On the Monday morning, there was no sign of Steve waking up, so Nick got his breakfast, locked up his room and went off to work.
When he came home, he found Steve sitting nursing a beer.
‘You’re starting in on the booze early, aren’t you? I thought you had no money.’
Steve stared at him owlishly. ‘I got fired today. My manager had a down on me and was just looking for an excuse. Bought this with my final pot of money.’ He gestured to a slab of beer cans. ‘I’m holding a wake. Come and join me.’
‘Shit. What did you do to get fired?’
‘Got in to work late. You should have woken me.’
‘Every time I wake you, you curse me as if I’ve done something wrong. Anyway, why should I? You’re a grown man. You should be able to get yourself up in time for work.’ He put his things in his room, had a wash and changed into casual clothes.
When he came out, again locking the door carefully behind him, he found Steve still sitting in the eating area. ‘Carla and I are going flat hunting. I won’t be back till later.’
‘Go on. Put your head in the noose. See if I care.’
Nick hesitated, shook his head in despair and left.
Carla was waiting for him at the rental agency. ‘Oh, good, you’re on time. As I said on the phone, I saw this flat advertised and made an appointment to view. It’s a bit further out than we wanted, but it’s a more reasonable rent.’
‘Well done.’
The agent was waiting for them. She looked them up and down as if she knew every stitch they were wearing. This was a dragon lady, Nick decided within two minutes. He let Carla do the talking.
‘We’re getting married, so we’re looking for a flat.’
‘Do you have references?’
‘I do,’ Carla said.
Nick said, ‘I can get a character reference from my employer, but I’ve only been in my present flat for a few weeks.’
‘Why don’t you set up house there, then? Did you get thrown out?’
‘No, I didn’t. I’ve been sharing with my brother and we don’t get on. Besides, who wants to start married life with a threesome?’
Only then did she give a little nod, as if they’d passed a test, and gestured to some chairs at a table. ‘Let me note down your particulars.’
She outlined the costs: bond money, rent in advance and insurance, then drove them out to view the flat, which had two bedrooms and was full of tired-looking furniture.
Carla checked the bed and looked in all the cupboards. ‘Well, it’s been properly cleaned, at least, but that mattress isn’t nice.’
‘You’ve just gone up in my estimation,’ the woman said.
‘My mother would kill me if I lived somewhere dirty. And I couldn’t sleep on a mattress like that.’ She shuddered.
‘The owner will remove it. He always asks tenants to buy their own mattress, which they usually take with them when they leave. The last tenant had to be thrown out, so didn’t take the mattress. And it cost a lot to clean the place up, so he didn’t get his bond back, either.’
‘Sounds like my brother,’ Nick said gloomily.
The agent looked from one to the other. ‘How about I wait in the car and you have a chat?’ She looked at her watch. ‘I can only give you ten minutes. If you don’t take this one, I have places I could show you tomorrow, but the rents are higher. There are other people waiting to view this flat, but your fiancée was very persuasive, Mr Vincent.’
When she’d gone outside, Carla looked at Nick. ‘If we have to buy a mattress, I don’t have enough money to pay my share of the set-up costs till my friend gets the bond money back from our current place.’
‘I can see to that.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘We’re getting married, aren’t we? We’re putting our whole lives into each other’s hands. The money is nothing compared to that. I have some savings. Not a lot, but enough. And my share of the furniture Mum gave us from the flat.’
She hugged him. ‘We’re going to be so happy together. Look, this is the cheapest two-bedroom place I could find in a halfway decent area.’
Nick nodded. They’d already decided they needed two bedrooms, because Carla was planning to do some more studying if she didn’t need to work in the bar at weekends, and he had some accountancy exams coming up. ‘OK. Let’s take it.’
They went out hand in hand to say they’d like to rent it.
The agent nodded but didn’t crack a smile, just took them back to the office and filled in the paperwork, before taking a deposit from Nick. ‘I’ll get the mattress taken out and you can take over from Friday. Your rent payments will date from then.’
As they walked out holding the keys, Carla gave a little skip of pleasure and Nick smiled at her joy.
