The Good Neighbour

by Beth Miller

  ‘Andy,’ she said. ‘Maybe you should wait outside.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, stumbling to the door.

  ‘Careful mate,’ Ryan said. He turned to Gina. ‘Shall I sit with him? Poor bloke looks a bit fucked.’

  Gina nodded. Then she said to Minette, ‘OK, come in here.’

  ‘Want a cuppa, mate?’ Minette heard Ryan say as she followed Gina into the living room. Gina shut the door and they sat opposite each other on two plump white sofas.

  ‘You’re like a sodding detective, you are,’ Gina said, and Minette thought there was a note of admiration mixed in with the scorn. ‘How’d you get Andy’s number out of Ruby’s phone? We never could work out how you got past the passcode. And how’d you find my address?’

  ‘Let me ask you something,’ Minette said. ‘Andy told me that he’s sent you loads of notes, telling you what happened.’

  ‘What happened, according to him.’

  ‘Yes, according to him. So you know both sides of the story. How come you have never believed his version?’

  Gina shook her head. ‘I met Ruby in reception class. We was four. She held my hand when I cried after peeing my pants. We grew up together. She lived with Mum and me for six years, from when she was fourteen. I know her inside out, and she me. She looked after me. She rescued me.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean she’s telling the truth, though.’

  ‘You’re missing the point. I’m with her all the way, through thick and thin.’

  ‘Gina, Cath didn’t leave Andy because he hit her.’

  ‘He did hit her, though.’

  ‘Yes, but he thinks he has cause, he …’

  ‘It ain’t never justified. You look to me like a lady who’s never got herself into a bad situation with a bloke. So you don’t tell me that “he has cause”. There isn’t never a cause.’

  ‘OK. Look. She didn’t leave because he hit her, bad as that was. She left because she was in serious trouble at work. And because Andy discovered that she was lying about the children.’

  ‘La la, I’m not listening,’ Gina said.

  ‘So even if Lola doesn’t really have allergies? Even if Davey doesn’t need to be in a wheelchair?’

  ‘Minette, I love those kids. But I’m loyal to Ruby, first and last.’

  ‘Bloody hell.’ Minette didn’t know whether to be appalled, or envious of the women’s friendship. ‘Are you in love with her?’

  ‘Why? Can’t I just love her like a mate, she can’t just be my soul sister, it has to be about sex?’

  ‘Is she in love with you, then?’

  ‘Rubes was right, you are a pervert.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘I’ve seen the photos, sweetie. I seen you.’ She stuck her tongue through her fingers suggestively.

  Minette’s face felt hot, but she ploughed on. ‘Don’t you think that’s weird, then, Gina? That she took photos of me and Liam?’

  ‘It was Liam’s idea to set up the camera. He’s a kinky bastard, isn’t he? Looks like you was well into it, though.’

  Minette no longer knew what was true and what wasn’t. She didn’t want to think about the photos for one moment longer. She turned her focus onto Andy. That was the one bit she felt she properly understood. ‘Listen, Gina, there’s a man out there, a father. He drove through the night the minute he heard from his child. You’re the only one standing in his way. Can you really live with that?’

  For the first time, Gina didn’t answer immediately. Minette pressed on. ‘His children want him, Gina. Davey told me so.’ As she spoke, something occurred to her. ‘And I think you feel the same as I do. After all, you’re the one who gave Davey access to a phone.’

  ‘I beg your fucking pardon?’ Gina stood up, towering over her. Minette edged into the corner of the white sofa, remembering how hot-tempered Gina had been on the phone, that day Cath came off her bike.

  ‘Sit down, please, Gina. I don’t mean anything, really. I just wondered why, after all Cath’s efforts to keep Davey from contacting his father, you were the one who …’

  ‘Didn’t fucking know what he was going to do, did I?’ Gina sat down. Her cheeks were red. ‘He just wanted to play a game on it.’

  What was the point in pushing it? It wouldn’t help the children. And she didn’t want Gina to clam up on her completely. Or wallop her. Minette took a breath, and said, ‘No, you’re right, I’m sorry. But Andy’s desperate to see the kids, just to know they’re all right. Even seeing them once would be enough.’

  Gina shook her head. ‘There’s no point asking me. Ruby won’t. And anyway, he’s an abuser.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’

  ‘He hit her. That’s a solid fact.’

