Murder in Time (2 page)

WHAT HAD VERA TOLD HIM?

A look of annoyance crossed the man's face. Then he smiled. A false smile. Ellie wondered if he had a sharp temper and whether if she hadn't been there he might have slapped the boy for disobedience.

She was horrified at herself. How could she have thought such a thing?

More noises off. Vera had returned, was talking to Rose in the kitchen. Also laughing.

A big girl, taller than Mikey, but as fair as he was dark, Vera appeared in the doorway. She rarely bothered with make-up and smoothed her hair up into a sleek ponytail. She was dressed as usual in a blue sweater and jeans, a tote bag swinging from one arm.

She was smiling, saying, ‘You'll never guess who I saw in—'

She saw the man.

And froze.

The man stood up. ‘Ah, Vera. No need to introduce me to my son. Mohammed, come here and let me look at you.'

Mikey turned his head to look up at his mother, frowning, unsure what to make of the situation.

Vera took a deep breath. ‘What do you want, Abdi?'

‘The boy, of course. I wasn't able to help you before, but I can take him off your hands now.'

Vera gaped. ‘What?'

‘I don't have any children of my own, so I plan to adopt him, formally. I shall, of course, compensate you for your trouble in looking after him to date.'

With a scream that raised the hairs on the back of Ellie's neck, Vera flashed across the room and brought her knee up, sharply … accurately …

Abdi grimaced, folding into himself. He subsided on to the carpet.

Mikey grinned, wild and triumphant.

Vera, fair hair flying, grabbed her son and dragged him out of the room.

Ellie found she was grinning, too.

The man made huffing noises. Spider-like, his limbs contorted. Tears spurted.

Tut-tut.

Ellie said, ‘I'll leave you to recover.' Smiling, she pushed the sleeping baby in his buggy out into the hall.

Only just in time, as someone was leaning on the doorbell. Ellie knew that ring. Only one person demanded entrance that way. Diana, Ellie's difficult, ambitious daughter, the mother of little Evan, whom she'd woken up with her prolonged attack on the doorbell.

As arranged, Diana had arrived from work to collect him.

Ellie checked Evan – was he a bit smelly again? She wiped his nose with a tissue she then tucked into the waistband of her skirt … and oh dear, she ought to have changed her own clothes before Diana arrived, because her daughter would be sure to comment on Ellie's untidiness. But there was no time to do anything else but open the door.

Diana didn't bother to greet Ellie, but swooped on her son. ‘Who's my little chickadee, then! Have you missed your Marmee?'

Evan responded with a grin showing off all three of his teeth. He chattered, and threw his arms and legs around. He adored his mummy, and Diana – to the astonishment of all her friends and relations, who hadn't believed she could adore anyone but herself – was devoted to her son.

Diana scooped him out of the buggy and held him high in the air. Her smile vanished. ‘Oh, Mother! He's definitely whiffy. He needs changing. Have you given him something to eat that you shouldn't?'

‘No, I—'

Thomas's key turned in the lock of the front door and he came in, shaking off his jacket. He was a big, bearded bear of a man, and the two women automatically turned towards him; Ellie with a smile, and Diana with a nod. Even little Evan waved one hand – still holding the spoon – in his direction.

Thomas said, ‘Phew! Chilly out today! Whose is the limousine outside? Chauffeur-driven, no less. We have a visitor?' He dropped jacket and briefcase on to a chair and gave Ellie a hug. ‘Nice and warm in here. Had a good day?' And then, in more guarded tones to his stepdaughter, ‘Hello, Diana. How are you doing?'

They were polite to one another, nowadays. Well, Thomas was always polite, being the possessor of an equable temperament and, although it didn't automatically follow, a minister of the church. Thomas had seen pretty well everything that men and women could do to one another, and still tried to think the best of people.

Diana bared her teeth in a social smile but wasn't actively unpleasant to him since he did, after all, hold the key to Ellie's heart and, incidentally, to her moneybags. Ellie had inherited money from various sources, and her daughter was always trying to access the source of the goodies … so far without success.

A groan from the sitting room drew their attention.

Diana clutched her son closer. ‘What's that?'

‘Someone in trouble?' asked Thomas. ‘The owner of the limousine?'

‘Uninvited and unwelcome,' said Ellie. ‘He got what he deserved.'

