by Anna Jacobs
‘Of course you’re not too young!’ he said at once. ‘And do call me Mr S. Most people do. Shackleton’s such a mouthful of a name.’
Dawn beamed at them both. ‘Great to see you making friends. I don’t at all approve of the way people from different generations stay so separate.’ She looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Perhaps we could get my mum and Winifred to do the paperwork for the scheme. I don’t really have time to run it, but when I heard about the idea, I knew it was needed in our town.’
She stood up. ‘Could you go and see Miss Parfitt today, do you think? I don’t believe in letting the grass grow under my feet.’
After she’d gone, Dan grinned at Janey. ‘She sweeps everyone along in her plans, Dawn does. She’s a treasure, that lass is. Does a lot of good in this town. Her husband’s quieter, but he helps behind the scenes and he’s very proud of her.’ He started gathering the mugs together. ‘Shall we go and see this Miss Parfitt now?’
‘Yes. We’ve just got time before lunch. Millie plays up if her food is late.’
It felt strange but nice to have someone walking along beside her, chatting, as she pushed the buggy. She’d grown so used to being on her own with Millie, didn’t ever again want to feel as utterly alone as she had the day she moved into the flat.
When Winifred heard the doorbell, her heart started to beat a little faster. Bradley’s fault. He’d made her nervous of answering her own front door. She went into the sitting room and peered out of the window, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Janey there, with her baby in the buggy, and an elderly man standing beside her, smiling down at the baby. Such a nice smile, the man had, kindly and tolerant.
She hurried to open the door.
‘Is this a convenient time to call?’ Janey asked.
‘Yes, of course. I don’t get many visitors so it’s nearly always convenient. Call any time you feel like some company or a piece of cake.’ She wondered if she’d said too much but Janey’s smile didn’t falter as she nodded acceptance of this ongoing invitation. At least, Winifred hoped that was what the nod meant.
‘This is Mr Shackleton. He has one of the Grove Allotments and he’s a friend of Dawn’s. She sent us over to ask you something.’
‘Then you’d better come in. Would you like a cup of tea?’
They both laughed.
‘We’ve just had one,’ Janey explained. ‘Mr S has a little gas ring at his shed on the allotment and he’s always making me tea.’
‘Come and visit me sometime and I’ll make you one too, Miss Parfitt,’ he offered. ‘And my name’s Dan.’
Winifred blinked, surprised at such an immediate gesture of friendship. ‘I’d like that. And do call me Winifred. Come and sit down.’
But he went to the kitchen window first, staring out at the garden and giving a soft whistle. ‘I didn’t realise how big your place was. The wall and hedge hide it.’
‘Far too big for me now, but I don’t want to leave my home.’ Winifred couldn’t hold back a sigh.
He came back to join them at the table. ‘That’s what we’ve come about. Dawn wants to start a garden sharing scheme in the town. Do you know what that is?’
‘She mentioned it one day, so I have a rough general idea.’
‘It’s a great concept, isn’t it? There’s such a long waiting list for allotments, people lose heart, yet more of them are wanting to grow their own food, if they can find somewhere to grow it.’
‘But what has it got to do with me?’
He gave her another of his gentle smiles. ‘We thought you might like to be our guinea pig and be the first person to share a garden.’
Winifred stared at him as this idea sank in. She’d not thought about the scheme in relation to herself. She looked out of the window thoughtfully. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start, how to find people, but I would definitely be interested in sharing my garden. It looks such a mess these days, it upsets me to see it. I used to love gardening, but I can’t do the bending and kneeling now. Arthritis.’
‘It’s a curse, arthritis is,’ Dan said. ‘I’ve got it in my hands and knees but it’s not too bad yet.’ He spread out his gnarled old fingers, looked at them with a grimace, then shrugged. ‘Anno domini. I try to ignore my age and carry on anyway.’ He leant forward. ‘I thought you could help us start the scheme together. And Dawn suggested her mother might help too. It’ll take some organising if we’re going to involve the whole town.’
‘The whole town?’
‘Oh, yes. Dawn never does things by halves.’
‘I don’t think her mother is very fond of gardening and as I said before, I can’t bend or—’
‘No, but there’s going to be a lot of paperwork, so Dawn thought you and Hazel could take charge of that. What do you think?’
Winifred took another chance, excitement rising in her. ‘I think it’s an excellent idea and I’d love to help out in any way I can. I’m sure Hazel will too.’
Nicole and Paul had decided to go to the hospital before they went back to visit their old house, and this time both were allowed in to see Sam. He was still lying there, not seeming aware of what was going on around him.
‘He had a disturbed night, I’m afraid,’ the nurse said. ‘Is he worrying about something?’
‘Could be. Our older son has gone off the rails and the police are looking for him.’
‘Did your husband know about that before he collapsed? What a terrible thing for you all! Anyway, stay as long as you like. There are no restrictions on visiting times.’
That sounded ominous to Nicole but she could see that Paul hadn’t picked up the implications, so she didn’t comment.
They stayed for ten minutes, sitting by the bed, finding it hard to chat to a man who didn’t respond in any way. In the end Nicole could bear it no longer. ‘Shall we go now?’