  ‘She hit him too, though,’ Minette said.

  Gina laughed. ‘Think it’s the same thing? How much damage you reckon she could do him, skinny bird like her?’ She looked more confident now. ‘He hit Adam an’ all. And you saw how he pushed in here. He ain’t that tall but he’s big enough. Shoves his weight in, thinks afterwards. Ruby don’t want the kids exposed to that.’

  She sat back in her chair. There was something about her expression that told Minette she would never get any further appealing to Gina’s sense of compassion. She tried a different tack. ‘You’ll miss Cath, won’t you? Ruby, I mean? Now she’s abroad?’

  ‘I’ll go out there, soon enough. Me and Ryan, we fancy a nice holiday.’

  ‘Where is it?’

  ‘Oh, ha ha, Minette, maybe you’re not such a Sherlock as you been thinking.’ Gina stood up. ‘I think we’re done here.’

  Minette allowed herself to be led into the hall. She stepped round an obstacle then registered it as the laboratory freezer from Cath’s bedroom. It was plugged in. ‘See you’ve got Cath’s freezer,’ she said, casually.

  ‘Keeping it safe for her,’ Gina said, opening the front door. ‘Expensive piece of kit, that.’

  Andy and Ryan were sitting on the front wall, drinking mugs of tea in companionable silence. Andy looked up hopefully, but Minette shook her head, and he nodded, as though he had expected nothing more.

  ‘We saw that Cath left a lot of furniture behind,’ Minette said. ‘Including Davey’s hospital bed.’

  ‘He was getting a bit big for it, anyway.’

  ‘Will you be putting her stuff into storage, or getting house clearers in?’ Minette asked.

  ‘Couldn’t say.’

  ‘So, do you think she might come back one day?’

  ‘Well luv, if she does, you’ll be the last to know about it.’

  ‘Bye, Gina,’ Andy said.

  ‘Bye Andy. Now you know my address, you might as well send the maintenance cheques here. Save me paying out for that PO box. But don’t bother turning up again. Neither of you. It’ll be a police matter if you do.’

  ‘Now Gee, that’s a bit much,’ Ryan said.

  ‘You keep out of it, Ryan.’

  ‘All right, babes. Nice motor,’ he said to Andy. ‘Bit of a hassle to park though?’ He laughed.

  ‘You know,’ Gina said quietly, as Minette was about to walk round to the passenger side of the lorry, ‘I do love Rubes, but I’ll be glad to have a little break from the drama. Know what I mean?’

  Minette nodded. She felt like she had been stuck on a rollercoaster ride against her will. Maybe that was how Gina had felt for years.

  Andy climbed up into the cab of his lorry. He looked so defeated, she wondered how Gina could stand seeing him, knowing that she had the power to help him. But Gina had already gone back into the house.

  Minette said, ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s all right. You did your best.’ Andy pulled out of the street and onto the main road.

  ‘I did too little, too late.’

  ‘It was me, I didn’t do everything I could. They were within my reach, and I let them slip away again. Now I’ve got to think about how to live my life without them. I was a father, but I don’t know what I am now.’

  ‘W
hy don’t you stop Ruby’s payments?’ Minette said. ‘Surely that would spur her into getting in touch with you?’

  Andy turned and stared at her, making her worry because his eyes were off the road. ‘You serious?’ he said. ‘Sever the only link I’ve got to my kids? Give Ruby the chance to tell them all over again how I don’t care about them?’

  ‘Sorry,’ Minette said quickly, and Andy shook his head, and turned his attention back to driving. Minette tried to think of something to make him feel better. ‘I’m sure Adam will remember your number. I told him to memorise it. When he’s a bit older he’ll be able to get hold of a phone, or borrow a friend’s.’

  ‘I doubt it,’ Andy shrugged, his eyes on the road. ‘After all, far as he’s concerned, he called me this time and I didn’t come.’

  Minette suggested Andy stay the night at hers and Abe’s. He looked like he could fall asleep at the wheel any moment. He agreed gratefully, said in fact maybe he could have a lie down when they got back. But when they reached Sisley Street, Abe flung open the door in a state of high energy. ‘Any joy?’

