The Back Road (18 page)

She didn’t look at him, but she heard him leave. The car door slammed, and he was gone. Ellie sat still for a second. Then her mouth filled with saliva, and she started to shiver.

Oh shit - not here
.

But she couldn’t stop it. She flung the car door open and leaned down into the gap between her car and the white van as the meagre contents of her stomach deposited themselves on the tarmac.

24

In her mind, Leo had always pictured the High Street of Little Melham as a black and white image, cold and wet with dismal skies and cheerless shop windows. She had associated it with heavy bags that made her young arms ache, people laughing at her or pointing and staring. She was “the bastard”. The child who had appeared from nowhere, and that nobody wanted.

Today, however, she had to admit that it was actually looking quite pretty. The sun was filtering through the branches of the trees that lined either side of the road, creating dappled patterns on the pavement, and the shop fronts looked bright and cheerful.

She knew that Tom had felt uncomfortable with some of her revelations; he had probably expected her problems to be something and nothing, and no doubt wished he had never started the conversation. It had given him an opening to tell his own sad story, though, and Leo was shocked to hear of his brother’s death in a speed boat accident. While evidently this had left him considerably wealthier than he might otherwise have been, it made no difference at all to his sense of loss.

After sharing some of their past sorrows they had moved onto safer ground, and Tom had talked about plans for his career here in the north west. He was fairly certain that a Chief Inspector in the Manchester force was going to be retiring soon, and although it wouldn’t be a promotion, he’d be happy with that as long as he was within driving distance of Lucy.

Leo couldn’t quite fathom Tom. He seemed confident and comfortable with himself, but there was a slight remoteness about him that suggested something in his life had made him wary. Apart from the story about his brother’s death, he had been very quiet about his private life. Although he was happy to talk about Lucy, he didn’t say what had caused him and his wife to divorce, and he didn’t leave her a suitable opening to ask. She got the feeling that still waters ran very deep. He seemed like a man who laid bare about sixty per cent of his soul, but the remainder would be very hard to penetrate.

At the end of lunch, they said their goodbyes and Leo decided to stroll back through the village on the opposite side of the road from the wine bar. She’d noticed earlier that there was a new delicatessen, and thought she would pop in and pick up a few bits and pieces to nibble before dinner that night. At least that way Ellie might not feel the necessity to cook her heart out yet again.

The shop was busy, but nobody appeared to be buying much. The shopkeeper glanced towards Leo.

‘Is it okay if I just have a look around?’ Leo asked. ‘I’ve no idea what I want.’

‘Be my guest. Let me know if you need any help.’

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments and Leo couldn’t decide whether to pick something at random and make a hasty exit, or take her time and ignore the atmosphere. The shopkeeper must have recognised Leo’s discomfort, and came to her rescue.

‘Sorry, love. We didn’t mean to be rude. We were just talking about that terrible accident on Friday night. We’re all a bit in shock, you see. Are you from round here?’

‘No - I’m only staying for a few days. But I did hear about it. The waitress in the wine bar mentioned it too,’ Leo responded.

The shopkeeper nodded. ‘It’s dreadful - and they’re saying that the driver has to be from here, because the road doesn’t really go anywhere else. The whole village is talking about it. We can’t believe it, to tell you the truth.’

One of the other women spoke up.

‘Well, they’ve been checking the cameras - you know - those in the village. There’s one at the petrol station, but I don’t know if there are any others. Never thought it mattered much. I do know that they’ve been taking suspects into the station. Two of them are from the High School too. It just goes to show, doesn’t it? Teachers? They’re no better than the rest of us, are they?’

The shopkeeper leaned her elbows on the counter.

‘Do you know which teachers it was, Sally?’

‘All I heard is that one is a deputy head - a man. And then they’ve taken the PE Teacher in as well. How awful if it was one of them, and they’d left that girl to die.’

Leo felt a shock at the mention of a PE Teacher. She was as certain as she could ever be, though, that Max would never have knocked somebody over and abandoned them on the side of the road. She wondered if the deputy head could be Pat. Surely not?

‘It’s not only the teachers who’ve been taken in,’ said another of the customers, a large woman with a too tight perm. ‘Our Philip was at the dentist this morning, and he saw that big-wig banker chap - you know, the one that works in London - him who’s married to the girl who disappeared overnight from the village all those years ago. I can’t remember his name. Well - he was scurrying out of the police station too - looking very shifty according to our Philip. You know what I think? All these sorts from the smart end of the village with their fancy jobs and flash cars to match - they all drink wine like it’s going out of fashion. Then they think nothing of driving home. I just bet when they find out who it was, they’ll discover that he’d been drinking. It’s just criminal is what I think.’

Surely they couldn’t be talking about Charles and Fiona?
Disappeared?
Leo remembered that Fiona had left the village, but that didn’t mean she’d
disappeared
. And why were they interviewing Charles? He was in London until Saturday.

‘Have you heard anything, love?’ the shopkeeper asked Leo.

‘I’m afraid not,’ she answered, shaking her head. She wouldn’t bother to mention the connections through Ellie and Max.

