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THANONGSAK SAT AT THE kitchen table in Black Gables with his laptop. The curtains were closed. It was dark outside. He had shut the restaurant so he could look after the house and Noonie for the night. Valérie and Phillip were still in hospital.
He had washed and dried the dirty crockery he found in the sink, given the units a wipe down – both of which would normally have been Noonie’s jobs – and put a kettle on. Now he was waiting for Noonie to wake up. He didn’t think she’d sleep through till the morning. She had Charles to see to and she wasn’t known to be remiss.
Suddenly, the laptop beeped. This was what he had been waiting for. He went straight to Edward’s Inbox.
Dear Edward,
News. Finally! Thanks to Prakong Yanphaisarn, David Blameworth’s offices were raided by the Police this morning and a warrant’s been issued for his arrest for fraud. He’s now officially a fugitive. It’s all over the papers. The bridges to the mainland are being patrolled but I think he may have crossed over some time ago. Georgina disagrees: she thinks he’s still here somewhere. The point is, he’s finished. Update you again soon. How’s Noonie?
Love, Lek.
He read this message through twice, before replying:
Dear Lek,
Excellent news, thank you. I guess that brings our little enterprise to an end. I haven’t seen Noonie for a while now. Rumour is she’s spending a lot of time with a Thai former friend of mine who runs a restaurant locally. I’m going to be concentrating on moving house for a while so I won’t be checking my Inbox very regularly. This may be my last e-mail for some time.
Give my love to Georgina.
Edward.
He clicked ‘send’ and shut down. The kettle boiled. He made a cup of green tea and took it upstairs.
Noonie blinked into consciousness. Someone was tapping on her door. It was dark. She stumbled across the floor and switched on the light.
Then she remembered Edward and the e-mails and the sleeping tablets. She groaned, did an about turn, sat on the bed, and stared at her feet.
The knock came again. She put on her dressing-gown and opened the door far enough to look out, not sufficiently to extend a welcome.
It was Thanongsak, holding a cup and saucer.
“Good sleep?” he said. “I’ve brought you this.”
“What is it?”
“Green tea.”
She stepped aside. “What are you doing here? I mean, bringing me tea? Come in.”
“There was a break-in while you were asleep.”
“Good God. Was anything stolen?”
He put the tea on her bedside table and leant against the wall. “Worse than that. Valérie and Phillip were quite badly assaulted. They’ve been taken to hospital.”
“Hospital? Have they caught the culprit?”
“Yes, they have. There’s no need to worry. He won’t be coming back.”
“Who - ?”
“Some local thug. They’re all pretty interchangeable. Mostly, it’s just graffiti, but occasionally one of them fancies something a little more adventurous. He probably wouldn’t have reacted if it hadn’t been for Phillip. You know how Phillip is, he’s just got to wade in. Anyway, they got hit with the proverbial blunt instrument, concussed for a while. Stitches, that’s all. They should be home tomorrow. I’ve been asked to look after the house.”
She remembered telling him she didn’t want to be in he same building as him. Should she apologise? She still didn’t entirely trust him. She was talking to him, that should do for the time being.
“I need to see Charles,” she said.
“He’s being looked after.”
“Is Susan with him?” She didn’t want to meet Susan, but she supposed she’d have to sometime.
“Susan’s gone.”
“Gone? Where?”
“Officially, no one knows. But my feeling is she won’t be coming back. She left her key behind, apart from anything else.”
“What time is it?”
“Half eight.”
“At night?”
“Twenty-thirty, November the twenty-eighth, two thousand and four.”
“So how long’s she been gone? Have you called the police?”
“I shouldn’t think there’s much point, to be frank. I think we all know where she’s gone.”
Noonie’s chest felt as if it had been prodded. The final confirmation, as if it were needed.
“I still can’t believe it,” she said.
“I’ve known him a long time.”
She let her mind run on until the misery became too intense. “You said Charles was being looked after.”
“Appleton’s with him.”
She sighed. Someone else she had no desire to see again. “Tell him I’ll take over.”
“I don’t think he minds.”
“I mind. It’s my job.”
“Don’t be too hard on him.”
“I’m not going to be. Now if it’s okay, I’d like you to leave the room so I can get dressed.”
He nodded perfunctorily, pushed himself off the wall and left.
When she was sure he’d gone, she pulled on a pair of black tights, a white blouse, a cardigan and a pair of slacks. She ran her comb through her hair a few times then tied it back with a hairband. She went to see to Charles.
