The Sting of Death (10 page)

Turning away from the window with a sigh, she went to find food for the children’s supper. Stephanie was lying on the floor, feet crossed in the air, chin resting on one hand, drawing carefully with the other. Karen nudged her with her foot. ‘That’s no way to do your drawing,’ she chided. ‘You should sit up at the table.’

The child ignored her, peaceably continuing to draw. Irritation swept through Karen again and she jabbed Stephanie’s ribs harder. ‘Get up!’ she ordered.

‘Ow!’ squealed her daughter. ‘You kicked me!’

Timothy looked up from the couch where he’d been watching television, thumb in mouth. He blinked reproachfully at his mother. Stephanie slowly got to her feet, picked up the drawing things and slid on to one of the upright chairs next to the table. She didn’t say a word. Karen closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

‘Sorry, Steph,’ she managed. ‘That was bad of me.’

Stephanie gave a very adult shrug. It was a seminal moment for Karen. Dismissed by her
own child, as well as by everyone else.
That’s it
, she vowed silently.
I’ll show them all.
She didn’t know how she’d do it, but she wasn’t going to let herself be ignored any more. Just wait till Drew gets home, she fumed.

Sheena went carefully out to the yard, looking for Philip. Her head felt swollen and impossibly sensitive. Inside it there were lightning flashes, as the implications of her mother-in-law’s words struggled to be understood. Only one thing was clear: Philip had lied to her about Georgia’s whereabouts. And that made no possible sense.

She found him coming around the corner of the house from the covered area where they kept their cars, and stood in front of him, trying to focus on his face.

‘Where is she, Phil? What have you done with her?’

‘Who? What?’ He widened his eyes and reached out a hand to her. She backed away from him.

‘Your mother just phoned. Georgia isn’t with her. She hasn’t been there at all. Tell me what the bloody hell is going on.’ Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, but her husband’s expression reflected back none of her panic.

‘She’s perfectly all right,’ he said, quickly. ‘It was idiotic of me not to tell you, but there didn’t
seem much point.’ He smiled tentatively. ‘I didn’t think you’d be too pleased about it, so decided to let it wait until they came back.’

‘What?’ she almost screamed. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Come on, Sheen. Cool down. There’s no need to get in a state. Christ, you hardly notice the kid when she is here. It doesn’t matter to you if I change the arrangements.’

She held her breath and inwardly counted to five. ‘It does matter, actually. I’m her mother. I do in fact want to know where she is at all times.’

‘Well, I’m sorry. I just had a better idea, that’s all. Honestly, darling, she’s perfectly all right.’

‘I don’t believe you.’ She realised as she spoke that it was dreadfully true. Philip was too relaxed, making too big an effort to keep his shoulders loose, his face bland. He should at least be alarmed by her discovery. Such insouciance was unnatural. But if he was intent on playing some horrible game, she saw no option but to co-operate. She turned to go back into the house, flipping one hand at him to follow her. ‘Okay,’ she snapped. ‘You can prove it to me. Call the number where she is and let me speak to her.’

‘I can’t. She’s camping,’ he said. Sheena was reminded crazily of a television sitcom, where people dig themselves deeper and deeper into
trouble by inventing more and more extreme lies to cover their mistakes.

‘Camping,’ she repeated woodenly. ‘Where? Who with?’

‘Justine!’ he announced, and for half a second, she believed him. ‘I let Justine take her. She begged me. You know how fond they are of each other. There didn’t seem to be any harm in it.’

Sheena savoured this story, watching his face. He grinned self-deprecatingly and spread his hands. It was a good performance, but there was a parodic feel to it – an actor depicting rueful confession of a rather minor misdemeanour.

‘Is that really true?’ she demanded. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before? Why all the secrecy?’

‘I thought you might be jealous,’ he said. ‘Of Justine. Having all that time with your daughter. Silly,’ he tried to laugh. ‘You hardly even thought about her till now.’

‘Because I thought she was
safe
. I thought she was being organised to death on the Isle of Wight. Which is how she likes it. How could you do that to your mother? Even I wouldn’t be that rotten.’

He shrugged. ‘She didn’t really mind. It was going to be a sweat for her.’

‘But …’ she felt the first real thrusts of fear. ‘Where is she now? Where’s Justine? When are they supposed to come back? Tell me the truth, Phil. You’ve
got
to tell me everything.’

