The Back Road (41 page)

‘We’re nowhere near as bad as Bella and Penny,’ Ellie added. ‘They’ve had so much to come to terms with.’

Everybody was silent for a moment.

‘If only the police had found out about Gary earlier and arrested him, most of this wouldn’t have happened,’ Ellie said. ‘Sean wouldn’t be dead, and Mimi wouldn’t have been on the run. We still don’t know how the police finally found out it was Gary. Tom knows, but he says he can’t discuss police business.’

Charles was looking at his feet. Fiona reached for his hand.

‘That’s what we’ve come to tell you,’ she said. ‘It was Charles who finally told the police about Gary. He didn’t see the accident, but he knew that Gary had driven down the back road that night.

‘But you were in London, Charles, weren’t you?’ Leo asked

Charles had still not looked up, and Fiona took a deep breath.

‘I’m afraid it’s my fault’ she said. ‘Look, this is terribly embarrassing, but we feel that we owe you an explanation. It’s only in the last few days that we’ve admitted everything to each other, but we felt we couldn’t leave it any longer before we spoke to you.’

Leo and Ellie exchanged glances, but clearly neither had any idea what this was all about.

‘Charles actually came back from London on Friday evening. He was going to surprise me, but when he got home, he saw Gary’s car in the drive. He knew I’d been talking to him about the planning permission for the conservatory, but it was late - too late for a business visit. Or a social call, come to that. And anyway if I’d invited guests, I would have told Charles.’

She looked up at her husband, and he gave her a gentle smile.

‘I couldn’t bring myself to go in,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know what I would discover, and on the whole I preferred not to know, if that makes sense. But I waited. I wanted to see what time he left - if he left at all.’

Fiona leaned forward.

‘But he
did
leave. Nothing happened. Charles knows that now. He didn’t come home after Gary left. He couldn’t think of any plausible reason for arriving home at one in the morning, given that the last train got in four hours previously, so he went off to a hotel. He followed Gary as far as the top of the back road.’

‘My car was picked up on the ANPR system, so I had to go and account for myself. I should have told them then. I know that. But they would have questioned Fiona, and I didn’t want anybody to know about my suspicions. I wasn’t even sure how I would deal with it all myself. It was only after we talked and it all came out that we both agreed I should tell the police, so I called them on Thursday evening and went down to the police station. It seems I was a few hours too late, though. I understand by then that Sean’s body had already been found. I’m so sorry - both of you. I could have prevented so much of this.’

‘No, Charles,’ Fiona said, pulling his clasped hand closer and enclosing it in her other hand. ‘You mustn’t take all the blame. I knew which way Gary would probably have gone home, given the amount he’d been drinking. And I knew he was lying when he said on Saturday night that he’d had the Porsche for a few days. I honestly didn’t put two and two together. Of course, he was driving his BMW on Friday night, but just in case he’d been seen he wanted to put people off the scent.’

Ellie frowned. ‘Oh my God. It must have been Gary’s car that I passed that night. He would have recognised me, and I couldn’t think for the life of me why the person that passed me hadn’t reported seeing my car, because it’s so distinctive.’

‘Didn’t you recognise him?’ Leo asked.

‘No - that’s the stupid thing. I’d forgotten that I’d passed anybody until Thursday, and then I only remembered it was a dark saloon car. If I’d realised it was a BMW, I might have figured it out - but then Gary turned up in a red Porsche saying that he’d had it for a couple of days, so I’d probably have ruled him out. A waste of effort on his part, because I completely forgot.’

‘All irrelevant now. There was no evidence at the scene, but there were minute traces of Abbie’s clothes caught on the grill of his BMW, so he can’t talk his way out of that one. It doesn’t alter the fact that I really should have done something sooner.’ Charles was gazing down at the ground again, looking as if he wished it would open up and swallow him whole.

Leo was keen to move away from the blame game. They’d all made mistakes.

‘Thanks for explaining it to us Charles. It’s one more mystery solved. I’ll go and make us all some coffee, if you’d like a cup.’

Ellie started to get up.

‘No, Ellie,’ Leo said. ‘I’ll go. With that machine, even I can manage.’

Leo had to escape. If only she’d realised that Gary had been lying about his car, she might have put all the pieces together. She’d kept quiet about him being out on Friday night too, in a foolish attempt to protect Ellie since she believed Gary was the person Ellie had gone out to meet. So she was every bit as guilty as Charles.

