The Back Road

by Abbott, Rachel

  Throughout her life, or at least since the age of ten, Leo had believed that men were bastards and not to be trusted. Her own father had appeared to be a charming man on the surface although underneath he was anything but, and since the day she had found out how shamefully he had treated her trusting mother, she had sworn that she would never have faith in any man - come hell or high water. As she had grown older, one or two men had stood out to her as possible exceptions to this rule, and one of those had been Max. But this very morning her sister had told her that she thought Max was having an affair. She struggled to believe that Ellie was right, but if it were true, if Max genuinely had been unfaithful, it would appear that her earlier assessment of the male population was fairly accurate.

  But then, what about Ellie? She had still not explained her late night car journey, and it was so out of character. She couldn’t ignore the fact that according to Penny, Gary had been out that night too, but surely there was no connection? That had to be wrong. Gary? It was more likely that, given the revelations this morning, Ellie had actually been spying on Max. But then that wouldn’t explain the late night phone call.

  Leo mentally shook her head. She was just speculating, and it was a waste of time. She needed to speak to her sister, to tell her what she knew and suspected. But not tonight. As she was walking back from Penny’s, Max had called to say that he was preparing a special meal for Ellie as a surprise and he wondered if she would mind having something simple in the sitting room in front of the television.

  ‘I know it’s very rude of me, Leo, and I wouldn’t normally ask. But you’ve seen Ellie these last few days. She seems so stressed, and I want to do something for her. Something that shows that I’m thinking about her, and how much I care. We don’t seem to have had a moment together for weeks, with the move and everything. Would it be a huge problem for you?’ he had asked in a very sheepish voice.

  She felt sorry for Max. Apart from being very drunk on Friday night, he seemed to have been trying his best in every way possible - and this meal was just another example of his thoughtfulness. But if Ellie was right and he was having an affair, this could also be an act of guilt, or a way of softening Ellie up before the inevitable devastation that would accompany the revelation of his infidelity.

  As she approached the village, Leo decided that she should be making tracks back to her own apartment, because she was confident she wasn’t helping the situation at all. The trouble was, if she said she was leaving now, they would both think they had driven her out and feel guilty about it. She needed an accomplice - somebody who could call her and say that she was needed back in Manchester because a client desperately wanted to see her. And she knew just the person to ask.

  Tom.

  She had a feeling that he would understand her dilemma and help her out. She wasn’t too keen on going back to Willow Farm yet, so perhaps she could drop in on him as she passed and ask for his help. But first she would call in at the shops and pick up some supplies so that she didn’t arrive at Tom’s empty handed.

  Pushing open the door of the off-licence, Leo was surprised to find it stocked with some excellent wines. She had become so used to the chains around Manchester that all carried the same range, and it was a delight to go into an independently owned shop like this one. It had the peculiar smell of good wine shops that was difficult to define. There was a background of fermented grape - as one might expect - but there was something warm and comforting in the smell too. Something vaguely woody - but it was hard to place.

  The other great thing about this shop was that there was no pressure to rush. The man behind the counter merely looked over his half frame glasses and smiled, then went back to his crossword.

  Leo made her way around the shelves. She knew that Tom had a huge stock of wine, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t take him a bottle, and she was about to select a Tin Pot Hut Sauvignon when the door of the shop opened. A slightly out of breath Mrs Talbot hurried in.

  ‘Oh Leo. I thought I saw you coming in here. I wonder if I could have a word?’

  Leo put the bottle of wine she had been holding on the counter, and turned towards Mrs Talbot.

  ‘I wondered if you’d heard the latest about Abbie Campbell? I thought maybe Ellie might have said something to you?’

  ‘Ellie’s at work, Mrs Talbot. I haven’t spoken to her since this morning.’

  ‘Call me Doreen, dear. I’d much prefer it.’

  ‘Okay, Doreen - but I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about Abbie.’

  ‘It’s truly terrible. It was on the news - not half an hour since. They’re saying that before she was knocked down, that little girl was abducted! I’ve been in the butcher’s and the greengrocer’s and nobody knows anything, but they’re all saying that it had to be somebody from the village. Is there nowhere safe in this world anymore?’

