Schemer (37 page)

Wondering if she was having a bad dream, Stephanie picked up a saucepan and began banging herself over the head with it to see if she would wake up.

‘Stop it! What you doing?’ Pam shrieked, grabbing the handle out of her daughter’s hand.

Bursting into tears, Stephanie sank to her knees. ‘I think I’m going off my head, Mum. I honestly don’t know what I’m doing.’

Barry Franklin was in a rather buoyant mood as he drove towards Stephanie’s house. He was amazed that Wayne hadn’t been found yet, but thrilled that he could now shove the final nail in his old pal’s coffin. As the current number one song, D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, came on the radio, Barry cranked the volume up and laughed as he joined in with the lyrics. Things most certainly weren’t going to get better for Wayne Jackman, because Barry was about to make sure they became decidedly worse.

Linda was livid as Angela strolled into the lounge with the attitude from hell. ‘Don’t be giving it the large, Ange. Don’t you realize that your sister’s in bits? You selfish bloody cow,’ she shouted.

‘Calm down, Lin. Let me get you a beer, eh?’ Keith said, squeezing his partner’s hand.

‘I don’t want a fucking beer. I want to tell this no-good, conniving little bitch her fortune,’ Linda yelled, as all four foot of her lunged at her neice.

‘Stop it. Just bloody well stop it,’ Pam shouted, as Dannielle and Tyler both started to scream.

‘Can I have a cuddle, Mum?’ Aidan said, holding his arms out to Angela.

About to say no, Angela remembered she had Roxy standing by her side, so instead gave her son a false motherly hug.

Feeling a bit awkward, Cathy stood up. ‘I’ll put the kettle on. Who wants tea and who wants coffee?’

Before anybody had a chance to reply, the doorbell rang and Pam dashed off to answer it. ‘Do come in, officers. My daughter is in the living room,’ she said nervously.

Stephanie felt incredibly edgy as she stared at the uniformed man and woman. Their presence made Wayne’s disappearance seem all the more real somehow. ‘Take the kids upstairs with Cath, Mum. You and Keith go with them as well, Lin,’ Steph ordered.

‘I don’t want to go, Mummy. I want to stay here with you. Where’s Daddy? Has he died?’ Dannielle asked, clinging to her mother’s leg.

Stephanie held her daughter’s head in her hands and kissed her on the nose. ‘Daddy’s not dead. He’s just got lost somewhere and the police have come to see us to help us find him. Now you be a good girl and go upstairs with Nanny while Mummy talks to them, OK?’

Pam ushered the three children out of the room. ‘Just shout if you need me.’

As Linda walked out behind Keith and Cathy, she prodded the male officer in the arm. ‘And don’t be believing anything that lying little mare tells you,’ she said, pointing at Angela.

Roxy squeezed her friend’s hand. ‘Just take no notice.’

Angela sensibly smiled at the two police officers. She was far too clever to retaliate.

‘Do you want to start questioning us now? Or shall we wait for Barry Franklin to arrive? Barry was with Wayne the night he went missing,’ Stephanie explained.

‘I’d wait for Barry. Bet he knows more than anybody else does,’ Tammy stated abruptly.

Stephanie glared at her friend as if to urge her to shut up. Tammy shouldn’t start insinuating that Barry had done something to Wayne in front of the police until they had some kind of proof at least. ‘That’s probably Barry now. Go and answer it, Tam,’ Stephanie said when the doorbell rang.

Dressed in a trendy tan leather jacket, matching tan shoes and faded jeans, Barry Franklin strolled into the lounge and shook both police officers’ hands.

‘What they doing here?’ Stephanie asked horrified, as she spotted Cooksie and Potter bowl into the room behind Barry.

‘Well, seeing as they were both with us the other evening, I thought the police might want to speak to them as well. I also rang Lee, but I couldn’t get hold of him,’ Barry replied.

‘Right, let’s get started. Firstly, we need a description of what Mr Jackman was wearing on the evening in question, and also the names of any places you might have visited,’ the female officer said to Barry.

While Barry, Potter and Cooksie filled the police in with details, Stephanie furtively glanced at her sister. Her mum was positive that for once Angela was telling the truth, but Stephanie wasn’t quite so sure. Angela was sly and manipulative, and Steph had always been under the impression that her sister had held a grudge over her relationship with Wayne.