‘Next step, we have to book the wedding. My boss says I can have some time off work tomorrow to do that, since you’re free then as well.’
‘And we have to tell our families about getting married.’
‘Let’s wait to do that.’
‘Not too long, Carla. I’m not doing anything underhand because I’m proud to be marrying you.’
The following morning, Nick got online early to look up what they needed to do. He’d assumed they’d just register and then get married when it suited them, but was bitterly disappointed to find they had to wait a full month and a day after registering before the ceremony could take place. It wasn’t cheap, either.
When he met Carla he found out that she’d been hunting online about regulations for getting married too.
‘I daren’t wait that long to move out,’ he said glumly. ‘Steve has just been sacked and goodness knows what he’ll do if he’s on his own in the flat all day.’
She sighed. ‘I don’t think we have much choice. It’s more complicated than I’d expected and it costs more to get married, too. Look, I’ll pay for that because you paid for the flat.’
‘Can you afford it?’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘Just. I’m pretty frugal because I’ve never had much money.’
‘About getting married, do you think we could move into that flat first and get married afterwards? I’d like to move in on Friday.’
She sighed. ‘Yes, let’s. I’m being cowardly about my parents. You need to definitely get out of there quickly.’
‘Yeah. I have a bad feeling about what Steve might get into.’
They went to the Perth Registry and filled in the forms, then arranged to have a civil ceremony at the Perth Marriage Office on the first possible day.
‘We’ll think about witnesses later,’ Carla said.
After that, they both went back to work. But she was working in the bar that evening, so he decided to get on with his studying.
He arrived home at the usual time and to his relief Steve didn’t answer when he called out from the front door that he was back. He could see why as soon as he saw his bedroom door. It had been jemmied open, causing considerable damage.
Inside his things were pulled out of drawers and scattered about the floor as if Steve had been searching for something.
Relief shuddered through Nick. He’d had all his papers and bank account details with him, and he didn’t keep a stash of money.
Then he realised that his laptop was missing.
He went into Steve’s room and found most of his brother’s things missing, too.
He didn’t know what to do but he needed that damned laptop for his studying.
In the end the only thing he could think of was to phone his father and ask his advice. He didn’t want to call the police in, but he wasn’t going to let his brother get away with this.
His father came round straight away, scowling as Nick showed him the mess and told him about the theft.
‘Unless you can think of something, I’m going to have to go to the police, Dad. I need that laptop, it’s got all sorts of stuff on it to do with my studies. Maybe they can retrieve it.’
His father walked round again, cursing under his breath, then sat down. ‘Do you have some coffee?’
‘Yes.’
‘Black, no sugar.’
‘Since when have you taken your coffee like that?’
Craig squirmed a little. ‘Since Jenny decided I was putting on weight.’
Nick didn’t let himself smile. Jenny was certainly the one in control of his father’s second marriage. She was much harder than his mother. He’d rather have a gentler wife, like Carla.
He plonked a mug of coffee in front of his father, who took a sip and then another, sighing with pleasure.
‘Where do you think your brother went?’
‘To his so-called friend’s place. I only know his first name: Nate. Steve wasn’t thinking straight, hasn’t been for a while.’ He took a deep breath. ‘There’s more, Dad. Steve’s been playing around with drugs.’
‘Oh, hell. That’s all we need. You sure you don’t know where his friend lives?’
‘Not a clue. Not far out, though.’
‘All right. Leave it with me. I know a private investigator. I’ll put him on to the case. It won’t do me any good to have a son who’s into drugs. Can you hold back on the police until then?’
‘I suppose so.’ Nick looked at the damage. ‘Who’s going to pay for the door, though? I didn’t bust it up and now that I’m getting married, I need all my money.’
His father gaped at him. ‘Getting married? That’s rather sudden, isn’t it? Is she having a baby?’
‘No, she isn’t. I’m not stupid enough to have unprotected sex.’ He told his father a few details about Carla.
In the end Craig held up his hand, grinning. ‘Stop. I get the idea. You’re madly in love and you’ve got it bad.’
‘I fell for her just about on sight.’