‘Well, we’re all saying that if it
is
somebody from the village, we all need to ask around. Notice if anything isn’t quite right, or if somebody was out on Friday night that shouldn’t have been. We’ve got as much chance as finding this villain as the police do - so if you hear of anything, just let us know.’

Leo was relieved to hear the old fashioned bell on the door tinkle. A memory of Ellie going out on Friday night flashed through her mind, and she desperately wanted to change the subject. However, the new arrival was far from the saviour she had been hoping for.

Fiona.

Even though Leo hadn’t taken an active part in the conversation, she could feel herself flush slightly. The woman called Sally turned to study the wide range of goods on the shelves behind her, and everybody was self-consciously trying to look anywhere but at Fiona.

Clearly having no sense of interrupting anything, Fiona looked surprised to see Leo.

‘Hello, Leo. What brings you into the village on this sunny afternoon?’

Now Leo felt worse. The women in the shop would think she had intentionally misled them.

‘I’ve come for a few bits for Ellie.’

‘Well I’m glad I’ve seen you, because I seem to remember at dinner on Saturday night you offered to buy me lunch. Well, I’ve been thinking about it and that would be very nice. Shall we say the wine bar at twelve thirty tomorrow?’

In the eyes of everybody else in the shop, Fiona had now moved from being nothing more than a casual acquaintance of Leo’s to being a very good friend.

The shopkeeper offered to serve them, and Fiona politely indicated the other women in the shop.

‘They’re browsing, don’t worry about them,’ was the response. The hard stare was reserved for Leo, who ended up buying rather more than she came for. Fiona only wanted some Parma ham, so they were soon served and left the deli together.

With the exception of the words necessary to complete their purchases, nobody had spoken since Fiona had arrived, but Leo had the strong feeling that she had once again become the person for whom shops fell silent as she walked through the door.

Immediately the village morphed back into its former shades of black, white and grey. The colour seemed to have drained out of the day as she realised that if the village gossips were to be believed, several of the people closest to Ellie could be implicated in Friday’s accident. And she had yet to find out where Ellie had been on the night in question.

25

Since arriving home from work, Ellie hadn’t stopped. She’d started by mopping the kitchen floor - which didn’t sound like a big deal, but it was an enormous kitchen cum family room, and of course she’d had to put all the twins’ toys away first. Max had taken them off to the river to feed the ducks, so she had put her heart and soul into the cleaning. Manual labour was supposed to block out all worries. It wasn’t working.

She was so grateful that nobody had witnessed her embarrassing moment in the car park. Fortunately, she’d had a large bottle of mineral water in the boot, so after a quick drink she had managed to flush most of the evidence from the tarmac down a convenient grid. But she hadn’t risked so much as a cup of tea since then.

The house was quiet. It had an empty and abandoned feel to it. Ellie realised that it always felt like this to her when Max and the children weren’t there. But now it had special significance. Now she was frightened. Was he here? Was he waiting for the right moment to creep up behind her and wrap his arms around her waist? She’d had to keep busy. Either that, or lock herself in the bathroom until somebody came home.

She was walking dejectedly downstairs with her arms full of the second load of washing when the shrill peal of the doorbell pierced the silence, making her jump out of her skin. Half of the dirty clothes fell to the floor, and she hastily picked them up and dumped them on the hall chair. She stood still, wondering whether she could deal with whoever was on the other side of that door. She didn’t want visitors, so perhaps if she kept quiet they would go away.

They didn’t. Ellie had no choice but to answer the persistent ringing.

She didn’t recognise the two people standing there, both smartly dressed in suits. They weren’t smiling though, so she could tell this was no social call.

‘Mrs Saunders? Detective Sergeant Crosby, madam. And this is Detective Constable Lacey. May we come in?’

Ellie was rooted to the spot. This was it, then. Her car must have been seen. Or
his
car, and he had given them her name. Oh Christ. What was she going to do? Thank God Max was out. She mentally shook herself, and held the door wide, indicating that they should come in. She took them into the library where at least they could close the door and not be heard by Max if he returned.

‘How can I help you?’ she asked, hoping that her nervousness would not be misconstrued.

‘Actually, Mrs Saunders, it’s your husband we want to talk to. Is he in, please?’

‘Max? You want to talk to Max? Why?’

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Saunders - that’s something between us and your husband. Is he in?’

Ellie knew that her face must have looked a picture of fear and dismay - not the face of an innocent person wanting to help the police with their enquiries.

‘I’m sorry, but my husband’s out. He’s taken the children to the river. They wanted to feed the ducks, and we had some old bread…’

Ellie was rambling. She had to shut up.

‘Do you mind if we wait, Mrs Saunders? We do need to speak to him, and it is quite urgent.’

Pulling herself together, Ellie indicated the chairs and both the detectives sat down.

‘Would you like a cup of tea or coffee, or anything?’ she asked, hoping this was the right thing to do.

‘Tea would be good, thanks. We both take it white, no sugar.’

