The Cost of Living

by Rachel Ward

  Tom moved away through the crowd. Bea watched him go, forgetting for a while that she should be scanning the crowd for suspects.

  ‘What did he want?’ Ant was threading his way towards her now, shaking his head. He was wearing skinny jeans and a dark jacket that looked like it belonged to someone else.

  ‘Nothing. Just saying hello.’

  He snorted with disgust.

  ‘Give it a rest, Ant. You don’t like him. I do. End of.’

  He held both hands up in self-defence. ‘Okay. Anyway, I’ve been hearing things about you. Tell me you didn’t take a selfie.’

  ‘Of course I didn’t!’

  ‘Ha! That’s funny, ’cos everyone here thinks you did.’

  ‘Well, I did take some photos, but not selfies.’

  ‘Are you nuts? What of?’

  ‘The crowd. I was talking to Emma and she went sort of funny when she spotted someone.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I snapped the view, so maybe I can work out who it is.’

  ‘That may be smart sleuthing, but it’s kind of sick.’

  ‘I know. I feel a bit queasy about it, but you know, it might be the one thing that ties all this up. Stops it happening again.’

  There was a low murmur of chatter in the churchyard, but at the first sight of the hearse pulling up at the lych-gate an eerie silence fell. People watched as the coffin was taken out and hoisted onto the shoulders of the pallbearers. A huge arrangement of flowers sat on top – pink and white roses. It’s real, thought Bea. It’s really happening.

  ‘We’d better go in,’ Gavin said softly, moving around the edge of the group and shepherding his flock towards the church. The Costsave crowd trailed in together, filling four pews that someone had saved for them.

  Sitting waiting for the coffin to be carried in, Bea felt tense. It wasn’t until the procession started down the middle aisle that she realised why she was feeling so bad. She hadn’t been to a funeral for six years. That time, she’d been sitting at the front and her dad had been inside the coffin. She started to feel hot all over.

  ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ she whispered to Ant.

  ‘What’s up?’

  The palms of her hands were clammy.

  ‘I don’t feel very well. I want to get out of here.’

  There were three other people between her and the aisle.

  ‘You can’t. Sit still,’ said Ant.

  The coffin was in place. The service was about to begin. The building seemed to swim in front of Bea’s eyes. She was going to faint.

  ‘Take some deep breaths.’ He reached across and held her hand.

  Bea breathed in and out as slowly as she could and somehow she got through the service. She stood up for the hymns and knelt for the prayers, and Ant guided her through it and held her hand.

  Outside, the hearse set off for the crematorium. Word passed among the crowd that they were all welcome at the nearby British Legion Club for a drink and some food. The Costsave crew looked to Gavin, who nodded his assent. The store could stay closed for a little while longer.

  ‘You okay now?’ Ant asked.

  The cold, fresh air felt soothing against her skin. She was feeling almost normal again.

  ‘It was your dad, wasn’t it?’ said Ant. ‘You were thinking about him.’

  She looked at him sideways, surprised by his sensitivity. ‘Yes.’

  ‘I was thinking about my nan and grandad, and my other nan. And my friend from school, Motty, died in a car crash. He was seventeen. You can’t help it, can you? Funerals remind you of other funerals.’

  For the first time, tears welled up in Bea’s eyes. ‘No,’ she said. ‘You can’t help it. And Ginny, of course.’

  Now she was properly crying.

  ‘Hey,’ Ant said, ‘it’s okay.’ He put his arms round her and she rested her head on his shoulder and sobbed.

  She heard Dean’s unwelcome voice. ‘Bloody hell, Ant. You don’t mess about. I’ve been trying to crack her for years.’

  ‘Fuck off, Dean,’ Ant said. ‘All the way off and then a little bit further.’

  He hugged Bea a bit tighter, until her sobbing subsided. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t be.’

