The Beard (31 page)

Judith looked at him nervously. “Richard!” she exclaimed.

“Our daughter isn’t guilty. We have nothing to hide and I’m sick of being cooped up in here. The press is leaving and life can return to normal. We may even make it into the marquee for a dance at the end of the day. What do you say?”

Richard’s endless enthusiasm always amazed Judith. Their daughter had woken up as a wanted criminal and the end of the night was supposed to be danced away? She could see where Amy got her positive, albeit deluded, outlook
from.

“Well, let’s wait and see,” she said by means of reply. Richard smiled and assumed that meant “no”. Which it did.

“Do you think Tom will come back with her?” asked Judith.

“Oh, yes, I’m sure,” said Richard with purpose. “Tom could’ve walked out when he found out about Amy and that man. The fact that he’s stood by her and done the right thing… he’ll be back. Although
, maybe we should prepare another bedroom just in case?”

Judith sighed heavily. “What a silly girl to get involved with such an unpleasant man,” she said, almost to herself.

Richard walked to the drinks tray on the sideboard and started pouring.

“Isn’t it a bit early?” asked Judith.

“Not after the day we’ve had,” came the reply. Judith smiled.

Richard floated over to his wife and sat down next to her, handing her a glass. “I have something to tell you,” he said calmly. Judith was immediately unsettled by the tone adopted. When someone starts a conversation like that, it rarely delivers any news that’s positive. She took a sip of her drink and looked at her husband nervously. He held his glass and looked down into it. The wait wasn’t conducive to Judith’s mental well-being.

“What is it, darling?” she asked softly, her hand touching his reassuringly.

“I knew about this other man,” he said finally.

Judith sat in silence, unmoved and unmoving. Richard looked up at his wife. The revelation caused Judith to remove her hand from his, as if he’d just confessed to an affair. Immediately, she was on her feet and standing over her husband with restrained anger.

“Knew about it? Knew about it? You knew she was a drug-runner and you said nothing?”

Richard wasn’t one for theatrics. A stable and steady man who’d worked hard to keep his emotions in check and life on an even keel, he wasn’t comfortable around hysterical conflict. So when he shouted, everyone listened. “Shut up!” he bellowed. Judith was so taken aback that she didn’t have time to be offended. The shouting would be recalled at a later date but, for now, greater things were afoot. “Now, sit down,” Richard added, this time softer.

Judith flopped into the seat with deliberate objection.

“Of course, I didn’t know that this horrible little man was a drug-runner or anything of the sort. Amy only told me last night.” Richard said with a degree of irritation. “She asked me to keep it to myself, although that seems pointless now. Amy was totally smitten with this character. She genuinely thought that he was a lawyer.”

The resonance of the news echoed around the room. Judith knew the story to be true because she’d seen enough on television to corroborate it, but she’d hoped that it had been a meaningless fling, maybe a one-night stand. She had no idea it had been a long-running affair. That changed everything. Her daughter’s affections evidently lay elsewhere. This was a simple but devastating piece of information. “Was all of this done behind Tom’s back?” she asked incredulously.

Richard wasn’t sure of all the facts. Amy hadn’t gone into detail – but the television had filled in enough blanks. “I assume so,” he replied.

“Poor Tom,” cried Judith, hopes of a happy tomorrow vanishing before her very eyes. Not only had Amy betrayed her partner, but she’d done so with a criminal. It was fair to say that she’d enjoyed finer hours.

“Then he asked Amy to go to Thailand with him,” Richard continued. “Yesterday, in fact. She said no, thank God, and he left her. She thought it was because he’d wanted them to live a life together but, seemingly, she was only ever one thing to him – a drug mule.”

Judith’s eyes filled with tears. The thought of what might’ve happened terrified her. She sat, shaking at the thought. “What if she’d gone?” she managed before Richard put his glass aside and held her hands.

“She didn’t, though, did she?” he said, as softly and compassionately as he could. “She’s going to be fine. We’re all going to be fine.”