‘Yeah. It’s how I was with Jenny.’ He hesitated. ‘She’s been good for me. Your mother was too much into children, and I got … frustrated. I’ve kept my eye on her since, though. She’s been a good mother.’
Silence fell and Nick sat waiting.
‘My turn to get involved, I suppose. Look, I’ll sort out this door and any other mess Steve’s made for you,’ his father said suddenly. ‘Call it a wedding present. I’ll also see if I can sort out your brother. If I can’t, I’m done with him. You know what I think of drug-taking, and as a manager, I can’t afford to have connections with druggies. It’d look bad. Um … have you heard from your mother?’
‘Not for a day or two.’
‘Can you let me have her phone number, at least?’
‘I promised her I wouldn’t.’ He’d wormed the number out of Robbie on the firm promise that he’d never, under any circumstances, pass it to their father.
‘What’s wrong with the woman? Anybody would think she had something to hide.’ He stood up. ‘Get another key cut for this place and drop it in at my office. When’s the wedding?’
‘We have to wait a month and a day. We only just registered.’
‘Jenny and I will be coming to the ceremony.’
‘But Dad—’
‘You’ll need a witness and Jenny loves weddings. Besides, what does it say about the Vincent family if none of them are at your wedding?’
Nick was pretty sure this was a display of one-upmanship over his mother, who would not be able to attend. But as long as his father was dealing with Steve, that’d be OK.
When he was alone, he sat staring into space. He wasn’t seeing Carla tonight and ought to be studying, but he didn’t have his laptop. And anyway, Steve had upset him big time. He’d thought he knew his brother, thought they cared about one another, however much they quarrelled.
Now he wondered what the hell Steve had turned into and where he’d end up.
And he was desperate to get his laptop back. He had an assignment on it that was nearly finished. Good thing he had backups. But he had no computer to put them on.
He had even more reason to improve his qualifications now.
Janey loved living with Auntie Winnie. The two of them could chat for hours, because the old lady had a brilliant memory for details and Janey found descriptions of life in the recent past fascinating, especially World War II because her mother’s grandfather had fought in it and been killed at Tobruk in October 1941.
She’d never met her mother’s mother, only seen photos of a plump smiling woman. Her grandfather had talked a lot about his wife, regretting her early death and missing her till the very day he died.
Had her mother managed to salvage those treasured photos when she ran away from home or had her father destroyed them? Probably the latter, knowing him. If he had, Janey could help her, because she’d scanned all the family photos secretly while her parents were out and they were safe on the computer she’d eventually managed to get back from her father.
Dawn had again offered to find someone to tell her how to deal with the relationship between herself and her mother, but after some thought, she’d decided to deal with it in her own way, one small step at a time. As Dawn said, Janey’s life was settling down and she could afford to be generous. Her mother’s future was uncertain and she was still living in the refuge. That must be terrible.
Winifred came into the kitchen as Janey was debating whether to phone her mother.
‘Is something wrong, dear? You’re looking worried.’
‘I’m trying to gather the courage to phone my mother.’ They’d already discussed the situation.
‘Only you can decide whether you’re ready or not. You know you can invite her to visit you here.’
‘I know. But how would she get here? She doesn’t have a car and she probably doesn’t have much money, either, and she’ll be worried about being seen. I don’t even know where the refuge is.’
‘An invitation to tea would please her, even if she couldn’t come. It must be dreadful not to have met your own grandchild.’ She cast a fond glance in Millie’s direction.
‘I’ll think about it a while longer. I have some tests coming up at tech, so I need to concentrate on those for the moment.’
But she was making excuses, Janey admitted to herself later, anything to delay phoning her mother.
Who knew where getting together again would lead? Or not lead? Which might be worse.
The next day when she was walking home from tech, Janey began to feel uneasy, as if someone was staring at her. She stopped, pretending to adjust Millie’s clothing and sneaking a glance or two round, but couldn’t see anyone obvious.
She stopped again just before she turned into Peppercorn Street, but couldn’t see anything. There was no one in the cars parked along the street, and other vehicles driving past didn’t reappear. So she turned into the street.