Abdi, bent double, crossing over at the knees, stumbled to the doorway and leaned against it, gasping, ‘Hooroo!'

‘Whatever's the matter?' Thomas was alarmed.

‘I'm out of here,' said Diana, efficiently collapsing the buggy with one hand while clutching little Evan to her with the other. ‘Ring you later, Mother. Small problem this weekend. May have to call on you to babysit. Whew, baby! You stink!'

Evan crowed with delight and clutched the lapel of his mother's black suit with a hand which was probably sticky. Diana had never allowed anyone else to mishandle her this way, but Evan was different. Cooing to her son, she swept out of the front door, letting it bang to behind her.

Their visitor addressed Thomas. ‘You! Get …!'

Thomas's eyes widened as he, too, identified the stranger. He looked to Ellie for information. ‘Who …?'

Ellie said, ‘Now, Mister-whatever-your-name is—'

‘You saw what she …?'

‘After what you did to her,' said Ellie, hoping she'd interpreted correctly, ‘I think you got off mildly. Oh, find a chair and sit down, do. I'll get you a cuppa if you like. And then you can go.'

‘“Did to
her
?”' Thomas was confused.

Vera, who was standing halfway up the stairs, confirmed, ‘Did to me.' She had her arm around Mikey's shoulders. The boy was clutching their marauding ginger cat, Midge. Ellie could see that Mikey needed something to hold on to at the moment and only hoped Midge wouldn't object.

‘You …!' The newcomer emitted a string of words in a foreign tongue which none of them could speak, but all interpreted correctly.

‘That'll be enough of that.' Thomas projected sufficient authority to stop a bus, never mind one foul-mouthed intruder.

The newcomer managed to get upright, almost. The look he shot Vera was pure poison. ‘Whore! I'll be back for the boy tomorrow!' He measured the distance to the front door, and sidled towards it, crab fashion.

Thomas hesitated. ‘Are you sure he's all right?'

Ellie said, ‘If he isn't, he can sit outside in his car till he is.'

Thomas interpreted the expression on his wife's face correctly and opened the front door wide. A uniformed chauffeur hastened to his master's side and helped him, carefully, into a back seat. After a moment, the car drove away.

Only then did Thomas shut the door on the outside world. ‘Now, suppose someone tells me what's going on.'

Ellie said, ‘He wants to buy the boy.'

‘What?' Thomas almost laughed but, seeing their faces, decided against doing so.

Vera said, ‘I can't believe that he …! How dare he!'

Thomas looked from Vera to Ellie and back. ‘Will somebody fill me in?'

Vera took one step down, then stopped to look at Mikey, who hadn't moved. ‘Mikey, did you understand that that man is … was …? Oh!' With a burst of angry laughter, she said, ‘I suppose I ought not to have … He's evil! How dare he come here and …!'

Mikey looked back at her with a face of stone. In times of stress, he forsook speech and was mute, sometimes for days at a time. Now he seemed to be judging his mother – or perhaps was merely withholding judgement?

Vera closed her eyes for a moment. But she was no weakling, and Ellie could see her decide to face the problem head on. ‘All right, Mikey. I haven't been quite straight with you about—' Her voice broke. ‘About how you came to be.' She looked at Ellie and Thomas. ‘Nor with you. But I never thought I'd see him again. As for wanting Mikey … He can't be serious!'

He'd looked pretty serious to Ellie. She glanced at her watch. It was still stopped at three. ‘I think the time has come to tell us everything.'

Thomas led the way to the sitting room. ‘Council of war.'

Ellie went to her high-backed chair by the fireplace, while Thomas settled on to his La-Z-Boy. Vera sat on the settee and patted the cushion beside her, but Mikey chose not to obey her. Instead, he sat on the floor nearby, with the cat stretched out on his knees. Mikey was definitely withholding judgement. Oh dear.

Vera produced a nervous smile, her hands working at her sweater. Tears were not far away. ‘I couldn't tell you the truth, nor Mikey. It was too difficult. It still is. I don't know if I can, even now. Mikey, I told you that I'd had a wild love affair with a foreign student, who'd promised to marry me but who was killed in a car accident. I thought that was better, much better than … Sorry, Mikey. Try not to think too harshly of me. I thought, maybe, one day …' A gesture of frustration. ‘I didn't want you to know what kind of man your father was.'