  ‘Dean’s a dick, isn’t he?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  She looked around and found several of her colleagues looking at them. Bob-on-Meat and Gavin looked away when she caught their eye. Anna sent her a sympathetic smile and beckoned to her, inviting her to join the others in the walk across the road to the Legion. Just beyond her, Tom was frowning. He, too, quickly pretended that he hadn’t been looking, turning instead to the vicar who had conducted the service. But Bea felt a little something – maybe a flutter of triumph – because she was sure she’d seen jealousy in that look. He might want to keep things under wraps for now, but he definitely wanted her.

  ‘Are you coming to the Legion?’ said Ant.

  ‘I dunno.’

  ‘Come on, it’s free food.’

  ‘I’m not sure I’m hungry.’

  ‘Five minutes.’

  ‘Okay.’

  They were among the last to leave the churchyard. Almost unseen, a little huddle of people walked behind them. Emma and her parents had waited in the church until everyone had gone. Glancing behind her, Bea saw them turn right outside the gate, and walk towards the car park, instead of joining everyone else.

  Once across the road, near a wooden bench by the bus stop, Bea tapped Ant’s arm.

  ‘I’m going to sit here for a minute.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll sit with you.’

  ‘No, it’s all right. I’ll come to the Legion in a bit, once I’ve got myself together.’

  ‘Sure?’ He looked doubtful.

  She smiled. ‘Sure.’

  She smoothed her coat underneath her, sat down and took out her phone. She looked in the gallery and selected the most recent image – a sea of heads and shoulders. Not the best picture she’d ever taken but at least, more by accident than design, it was in focus. Bea tapped on the screen to expand the image and then slid her finger left and right, up and down, examining the faces, the backs of heads, the profiles. There were familiar faces from Costsave – Gavin, Neville, Bob, Ant, Dean and Joe. Lee from the Leisure Centre was almost unrecognisable in a dark coat instead of a tracksuit. He was there with a gaggle of colleagues, all those who had been involved in the spinathon. Tom was in shot, his ginger hair standing out in the crowd. And then there was something odd. Something round, like an eye looking straight at her. She zoomed in further and found herself looking into a lens. Above the body of the camera, a wisp of long hair trying to escape from the grease plastering it down to Kevin’s domed, bald head. She hadn’t been the only one taking pictures.

  She got up and walked to the Legion. The ‘do’ was being held upstairs in the function room. As she entered the room, it was clear from the noise that some people were taking full advantage of the free bar. She searched the crowd for Ant and spotted him skulking in a corner, nursing half a pint of what looked like cider.

  She made her way over to him. ‘Ant, look at this picture.’

  He squinted at it. ‘What am I looking at?’

  ‘Well, it could have been any of them, but I think the man Emma spotted was Kevin. Look, he’s pointing the camera straight at her.’

  Ant peered closer, then enlarged that section of the photo. Bea watched over his shoulder. Neither of them saw Dean coming.

  ‘Looking at that selfie?’

  ‘Go away, Dean,’ said Bea.

  ‘Don’t know why you’re hanging around with him. He likes them a lot older. Gets turned on by a Zimmer frame, don’t you, mate?’

  Ant handed the camera back to Bea and stood up.

  ‘She’s asked you to go away,’ he said. ‘And now I’m telling you.’

  ‘It’s a free country, mate. I’m all right here.’

&nbs
p; ‘No,’ Ant said, pushing Dean in the middle of his chest. ‘You’re not.’

  Dean stumbled backwards. ‘You can’t tell me what to do,’ he said, straightening himself up and coming back towards Ant.

  A frisson of excitement rippled round the room. People were looking, pointing. Some were walking towards them, others were trying to get away. Over by the bar, Ginny’s dad got wind of the trouble. Bea saw him putting his arm round his wife and steering her in the opposite direction.

  ‘Stop it, both of you,’ she said. ‘Not here, for God’s sake.’

  They weren’t listening, both immune to anything except the stirring blood in their ears and their surging adrenalin.

  ‘I can’t tell you what to do,’ said Ant. ‘But I can tell everyone what you actually do – ripping off the shop, threatening people, telling tales.’

  He shoved Dean again, hard, but this time Dean grabbed his hands and they started wrestling. Bea tried to cut in between them.