Angela smirked as she heard the policewoman ask Barry if Wayne had been chatting any girls up. ‘Do you mind if I say something, please?’ Angie asked, putting her hand up as though she was still at primary school.

The policewoman turned to her. ‘Not at all. Any help to find Mr Jackman would be much appreciated.’

‘I spoke to Jacko – sorry, I mean Wayne. Jacko’s his nickname, and I had a rather in-depth chat with him, actually. He was telling me how skint he was and how he regretted asking my sister to marry him, as he now couldn’t afford to give her the wedding that she had dreamed of.’

Unable to control her fury, Stephanie leapt up and pointed her finger in her sister’s face. ‘You are one twisted, nasty piece of work, Angela Crouch. You’ve always been jealous of me and Wayne having such a comfortable lifestyle, and no one will believe your vicious lies, so why bother telling them?’

When Roxy and Tammy both jumped up, Barry quickly moved to calm things down.

‘Bundle,’ Cooksie shouted, nudging Potter. Potter laughed, but then quickly reverted to serious again when he clocked the policeman glare at him and Cooksie.

‘Just calm down, Stephanie. Angela isn’t lying. Me, Cooksie and Potter can vouch for that,’ Barry said softly.

‘Wayne isn’t skint. We’ve got a wonderful lifetstyle,’ Stephanie insisted.

Glaring at Barry, Tammy pushed him out of the way and held Stephanie in her arms. ‘They’re not lying, Steph. Wayne did have money problems, babe.’

Stephanie was not only furious, but also mortified. How come everybody else knew about Wayne’s financial difficulties, yet she didn’t? It was her who was meant to be getting married to him, so why had he spoken to every other bastard about it, but not her? Feeling like a complete and utter fool, Stephanie flopped onto the armchair in despair.

‘Would somebody like to tell us about Mr Jackman’s financial affairs?’ the policeman asked. He had his pen and his notebook in his hand and was raring to go.

‘Jacko was telling us that he’d sort of lost everything, weren’t he, Potter? He took us out for a curry a few weeks back and spilt his guts. He reckoned he was up to his neck in it and was scraping the bottom of the barrel. He was proper upset, though, because he adored Steph and was worried about letting her down,’ Cooksie said, honestly.

When everybody else started chipping in about the state of Wayne’s finances, Stephanie felt that her head was about to explode. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? You of all people, I thought I could trust, Tam,’ she screamed at her lifelong best friend.

‘I didn’t tell you because Wayne begged me not to. He loves you so much, Steph, and he was so worried about not being able to buy you the salon that he had promised you. I thought it was just a temporary blip for him; I didn’t realize he had told anybody else, mate. He was going to tell you after the wedding, and if he hadn’t, I swear I would have. Nobody wanted to spoil your big day for you, Steph, including me,’ Tammy explained, breaking down in tears herself.

As Angela watched both her sister and Tammy cry, she felt nothing but happiness within. Deciding to put the boot in even further, Angela knew she had to first put on an act because Roxy was with her.

‘Are you OK, Ange?’ Roxy asked, as the tears began to drip down Angela’s cheeks.

‘No, not really. I feel I should tell the police about my relationship with Wayne all them years ago. Say he don’t get found, then they start pointing the finger at me,’ Angela whispered in her friend’s ear.

Roxy shrugged. She didn’t really see the need to tell the police about that yet, but she didn’t want her flatmate to worry over it. ‘Well, if you think you should, then you tell them,’ she said supportively.

‘I think there is something I should tell you, officers. It’s probably not important, but I feel if Wayne isn’t found soon and you dig deeper with your enquiries, you may start to look at me in a suspicious manner for not saying anything.’

Stephanie clocked the falseness in Angela’s overly dramatic voice and immediately knew what she was about to say. ‘Just shut it, Ange, that has nothing to do with Wayne’s disappearance,’ she spat.

The female officer glanced at her colleague, and then glared at Stephanie. ‘We will be the ones to decide that. Now, would you like to tell us your concerns?’ she asked, turning her attention back to Angela.

Dabbing her eyes with a tissue from her handbag, Angela nodded. ‘Wayne Jackman was my boyfriend before he got with my sister, Stephanie. In fact, he took my virginity from me when I was only thirteen years old.’

About to start shouting and screaming about how her sister had lied about her age to Wayne, Stephanie decided not to bother. She had already been humiliated beyond belief in front of the police, so what was the point in her making matters worse for herself?

