kids and I didn’t bring people home because Mum had enough on her plate. Then, after we moved, I didn’t really get to know anyone; I went to college, and then Mum was sick, and I had to come home. It was always disjointed, I hadn’t got a lot of time for a social life. Most of my friends were from work.’
‘So you were lonely?’
‘No, not really, I’m used to being on my own.’
‘But you were seeing Josh?’
‘That’s right, and it felt really good. Things had finally started to come right. Things were settling down into a nice routine. Like I said, Ryan was working regularly.’
‘And what about Woody?’
‘I just said. He went to college; I hardly saw anything of him. In lots of ways he was the perfect lodger. And I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about what it was like in the house then. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. I felt like we’d finally turned the corner. It felt good. We were talking about having a party. If we were all in the house at the same time we’d eat together, share the cooking, watch a film on TV together. Like a family.’
‘Okay and then what happened?’
‘Josh offered to help me clear the garden up. We were planning to take the shed down and build a terrace with some slabs that someone had asked him to get rid of. So we could have somewhere to sit, and stand a barbeque. He’d got the truck and the tools. I was hoping Ryan might give us a hand too.’
‘Okay.’
‘Anyway, Josh and I made a start and took the roof off the shed – we put all the debris, the corrugated roof and things we couldn’t burn, into his truck. And then he handed me out some bin bags, but nothing that I remembered putting in there – they were full of all kinds of stuff.’
‘When you say stuff? What sort of things do you mean?’
‘Letters, clothes, old books.’
‘And they weren’t yours or Ryan’s?’
‘No.’
‘And there were letters?’
‘Some, quite a lot to Mustafa – Woody – and some others too, mostly official looking government documents which were addressed to someone called Farouk Holbein. And they were all addressed to Woody's old address.’
‘The Kirby Road address?’
‘Yes.’
‘And were there many of these letters?’
‘Quite a lot.’
‘How many is quite a lot, Sarah?’
‘I’m not sure now. Some were junk mail. But there were at least a couple of dozen, maybe more for Woody, maybe half that for Farouk. Some of them were official looking and I was worried that they were important and that Woody didn’t realise. I knew he had been getting rid of things because I’d seen him out in the garden burning rubbish in the brazier.’
‘Did you ask Woody about the bags and the letters?’
‘Yes, when he came in that night. I’d cooked for everyone. I’d made a curry, and I’d saved all the letters and put them in the kitchen just in case he wanted them, or they were something important.’
‘Did Woody know that you were planning to take the shed down?’
‘No, I don’t think so. I mean we hadn’t deliberately kept it from him I just can’t remembering telling him directly. I suppose I assumed that he must have heard us talking about building a terrace.’
‘So what did he say?’
‘About the letters? Nothing much. He said they were just rubbish, that he kept getting the same letters over and over again from University and from various government agencies, and he’d already answered all their questions, sometimes more than once and that he had been told to ignore them.’
‘Didn’t that strike you as a bit odd?’
‘No, not really. Haven’t you had that? We had the same thing when Mum died. Woody told me that he’d rung them and they had told him a lot of the letters were computer generated and to ignore them if he had already replied. He said he was going to burn them because they had personal details on them – addresses, all sorts of numbers, his passport details, his bank account.’
‘You’re frowning, Sarah; was there something else?’
‘Yes, I noticed that a lot of the letters hadn’t been opened, and that did strike me as odd.’
‘And what about the post for Farouk?’
‘Woody said he had found them in amongst his mail when he was sorting things out to throw away. He told me that he had been planning to burn all the other rubbish when he had a chance, letters included.’
‘And what about Farouk’s mail?’
‘I think – although I didn’t ask him – that he planned to burn those too. Farouk was the man at the last flat that had given him trouble. He told me the reason he moved was that he was afraid of him.’
‘So did Woody explain why he had Farouk’s post?
‘He said that he’d gone back to pick up his mail from the pigeon hole at his old place and that there must have been some of Farouk's mail in there with it.’
‘Okay. And he didn’t think to take it back, or just leave it there rather than bring it home and burn it?’
‘He told me that he didn’t want to hang around, that Farouk was bad news. S
o Woody had gone in and out really fast and hadn’t bothered to sort the post out while he was there.’
‘And you believed him?’
’Yes, why wouldn’t I? Anyway I said if he wanted I could drop the letters off on my way to work one morning. Just stick them in through the door.’