53

Fiona and Charles hadn’t seemed in the mood to leave, but after they had finished their coffee Ellie had excused herself, saying she wanted to bath the twins with Max. She didn’t like them being out of her sight for more than five minutes at the moment, and was glad that they were going on holiday very soon. She could have all three of them to herself.

Leo had looked rather alarmed at the idea of being left with Fiona and Charles, and Ellie was relieved to see that that they had gone when she returned to the kitchen.

She could see her sister through the window, sitting on the garden bench, and she was sorry to see how dejected she seemed. She heard a sound behind her, and realised that Max was looking too. He pulled Ellie’s back tight against his chest and wrapped his arms round her, resting his head on her shoulder as they watched Leo.

‘She’ll be okay, Ellie. She had a terrifying experience, and she’s struggling with what she did, but she’s a tough cookie.’

‘No she’s not. You know that. She
talks
a good fight. I don’t like leaving her, Max.’

‘Then she can come with us,’ Max said. Ellie smiled at his thoughtfulness. She knew that wasn’t what he really wanted.

‘She won’t do that.’

‘Why don’t you pour the two of you a glass of wine each, and I’ll join you in a while? I’ve got a job to do first.’

Ellie grabbed a cold bottle from the fridge and a couple of glasses and made her way into the garden just as Max appeared from the shed carrying a pump sprayer.

‘What on earth is Max doing now?’ Leo asked as Ellie joined her on the bench.

‘He’s spraying the roses. According to Gary - who actually does know quite a lot about plants if not much about people - our yellow roses are suffering from some kind of fungus. He cut one - one of my favourites, as it happens – on the night of the party and sneaked it into the dining room to show me that it was diseased. He said he didn’t want to embarrass me in front of our guests.’ Ellie gave a snort of derision. As if diseased flowers mattered in the overall scheme of things.

Leo smiled. ‘I remember that now. He came looking for you in the kitchen.’

‘It was all very peculiar. It’s a mystery to me how a man who cares so passionately about the perfection of plants can be such a pig to his wife. I’d like Max to dig the whole bed up if I’m honest. They’ve always been my favourites, but Sean was forever leaving me yellow roses - even one in the fridge on the night of the party.’

‘Bloody hell - was he in John Lewis on Sunday too?’

‘Yep - that’s why I was so freaked out. And he’d left one on the doorstep the night you arrived. It was so creepy.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me - I wouldn’t have judged you,’ Leo said, giving Ellie a sad smile.

Ellie was spared the necessity of answering as her glance strayed above Leo’s head to the path that led to the front of the house. Another visitor.

‘Hi. I thought I’d find you all out in the garden. Is it okay if I come in?’

‘Hi Tom,’ Max called. ‘Perfect timing. My excuse to stop this job and go and get another couple of glasses.’

‘I don’t want to interrupt - I just came to see how everybody was, and I wondered if I could persuade the walking wounded to have dinner with me,’ he said, making his way towards the bench and resting his hand lightly on Leo’s shoulder.

‘Only if you’re prepared to cut my food up for me,’ was Leo’s less than ecstatic response. But Tom had clearly got her measure.

‘Of course. It will be like taking Lucy out when she was little, although I doubt if the standard of behaviour will be as high.’ He grinned at Leo.

‘Do I need to get changed? It’s such a faff with this arm.’

‘No - I can cope with you looking scruffy. Come on - we’ll walk back to mine and we can travel in style, seeing as how I no longer have a beat up wreck to take you out in.’

‘Thank God for that,’ said Leo. ‘I’ll get my bag, then.’

* * *

Tom looked at Leo as she returned to the garden ten minutes later, and smiled his appreciation. Contrary to her previous remarks, it was clear that she had gone to some effort to look good, but he knew better than to comment. She gave him a typically Leo defiant glance.

He stood up and walked towards her, casually dropping his arm around her shoulders. He felt her tense for a moment, and then she surprised him by relaxing.

‘I’ve been telling Tom about Fiona and Charles and their rediscovered
lurve
,’ Ellie said. ‘It’s great that something good has come out of all this.’

Leo was less kindly disposed towards Fiona’s new found harmony.

‘If you say so, although I’m not sure that they deserve it given that she was prepared to have a relationship with Penny’s husband. I thought she was up to something because she got a phone call when we met for lunch, and she went all coy for a moment.’ Leo paused. ‘By the way, Ellie, I’ve been meaning to ask - what is Fiona’s big secret? She told me she’d had her heart broken, and Mrs Talbot says she was pregnant. What’s the big mystery?’