When the police began to question Angela over the details of her and Wayne’s relationship, Barry glanced at Stephanie and wanted to laugh. In his eyes, she deserved everything that had happened to her in the past day or two. She had broken his heart and this was payback time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Purgatory would be the best way to describe the days that followed for Stephanie. Initially, the police had thought that Wayne would reappear with a stag-night hangover and an apology, but as Stephanie’s wedding day approached with still no word from the groom, the constabulary became increasingly concerned about Wayne’s wellbeing.

Apart from popping home to pick up some more clothes and toiletries, Pam had barely left her daughter’s side. Pam’s boss at the baker’s had told her to take as much time off as she needed, and Pam was extremely grateful to him, as Stephanie’s frail state of mind certainly wasn’t up to coping with two young children on her own.

On the morning of what was meant to be her daughter’s wedding day, Pam got up at the crack of dawn and had a nice, relaxing soak in the bath. She was dreading the day ahead. Over the past couple of days she’d had the awful task of ringing around all the guests to tell them that the wedding had been cancelled. Cathy and Linda had both been brilliant and were coming around again later to support Stephanie on such a traumatic day.

Barry Franklin had also been a tower of strength and had popped in regularly to try and keep Steph’s spirits up. The more Pam saw of Barry, the more she liked the lad. He was charming, funny, very thoughtful, and had even taken the kids over to the park yesterday so she could rest her tired legs. Immersing her body into the hot, soapy water, Pam thought about Wayne and sighed. She had always got along with her daughter’s partner, but in her heart of hearts, she had never really liked him that much. In Pam’s eyes, Wayne’s qualities as a father left a lot to be desired, and she also found the man to be rather cold. Wondering what on earth had happened to him, Pam leant her head against the edge of the bath and shut her eyes. She was pleased that the police were coming around again this morning to update her and Stephanie on their enquiries, and she imagined they were bound to ask more questions. Wayne’s disappearance was the most baffling thing that Pam had ever encountered; but one thing she did know: if Wayne was ever found safe and well, there was a good chance she would end up murdering him herself.

Stephanie opened her wardrobe door and took out the wedding dress. The alterations lady had bought it back on Thursday and Steph hadn’t even looked at it yet. She knew she was torturing herself by trying it on, but she couldn’t stop herself from doing so. She had paid the woman another fifty pounds, so had every right to check that the sleeves now fitted as they should.

‘Is Daddy coming home, Mummy? Can I wear my bridesmaid dress now?’ Dannielle asked excitedly.

Through lack of sleep, Stephanie felt as though she were in a trance as she stared at her daughter. Tyler was too young to even miss Wayne. He didn’t have a clue what was going on. Dannielle, on the other hand, had been tearful, off her food, and acting very clingy.

Not wanting her daughter to be affected any more than she already had been, Stephanie decided to end the saga once and for all. Steph had made a pact to herself that if Wayne wasn’t home for their wedding day, she would snap out of her trauma for the sake of her children, and that’s exactly what she intended to do. She snarled as she ripped off her wedding dress and then grabbed the pair of scissors she kept in her bedside drawer.

‘No Mummy. No,’ Dannielle screamed, as Stephanie hacked at the beautiful dress with the scissors, like a woman possessed.

‘Daddy isn’t coming home, Dannielle. It’s just me, you and Tyler from now on, OK?’ Steph screamed.

‘What are you doing, love?’ Pam asked, horrified, as she opened Steph’s bedroom door.

‘Well, I’m hardly going to be needing it now, am I?’ Stephanie yelled, before bursting into tears.

Dannielle was petrified. ‘I want my daddy,’ she cried, clinging to Pam’s midriff.

Pam had tears in her own eyes as she urged Stephanie to move away from the dress.

Steph couldn’t. Instead, she lay face down on top of it. ‘I miss Wayne so much, Mum. Where is he?’ she sobbed.

Pam sat on the bed and held Stephanie tightly to her chest. Her daughter was so vulnerable at the moment, it reminded Pam of when she was a little girl all over again. ‘The police will find out what’s happened to him, love. They are so clever these days, so dry them eyes and get yourself ready for their visit. They might even have some news for you.’

‘If I ask you something, Mum, will you tell me the truth?’

‘Of course I will,’ Pam said, moving a strand of her daughter’s hair away from her wet eyes.