The Beachcomber (17 page)

“Whatever’s the matter with you?” Alice was at the end of her tether with Lilian’s misery. “You’ve been so bad-tempered … downright rude sometimes! Are you ill, is that it?”

All day long, Lilian had been snapping and snarling, and now with only five minutes to go before finishing for the day, she was seated at her desk, head in hands, seemingly oblivious to everything that was going on around her.

On hearing Alice’s remarks, she sat up to stare at the other young woman, her face unhappy. For a moment it seemed she might angrily rebuke Alice, but the moment was gone when Dougie walked in through the door. “All right, are you, girls?”

Delighted at having just concluded a new deal, he was full of himself. “So, who wants to kiss the man of the day?” Holding out his arms, he turned from one to the other, pretending to swoon when Alice planted a smacker on his cheek. “Well?” Leaning across her desk so he could look Lilian in the eye, he teased, “Too good to kiss an old mate, is that it?”

“Some other time, eh?” Lilian was in no mood for Dougie’s high spirits.

“Oh, dear, caught you in a bad temper, have I?” Catching Alice’s warning glance, he backed off. “Right then, I’d best get back to my desk … I’ve a few phone calls to make before I can get off home.”

As he went, he warned them, “It’s raining cats and dogs out there, so mind how you go, eh?” Alice thanked him. Lilian allowed a curt nod, and the merest of smiles.

Ten minutes later, after tying up a few loose ends, she had her coat on and was ready to leave.

“See you tomorrow,” she told Alice.

“I hope you’re in a better mood by then!” Alice muttered as the door closed behind her fretful colleague.

Giving Alice the fright of her life, the door opened again, and Lilian’s eyes sought her out; for a minute Alice thought she’d overheard her mutterings.

“Look, Alice … I’m sorry I’ve been in a foul mood all day.”

Relieved she wasn’t about to be hung, drawn and quartered after all, Alice told her not to worry, because she knew what it was like to have a bad day.

One by one the other offices emptied, until ten minutes later Alice and Dougie were the last to leave. “What’s wrong with Lilian?” Pausing in the foyer to prepare for the pouring rain, he remarked on how he’d never known her to be in such a bad mood.

Alice didn’t know for sure. “Maybe she’s not well,” she suggested. “I think she pushes herself too hard. She does
twice
the amount of work I do.” It was an odd thing. “Some days she seems tormented. It’s like she has to keep herself occupied every minute. Me … I like to go down the street to the coffee shop for my lunch. It breaks the day up, if you know what I mean. But Lilian doesn’t leave the office from the minute she comes in to the minute she goes home. She has her tea and sandwich at her desk, and if she goes to the ladies’ room, the first thing she wants to know when she gets back is whether there’ve been any calls for her.”

Dougie was beginning to understand. “And have there?”

“What?”

“Been any calls?”

Alice pondered on that. “It’s usually one or other of the architects, asking for her to go in when she gets back … or the boss sometimes calls down. Why?”

“I just wondered, that’s all.” Turning his collar up, he asked her if she needed a lift. “You’ll get soaked to the skin in this lot.” By now the rain was bouncing off the pavements, and leaving puddles in its wake.

Alice graciously declined. “Mum and Dad have got friends for dinner, so Ron’s taking me back to his place. I’m cooking us a meal.” She glanced down the road. “He should be here any minute.”

Dougie gave her a playful nudge. “Sounds to me like there’s
marriage
on the cards.”

Blushing all shades of pink, she told him shyly, “You sound like my mum!” She laughingly mimicked her: “‘You’re coming up to twenty-five, Alice my girl! It’s time you settled down with some nice young man!’ Honest to God, she goes on all the time.”

He winked. “Well?
Is
there or isn’t there?”

She shook her head, and he got the idea that the discussion was over.

“Right then. I’d best make a run for it.”