‘And Woody agreed to that?’
‘He said that would be great if I didn’t mind doing it, but that he didn’t want to put me to any trouble. He just didn’t want to run into Farouk.’
‘He said that, Sarah? That he didn’t want to run into Farouk?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay. So Woody told you that Farouk was violent?’
‘Not directly, like I said he just seemed very nervous of him.’
‘But you weren’t?’
‘Why would I be? I didn’t know who Farouk was and he didn’t know me. I couldn’t see me taking the post back was going to be a problem. I just planned to put it through the door, not go in or anything.’
‘So what happened when you got to the house?’
‘The landlord was there painting the windows. I told him that I had some mail for Farouk, and he took it for me. I couldn’t really see a way round explaining what I was doing there; there were quite a lot of letters.’
‘And did you mention Woody?’
‘Only in passing. I told him that Mustapha, Woody, had picked up some of Farouk’s mail by accident, and that I was returning it. He seemed relieved.’
‘Can you explain what you mean by relieved? Relieved that the letters were back?’
‘No. I think he was relieved to know that Woody was okay. His landlord said that Woody was a nice man – a good tenant – and that he had been concerned when he had left in such a hurry. He said he hadn’t been in contact, and hadn’t seen Woody since he’d left. He sounded genuinely concerned.’
‘Did you mention that Woody was frightened of Farouk?’
‘No.’
‘And did you give Woody’s old landlord your address so that he could forward any mail?’
‘No.’
‘Did that not occur to you?’
‘Yes. I did think about it, but I was worried that Farouk might find out where Woody was living.’
‘Okay, Sarah, so are you suggesting that Farouk posed some kind of threat to Woody?’
‘I don’t know. I just know what Woody had told me.’
‘ And so at that point Farouk was still living in one of the flats at the Kirby Street address, then?’
‘I don’t know, I didn’t ask, but I suppose I thought he must have been because his landlord took the letters in for me.’
‘Okay, Sarah. So tell me about Woody. What was he like as a tenant?’
‘There’s not a lot to tell, really. I barely noticed he was there most of the time. He paid his rent on time. He went out most days, from just after eight often until quite late. And when he was in, if he wasn’t with Ryan watching DVDs or playing on the Xbox, he was in his room. I didn’t see much of him. I think he stayed out the odd night but I didn’t ask him about that. He kept himself to himself.’
‘And did you know he was in the UK on a student visa?’
‘I didn’t. I hadn’t really thought about it. Ryan told me.’
‘When did he tell you?’
‘I’d been out with Josh to the cinema. By that time we were seeing each other regularly. I’d invited him back for coffee. I was just making it when Ryan came up from the basement and said that we really needed to talk. I could see it was something important.’
‘He was agitated?’
‘Yes, anxious – he’s my brother. I could tell that something was really worrying him.’
‘And Ryan was happy to discuss his worries in front of Josh?’
‘No, Josh took the hint.’
‘And left?’
‘Yes.’
‘Just like that?’
‘I don’t think he wanted to go but he could see Ryan wanted to talk to me alone. He said he’d ring me when he got home. And if there was anything I needed just to give him a call – he’s a lovely man. He wanted to make sure that I was okay.’
‘Were you sleeping together by then?’
‘What business is that of yours?’
‘I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t relevant, so please can you tell me? Were you having sex with Josh, Sarah?’
‘No. Although I think we had both thought that night the coffee would lead to something more. I think we were both expecting him to stay.’
‘And Ryan coming in interrupted you?’
‘I suppose so. Not directly, but after a few minutes it was pretty obvious Ryan wasn’t going to go and he wasn’t going to talk in front of Josh. So we didn’t have a lot of choice really. Josh was okay about it.’
‘So why was Ryan so anxious?’
‘He told me that Woody’s visa was going to run out when he’d finished his course and that he didn’t want to go back to Pakistan. Ryan was really concerned about it – upset.’
‘Okay. And how did you feel about that?’
‘I’m not sure. It struck me as being odd, I suppose. I mean I could understand it was unfortunate but I didn’t see how it really affected us. I know that Ryan was his friend and I could understand him being upset. I suppose I knew that Woody liked living in Cambridge – in the UK – but I couldn’t really see why Ryan thought it was such a big thing, so big that he had to come and tell me about it like that.’