  But the Costsave squad swung into action. The boys were hauled apart from each other by Bob and Gavin. Dean tried to shrug Bob off, but he stayed with him as stumbled out of the room, closely followed by Eileen who looked like she was ready to handbag him in the car park. Ant was heading after him, but Gavin stood in his way.

  ‘Don’t go out there yet. I don’t want any more trouble. I want to see you in my office at six o’clock sharp,’ he said, seething, and then he went to find Ginny’s parents to apologise on behalf of the store.

  Ant found the end of his half and drained it, then went to the bar to get another one.

  The rest of the staff were abuzz.

  ‘What was all that about?’

  ‘It was like two stick insects fighting over a leaf.’

  ‘Little idiots.’

  ‘I’d cheerfully take a swing at that Ant, but not here. That’s completely out of order.’ The last comment was from Bob.

  Bea kept quiet. She sidled up to Ant, who was by the window now, working his way through his cider.

  ‘All right?’ she said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Ant said. ‘Wish I’d knocked his head off.’

  ‘Someone will one day. Not here, though.’

  ‘I heard what Bob said, as well. Reckon I’m not welcome at Costsave any more.’

  ‘He’s just jealous,’ said Bea. ‘You know how he feels about Dot.’

  ‘Will you come with me to see Gav?’

  ‘Yeah, if he’ll let me.’

  ‘Thanks, Bea.’ He drained his pint and set the empty glass on the windowsill. ‘Let’s get out of here. We’ve got things to do.’

  ‘What things?’

  Ant turned his back to the room and drew his hand out of his pocket. He unfolded his fingers to reveal a silver ring with two keys on it, sitting in his palm.

  ‘Bob’s?’ Bea mouthed silently.

  Ant nodded. He put his hand back in his pocket.

  ‘How did you? I mean . . . ’

  Ant looked towards Bob’s coat, hanging over the back of a chair, several tables away.

  ‘Easy,’ he said. ‘They’ll all be here until a few minutes before they’re due back at the shop. We’ve got half an hour. You coming?’

  ‘Yeah. Okay. Should we leave separately?’

  ‘Nah. We’re mates, aren’t we? Everyone knows that.’

  Ant and Bea threaded their way through the crowd, their departure inevitably noted and commented on. They crossed the Legion car park and headed to the alleyway that led to Costsave. Bob’s car was at the back of the store in the staff parking area.

  ‘What about CCTV?’ asked Bea.

  ‘No one’s there right now, are they? And they’re only going to look at the footage if they notice anything wrong when they come back. We’re just opening a car boot and closing it again. No damage. We’ll be fine.’

  Bea kept her head down anyway, in a feeble attempt to stay anonymous. ‘Have you got any gloves?’ she asked.

  ‘No, but we don’t need them.’

  ‘Well, better if our prints aren’t all over here, isn’t it?’

  ‘Have you got some?’

  Bea held up her hands and their black, woolly gloves.

  ‘You do it then.’

  Ant took out the keys and handed them to her. She clicked open the boot and pushed the door up. A smell wafted out, but Bea couldn’t place it.

  ‘It’s too dark,’ she said. ‘Hang on, there’s a torch on my phone. Here, hold this.’

  Ant shone the thin beam into the boot. The toolbox was still there, partially covered by a blanket. Bea moved the blanket and opened the box. The smell was stronger. She could taste it now – there was something metallic about it that made her think of blood.

  ‘What are you doing? Get on with it,’ Ant hissed and Bea realised that she had frozen.

  ‘Right. Yes.’

  She looked at the top layer of tools. They were mostly small: mini-screwdrivers, a metal tape measure, some pliers, a pencil and a plastic handled knife.

  ‘There’s a knife,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s a toolbox. We’re looking for something heavier, aren’t we? Lift up that tray.’

  She held the long handle and lifted the metal tray out of the box and put it in the boot.

  ‘Shit,’ she said.

  There was an impressive collection of larger tools in the main body of the box: wrenches, large screwdrivers, hammers.

  ‘Shine the light a bit closer, can you?’

  They both leaned in further and Ant held the torch inside the box. Bea sifted through the tools. There were three hammers. One was a solid, plastic mallet, the others were ordinary claw hammers. There seemed to be discoloration on one of them – the blunt end had a dark stain, but Bea couldn’t be sure if this was part of its design or not.