He pushed past her into the kitchen and sat down on one of the wooden chairs, leaving her to choose whether to stand or sit. She opted to remain vertical, leaning lightly against the edge of the sink, her back to the window. ‘It’s quite a long story,’ he said. ‘And you’re not going to like it.’

‘Tell me,’ she repeated. But she allowed herself to glance at the clock on the wall, and to note that she had five minutes before the conference call with their American sister company. If she missed it, she’d lose so much ground, it would take six months to recover. She gritted her teeth, and glared at her husband. ‘Am I right to be afraid something’s happened to Georgia?’ she demanded.

‘Of course not,’ he said emphatically.

‘If I can believe that, then the rest can wait,’ she said. ‘Can’t it?’

‘Absolutely,’ he agreed, with transparent relief. ‘You get off to your telephoning. I know how important it is to you.’

Her mother-in-law’s words echoed in her head.
I do wonder whether you deserve that child
. Something told Sheena that she would never manage to live with herself if she let it drop now. Her child had been with a girl who’d had strange people come looking for her, for nearly a week, and her husband was trying to tell her something
he knew she wouldn’t want to hear. Some story she couldn’t begin to guess at. Only a monster would go off to a conference call at a moment like this. She might be an inattentive mother, but she wasn’t a monster. She stifled the groan that threatened to turn into hysterics if she didn’t keep strict control.

‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘You know I can’t. Something terrible’s been going on, and I’ve been blind and deaf and unforgivably stupid. So tell me the whole thing. Please.’

He wouldn’t look at her, but instead swung his gaze from floor to window and back again, in a jerky arc. ‘Sit down then,’ he told her. She obeyed, wondering when the numbness would turn to something much sharper.

‘I’ve been having an affair with Justine,’ he began. ‘For about two months now. We’re lovers.’ He said the word roundly, as if it held a vital key to what came next. As if it was the one sweet note in a discordant song.

Sheena clenched a fist on her thigh. ‘Why does it feel as though that’s the least of my worries?’ she grated.

‘Well … we’ve been talking about going away together, taking Georgia with us,’ he said quickly.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she dismissed. ‘You’d never leave this place. You’re fooling yourself,
and that wretched girl. Look, phone her, will you? Tell her to come back right away.’ She tried to quell the tremor in her voice. Philip simply stood there, shaking his head slowly.

‘Don’t tell me she hasn’t got a mobile?’

‘She left it behind. I haven’t spoken to her since she left.’

Sheena’s fear returned. ‘What?’

‘I think something might have gone wrong,’ he admitted. ‘I thought she would have got in touch by now.’

‘When were you going to tell me about this?’

‘Soon, I suppose. When we had it all properly organised.’

‘So what kept your mouth shut when you realised you had no idea where our little girl was? When for all you knew they were both dead in a ditch somewhere? I can’t believe anyone could be so appallingly irresponsible.’

He doesn’t deserve the child, either
, she thought.
What a pair we are!

‘It’ll be all right,’ he said desperately. ‘They’ll turn up.’

I’m phoning the police
now
,’ she said. ‘What was all that stuff you told me earlier on? People looking for Justine? What did you really tell them?’

‘That she’s gone camping,’ he said loudly. ‘The truth.’

‘So why are people looking for her?’ Sheena repeated. ‘Philip, I’ve had the feeling for the past half hour that something is terribly wrong.’

‘No, no,’ he persisted. ‘Look, don’t call the police this evening. It’ll be dark in a bit. They’re not going to do anything until tomorrow, are they? Wait till then. Justine might phone us this evening, anyway. Georgia won’t come to any harm.’

She clenched her fists ineffectually. ‘I don’t see any point in waiting. They’ll ask why we delayed.’ She looked into his eyes, trying to read him. ‘Are you truly not worried?’

‘Truly not,’ he said, unblinking.

She glanced at her watch. She had only missed a few minutes of the conference call. It would probably go on for at least an hour. Philip had given her a firm assurance. She continued to watch him. ‘Aren’t you afraid for Georgia?’ she asked one last time, with genuine curiosity. ‘Doesn’t it occur to you that you might have handed her over to a psychopath? Or that they’ve both been murdered? Why aren’t you showing more concern? Why aren’t you as scared as I am?’