‘So it seemed strange?’
‘Yes. And then Ryan said he was worried about the contract he was working on. Although I couldn’t see at that point how the two things were connected.’
‘So did you find out why he was worried about the contact, Sarah?’
‘He just said it wasn’t exactly what he had thought it was going to be, and that there might not be as much work as he had been led to believe.’
‘And can you remember what you said?’
‘No, not really, not word for word. I suppose I made the right noises – you know – take what there is, do what you can, not to worry, that kind of thing. I said we could always get another lodger in, like I’d said before. And that he was doing really well, so he should hang on in there, something else might come up. Like I said, I wasn’t sure how it tied in with Woody at that point, but as far as Ryan was concerned the two things seemed to be connected.’
‘But he didn’t mention being in any kind of trouble?’
‘No. Not then.’
‘And did Ryan tell you that he planned to sort something out to help Woody stay in the UK?’
‘No, but he did say that Woody needed both of us to help him.’
‘And you agreed?’
‘Well, yes, in principle. I thought he meant writing a reference or filling in some forms or something like that.’
‘So then what happened?’
‘Ryan seemed relieved.’
‘And?’
‘Josh suggested that he and I go away for the weekend together.’
‘I thought you just said that Josh had gone home?’
‘He had. He rang me while he was driving back to his house. I had more or less finished talking to Ryan by the time he rang. Josh said it was the only way we would ever get any real time to ourselves and he said he wanted the physical thing to be special not rushed. He laughed and said he didn’t want our first night together being us upstairs and Ryan and Woody downstairs on the Xbox – I think we both needed a break away from work and things – and I think we both knew that this was it. You know. The big thing. The special thing. The thing we all wait for.’
‘And what did Ryan say about you going away?’
‘He had gone by the time I was off the phone.’
‘So you didn’t get a chance to discuss exactly what helping Woody might entail?’
‘No. Not then. And to be honest I wasn’t thinking about Woody or Ryan. I was thinking about Josh.’
Chapter Six
Sarah unlocked the door and stepped
into the cottage, while Josh followed close behind her carrying a box of groceries.
‘So what do you think?’ he asked, as she looked around.
‘Oh my god, it’s lovely.’ Sarah turned to him, grinning. Josh slid the box onto the counter in the tiny whitewashed kitchen and took her in his arms.
‘I’m so glad you said you’d come. You deserve a break. We deserve a break. I’ve been looking forward to this for so long – just some time away together without my job or yours.’
‘Or Ryan.’
‘Or Woody,’ Josh laughed. ‘Finally just you and me. Us.’
‘Us has got a nice ring to it,’ Sarah said, and stepping into his arms. She couldn’t remember the last time she had spent any time away from home. It had to have been years since she had had a holiday, or even a night away. ‘The cottage is so sweet – oh I love the boarded walls, like New England.’
‘Small but perfectly formed,’ he said with a smile. ‘I’ll take you on a guided tour in a minute.’ He paused and took a breath. ‘So, this is the kitchen,’ he said, grinning, before pressing his lips to hers. Her whole body responded to his. It felt like they had waited forever to get to this moment.
‘I’ve been thinking about you all week,’ he said, as he pulled away.
‘What about the rest of the tour?’
‘Oh don‘t worry, we’ll round get to that,’ Josh said, and kissed her again. This time his kiss was more insistent and hungrier and she matched it.
‘Do you think we should unpack the food?’ she mumbled, as his fingers struggled with the buttons on her jacket and hers with his denim shirt.
‘Maybe we should,’ he said, as her coat dropped to the floor. ‘Maybe we should put the things in the fridge.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ she murmured, as his shirt joined it. ‘We should do that.’
‘Good idea,’ he gasped, his lips on her neck and shoulders.
Sarah closed her eyes and drank in the feel of him as she ran her fingers over his muscular shoulders, across his broad hairy chest, her mouth watering, her pulse quickening, and then he kissed her again, his hands sliding up inside her sweater.
‘Or we could do it later, maybe,’ he breathed, between kisses. ‘When we do the rest of the tour.’
‘Good plan,’ she mumbled, as he pulled the jumper over her head, kissing her neck, her collarbones, while his hands, his fingers, stroked and caressed every inch of her. She moaned with delight, every cell alive and glowing white-hot. It had been a long time.