Taking his life in his hands, he bid her good night and went out into the rain. Looking this way and that, he ran across the street, splashing through puddles and trying to dodge the deluge that rained down on his back. “Bloody weather!” he grumbled, scrambling into his car. “Brilliant sunshine one minute and all hell let loose the next! It’s enough to give you pneumonia!”

Fumbling with his keys, he took a minute to open the car, during which he got soaked through to his shirt. “Brr!” Falling into the seat, he let out a long, withering sigh. “Straight into a hot bath when I get in –” he gave a little chuckle – “after I’ve had a sizeable tot of brandy to warm me up.” He began to look forward to it.

As he pulled out, he saw Lilian huddled in a doorway near the bus stop. “Hey!” Winding down the window, he called out to her, “Get in the car, I’ll take you home.”

She waved him on. “It’s all right, thanks. The bus will be along any minute now.”

He wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Come on, get in! I can take you right to your doorstep.” Flinging open the door, he urged, “Hurry up. Make a run for it!”

With the nose of his car jutting out in the road and traffic having to swerve around him, Lilian could hardly carry on arguing the point, so she pulled her coat over her head and ran for it.

Once she was safely inside, she gave him instructions to her house. He pushed the car into gear and was on his way.

“Sensible woman,” he said as he drew out onto the road. “If you’d waited for me back at the office I could have saved you getting all wet.”

“I’ll soon dry out, don’t worry.” She glanced around the interior of the car. “This is new, isn’t it?”

He grinned like a boy with a new toy. “My new Ford,” he answered proudly. “I thought you’d never notice.”

“When did you get it?”

“Picked it up this morning. I reckon I deserved it.”

Lilian’s hitherto bad mood was beginning to mellow. “Some of us can’t afford a car at all, never mind a new one.”

“Huh! You wouldn’t think so. I had a hell of a job trying to park this morning. It wasn’t so long back that I could pick and choose where I parked. Lately it seems to me like every man and his dog is buying a car … and here’s me thinking it was the privilege of the rich and famous.”

“Oh!” she teased him back. “So you’re rich and famous now, are you?”

“I can’t complain!” Like his brother Tom, he had amassed a healthy bank balance since he had returned from the war, though he wouldn’t call himself rich. “I dare say me and Tom are well off by most standards,” he admitted. “But it didn’t fall into our laps, far from it! We’ve worked hard for it.” He lapsed into silence for a time, then added, half to himself, “We’ve both paid the price, though … Instead of Tom spending more time with his kids and wife, he was always on the move. I’ve no doubt but that he regrets every second lost with them.” He shook his head. “Jesus Christ! What does money mean when compared to happiness?”

Lilian asked the same question everyone had asked at some time or another since the tragedy. “Do you think they’ll ever catch the man who ran them off the road?”

“Well, they haven’t caught him yet,” Dougie answered angrily. “If you ask me, the trail’s gone cold.” He wondered about it all. “Strange that …” He finished thoughtfully, “… Why would anybody want to kill an entire family?”

Lilian agreed, though she added, “Maybe it really
was
an accident after all – even the police thought that at one point.”

Dougie shook his head. “Tom swears he was rammed by that other car, and I for one believe him. Besides, even if it
was
an accident, they should have been able to trace the other car! Instead they’ve let him get clean away.”

Now, as he felt the anger rising in him, he changed the subject. “You never got married, did you?”

Taken by surprise at his abrupt change of direction, Lilian answered warily, “I don’t see what
that’s
got to do with anything.”

He felt the barriers go up and inwardly swore at himself for being so unfeeling. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

She took a moment, then said, “No, I never did get married.”

He was curious. “Any particular reason?”

“No.” She felt uncomfortable. “I just never met the right man, that’s all. And with the war, and everything – there weren’t that many to choose from …” Her voice trailed off.

“Well, take it from me,” he warned, “romance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” He sounded bitter about the way things had turned out; Lilian knew there was talk of a broken engagement in his past.