  Minette briefly explained what had happened, and Abe nodded grimly. ‘I thought it might not come to much. So I’ve already made a start.’ They followed him into the living room, where the laptop was sitting on the table, surrounded by piles of paper.

  ‘What’s all this?’ Minette said. Abe had his crusading face on. He looked the same way after taking on a client at work whose case he believed in.

  ‘We just need to go about this systematically,’ Abe said, taking some papers off a chair so that Andy could sit down. ‘I’ve been making notes.’ He picked up a pad. ‘So, where might they have gone? Minette wondered if they’ve headed to the States.’

  ‘Davey said there were relatives there,’ Minette explained to Andy, ‘and Gina did say she’d taken them to the airport.’

  ‘It’s possible. Ruby’s cousin, Verna, is American. But I don’t know her surname, or where she lives. It’d be a needle in a haystack.’

  ‘God, if only I’d asked Davey a couple more questions,’ Minette said.

  ‘OK, so, first, we contact the American Duchenne groups,’ Abe said. ‘There’s some national organisations such as Parent Project and MD Junction. They might be able to tell us if there’s a new family in a particular area.’ He indicated the papers on which he had printed out details of these groups.

  ‘What if Cath drops the whole Duchenne thing?’ Minette asked. ‘She left the hospital bed behind, after all.’

  ‘Got to start somewhere,’ Abe said. ‘And we can do the same with allergy organisations. Then you have Gina’s email address, don’t you, Andy? So we might be able to get some kind of trace on that, and if she uses it to communicate with Cath we can get her IP address. That’s the location of the computer,’ he said, misinterpreting Andy’s befuddled face.

  ‘Abe,’ Minette said, ‘if someone is determined to stay lost, it can be pretty hard to track them down.’

  ‘If it was just Cath, I’d say sure. Leave it. Let her do what she wants. But there are two children, Minette, who haven’t chosen to be lost.’ He consulted his notes. ‘Another strand is the house sale. Priya’s sister should be able to find out whether Cath’s dealing with the estate agent herself or if they’re selling it through Gina. Either way, the estate agent will have some useful knowledge. So, that’s as far as I got, but that’s just for starters. There’s loads we can do.’

  Abe hadn’t shaved today; something about the combination of stubble and his determined expression struck Minette between the eyes. Abe looked hot. She hadn’t seen him this way for years, though right now she couldn’t understand why not. He looked like a grown-up, not some skinny Sinatra boy. She smiled at him, but he seemed oblivious to her admiring gaze.

  ‘You don’t have to do all this,’ Andy said. He looked completely confused. ‘Why would you?’

  ‘Couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try,’ Abe said. ‘I’d want someone to help me, if Tilly disappeared.’

  Surely we’ve already done enough to help, Minette wanted to say. After all, none of this was really any of their business. But she knew she was conflicted. Sure, it would be better for her if Cath was never found. But it wouldn’t be better for Davey and Lola.

  ‘What I mean,’ Abe said, putting his arm round Minette, ‘is that we couldn’t live with ourselves. I know Minette feels the same.’

  Torn as she was, Minette was overwhelmed with love for Abe. He was so good, so straightforward. And newly hot, which didn’t hurt.

  ‘Yes,’ she said to Andy, and it didn’t matter that she didn’t quite feel it, ‘we couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t try.’

  The men spent the next few hours in front of the computer, while Minette made coffee, tended to Tilly, and supplied snacks at regular intervals. In the evening Abe went round to Priya’s, and was grinning broadly on his return. ‘She’s totally on board,’ he said. ‘She’ll speak to her sister tomorrow. And you’ll never guess what else. Liam’s wife, Whatsername, was round there and she’s expecting a baby.’

  ‘Oh, how lovely,’ Minette said, doing a fair impression of someone who was hearing a) wonderful news for b) the first time.

  ‘That’s going to be one cute kid. Anyway,’ Abe said, turning to Andy, who was lying on the sofa, trying to stay awake, ‘the good news is Priya’s sister will be able to get us the inside info about the house sale.’

  ‘Don’t you have to get back to work soon, Andy?’ Minette asked.

  ‘Yes, I do, really. I’ll have to finish this lot,’ Andy said, pointing at the window, meaning the lorry load outside, ‘before my manager gets arsey. I ought to shift tomorrow.’