Ellie made a quick escape to the kitchen. She filled the kettle with water and switched it on, getting mugs out of the cupboard on autopilot. But before she had finished, the back door crashed open - the only way that Jake knew how to enter a room - and the twins came trudging in wearing muddy wellingtons. She barely registered that she was now going to have to mop the floor again, and she didn’t even ask Max why he’d let them come in without taking their wellies off first.

‘The police are here, Max. They want to speak to you.’

Max looked vaguely puzzled, but to her relief he didn’t seem at all concerned.

‘Okay - where are they?’

‘They’re in the library. What’s it about Max? I’m making them a cup of tea, do you want one?’

‘No thanks. I’ve no idea what they want, so I’d better go and see. Shall I take the tea?’

‘No,’ Ellie said. ‘It’s not ready yet. I’ll bring it through in a minute.’

Max disappeared towards the library, and Ellie finished making their drinks, absent-mindedly watching the twins making patterns on the floor with their muddy boots.

She put the two mugs on a small tray with a plate of biscuits, and as she approached the library she heard Max ask the police what he could do to help them. She didn’t quite catch the reply, but was very surprised to see Max close the library door. Balancing the tray in one hand, she pushed the door open again, and the room went silent. Max turned a slightly startled face towards her, and then stepped forward to take the tray.

And still nobody spoke.

‘Do you mind closing the door on your way out, love?’ Max asked. ‘Thanks.’

He gave her a weak smile, which Ellie found even more disturbing.

As she pulled the door closed behind her, the front door opened, and Leo walked in with a scowl on her face.

‘God, my feet hurt. A daft idea, marching up and down the high street in these sandals.’ Leo kicked the offending shoes off and sat down on the stairs. ‘I noticed a strange car in the drive. Have you got visitors?’

Ellie was quiet for a moment. She was still unsure what to make of Max’s behaviour.

‘It’s the police. They wanted to talk to Max.’

Sitting on the bottom step and rubbing her feet, Leo barely glanced up.

‘Oh, they came here did they? I got the impression he’d been down to the police station. Ouch - that’s a blister.’ Leo seemed to suddenly register Ellie’s silence. ‘What’s up, Ellie? You know Max wasn’t driving that night. I can’t think that you’ve got anything to worry about.’

‘What if whoever
was
driving did it, and Max has been keeping quiet?’ Ellie asked.

Leo rested her forearms on her knees and gave Ellie a puzzled look.

‘Max wouldn’t do that - you know he wouldn’t. They probably want to know if he saw anybody when he was coming home. Don’t look so frightened.’

Ellie just stood. She felt as if she were frozen to the spot.

‘Leo, what did you mean when you said you’d got the impression he’d been down to the police station?’

Leo took her bottom lip in her teeth - a habit that Ellie recognised from when they were children. It always meant that she was going to have to say something that she’d rather not.

‘Look, it was just the village gossipmongers. You know how they can make a mountain out of a molehill. I went to get some bits from the deli - there, in that bag by the door. They mentioned that the police had been interviewing a PE teacher, so I presumed it would be Max, but then he wasn’t driving, was he? And I thought they said at the police station, but I mustn’t have been listening properly. The odd thing was… Ellie, are you listening to me?’

Ellie was gazing out of the window and across the lawns. She’d heard everything she needed to, and now she understood why Max had closed the door. He’d been with
her
, and he didn’t want Ellie to know. Ignoring Leo completely she made her way slowly back to the kitchen, wondering how she was going to deal with this latest bit of information. Then she felt her phone vibrating in the pocket of her jeans. She kept it permanently on silent now.

She sat down in the corner of the kitchen, as far away from the hallway as possible. A text message. Was it
him?
The number was blocked.

Ellie stared at the screen for a full minute. She felt the pressure of tears at the back of her eyes, and had to suppress them. Her pulse was pounding, and she felt a tight band of tension gripping her forehead.

Oh God. What is happening to my life
?

Who
was
this? Who would want to send her such an evil text? How did they get her number, and what did they mean, a job? How did they know about Friday? What could anybody possibly want from her, apart from money? But it didn’t sound like that. It sounded like they wanted her to
do
something.
What
?

Ellie felt a burning anger. It had to be
him
. He was messing with her mind. He was the only person who knew where she’d been that night. He was the only one with something to gain. Why would he
do
this to her?

She felt a scream building in her chest, but a flash of movement caught her eye and she stifled her emotions. Leo had obviously followed her from the hallway and was leaning in the doorway giving her sister a puzzled look.

Quickly Ellie deleted the message and stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

‘Ellie?’ Leo said, with a baffled expression.

‘Sorry, Leo. I’m fine.’ She gave a fake laugh that wouldn’t fool anybody but she carried on, talking nineteen to the dozen and leaving no gaps for questions. ‘It’s not every day you get two policeman on the doorstep wanting to talk to your husband is it? I’m okay now. Just being silly. Let’s have a cup of tea ourselves should we? Do you want to put the kettle on, because I’m going to round up the kids and give them wet cloths - see how they like cleaning the floor!’