Judith suddenly stood up. “Will she be the target of drug barons?”

Richard laughed. “I very much doubt it. With the police saying she was just an innocent and nothing to do with the scheme, I’m sure she’ll be more than fine. Don’t worry, our baby is coming home!”

Despite the mood of the room losing the initial tension, both Judith and Richard jumped when the recognised knock came at the door. Richard looked at his watch: “Can’t be them back already?” He wandered over to the door and unlocked it. There stood Adam with a bottle of champagne and several glasses. He walked in, carrying everything carefully on a tray. “You can leave the door open,” he said, setting the tray down. “Your daughter is no longer of interest to the press, which I thought was a reason to celebrate!”

“Won’t it look a bit frivolous?” Judith asked. “If Amy walks back in and we’re sipping champagne? I’m not sure it conveys the true scale of our concern!”

Adam bobbed his head. “Fair enough, we’ll wait until she’s back. I bet they could do with a drink, though,” he added, before seeing Richard fill the glasses. “Ah!” he said with a smile.

The door, which hadn’t been locked, creaked open and everyone turned to look.

“Coo-eee – just me!” Ash turned around the door. “They’re going in for
food now,” he offered, eyeing the champagne, “so I thought I could go and sit in there, undercover if you like, and see what everyone’s saying about Amy and Tom. You know, for research. Seeing as they aren’t back yet, I can take their place at the table. Seems to make sense. Do some digging and make sure the food isn’t wasted. Amy’s big on green matters like that.”

Sensing that no one had bought his cover story, he just smiled. Adam, Richard and Judith stared back at him with withering contempt. Ash wasn’t in the mood to be judged by anyone. He’d endured enough in his life and wasn’t going to tolerate it now, no matter what. He took an extra step into the room, as if encroaching on their privacy, before adding, “It’s what Tom would’ve wanted, seeing as he’s just been betrayed by your daughter.”

Adam started beating a path towards the door to usher Ash out of the room, when Judith rose: “What was your name again?”

Ash, never one to miss an opportunity of self-promotion, skipped into the room: “Ashley, but you can call me Ash. You’re Amy’s parents, aren’t you? Can I call you Judith and Dick? I like Dick,” he said, waving cheekily at Richard.

“What do you know about this man?” said Judith sternly. “This scum, ‘Samuel’, who got my daughter arrested? Did you know she was seeing him?”

Ash looked nervously at this rather formidable woman. She wasn’t to be trifled with, and certainly not in her current mood. He had visions of escaping but Adam was in the doorway. It was obvious that if he said or did the wrong thing, Amy’s mother would bludgeon him to death with a rolling pin.

“Well,” he said, looking uncomfortable but enjoying the attention, “I don’t know what I’m allowed to tell you, to be honest.”

Judith walked over to him and, making herself as big as she could, towered above his slight frame. “If you don’t tell me everything I need to know about this man,” she snorted, “I’ll ensure that you never have children.”

Ash looked perplexed. In some circumstances, that threat may have had resonance but it had less potency than perhaps she knew. Was she really that blind? He glanced at Adam, who smiled.

“Calm down, love,” he said and walked Judith to the sofa, where they sat down. “I don’t know much, but I do know this – we didn’t know anything about Sam. Nothing. Then Tom was at one of Amy’s work’s parties and someone there told him about Sam. I think they were just stirring, as they fancied Tom and were trying their luck. Well, as you can guess, Tom was furious. I was at home when they got back and they had a blazing row. Really angry. I walked in and, thankfully, was able to get them talking again – I’m quite skilled with my oral capacity, Dick.” Ash smiled and hoped that his little comic flurry would lighten the mood. It didn’t. 

“So Tom knew?” Judith said, shuffling in her seat, uncomfortable with the news. Each revelation made matters worse. Did this mean that they were in an open relationship?

Ash realised that he’d said too much and needed to make an about turn. “Ah, well, yes and no.” He looked nervously around the room. “It’s not that flattering to Amy,” he said, trying to summon some acting skills from his school drama lessons all those years ago. He remembered a technique about how to look sad and cry, and cast his mind back to an unhappy experience from his childhood.