‘Oh, bloody Doreen Talbot ought to learn the art of discretion,’ Ellie said. ‘I’ve kept this secret for so many years, but I’m sure it’s not a problem telling you now, especially as Charles has finally been told the whole story. It happened when we were about seventeen. Fiona was always quite secretive, you know. Still is, it would appear. I knew she was seeing somebody, but I didn’t know who and she wouldn’t tell me. They used to meet in the woods, by the back road. All I knew was that he was older than her - and I suspected one of the teachers from school, but I may have been wrong. She was such a pretty girl. Do you remember?’

‘Not really,’ Leo answered. ‘She was your friend and I saw her at school, but I never actually thought about how she looked.’

‘A lot of men found her very attractive - and I say ‘men’ for a reason. She had the sort of looks that appealed to grown men rather than teenage boys, and she had some of the teachers twisted round her little finger.’

‘So she got pregnant and was sent away?’

Tom had a terrible feeling that he knew what was going to happen. The truth was racing towards them like a freight train, and he couldn’t for the life of him think how to stop it.

‘Oh no. She was never pregnant. That was just village speculation - and wrong. No, it was much worse than that.’ Elle paused. ‘It’s best if you don’t mention it to her, but actually she was raped.’

Tom felt every muscle in Leo’s body tighten, and he gripped her shoulder, pulling her gently towards him and willing her to keep calm.

‘Who, Ellie? Who raped her?’ Tom could hear the strain in Leo’s voice.

‘She wouldn’t say. Her parents didn’t believe her and told her she’d brought it on herself with the clothes she wore and the way she flaunted her body - none of which was true. Or at least, no more true than the rest of us. She told me because I found her sobbing her young heart out in our garden, of all places.’

‘Did she say what had happened?’ Max said. It was clear that this was news to him too, and Tom kept a firm grip on Leo’s taut shoulders.

‘She was incoherent. I tried to get her into the house, but she wouldn’t come. Probably afraid of The Old Witch, and who could blame her? So I took her home. All I could get out of her was that she’d thought he loved her. She’d gone to meet him in the woods as usual, and he just wouldn’t stop. She wasn’t ready, so she’d fought him and even screamed, but he’d laughed at her and told her to stop teasing him. In the end, he forced her and she was completely devastated. Anyway, I made her tell her parents thinking they would support her and call the police, but they packed her off to her aunt’s in London. That was it. She flatly refused to say who it was - not even to me - but I never went near those woods again. I didn’t hear from her after that until she turned up in the village a few years ago. And she never told Charles anything about it until this week.’

Leo was silent. She turned tragic eyes towards Tom, and he knew she was willing him to get her out of there. His arm tightened even more.

‘A sad story,’ he said. ‘But fortunately it seems things have turned out okay for them now.’

He leant towards Leo and brushed his lips against her hair, speaking softly.

‘Come on. I think we’ll have a night in. I’ve got a bottle of vodka in the freezer, and a huge biriani ready for the oven. Let’s go, shall we?’

Knowing that Leo’s stiffness would be interpreted as a typical reaction to such an overt display of affection, Tom raised his eyes to the sky and gave a slight shake of the head as if to signify how hopeless she was. Max and Ellie grinned at him as he raised his hand in farewell and guided Leo gently towards the garden gate.

As they made their way to the cobbled drive, Tom could hear Max and Ellie’s laughter and was glad Leo had said nothing. They would have to learn the truth sooner or later, but for now they deserved to enjoy their holiday and make peace with all that had happened. It was bad enough that Leo had to bear it, but at least he’d been there for her.

Still with his arm around her, Tom felt the pressure of Leo’s head lighten and he knew she was pulling away. Her moment of weakness gone, she would retreat behind her wall of indifference again. And he had no idea how to help her.

She stopped about half way down the drive and turned back to face the house, oblivious to the happy sounds from the garden, the hum of bees in the lavender or the cool evening breeze that gently stirred her hair, lifting it from her shoulders. Tom remained silent as he watched her expressionless face. She seemed lost in a sea of memories. Then she took a deep breath, and the tension left her body. She turned to Tom with lips turned upwards in valiant attempt at a smile, but her eyes were as bleak as frozen rock pools.

‘Come on. Let’s go and eat,’ she said.

Without waiting for his response, she walked down the drive towards the gate without a backward glance.

* * *