The feeling of being followed grew so strong she didn’t dare continue up the hill to her new home, because there was no one about. She hesitated, then turned into the car park of the building where she had lived before and rang her landlord’s doorbell. She thought Kieran and Nicole were back from their honeymoon but wasn’t sure.
It was Nicole’s son Paul who answered.
‘Is Kieran around?’
‘They’re not back yet, won’t be till the weekend. There’s just me at the moment.’
‘Oh. Well I won’t bother you, then.’ But she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder.
‘You look worried about something. Can I help?’
She hesitated, then explained the feeling she had.
‘Why don’t you come inside for a few moments? We can keep an eye on the street from the living room.’
She glanced at her watch. ‘I need to get home so that I can put stuff in the freezer, not to mention feeding her little ladyship.’
‘Well, how about I follow you and see if I can spot anyone?’
‘I couldn’t ask you to do that.’
‘You didn’t ask; I suggested it. Do you have any idea who it might be?’
‘The only person I can think of is my father, only he has a court order saying not to come near me.’
Paul’s expression was suddenly very sympathetic. ‘Hard luck, isn’t it, having a dodgy relative?’
He’d understand better than anyone because of his brother. ‘Well … if you don’t mind, perhaps you could follow me. But don’t take any chances. My father can get violent. If you come to my house, I’ll reward you with a piece of Auntie Winnie’s cake. She makes the best cakes in town.’
‘You’re on. You’re at number 5 now, aren’t you?’
‘Yes.’ She set off again, and sure enough, she had a prickling sensation in her neck as soon as she turned onto the street again. That was so strange. How could you sense you were being followed? It was more than that: she felt threatened, as if whoever was following her didn’t mean well, she really did.
She was sure it wasn’t her imagination. Could her father really be coming after her again? Oh, she prayed not! He was so big and violent, and apart from being afraid for herself, she didn’t want to draw the attention of a man like him to Auntie Winnie’s house. Did he know exactly where she’d moved to? She hoped not.
If she had any sort of proof that he was following her, she’d report him to the police straight away.
She walked on up the street, moving slowly, as Paul had suggested, pushing the buggy, which held not only her daughter but some shopping.
When she got near the house, she slowed down, and since she still felt uneasy, she decided to turn down the narrow pedestrian passageway beside it. That led to the next street but she was able to stop where the path curved and look back at Peppercorn Street through the foliage of a bush that was about to come into flower.
She could see most of the turning circle at the top of the street and recognised the cars that were parked there. A woman she knew by sight passed the end of the passage. She’d be going into the house two doors away.
Was it safe to go back home or not?
Then Janey heard a car start up further down the street and she leant forward a little, keeping the buggy behind her. But she couldn’t see anything and once it had driven away everything was silent again, except for the noise of distant traffic.
Millie made a fretful noise.
Janey knew she couldn’t stay here all day: she had a baby to feed, but she still waited a few minutes before going back to the street. She stopped at the end of the path to stare round. There were only a few cars and commercial vehicles parked nearby at this time of day and none of them had people sitting in them. What’s more, she no longer had that uneasy feeling.
Could you really tell if someone was following you and wanting to do you harm? Or was she imagining things?
Sighing, she went into the house.
She didn’t say anything to Auntie Winnie about being followed, but started putting the shopping away, expecting Paul to knock on the door at any moment. Only he didn’t.
Had he gone back home? Was he still following someone? She should have given him her mobile phone number.
It was nearly half an hour before the doorbell rang. ‘I’ll get that,’ she called.
The minute she looked at Paul’s face, she knew he’d seen something. ‘Come in.’
She introduced him to Auntie Winnie, who produced the current cake and then winked at Janey and said she was going out to sit out in the garden, since it was such a lovely sunny evening.
The minute the old lady had left them alone, Paul said, ‘There did seem to be someone following you. In a pale-blue van. What kind of car does your father have?’
‘Not a van, an old red Ford.’
‘There were two men inside this one. Do you have a photo of your father?’
‘Yes. It’ll take me a minute to find it, though. It’s not something I keep on show. I’d have thrown it away but my granddad is in the photo too.’
‘You go and look for it. I’ll keep an eye on Miss Millie here.’