“Go on,” said Judith softly, falling for the emotion on display.

Ash shook his head, reluctant to go on. “Well… that happened ages ago. After that row, she swore she’d stop seeing him. Then she told Tom that she’d dumped Sam and that it had been a meaningless one-off. Tom was so sure that they were together again. He wanted to believe her. He wanted your daughter to remain faithful, but alas… I’ve never seen him more heartbroken than when she betrayed him…” Then he added for effect, “…the first time.” Ash looked again at the faces hanging on his every word. Then, before allowing his head to loll forward, he declared, “I doubt he’ll recover now. And you know, he really loved her.”

Ash’s head sank and he listened to the reaction his bravo performance had garnered. He was delighted. He’d managed to deliver a relatively succinct breakdown of the situation to all and sundry without exaggerating. Well, not exaggerating THAT much. It hadn’t entirely been a lie – more a half-truth with highlights.

Ash looked up again and inhaled, as if he himself had just traversed a deep, troubling and emotional terrain. He looked at the blank faces trying to digest the news. Whichever way the information was processed, it didn’t look good for Amy. She may have been a sap to fall for a drug dealer, but she could’ve controlled her own morality. Betraying Tom twice was quite unforgivable. As such, the family
’s sympathies lay not with their daughter, but with her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend.

Ash felt he deserved a reward for ensuring that
their fabricated story was not only intact, but had been elegantly enhanced.

“I need a drink,” said Amy as she walked into the living room. Tom trailed in behind her, looking as if he’d just stepped off a turbulent long-haul flight.

“Tom?” Richard asked, shaking a glass at him. Tom nodded, before slumping into a chair.

Amy paced the floor: “I’ll kill him. I bloody well hope he gets the death penalty. Telling me he loved me and all that shit. And what was I? A bloody drug mule! Am I that desperate, huh? Am I that pathetic that all I can attract is a
criminal who wants me to ferry drugs through various airports?”

Judith cleared her throat and nodded towards Tom, who was watching proceedings impassively. Amy looked back at her, perplexed. She looked over at Tom, who seemed oblivious to her rants, having heard enough of them on the journey back home. She looked back at her mother and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “What?”

Judith gestured towards Tom again, and again Amy didn’t quite understand. What did all this have to do with Tom?

Tom was evidently aware of what was going on and said, “It’s OK, Judith. Thank you for thinking of me, though.”

The penny dropped for Amy. In the intensity of the moment, she’d forgotten that she and Tom were meant to be an item. An item so very rudely broken apart by recent nationally televised events, an encounter with Her Majesty’s constabulary and a soon-to-be heart to heart with the parish magazine.

Amy’s shoulders slumped. She was beyond caring any more and decided that there was no better time to end the pretence. “Mum, Dad, I’m sorry but we lied. We’re not going out together. Tom isn’t my boyfriend.” Amy’s parents stared at her. She was undoubtedly under stress and they had no intention of making things worse for her. “I’m sorry I lied and I’m sorry for any upset caused.” She paced over to the large fireplace and stared into the pit. “And before you say anything, it’s not Tom’s fault.”

Tom’s head slumped forward as if in shame. Amy’s parents looked at him kindly, with thin smiles. Richard, who stood by Tom, having delivered his drink, squeezed his shoulder. Amy took a swig of her drink and continued. “I asked him to pretend this weekend that we were a couple and we’re not. Tom was just trying his best to help me and protect me, as always. I know you’ll be angry – what with this and all the police stuff – but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I’m sorry!”

Tom continued to look at the floor, as if examining the shreds of paper from a failed aeroplane.

“We know,” Richard said, matter of fact. Tom’s head flopped further, as if he was trying to literally drown himself in his drink.

This news surprised Amy. “What? You knew? How? Was it on the news?”

Tom chuckled. “It was Ash, wasn’t it?” Without even looking up to see the reaction, he knew.