Appleton was sitting on the far side of his bed, holding Charles’s hand. He looked up when she entered, but without the hostility that marked his first meeting with her. The room was illuminated by a table-lamp Noonie had not noticed before, making it look quite cosy for a change. The curtains were still open.
“Hello, Madame Butterfly,” he said.
She sat on the chair on the near side of Charles. “You can leave, if you like.”
“Do you want me to?”
“Not necessarily. But I did say I’d look after Charles. I’m grateful for you filling in for me, I was very tired.”
“Did mourning Edward Grant keep you up all night?”
She blushed. “Who told you about that?”
“Word gets around.”
“Did Thanongsak tell you?”
“If you like.”
She closed her eyes, and put her hands to her face. They were all determined to humiliate her, every last one of them. Her mouth felt as if it had been filled with sand. She wanted to cry.
“I’ll forget it, if you want,” Appleton said. “He is quite tasty, though. It’s a shame he’s run off with Susan ... If the rumours are true.”
“They are true.”
“Poor Madame Butterfly. She must be feeling quite unwanted.”
“She is.”
“Richard Appleton likes you, though.”
She smiled, despite herself. “Hooray for Richard Appleton.”
“That’s better, Madame Butterfly. Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stay and keep you company. I want to tell you a story.”
“About what?”
“About the first time Charles and I made love. The beauty’s in the detail, so it’s quite explicit. Are you ready?”
“Not really. But I don’t suppose that’s going to stop you.”
“It’s never stopped me before.”
Valérie and Phillip came home the following day. They spent the first two hours in conversation with Thanongsak in the living room while the rain pitter-pattered on the windows. Noonie wasn’t invited, nor did it occur to her to invite herself. At noon, the sun came out. Two policemen arrived and took formal statements behind the closed doors. They left, twenty minutes later, expressing professional sympathy and satisfaction.
Noonie spent the day feeling as if someone had reached inside her sternum and wrenched her vital organs down six inches or so. She couldn’t eat her lunchtime stew or her evening fish terrine. But she didn’t want to offend Valérie so she scraped them into the bay bush beneath her window.
She had to write to Georgina and let her know what Edward was really up to. That couldn’t wait. She wrote a long letter advising her to sever all connections with him, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave the house and post it. She charged Thanongsak with responsibility for its despatch and watched him set off for the Post Office with it.
The irony of her predicament wasn’t lost on her: just as in Thailand, she’d fallen in love with an elderly ghost – Charles pretending to be someone who didn’t exist – so in England, she had fallen in love with a young ghost. Edward pretending to be someone good, caring, sweet ...
For a whole week after she left him, she found herself at the windows and doors of the house, looking for him. Or, she realised: looking for his ghost. The hedgerows had lost their leaves and grown transparent now and the village was visible through the branches of the oaks.
Every two hours, the tightness in the upper half of her body and the weightiness in the lower went to war against each other and she had to lock herself in her room. Water poured out of her eyes and she convulsed like the victim of a tropical disease.
Five times she put on her coat and tried to leave the house. But the agoraphobia had burrowed into her constitution now and she was trapped on the threshold. Standing on the doorstep of Black Gables, unable to advance, was a sure way to provoke an attack. She would run to her room, kneel on the carpet and heave.
She knew what was causing it. She was homesick. Something instinctive in her had decided the cure was to stop her ever leaving home again. It hadn’t concerned itself with the detail of where ‘home’ was. It was where she was now.
Her only consolation was Charles. In his own way, Charles had once loved her. But Charles wasn’t time consuming enough to save her now. There were long periods when he needed no looking after at all. Moreover, her ‘chores’ – the vacuuming, dusting, the laundry, the washing-up – were usually over by early afternoon. During the periods when she was inactive, she sometimes awoke from a trance to find herself at the window looking for Edward. Then she would see arrows of birds flying south for the winter and wish she could be one of them.
She became convinced she was going to die and that she’d take her love for Edward Grant – the Edward Grant she’d created - to the grave. After three weeks, she noticed she was spending longer and longer in her room, in bed with the curtains drawn, mostly weeping. She stopped doing the housework, afraid to burst into tears in front of someone. The threshold of her possible outings shrank again. Panic set in when she approached the stairway with any intention of making a descent. She stopped eating.
Valérie and Phillip noticed things weren’t right when the dishes began to pile up in the sink, and the magazines and clothes they were accustomed to leave strewn around weren’t tidied away. She was malfunctioning, bless her. They called Appleton in to put things right.