When Janey came back with the photo, she held it out to him and pointed out her father, standing with his belly hanging over his trousers as usual and his face unsmiling. Ugh, he was such an ugly man, as well as cruel.
How could she and her lovely Millie be descended from him? She hated the thought.
She couldn’t imagine what her meek little mother could have done to make him violent towards his wife. And if he had been, he’d thumped her mother when Janey wasn’t around. She knew from her own experience there was nothing you could do to stop him once he started to hit you or threaten you.
Something inside Janey eased at that realisation about her mother’s situation. She had, she decided, been looking at the situation with a hurt child’s eyes. Now, she too had experienced abuse and she could, she hoped, be more understanding. She looked at her companion. Had he seen her father or not?
Paul studied the photo, frowning. ‘Your father could have been one of the men in the car, but I couldn’t see them well enough to be certain. They kept the sun visors lowered and they were wearing baseball caps with the peaks pulled down. It’s a definite possibility, though. The smaller guy took his cap off once to wipe his forehead so I saw him more clearly. He was a big man, bald with a little fringe of straggly grey hair and spectacles.’
‘That could be my father’s cousin. Only I don’t have a photo of him.’
‘The reason I was late was that they stopped down the street outside our block of flats and didn’t move on for ages. I stayed further up the street watching them. I think they must have been waiting for you to come back. Perhaps they don’t know you’ve moved. I certainly won’t tell anyone where you live.’
Her stomach lurched as this information sank in. Surely it wasn’t going to start all over again? Surely her father wasn’t going to stalk her as his friend once had?
‘I got the number on their licence plate and took a photo of the car, but I didn’t dare get close enough to take a good photo of the men inside it, unfortunately.’
‘I wouldn’t have wanted you to risk anything. Thank you for helping me today.’ She cut him a big slice of cake. ‘Shall I make you some coffee? How do you like it?’
‘White, no sugar, please. Why don’t you phone me when you next start walking up the street? If I’m at home, I can let you into the flats and you can go out through the backyard and up the next street. So they’ll still think you live there. I might even be able to get a photo of them, if it’s the same two guys.’
‘I can’t ask you to do that.’
Paul grinned at her. ‘Again, you didn’t ask; I offered. I think Kieran and Mum will be happy to help you too, once they get back. You won’t mind if I tell them?’
He chewed his lip for a moment, then added, ‘I do understand what it’s like, Janey. We had trouble with my brother and he kept following my mother. He damaged the house and her car, and attacked other people too. He was on massive doses of steroids because he wanted big muscles, but the drugs made him go strange in the head as well as giving him bigger muscles. In the end he burned our house down and he’s in a psychiatric hospital now.’
‘I knew about that vaguely, but I was too wrapped up in my own troubles at the time to take in details of anyone else’s problems.’
‘And now your troubles have come back again.’ His voice was warmly sympathetic. ‘It’s not fair, is it?’
‘Or I could be mistaken.’
‘Unfortunately I do think they were looking for you.’
She sighed, then changed the subject and they chatted for a while. Though Paul was a little younger than her, he seemed very mature for his age and he was easy to talk to. When he invited her to come down for a coffee one evening, she was tempted to say yes.
‘I’d have liked to, but I have Millie to look after and … well, I don’t like going out on my own at night. You could come round here again, though. I have my own sitting room. I don’t have many friends nearby.’
‘I don’t, either. And some of the people from school stay clear of me since my brother was locked away. I’m not at all like him, but how do you prove it?’
‘You just keep going as best you can.’
He smiled sympathetically. ‘Like you did with Millie?’
‘Yes. As I said before, one step at a time.’
When he left, she stood at the door for a few moments, enjoying the evening sunlight on her face, then took Millie out into the back garden. She didn’t know what she’d do without this buggy. It was so manoeuvrable. It was quite old and a bit battered, but she was hoping it would last through her daughter’s toddler years.
She parked it on the garden path and sat on the grass next to Auntie Winnie for a few minutes, discussing the garden-sharing project, a sure way of bringing a smile to the old lady’s face.