  ‘That one,’ she said. ‘Has that one got blood on it?’

  Suddenly they heard a noise behind them. They both jumped. Ant dropped the phone. Bea looked over her shoulder. There was something moving along the side fence. It was low, below the line of car bonnets. Someone was creeping up on them.

  ‘Fuck’s sake, Ant. Get my phone. Let’s go!’

  ‘Wait! Wait a minute!’

  ‘No! Let’s get out of here!’

  ‘No, wait, look!’

  Bea watched as a fox jumped onto a car bumper and then up onto the fence. Almost before she’d seen it, it had disappeared to the other side. She looked all around. There was nobody, nothing else there.

  ‘I want to get out of here anyway,’ she said. ‘At least we know he’s keeps a hammer handy. And that might or might not be blood on it.’

  ‘I’ll take a picture with the flash, shall I? Evidence. How do you do it?’

  ‘Give it here.’

  Bea took the phone. She had to take off her gloves to switch to camera mode. She took a couple of photos. The flash lit up the car boot.

  ‘Right, let’s get it back to how it was and scarper. Oh shit, where’s my other glove?’

  She switched the phone back to the torch function. The glove was on the ground. Her hand was shaking as she picked it up and put it back on and she was swearing like a trooper.

  ‘Come on, Bea, keep it together,’ said Ant. Bea took a deep breath and put the top tray back in the tool box, then the blanket on top of that. She tried to place it at the right angle, silently cursing that she hadn’t photographed the whole thing first.

  ‘Are we done?’ said Ant.

  ‘Yeah. Think so.’

  She pulled the boot lid down until there was just a small gap, then put all her weight into closing it quickly.

  ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  They walked out of the staff car park and round the side of the store. Bea checked her watch. It was twenty to six. The evening staff would be back soon to open up.

  ‘What are you going to do with the keys?’ she said. ‘You haven’t got time to go back to the Legion.’

  ‘I’ll wait for him to come in to work and put them back in the men’s
locker room.’

  ‘Can you do that?’

  ‘Yeah. If there’s a problem I’ll go back and drop them near the car. It’ll look like they fell out of his pocket.’

  Neville was first back to Costsave. Ant and Bea followed him in and went upstairs. Bea refreshed her make-up in the ladies’ while Ant skulked in the staffroom. Just before six, Bea waited for Ant outside Gavin’s office. Ant came sauntering out of the staffroom and gave Bea the thumbs up and a nod and a wink. Mission accomplished. Keys back where they should be. They stood in silence until Anna told them they could go in.

  Gavin was seated behind his desk. They were not invited to sit down.

  ‘I don’t want to know what it was about,’ said Gavin. ‘I’m looking for an apology and I’m going to give you an official warning.’

  ‘Can you do that?’ said Bea. ‘It wasn’t at work. It wasn’t at Costsave.’

  Gavin sent Bea a hard look. ‘We were all at the Legion representing Costsave. What Anthony did was a disgrace.’

  ‘So why isn’t Dean here?’ said Ant.

  ‘He will be. One at a time.’

  ‘What does a warning mean?’

  ‘It goes on your record. It’s like a yellow card. The next time you are in trouble, it’s dismissal. No questions. No comeback.’

  ‘Shit.’ Gav raised his eyebrows, and Ant said quickly, ‘Sorry, sir.’

  He started biting his lip and Bea wondered whether he was going to cry but instead he blurted out, ‘Do you think I should go anyway, Sir? I mean, I’m not cut out for it, am I?’

  Gavin put down his pen and sat up straighter in his chair. ‘Is that what you really want? To quit?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Ant.

  ‘No,’ said Bea at the same time.

  ‘Let him speak, Bea,’ said Gavin.

  ‘I’m not good for anything, just cleaning and doing the pointer at the checkouts. I’m not even very good at that.’

  ‘You are good at those things, which is great because they’re valuable roles in this business, but I believe you can do more than that. I always have believed in you. That’s why I was so disappointed today.’