Valérie used her master key to unlock Noonie’s room. She strode in with Appleton and opened the curtains. The rain fell against the window like individual blobs of gloom. Noonie was awake and lying in bed in her clothes. She didn’t get up. She had guessed something like this was on its way.
“Thanongsak says you’re ill,” Valérie said. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
“So why aren’t you doing your chores? And you’re not touching your food. There must be something the matter.”
“There’s nothing.”
“We both know what it is. You’re homesick.”
“I don’t think that’s everything,” Appleton said.
“Who asked you?”
“That’s what I’m here for. Diagnoses are my bag.”
“Keep out of this for a moment. Listen, girl, I’ve got good news. Thanongsak’s going to ask you to marry him. He probably hasn’t said anything to you yet, but he does love you and he’s well off. He’ll take you home, bless you with a litter of children and it’ll be as if none of this ever happened.”
Noonie said nothing.
Valérie sat down on the bed and took Noonie’s hand and caressed it. Then she put it down, as if suddenly bored. “Appleton, you have a look at her. You’re the bloody doctor.”
“I already know what’s wrong with her,” Appleton said.
“Enlighten me.”
“She’s clinically depressed.”
“She’s from the bloody Third World. How the hell can she be depressed? They don’t do depression over there.”
“She may be depressed, but she’s not deaf,” Appleton said.
“Yes, that’s right, I might hurt her feelings. And if I hurt her feelings, she might get depressed. But oh, silly me, I forgot, she’s already depressed. So no harm done. What about you, honey? Do you feel depressed?”
Noonie looked at the ceiling.
“You see to her Appleton. I’ve got work to do. But tell her she needs to get back to work sharp-ish, otherwise we’re going to have no plates to eat from.”
“You could always do the washing-up yourself,” Appleton said. “Just as a stop-gap measure.”
She ignored him and left the room. Appleton closed the door after her and came to sit next to Noonie. He took her hand. “I know what’s wrong with you.”
She emitted a puff of air.
“Two things. You were in love with Edward Grant. Too bad about that. I can’t help you there. I can help you with the second thing, though.”
“She thinks I’m her slave,” Noonie said.
He opened his briefcase. Instead of the array of medical paraphernalia she expected, there was row upon row of canned meat. “Keep this under your bed. It’ll be much better for you.”
“Than what?”
“Than what Valérie’s been giving you. Dog food for lunch, Cat food for dinner. I must say, I’d be depressed.”
The judge, an elderly man with a close-shaven beard - entered the courtroom and sat down over a wad of documents. He picked them up, tapped them lengthways and put them down without looking at them.
Apart from the accused, six administrative staff, a policeman, and George and Susan in the spectators’ gallery, the courtroom was empty. In the three weeks since Edward had been arrested, he had lost half a stone and, as far as George could tell, his desire to live. The flannel shirt and faded jeans in which he had attended both appearances hadn’t been calculated to endear him to the judge. His beard made him look ten years older.
The judge looked up. “Edward Grant, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court and it is now my duty to pass sentence. We have taken account of the fact that this is your first offence and that you have not been in trouble with the law before. We have also taken into account that, once arrested, you cooperated fully with the police and made no attempt to obstruct their inquiry. However, we cannot overlook the fact that this attack was a particularly vicious one and could have resulted in the deaths of one or other – possibly both – victims. Also, that psychologists have yet to identify a credible motive. Given the last two considerations we feel constrained to award you a custodial sentence. You will go to prison for four months.”
Edward nodded. He looked as if he wished it could have been longer. The judge rose and left the court. Edward was led away by a policeman.
Susan waited till he had left the courtroom then burst into tears. George put his arm round her and kissed her hair.
“I still think we need to find Noonie,” she said. “Noonie would want to help him, I know she would.”
“If she was that keen on helping him, I doubt she’d have hurried back to Thailand.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know.”
“Why wouldn’t she? She lived at Black Gables. Even if she didn’t see or hear anything, it’s hardly the sort of thing you can cover up. Valérie would have told her or Phillip or Thanongsak. Not that anyone would want to conceal it anyway.”
“Did she really say she thought he was ‘stalking’ her?”
“I’ve not actually spoken to her.”
“I mean, did she say that to Thanongsak?”
“Apparently. Thanongsak’s been pretty good about it, to be fair. He could have mentioned that to the police but he chose not to. It would have done for Edward. He’d have been looking at four years now, not four months.”
“She must have left Thanongsak an address in Thailand?”
“I didn’t think to ask.”
“She never told me he was ‘stalking’ her.”