Paul nodded, looking relieved.
‘I don’t like to see Dad looking like that,’ he whispered once they got outside.
‘Neither do I.’ She led the way down to the foyer, where Kieran was sitting at a table drinking something from the refreshments kiosk.
He stood up as soon as he saw them. ‘Would you like a drink?’
‘Not really. I think perhaps we should go home now and get Paul’s clothes and the other stuff he needs for school.’
‘I’ve been thinking – it might be better to ring the police first and check that it’s all right to go back. We don’t know what William’s been up to overnight, after all. Do you have the card they gave you?’
The person at the other end of the line seemed to know about the case and said she’d ask a car to drop round to the house, just to make sure everything was all right.
When they pulled up outside her old home, Nicole shivered.
‘Is something wrong?’ Kieran asked.
‘I’m just … a bit nervous.’
‘What if William’s here?’ Paul asked. ‘He has to hide somewhere, after all.’
‘If he is, we’ll run outside again.’ She tried to joke but her voice wavered on the final words. Paul made no attempt to go rushing ahead of her as he usually would have done and Kieran stayed firmly by her side.
She got out the front door key, but fumbled and dropped it on the path.
Paul picked it up and put it in the lock for her, turning it and stepping forward.
She dragged him back by his jacket. ‘I’ll go first.’ Taking a deep breath she pushed the door fully open and took two steps into the hall, stopping to wrinkle her nose because the place smelt of sweat and rotten food. She looked into the front room, where the pieces of her broken figurine were still scattered across the hearth. It didn’t look as if anything had been touched in here since she left.
Kieran and Paul waited near the door, still taking their cue from her. She went across to the dining room and gasped. Gouged into the polished tabletop was the word: BITCH.
Kieran came and put his arm round her shoulders. Paul pressed against her other side.
/> ‘He’s a sicko, Mum. Let’s go outside again and wait for the police.’
She stiffened. ‘No. Let’s continue exploring.’
‘What if he’s here?’ he whispered. ‘He’s already hurt you once.’
She put her hand up to the back of her head instinctively as he said that.
‘Paul’s right,’ Kieran urged. ‘Better to be cautious.’
As they moved into the hall again, there was a sound from the kitchen.
Without asking permission, Kieran pushed her and Paul outside again and moved to stand in front of her.
As Nicole looked into the house, she saw someone come out of the kitchen and stand at the end of the hall: her son – and yet, not her son, somehow. William’s face was so full of anger, he didn’t look like the lad she knew. Though why he was so angry all the time, she couldn’t work out. He stood there glaring at her, then took a step forward, one fist raised as if he was about to attack them. She couldn’t help it – she took another quick step backwards.
William smiled and took another step forward, taunting her with that brandished fist. ‘Keep away from here, bitch!’
‘Get in the car,’ Kieran muttered.
But just then another car drew up behind hers in the drive, a police car.
‘Thank goodness!’ Paul said.
William made a rude sign with one finger and vanished into the kitchen.
One of the police officers came hurrying towards her. ‘Everything all right, Mrs Gainsford?’
‘No. My son William is here. I think he was about to attack us when you arrived. He went into the back of the house.’
The officers looked at one another then one pointed and ran through the front door while the other ran round the side towards the rear.
Kieran watched them intently, keeping an eye on the other side of the house. ‘I wish this were a semi-detached house,’ he murmured. ‘If he comes round the other side, don’t try to stop him, either of you.’
But there was no sign of William coming round the side and after a while the police officers returned.
‘I reckon he went over the back fence,’ one said. ‘The plants were freshly trampled in one corner. Do you want to check the house now?’
Nicole nodded, guessing there would be further nasty surprises waiting for her. Best get it over with. ‘Paul, when we’re sure it’s safe, sort out your clothes and anything else you want to take with you. Work as fast as you can. Pile the clothes on the bed and we’ll wrap them in the sheet.’
‘Right.’
It hurt her to see him looking so upset. Well, she was upset too – very – but she didn’t dare give in to her feelings. She went back into the house, ignoring the two rooms at the front. The kitchen was even messier than before. A can of baked beans had been overturned recently and the sauce was still slipping out into a glutinous puddle on the table. There was a carton of milk on the draining board, with splashes where it had been dumped in a hurry.
In one corner was a pile of broken crockery. It looked as if someone had simply lobbed pieces there on purpose. She moved closer and gasped. ‘That’s my best dinner set,’ she told the police. ‘He must have brought it in from the dining room to break like this. Why does he hate me so much? What have I ever done to deserve it?’
‘From what your younger son and husband told us before, he’s on anabolic steroids, and they can do terrible things to young men, especially if he’s on the designer version. Rage and mindless aggression are among the common side effects.’
‘I don’t understand why young men do this to themselves.’
‘The medical gurus say they want to be more powerful. Others because they think drugs are where it’s at. Anything for kicks.’
‘William was never an easy child to rear. He wasn’t very good at school, right from the start. We had to hire tutors to get him reading properly. Paul was different, a good student all along. I suppose this is William’s way of making up for it.’