  This was indeed news to Leo, and dreadful news at that. But she couldn’t cast any light on the subject at all. Poor kid. She could understand why the villagers would be in shock. It was bad enough thinking that the hit and run driver was possibly a neighbour, but if she had been taken by somebody from here too, that was even worse.

  ‘I wish I could help,’ Leo said. ‘I can understand how you must all be feeling, but this is news to me.’

  ‘Nothing like this has ever happened in these parts, you know. Well, there was just the once with that friend of yours, but that wasn’t as bad as this.’

  What on earth was this woman talking about? What friend of mine? Leo thought.

  ‘You don’t know, do you?’ Leo could see that Mrs Talbot - Doreen - was slightly bewildered by Leo’s apparent lack of knowledge. ‘This business with Abbie reminds us of what happened to your friend - Fiona. She was a pretty little thing when she was at school, but then it happened, and she just upped and left without a word.’

  ‘Families do that sometimes,’ Leo answered.

  ‘Ah - well that’s the thing, you see. It was only Fiona that left. Her family didn’t go. They stayed - her parents and her brother - but they wouldn’t say a single thing about it.’

  Leo shook her head. Now she knew what Fiona meant about a cloud of suspicion.

  ‘I only remember Fiona vaguely from then, I’m afraid. I do know that she left, but I’m sure there was nothing strange about it.’

  Mrs Talbot seemed indignant, but Leo had had enough. She knew what villages were like for gossip, but there was a kind of salacious pleasure in it sometimes that Leo hated. She turned back to the shelves, grabbed a bottle of red wine pretty much at random and fished out her purse to pay.

  ‘Well, it was strange,’ Mrs Talbot continued. ‘Mind you, it must be fifteen years or more since it happened, but she was pregnant for sure. Nobody knew who the father was. Maybe she was abducted and escaped too. She’s never said a word about it since she’s been back. And now that snooty husband of hers has been arrested.’

  Thinking that “arrested” was a massive exaggeration of the facts, Leo finished paying for her purchases, smiled her thanks to the shopkeeper, and turned to Mrs Talbot with her best effort at a friendly smile.

  ‘I sincerely doubt that it’s anything at all sinister. I’m sorry Doreen, but I’ve got to rush.’

  Leo said her goodbyes and made her way out of the door, leaving a floundering Mrs Talbot in her wake.

  It appeared that there was more to Fiona’s story than she had realised, and she would dearly love to know Charles’ part in all this. But there was no way that she was doing an information swap with Doreen Talbot. She’d have to ask Ellie to fill in some blanks.

  Clearly something had happened to Fiona all those years ago, but it couldn’t possibly have any relevance to what had happened to Abbie.

  * * *

  The spicy aromas in the kitchen were drifting towards Tom, and he had to admit was looking forward to dinner. But he wouldn’t be ready to eat for hours yet. He’d decided to have an Indian cooking spree to fill his empty day; he would eat some of it tonight, a
nd stuff the rest in the freezer.

  Making his way from the kitchen into the adjoining living room, he picked up the book he’d been reading. Or trying to read. He had thought a detective novel would be perfect, but he got irritated by the inaccuracies and the obsession with painting all fictional policeman as anything from slightly unbalanced to seriously disturbed. His thoughts kept leaping back to the news that Abbie Campbell had been abducted. He was missing his job far more than he had ever imagined, and was struggling to stop himself from interfering in this investigation. As it was, he made several trips a day to the village shops, just to see what information he could pick up. The answer was - not much. Of course, everybody knew that he was a policeman, and perhaps they guarded their tongues when he was around.

  There was one bit of good news, though. He’d heard from Greater Manchester Police that morning, and there was definitely going to be a vacancy in the Serious Crime Division. It was the same rank - chief inspector - but he was happy with that. He didn’t want to become desk bound, and he hated anything to do with force politics. He was more than a little interested in the job, and was going in next week for a chat. He would be reporting to a woman who had once been one of his team, but she’d had a meteoric rise to power since he left and in his view her promotion was perfectly justified. He’d probably get the piss taken out of him for a while, but he could live with that.