‘I’m scared,’ he laughed tightly. ‘Believe me, I’m scared. But not for Georgia.’

Drew felt very much in the way as Roma and Laurie slowly began to realise that Justine needed
more than a drink and somewhere to lie down, but it didn’t seriously occur to him to leave. After all, he had been asked to find the girl, and her sudden reappearance was far too interesting for him to miss whatever might happen next. Roma came back from making up a bed, finding Justine sunk exhaustedly into Laurie’s usual chair, showing no sign of wanting to climb the stairs.

Roma was stiffly furious, from the look of her. She had introduced Drew, adding, ‘He’s been looking for you, as it happens.’

Drew’s immediate thought was that Maggs should be there. It seemed all wrong without her. She’d have enjoyed it enormously. As for him, he simply felt embarrassed.

Justine’s eyes narrowed ‘Looking for me? Why?’

‘He won’t hurt you,’ said Roma, contempt clear in her voice. ‘I should think he’s as curious as I am to hear what you have to say for yourself.’

Justine let her head flop back. ‘I don’t think I can,’ she said faintly.

‘Start from the beginning,’ Laurie advised calmly. ‘If you’re feeling well enough, that is. You’re probably thirsty, aren’t you?’

‘I’d love some orange juice or something,’ she admitted, seeming very small in the deep chair. Bare feet added to the waiflike image. Drew had
a sense of struggle to maintain a fragile poise. Roma didn’t move to fetch the drink.

After a long minute, Laurie got up heavily, and went out of the room. As he passed Justine, he looked into her face. ‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ he said kindly.

Roma tutted, and returned to her interrupted defence of Drew. ‘You needn’t worry about Drew. He’s family, more or less.’

‘What?’

‘His wife is Penn’s cousin. On her father’s side.’

Justine snorted, as if this were the final straw. ‘And that’s supposed to make me trust him, is it? Penn’s insane, you know,’ she went on earnestly. ‘She tried to kill me. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.’

Roma tutted again. ‘Rubbish!’ she said vigorously. ‘Penn’s been very worried about you. She asked Drew to try to find you.’

‘Are you a detective?’ the girl addressed Drew directly for the first time. He looked into the dark eyes, which were the same colour and shape as Maggs’s, he noticed, but with none of the humour or energy.

‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I seem to wander into complications from time to time, that’s all. I’m actually an undertaker. That might account for it. I’m drawn into people’s lives at times of crisis.
And when someone dies, their secrets start leaking out.’

‘Who said anything about anybody dying?’ Justine seemed angry. ‘Why did Penn go to an
undertaker
, for God’s sake.’

‘I think my profession was irrelevant at the time. It was just a coincidence. All she knew was that I’m married to Karen.’ It sounded unconvincing to Drew, even as he spoke. It had been the weak spot all along, as Maggs had been quick to point out.

‘Actually, she did know you were an undertaker,’ said Roma. ‘That’s how I knew who she was talking about. She said you were New Agey.’

Drew gave this some thought. ‘I wonder who she’d been talking to, then? Karen wouldn’t have given her that impression.’

‘You are rather famous, you know,’ Roma informed him. ‘It’s not the local press any more. Even I saw the piece about you in
The Guardian
not so long ago, and I hardly bother with the papers. Penn probably saw it, and made the connection with her cousin’s surname.’

Laurie came back with the orange juice, and handed it solicitously to Justine. ‘They’re not interested in me,’ she said to him in a little girl voice. ‘They keep talking about Penn.’

Roma smacked the table with the flat of
her hand, not hard, but more than enough to indicate her frame of mind. ‘Perhaps Penn’s more interesting,’ she said unpleasantly.

She doesn’t like her own daughter
, Drew realised. The hints had been there, from Roma herself, but now he experienced it for himself, and it came as a shock, even though he wasn’t inclined to like Justine very much himself, the way she was behaving at the moment. Had she always been hard to like, or had Roma’s antipathy created a person who had come to expect the whole world to feel the same as her mother did? It seemed to Drew that the answer to this mattered quite a lot.

‘Nothing’s changed, has it, Mum?’ Justine said. ‘You still think I’m a waste of space.’

‘Prove to me otherwise,’ Roma invited. ‘Go on, I’m waiting. You turn up here looking like a Bosnian asylum seeker on a bad day, and then start whingeing about God knows what. Please, tell us why you’re here.’