He gave her a sympathetic look, waited a moment then asked, ‘Shall we go and check upstairs now, Ms Gainsford?’
She nodded and turned to Kieran. ‘Will you come with me as well?’
‘Of course I will.’ He took her hand for a moment, sure they’d find something unpleasant upstairs. ‘Let’s do it.’
She turned to her son. ‘Paul, you follow us. Keep a few steps back and if I say you’re to go downstairs again, do it.’
Upstairs it looked as if a hurricane had swept through. William must have been searching for something, because all the drawers had been emptied out and half the clothes dragged from the wardrobes and left in tangled heaps.
‘Looking for something valuable to sell, probably,’ the male officer said.
She looked at him anxiously. ‘I took my jewellery to my new flat. You don’t think – he won’t have gone there, surely? Not with the police looking for him?’
The officer was already pulling out his mobile phone. He walked out on to the landing to make the call, suggesting they send someone to her flat immediately. He turned. ‘Address?’
She gave it with a sinking heart. ‘I don’t know whether to hurry back or stay here,’ she told Kieran.
‘Stay here. Retrieve what you can now, because it’s my guess he’ll be back.’
Paul’s room had also been ransacked and the computer monitor lay smashed in one corner. He stood for a moment fists clenched, expression anguished, then said, ‘I think the computer itself’s OK, but I’ll need to get a new monitor, Mum, if you can afford one.’
‘You can take your father’s. In fact, take your father’s computer as well. It’s in the study downstairs. We don’t want it getting smashed.’ It didn’t sound as if Sam would need it again. Her throat clogged with guilt which was weighing her down so heavily she didn’t know how to bear it. She should have tried harder to persuade him to go to the doctor’s.
Paul touched her arm briefly, as if he sensed her distress. ‘You all right, Mum?’
She pulled herself together. ‘Yes. Work as quickly as you can.’
When they left an hour later, they took as much as they could with them, odd-shaped bundles, boxes. Paul had to sit squashed into one corner of the car’s back seat, on top of some bundles of clothes and with head-height bundles beside him, and even on his lap.
The police escorted them to Nicole’s flat, where their colleagues were now keeping watch.
Janey walked down Peppercorn Street from Miss Parfitt’s house, pleased with how her life was turning out. She’d left Mr S pacing out the garden and she hoped this project would help cement his friendship with his hostess. They were both lonely, she could see that. There ought to be introduction agencies for old people, not for them to find new marriage partners, but just for finding friends.
She felt happiness well up inside her like a warm fountain as she counted her blessings. She was starting to make friends, finding activities to occupy her time, not to mention coping with looking after her daughter, something which had terrified her at first.
Lost in her thoughts and plans, she didn’t notice the car until it slowed right down next to her. She looked sideways at it, expecting someone to be asking directions. But it wasn’t. It was him, giving her that confident gloating smile which made her shiver.
She stopped, unable to move for sheer terror. Her heart started to pound and she would have screamed, only she couldn’t make a sound, except for a soft whimper of protest. He’d come back looking for her! He was going to spoil her lovely new life!
As he waved one hand in greeting, a police car with its light flashing drove past and he drove off at once, not stopping to ask what the police were doing there. Well, he was stationed on the other side of Swindon so they couldn’t be members of his team.
It was a while before she could move on and then she walked slowly and heavily like an old person, couldn’t help it because fear was still weighing her down. She’d known he could find her easily enough, but she hadn’t seen any reason why he would both
er.
But he had bothered. Why? And why had he made his presence known to her today? What did he want from her? Hadn’t he done enough to ruin her life?
She gasped. He surely didn’t expect her to let him near her again willingly?
But he didn’t want a willing woman. He’d really enjoyed hurting her. That had terrified her most of all, because she’d thought at one stage he was going to kill her.
If only she’d gone for help straight away, shown people her bruises. But she hadn’t known she was pregnant. She’d thought she could just forget it and take care never to be alone with him again.
She looked down at Millie, amazed as she always was, that she could love his child so much. Maternal instinct, she supposed.
But she wasn’t going to let him force her again. She didn’t know how she’d stop him, but she would. She couldn’t prove that she’d been unwilling to have sex with him but she’d already decided she didn’t want to have a DNA test done on Millie, because she didn’t want him to have any rights of access to her daughter. He might hurt her too.
So it had to be stopped.
But how?
One of the police officers keeping watch on Mrs Gainsford’s flat from a little way down the street turned to the other. ‘Wasn’t that Gary Yarford?’
‘Yeah. Same old surveillance vehicle. Everyone in the force for fifty miles around knows it by now. You’d think that lot would have the wit to replace it, because if we know it by sight, you can be sure others will too.’
‘I wonder who he was keeping watch on?’
‘He drew up beside that girl who was walking with her baby. I saw him wave to her. She didn’t look happy to see him, though. Did you see her face? Hey, she’s turning into those flats just down the road! Pull forward a minute. There’s nothing parked on the road outside them.’
They moved further down the street and watched as Janey hauled the buggy up the step and into the entrance hall. She unfastened the baby and carried it upstairs, then came back down for the buggy.
‘She doesn’t look like a crim or a hooker to me.’