PICTURES OF YOU: a gripping psychological suspense thriller (23 page)

Chapter 71

They locked the house and drove away, turned left and wound through the narrow roads. “I don’t know what to say to you Jane. I don’t know how to thank you.” Jane shook her head.

“I can’t, I can’t talk. I never knew I had that in me, that violence, I never thought I could feel such hate. It’s scared me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no it’s not your fault – none of it is your fault.”

“It feels like my fault, you could have been hurt, we both could have been and you tried to tell me didn’t you? You tried to tell me that day in the café and I was so blind, stupid and flattered.”

“Mary, you were being human, that’s all. You were looking for love and we all have the right to do that.”

“I can never repay what you’ve done tonight, you know that don’t you?”

“There’s no need, we’re friends, we’ve always been friends. I’m so glad everything’s okay with us now, but I do feel bad, you know, about my reaction. I cried and cried about it, I was a real bitch. Then I called your mum and I shouldn’t have done, but I was worried about you. I am so sorry; I don’t get any satisfaction, you know, out of what happened. I did come to see you once to tell you I was sorry but I don’t think you were in.”

Now was not the moment to admit that she had watched from the window as Jane had walked away.

“Can I stay again tonight? Just tonight and then tomorrow well I’ll think about that in the morning.”

“Of course you can.”

“I do need to go and meet Judy though and I think I have to tell her what happened. Why don’t you come as well? You’d like her.”

“Okay, yeah, I think that would be good.”…

The sun warmed the bright kitchen as they sat together drinking coffee and nibbling at toast, they hadn’t slept but now it was morning and time to move. They didn’t speak, didn’t relive the events of the night before; it was too big, too awful to discuss, and so they listened to the birds and the children in the road and they struggled with their thoughts.

They heard the car, the engine rumbled outside in the road, and there was the sound of doors slamming. It wasn’t a busy street but there was no reason to assume that the noises were anything to do with them, not until the doorbell chimed.

Jane waved a hand at Mary,
stay there, I’ll go.
She strode through the lounge and into the little square hallway. Through the glass of the front door she could make out two figures. A frown creased the skin of her forehead as she leaned forward and put the safety chain in to the slider.

She opened the door, just a crack and the two tall figures turned to peer at her and then raised their hands to show their warrant cards. Jane’s heart leapt into her mouth, something had happened to Millie, her daughter was hurt. With quivering hands she slipped the chain and pulled open the door.

“What’s happened, is it Millie, what’s wrong?” The words tumbled over her tongue in panic, her heart was pounding her throat dry.

The taller of the two smiled at her but his eyes were wary, he had done this job before and knew just how easily things could slip out of control. “Sorry to bother you madam, but we are looking for Mary Roland.”

“Oh thank God.” For just a moment relief wiped out everything else but then reality kicked back in.

“Are you Mary Roland madam, or is she here? We have been told that maybe she is staying here.”

Mary had heard the voices and left the kitchen. Standing in the hallway behind Jane her heart chattered and jumped. There was something wrong. The police were here, looking for her, how did they know she was here, only Judy knew?

“I’m Mary, Mary Roland. What’s happened?”

“A friend, Judy Allbright gave us this address. We need to ask you a couple of questions. Are you acquainted with Jacob Chadwick madam, a student at the college?”

“Yes.” Her mind was racing now and the one word was all she could manage.

“Do you mind if we come inside? We need to speak to you.”

Jane opened the door and ushered them through into the living room. They took off their hats and then the taller one spoke again. “It might be better, Ms Roland, if you sat down. We have some rather upsetting news for you.”

She didn’t need a second telling, all the strength had gone from her legs, she and Jane reached to each other and sat side by side hands entwined, waiting.

Chapter 72

Jane and Judy went with her. They stood in silence. They held hands as the wind whipped at their coats and lifted their hair. The weather had changed now and the balm of summer seemed to have fled; suddenly and completely, it was over. Mary was glad of the blustery disturbance; she could blame her tears on blown grit, just the weather.

Jane hadn’t known him and so had no need for grief, Judy had known the worst of him and so had no tears to shed for his damaged soul. Mary though had seen the best of him and it was the best of him that caused the ache in her heart and the moisture in her eyes as the vicar droned on about time and misery and dust.

There was to be an inquest of course, but at least they had been allowed to lay his body to rest. As she peered into the hole in the damp earth Mary shuddered. Bill had been cremated. The thought of Jacob’s beautiful young body lying in the ground slowly disintegrating was ghastly.

She peered from under her brows at the family who stood at the other side of the grave. His mother, dry eyed but pale and hollow-looking, his brother who seemed impatient and uncomfortable. There was no one who she could identify as a father and no sister. It was a surprisingly small turnout for a young person and again this made her sad.

They didn’t know where he had got the drugs, but together with the alcohol there had been little chance that he could have been saved even if they had found him sooner. He had lain on the bench in the park until mid-morning, when a dog walker had noticed that he hadn’t moved since she had first seen him almost an hour before. And so they came and took him away and they had searched her out and told her because friends had said he lived with her.

“He was my lodger for just a little while. That’s all.” And they accepted that as fact, after all she was old enough to be his mother wasn’t she?

Mary had stayed with Jane and together they visited the funeral directors. He looked peaceful. The way out that he had chosen hadn’t disfigured his fine face. She had reached and pushed back the heavy fringe while trying to focus on the positives, to let go the horror and to hold back the tears.

The days following his suicide were a blur. She knew that she could never go home again. At the last he had stolen her vestiges of love for her marital nest and forced her to move on. Her mum and dad were surprisingly supportive and bit back the questions they longed to ask, and so the small room of her childhood and youth welcomed her back and simplified her life for just a while.

It was time to change and to grow, she saw that and signed up for a course to train as a counsellor. She would take what she had learned and try to help others.

The clergyman’s droning voice wound down to the dreadful end. They moved to take a turn to toss flowers and earth onto his coffin. Finally as the small gathering dispersed, she walked with her friends down the tree lined path and left the splendour and the catastrophe that had been Jacob behind them in the cold ground.

The End

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