They were near her house now. “Turn right here and straight on, then first left, Camden Street. I’m halfway down.”

For the next few minutes they continued to chat about work, and about his latest deal. “I’ve been after that shopping-arcade job for months,” he admitted. “It’s my biggest yet.” He chuckled. “I don’t mind telling you, the boss was over the moon.”

“He would be,” Lilian remarked. “Making money is what makes him smile.”

“Ah well, if
he
makes money, so do we,” Dougie answered. “It’s what makes the world go round, or so they say.”

Following her instructions, he drew up outside a terrace of small houses. “There you go.” Lilian lived in the end one. “Safely home in one piece.”

Thanking him, Lilian apologized for her behavior earlier. “I’m sorry I wasn’t too sociable before.”

He nodded, seeming to understand. “It’s Tom, isn’t it?” He knew how she felt about him. “You expected him to be in touch. That’s it, isn’t it?”

She gave a nervous little laugh. “You know, don’t you?”

He wasn’t sure how she might take the truth, but he told her anyway. “If that means do I know you worship the ground he walks on, the answer is yes.” He studied her face for a reaction. “I knew about three weeks after you started working with him.”

Shocked that he had guessed her secret, Lilian was slow to reply. “I suppose you think badly of me, since he was a married man and all.”

“Not my business,” he answered carefully.

“I never told him, though!” She thought it was important he should know that. “I never told
anyone!
”

“Best thing,” he agreed. “You know how Tom doted on his wife and kids.”

“I know. But surely, now … with him being on his own … I mean with his wife and everything …” Realizing she had strayed onto a tricky subject without meaning to, she paused, a little nervous. “I’m sorry … I didn’t mean.” She grew angry with herself for ever having mentioned it, but now it was out in the open she voiced the question, “Why
didn’t
they ever catch the driver who ran them off the road?”

Dougie took a long, noisy breath. “God only knows they tried hard enough,” he answered. “The heavy downpour soon after managed to wash away any tire tracks. There were no witnesses, and all they had was Tom’s account of what happened. He was in no fit state to give too much of a description. The driver was wearing a hat and dark glasses, that was all he could see. The few clues they had didn’t lead anywhere.” He shook his head. “I don’t believe their theory that it might have been an accident.”

Lilian was interested. “So
you
think it was deliberate?”

“I think whoever did it must have planned it carefully, otherwise, as you say, why haven’t they been caught?”

“But why would anyone want to kill Tom’s family?”

“God knows, but you said ‘Tom’s
family
.’ If they rammed his car with the intention of sending it over the cliff, the murderer must have wanted Tom dead as well, don’t you think?”

Lilian shrugged. “Of course. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Dougie reassured her. “But you’re right. Whatever the intention, it was a terrible tragedy. Thank God Tom’s here to tell the tale, though.”

There was a long silence while they reflected on his words. “It was a terrible thing,” she agreed. “I was just wondering if Tom is feeling lonely, that’s all.” She grew braver. Unsure about whether she was saying the right thing, she suggested, “I was wondering if I should tell him how I feel.”

“Sorry. I’m not the one to advise you about that.” Dougie thought it was a tricky situation. He didn’t really want to get involved. “I’d say that was up to you.”

Now that she had gone this far, Lilian told him what was on her mind. “I was thinking of going to see him … He sent his address and everything – in case of emergencies, he said. What do you think, Dougie?”

Dougie wasn’t sure. “He sent
me
his address as well,” he remarked. “I must admit, it did cross my mind to go and see him once I’d caught up with work, but, to tell you the truth, I think he’d let us know if he needed company. He’s been through a lot. He’s pushed himself hard this past year, driven by what happened and not allowing himself to come to terms with it all. Now he’s come to his senses and decided to take the time off, maybe we should give him the space he so desperately needs.”

He had given it a good deal of thought recently. “If you
really
want my opinion, I think we should wait for him to get in touch.”