  He glanced out of the window and was surprised, but pleased, to see Leo walking up the path with a carrier bag that looked suspiciously as if it contained bottles. She was dressed in her customary black and white, but this time she was wearing white linen trousers that clung to her hips but moved gently around her legs as she walked. A short sleeved black silk top with huge buttons hung loosely on her slender form, and her hair was swinging in the light breeze.

  Nice, he thought. In fact, very nice. There was something about the splash of bright red lipstick that transformed Leo from smart to sexy. There was no doubt that she could be quite acerbic, but after their conversation over lunch yesterday he could understand where that was coming from.

  He moved towards the side door and popped his head out.

  ‘Hi Leo - come round this way. It’s easier,’ he shouted.

  With little more than a nod in Tom’s direction, Leo made her way to the side of the house, holding the carrier bag in front of her as she approached Tom as if to ward off any advances, had he been thinking of making any.

  ‘I’ve brought you a present, because I need to ask you a favour,’ said Leo, as ever getting right to the point.

  ‘Come in - and you don’t need to bribe me to do something for you, you know. I’ll either do it or I won’t, depending what it is that you want,’ Tom said, smiling to take the edge off his words.

  They walked into the kitchen, and immediately Leo stopped, dumping the carrier bag on the nearest chair.

  ‘What a delicious smell. Don’t tell me you’ve found a good Indian round here and I don’t know about it?’ Leo asked, her eyes opening wide as she saw the dishes in the kitchen.

  ‘I hate to disappoint you, but it would be a cold day in hell before I bought Indian from a takeaway. This is all my own hard work. You like Indian food then?’

  ‘God, I love it,’ Leo said, walking over to the stove and lifting the lid of a creamy chicken curry. She looked as if she were about to dip her finger in, then thought better of it.

  She turned towards him and opened her eyes wide in a lascivious leer, although he was in no doubt at all that unfortunately the source of the arousal was the curry. She moved to the next dish and gave him a questioning look.

  ‘It will be a prawn jalfrezi when I get round to adding the prawns.’

  ‘Mmm mmm.’ She lowered her face towards the pan and inhaled slowly. Lifting her head, she turned to Tom. ‘Have you actually made all this?’ she asked, her voice sounding slightly in awe of Tom’s obvious culinary skills. ‘Good grief, you’re as bad as Ellie. You’ll make fine neighbours - forever trying to outdo each other with elaborate dinner parties. Anyway - I’m disturbing you. I’ll tell you what I came for, and let you get back to your cooking. It looks like you’re expecting guests, so I’m sorry for intruding.’

  Tom pulled out a kitchen stool and sat down, indicating the other one to Leo.

  ‘You’re not disturbing me, and I’m not cooking for guests. I’m cooking for me. I like to cook occasionally, principally because I love to eat. Let’s face it, I’ve not got much else to do at the moment. So what can I do for you?’

  Leo looked totally nonplussed at the idea of all this work for one person, but she sat down and rested her arms on the worktop and decided to get straight to the point.

  ‘I need to go back to Manchester, and as soon as possible. Ellie and Max are not in a good place right now, for reasons I don’t want to go into. But if I just up and go, Ellie will think they’ve driven me away, and she’ll blame Max. He’s already told me he wants to do a romantic dinner for Ellie tonight - although I can predict exactly what he’ll cook. I thought if you could phone, posing as one of my clients who’s in dire need of a face to face consultation, I would have the perfect excuse to escape and let them get on with it.’

  Tom was sorry to hear that Ellie and Max were having problems. He’d immediately liked them both, but as he knew only too well, other people’s marriages were always a mystery.

  ‘First of all, it’s no problem making the phone call if that’s what you want. But why don’t you stay here and eat with me tonight. As you can see, there’s no shortage of food. And then you can see how things are in the morning. If they’re not great, Ellie might actually appreciate having her sister around, you know.’