  ‘That’s OK,’ Abe said. ‘I’ll keep going with all this.’

  Andy said, ‘I’ve been thinking. I’ll give it a few days, then take some leave and go out to the States. Do a bit of searching of my own.’

  ‘God!’ Minette burst out. ‘Where the hell would you start? It’s a massive country!’

  Behind Andy’s back, Abe shook his head at Minette, meaning, don’t piss on his parade. He was right: Andy needed something to hold on to, was clearly much more optimistic now Abe had got started on all this. So Minette smiled, and backtracked, said going to America was a great idea. ‘So good to just get out there and feel like you’re covering some ground.’ She didn’t point out that Andy hadn’t been able to find them in Eastbourne, population under 100,000. America was on a slightly different scale.

  ‘I don’t know how to thank you for all this.’ Andy stood up and shook Abe’s hand, then turned to Minette. ‘Both of you.’

  ‘You couldn’t be more welcome,’ Minette smiled, her jaw aching.

  In the morning Abe set off for work, but came back straight away to report that there was a lot of activity going on at Cath’s place. They all went to have a look. There were so many people traipsing in and out – men moving out furniture, a building company fitting a new kitchen – that no one questioned them when they went in. Andy was glad to get the chance to see where the kids had been so recently. In Davey’s room Andy picked up a jumper that had been left behind, Minette guessed because it was too small, and held it to his face. Minette saw that the book she’d read to Davey – Visiting My Daddy – was by the bed, and told Andy how much Davey had liked it. He read the title and added that to his mementoes. She also told him about the framed photo she’d seen in here, of himself and Davey on a swing; Davey must have taken it with him.

  Upstairs, the posters were still on the walls in Lola’s room, but everything else had already been taken out, and the furniture movers were now emptying the spare room. Minette asked one of them if the items were going into storage, but he shrugged. ‘We just shifts it, love. Don’t know where it goes.’

  Minette watched as they heaved the guest bed down the stairs. She thought about the times she had been in that bed. Her eyes fell on the travel cot that Tilly had slept in, on the occasions that Minette had met Liam here.r />
  ‘Do you remember that cot?’ she asked Andy. ‘It was Lola’s old one.’

  ‘We never had a travel cot,’ he said. ‘She always slept in our wooden one. And when we stayed at my mum’s Esmie used my old cot. This looks brand new to me.’

  Minette looked at it properly for the first time. He was right – it clearly was new. Cath must have bought it specially for Tilly, to facilitate Minette and Liam’s trysts. Jesus, was there no end to the ways in which she’d been played?

  ‘The thing I don’t get,’ Minette said, back at their place, and trying to focus on one thing she didn’t get at a time, ‘is that new kitchen going in. Cath said she didn’t have the money for one.’

  ‘Thought you’d have worked that out,’ Andy said.

  Minette stared at him, puzzled. It was Abe who said, ‘The sponsorship?’

  Andy nodded. ‘When she left Harrogate I got chased by the Duchenne group up there for some money she’d raised for them. It weren’t much, couple of thousand, enough for her to get down here I guess.’

  Abe looked up Cath’s pledge page, “Doing it for Davey”. The final total was £18,570.

  ‘Plus the money you raised,’ Abe said to Minette. ‘You got nearly two grand, didn’t you?’ He turned to Andy. ‘Cath insisted Minette collect the sponsorship money in advance.’

  ‘Oh!’ Minette remembered what Sharon at Busy Tigers had told her. It had got lost in all the other drama. ‘And she got five thousand from the nursery in damages.’

  Andy nodded, unsurprised. ‘So something like twenty-five grand. Plenty enough to put in a kitchen and bathroom, sell the house at a nice profit and start a new life abroad.’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ Abe said.

  Andy sighed. ‘Next time I get married, I’m going to pick someone less interesting.’

  Chapter 26

  Milo

  ‘LAST TIME, I promise,’ Davey’s mum said.

  ‘You sure you need to do this again, Ruby?’ Aunty Verna said. ‘Nobody knows you’re here, after all.’

  ‘It’s just a precaution,’ Davey’s mum said. ‘A fresh start, too. I already thought of mine. Sandra Walker. Sandy for short. Film-star’s name, Sandy Walker, don’t you think?’