‘Dan phoned while you were out, Janey. He’s booked a room at the senior citizens’ centre for a meeting and put up notices. And the local newspaper ran a story on it. I’m going to take a taxi to the meeting and talk to the people who turn up wanting to share, see if I like them.’
‘It’s such a good idea. And just think: you’ll get a share of whatever they grow. Didn’t Dawn say you’d get a quarter?’
‘She did. And our family gardener used to say we had good soil. But we will use the vegetables, you and I, not just me.’ She looked round at the untidy bushes and weed-filled garden beds. ‘I must say, I’d be very glad to have this place tidied up. It’s far too big for me, or for anyone in these busy modern times.’
‘All the houses at this end of the street have bigger than average gardens, especially Mr Denning’s.’
‘Angus has about two acres, I think. He’s let most of it get overgrown. His family used to have a full-time gardener when old Mr Jordan was there. Strange how the house has come back to a Denning, isn’t it? They were the first family to live there.’
‘It must be lovely to know about your ancestors. My parents wouldn’t ever talk about theirs.’
‘And when Mr Jordan’s niece inherited Dennings, she had part-time help with the garden. The other side of the house always looked truly beautiful, with a fountain and statuary.’
‘You can’t see it from the road. I’ve walked past the perimeter wall a few times with this young lady and wondered what was on the other side of the wall.’
‘I’ll ask Angus if I can take you round the garden one day, if you like.’
‘I can’t poke my nose in like that!’
Winifred gave her a smug smile. ‘One of the benefits of being very old is that you can do all sorts of things you’d not have dared to before. I’ll ask him, of course, but I’m sure he won’t mind.’ She studied the bare earth area where the summer house had stood. ‘The man Dan found me did a good job of clearing up the mess, didn’t he?’
‘Yes. You must miss the summer house.’
‘I do. It had fond memories for me. But I’ve still got the memories, haven’t I?’ She tapped her forehead, then sighed. ‘I do hope whoever it was won’t try anything else nasty. I’m not going to sell this house, whatever they offer me. I want to stay here till I die.’
Janey shivered. ‘Don’t talk about dying.’
Winifred patted her hand. ‘It’s part of the cycle of life, dear. No one can avoid it, but your generation tries to pretend it doesn’t exist. When I die, which I hope won’t be for years, you must accept that this happens to everyone. I’ve already lived longer than my parents did, so I haven’t done badly in the lottery of life, have I?’
Janey gave the old lady a hug. ‘Don’t die yet! I’ve only just found you. Now, I must get tea started. I hope you like my cooking.’
‘My turn tomorrow. I enjoy cooking and it’s wonderful to look forward to sharing a meal. What with you, and my friends Hazel and Dan, I’m never short of company for long these days.’
Cooking and eating tea was something to look forward to? Janey shook her head as she took Millie back into the house. How many years had poor Auntie Winnie been so achingly lonely? She’d had a few months of that herself and had missed having people to talk to. Even her mother had sometimes chatted when her father was out.
When she went into the house Janey saw something white on the hall floor. Someone must have pushed an envelope through the door. She picked it up and saw that it was addressed to ‘Miss Parfitt’. She put it on the kitchen table.
When Auntie Winnie came in, she opened the envelope and sighed. ‘They won’t let up.’
‘Who won’t?’
‘These people who want to buy my house. Look. It’s from an estate agency.’
Janey took the letter and read it. ‘It doesn’t look like a mass mailing. It’s addressed to you specifically and it mentions “other letters” and “sorry to hear you’ve been targeted by vandals, hope this doesn’t go on”. I think we should keep it. Perhaps show it to the police.’
Winifred took it from her and read it again. ‘There’s nothing one could object to.’
‘No. But how do these people know what you’re doing? It won’t hurt to show it to the police, will it?’
‘If you think it best.’
‘I do. We can’t be too careful after the scares you’ve had.’
Winifred looked at her in dismay. ‘Do you think they’ll come back and do something else?’
‘I don’t know. But we may as well take precautions.’
‘I suppose so.’
Unfortunately the letter, innocuous as it seemed, had worried the old lady and it was a while before Janey managed to cheer her up.