  Leo’s face lit up at the mention of dinner, and Tom could see she was tempted. Not by his company, of course, but it looked like the lure of the food was proving to be irresistible.

  ‘Go on, Leo. I’d enjoy your company, and you’d be out of the way so Max and Ellie could have some space. If you hide somewhere in the house, Ellie will feel obliged to ask you to join them. Call them and say you’re eating with me.’

  Leo clearly didn’t need asking twice, and she pulled out her phone.

  ‘Shit - the battery’s flat. Can I borrow yours to send Ellie and Max a message, please?’

  Tom slid his phone across the worktop, and Leo picked it up and sent a quick text message to both of them. She knew her sister would still be at work, and Max would undoubtedly have his phone switched off, as he nearly always did. But they would find it eventually.

  ‘Let me get you a drink, as you’re staying. What would you like?’

  ‘Well - my tipple of choice is vodka, ice cold. But if you’ve not got that, wine is fine.’

  ‘Vodka coming up. It’s in the freezer, so I guess that will be cold enough for you.’

  Tom grabbed a couple of glasses and poured Leo her vodka shot and a glass of red for himself. He laughed as she downed it in one, but rejected a second, pointing at the red wine instead.

  ‘I only ever have one shot. And only occasionally. It would be a very bad habit to get into, much as I love it. Anyway, I want to savour this food of yours, so one shot, one glass of red, and that will do thanks.’

  Putting her dead phone back in her bag, Leo turned to Tom.

  ‘Why are all men such bastards, Tom?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, that’s charming,’ he said, laughing. ‘I invite you to dinner, lend you my phone, and you tell me all men are bastards. Nice.’

  Leo laughed.

  ‘Okay, not quite all then. But so many of them are, aren’t they? I’ve been talking to somebody today, who shall remain nameless, but her husband is a brute. The things that poor woman has gone through, and the fact that she consistently lies to cover up for him is so sad.’ Leo rested her chin on her clasped hands, elbows on the worktop.

  ‘That’ll be Penny then, at a guess,’ Tom said, pulling his mouth into a grimace of distaste. Not for Penny, of course.

  ‘What makes you think
that?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Oh come on, Leo. I saw the way he treated her. Gary’s one of those guys who states his opinion as if it’s a fact, and one that we should all agree with. Especially Penny.’

  Leo looked at Tom with raised eyebrows, her head on one side.

  ‘Well, well. That’s very astute for a man, if you don’t mind me saying so.’

  ‘Does your insolence know no bounds, woman? I’m going to feed you, don’t forget - so how about deciding that I don’t fit into your stereotypical man mould and show me some respect?’ Tom gave her a stern look, and Leo grinned at him.

  ‘Okay - maybe not all men are toe rags. I’ll allow you to be an exception. Mind you, I allowed Max to be an exception, and now I’m not quite so sure,’ she said. Tom noticed the frown was back, and decided to be serious for a moment.

  ‘What’s up, Leo? What are you so worried about?’

  Leo took a gulp of her wine.

  ‘I’m worried about Ellie. There’s stuff going on with Max at the moment that I don’t think I should tell you about, mainly because I think - or sincerely hope - that Ellie is talking rubbish. But she’s got a few things on her mind, and I thought I could help her with one of them, but it seems not.’

  Tom said nothing and just moved around the kitchen getting some spicy nuts out to nibble with their drinks.

  ‘I told you something about my father the other day, but there’s a bit more to it. When I was about fourteen, he disappeared as he always did - but this time he didn’t come back. Ellie was distraught, although I’ve always struggled to understand why. But then Ellie always did see the best in everybody.’

  Leo grabbed a handful of nuts and munched them for a moment.

  ‘The thing is, we’ve no idea what happened to him. Ellie’s mother said she’d had him declared dead seven years after he left, but we’ve never seen a death certificate. Unfortunately, Ellie isn’t convinced. She was always the sort of girl who believed in fairies, and she has it in her head that our father will, as if by magic, reappear now his hideous wife is dead.’

  Tom looked at Leo’s serious face.