“But she thought you were in love with him. Come on, she’s not going to hurt your feelings by telling you your one true love’s hot on her trail.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“And he did tell you he ‘loved’ her.”
“I suppose so. Do you think he’s a stalker?”
“Unfortunately, it fits with what I already knew.”
“What do you mean?”
George let out a stream of air through his teeth. “A while ago, he and I were invited over to Thailand for a christening. On the way, he got to talking about her. He didn’t mention her by name, he just said she was getting married to Charles. It was obvious he was fairly taken with her. Anyway, she was at the christening and he made a point of going over to see her. I couldn’t help watching the two of them out of the corner of my eye. I hate to say it, but it was obvious that she wanted to get away from him. He gave her some sort of gift. I didn’t see what it was, but I could see it made her uncomfortable. He was making her uncomfortable.”
“Poor Edward. What do you think he’ll do now? I mean, when he gets out?”
“I don’t know. I think he needs help. Too much living alone, that’s what it is. He needs to get a proper job. I hope they make him do some kind of community service while he’s in there.”
“I feel so, so sorry for him,” Susan said.
“I think we both do.”
Valérie, Thanongsak and Phillip had gathered in the living room because they wanted to be together when news of the verdict came through. Valérie clenched her fists and laid them on the armrest. Phillip paced the room looking at the carpet. Only Thanongsak looked calm. He sat with his legs crossed and a cup of tea in his hand.
“Four bloody months?” she said. “Is that all?”
“He’ll probably get remission for good behaviour,” Phillip said.
Thanongsak smiled. “I think we should remember he didn’t actually do it.”
“That’s hardly the point, is it?” Phillip said.
“In effect, it shows you made the right decision,” Thanongsak said.
“There is that consolation,” Valérie replied.
Phillip stopped pacing. “I don’t get it. Where’s the ‘consolation’? What ‘decision’?”
Valérie sighed. “The decision to help Thanongsak out.”
“And thereby help yourselves out,” Thanongsak said. “By accusing Edward, you remove the one person Susan can rely on for her safety. When she comes back here – as we all agree she’ll have to eventually – you can both administer a far more effective punishment in person.”
“And we helped you out by removing the source of your absurd jealousy over Noonie,” Valérie said. “It was clearly Susan he was after all along. What I can’t understand, Thanongsak, is this man was supposed to be your friend. I wouldn’t like to meet your enemies.”
Thanongsak looked away. “Has your Private Detective found out where Susan is yet?”
“She’s living in a women’s refuge in London. She’ll be crapping herself, as usual. I’m expecting the phone call any day, now. ‘Valérie, is it okay for me to come home now? I’m very, very sorry for what I did’. ‘Yes, baby, of course, all’s forgiven’. I’m telling you, when she walks through that door, she’ll wish she’d never been born. I’m going to take a long, long time over my revenge. That’s the wonderful thing about this house. It’s so isolated it might as well be soundproofed.”
“It’s a race against time though, isn’t it?” Phillip said. “If she doesn’t crack within four months ...”
“That’s one of the reasons I’m so annoyed,” Valérie said. “But on the whole, I’m still optimistic. Four months is a hell of a long time in Susan’s universe. Time flows more slowly when you can’t make friends.”
“What if she makes friends with one of the women in the refuge?” Phillip said.
“They’ll be far too chavvy for her. They’ll have tattoos and piercings and they’ll talk loik vat. She’s scared witless by that sort of thing. Added to which, there’ll be the random bouts of violence. The odd aggrieved husband besieging the building, that sort of thing. And finally, of course, she’s not earning any more. The Post Office has given her the boot. I found the letter, upstairs.”
“It took them long enough,” Phillip said.
“Right now, she’s probably thinking she’s jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. But I’ll give her the fire when she gets back here.”
“We may not even have four months if he gets time off for good behaviour,” Phillip said glumly.
Valérie unclenched her fists. “We’ll cross that bridge if, and when, we come to it. Meanwhile, let’s just have faith in Susan’s various deficiencies, shall we?”
She picked up a newspaper and read. Phillip sighed and left the room.
Thanongsak set his cup and saucer on the carpet, and went to the window. In all this, he was surprised by how easily one act of ruthlessness permitted another, bolder act of ruthlessness. He’d tried not to think about what he was doing. But at times like this, it was unavoidable. This man was supposed to be your friend.
Because everything depended so entirely on Noonie, he was effectively at her mercy, though she had no way of knowing it. For that reason, he even began to hate her slightly. But that was only natural. It would go if he won.