‘I knew all along,' said Mikey, speaking for the first time. His voice was breaking and could go high or low on him. Now, it was low. ‘What did you expect? Of course I knew. I got it thrown at me at my old school all the time. You can't keep things like that secret.'

‘What things?'

‘You got drunk at a party and had it off with whoever wanted it. Everyone knew.'

‘No, Mikey: no!' A cry from the heart. ‘It wasn't like that at all. Who told you that?'

A shrug. ‘Some boys in my class. They were all talking about it. Somebody's mother knew someone who'd been at the party when you passed out. They thought it was funny that I didn't know. They told everyone else in the class, too. I didn't ask you about it, because you'd made up that silly story about your boyfriend being killed.'

Vera clutched her head. ‘Tell me their names! I'll kill them!'

Thomas said, ‘Mikey, was that why you got into so much trouble at school?'

Mikey shrugged. ‘There was a lot of bullying at that school. I'm glad to be out of there.'

Vera swiped tears from her eyes. ‘It was only partly the truth. If only you'd said!'

‘How could I? You'd told me a fairy story, and I believed it at first. Then, when I understood you'd lied, I—'

Vera wrung her hands. ‘Don't think too harshly of me, Mikey.'

‘There's lots of boys who don't know who their fathers are. You might have trusted me with the truth but you'd decided not to, so that's it.'

‘That wasn't the whole truth, or even half of it. You should have asked.'

‘If you didn't want to tell me, that's OK. It's how it is. There's lots worse off than me. I can take it,' said Mikey. And meant it.

Ellie intervened. ‘Tell us how it really was, Vera.'

Vera closed her eyes. ‘It's so hard … even now.' She looked at Mikey. She put out her hand to reach him. She patted his shoulder. He made no move to reassure her. She winced, accepting his rebuff. ‘All right. I'll try. Mikey, listen. There was a birthday party and school leaving “do” combined. A whole crowd of gatecrashers. Someone gave me a drink. I thought it was Diet Coke, but there was something else in it. I passed out. I didn't wake up till hours later. I realized straight away that I'd been raped, but I didn't know who … There was such confusion … I got home under my own steam. End of story.'

Thomas said, ‘You went to the police?'

Vera's mouth formed the shape of a bitter smile. ‘No. I didn't.'

‘Why not?'

V
era lifted her ponytail, shook her hair free and scooped it back into its clasp. ‘You have to understand how it was in my family. Mikey, you never knew your grandfather and grandmother. I've not talked about them much, have I?'

Mikey didn't look at her. ‘You were ashamed of them because they ran a fish and chip shop.'

Patches of red burned on Vera's cheeks. ‘I never said that. My father was a self-made man who worked hard all his life. He was proud of the reputation of our shop. He'd wanted a son, but there'd been several miscarriages before I was born, and my mother was in her forties when I arrived. She was never strong, always at the doctor's. Back trouble. Stomach trouble. Finally, cancer.

‘My father was a solid Labour supporter because that was what his father had been. He didn't hold with women going to college or, worse, to university. He expected me to work in the shop whenever I wasn't at school or looking after Mum. As luck would have it, we were in the catchment area for a good local school, and there I learned that bright girls could go on to higher education if they wished.

‘My father disapproved, but I set my heart on going to university. I studied late at night and early in the morning. I got a provisional offer of a place at Leeds University. If I got the grades I expected, I had a place to go. There were terrible rows at home, but I stuck to it that this was what I wanted to do. Looking back, I can see that my father was frightened, worrying how he'd cope if I left him to it, because he needed me in the shop and my mother was getting frail. And yes, I did feel a bit guilty about that, but not very because … I had a boyfriend who encouraged me to dream.'

‘Abdi?'

A grimace. ‘Not Abdi. A very different sort of boy. We spent as much time together as we could during that last year at school. We'd walk in the park, eat our sandwiches together at lunchtime. Only to talk, you understand. Nothing else. His parents weren't happy about it. They didn't want him marrying the girl from the chippy. He was a doctor's son, due to study medicine himself. We were both going away to university. We knew it would be years before we could marry, but we said there'd be the holidays and we could write and phone one another.