Sixty

Dave walked Mary away from the court, his arms about her. She was numb with shock. Ronnie had been given an 18 month prison sentence, which meant he would probably be out in a year.

As they past a pub, Mary stopped suddenly. ‘I think I could do with a large drink,’ she said.

Dave nodded gravely. This one looks seedy enough. Probably be the usual late afternoon winos. Sure you wouldn’t prefer to look for somewhere more salubrious?’

Mary shook her head emphatically. ‘I don’t care where we go. Let’s just have a drink.’

Dave was right. The pub had an air of neglect about it, and a stale smell of beer, sweat and smoke. And the few customers drinking had obviously been there most of the day and their voices were over loud.

Dave bought Mary a large brandy and Coke, himself a pint of bitter, and they found a corner well away from the noisiest customers. Mary took a large swallow of her drink, then shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe what she had been through.

‘He’ll be out in a year, Dave. What the hell am I going to do?’

Dave shrugged. ‘It was a light sentence. But then, it was a first offence. And it didn’t go down too well when they discovered you’d deliberately set him up like that.’

She slammed her glass onto the table. ‘What was I supposed to do?’

‘I know, I know. I’m just saying that they seemed a bit - how shall I put it? - a bit angry that you seemed to be taking the law into your own hands.’

‘But the police were useless, you know that.’

Dave bit his lip before speaking. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’m going to have to say this. It didn’t help, you lying like that about him threatening to kill us all. His lawyer really jumped on that.’

‘But the point is,’ Mary said, her voice rising in anger, ‘he’s quite capable of doing that. He scares me. He really does. I saw the evil smile he gave me in court, and he knew it was freaking me out. As soon as he gets out of jail it’ll be ten times worse because now he’ll want revenge. What the hell are we going to do?’

There was a long pause while Dave thought about this. He pursed his lips and his brow furrowed into a thoughtful frown.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ he announced, waiting for her to prompt him into continuing.

‘What about?’

‘I get most of my work up north. It’s where I’m from. Why don’t we disappear to somewhere in Yorkshire, the outskirts of Leeds, say. For what I can sell the house in Tunbridge Wells, we can probably get much better up there.’

‘You don’t think Ronnie’ll find us?’

‘Why should he? I mean, let’s face it, because you were still living in the same town when he came back from America, you were probably quite easy to find. But if we move away completely, how’s he going to find us? We could be anywhere in the British Isles. He’d have no way of knowing.’

Suddenly there was a spark in Mary as the gloom lifted In spite of her doubt, there was now the excitement of a fresh start, a new horizon for which to aim. She knew she had to investigate her feelings slowly, work out all the pros and cons.

‘What about my mother?’ was her first concern. ‘And it’ll be an upheaval for Simon and Thomas.’

‘It’s not as if we’re going to the ends of the earth. She can come and visit, and vice versa. And as for an upheaval for the lads, you know what kids are like: some of them love a great big change in their lives. To them it’ll be an adventure.’

Mary placed a hand on his leg and squeezed, snuggling close to him on the bench seat. ‘Oh, Dave,’ she said, ‘you’d really do that, sell the house and everything? Move away - just for me.’

He grinned at her. ‘No. Not for you. For us.’

***

‘Can I help you, sir?’ the young woman with red hair asked Ted as he slid into the seat by the desk opposite her. A pristine desk, smooth and paper free, hygienic and dust free, but characterless.

‘I wish to open an account.’

She smiled at him reassuringly. ‘Do you have an account anywhere else?’ she asked.

Ted hesitated. ‘Well, yes, I have a joint account with my wife. But now I’d like to open one of my own.’

The young woman stared at him, keeping her expression deliberately impassive, waiting for him to continue. Ted shifted in his seat and it made a creaking noise.

‘There’s nothing wrong with me having my own account is there?’

The young woman shook her head slowly and frowned. ‘Of course not. But...’

Ted leaned forward and fixed her with a desperate look. ‘But?’ he questioned.

‘Nothing wrong at all,’ she said hurriedly.

Ted felt it was time to be impressive. ‘I’d like to open an account and deposit this cheque.’

He took the folded cheque out of his pocket and pushed it across the desk towards her. It was his moment of triumph. He’d had the cheque sent to Donald’s address and they had celebrated with champagne when it arrived. Even now, two days later, he was still on a high.

He watched carefully as the young woman’s eyes widened slightly as she saw the amount, although she was doing her best not to show anything in her expression. She eased her chair away from the desk and stood up.

‘I’ll just go and see if the manager’s free. I won’t keep you a minute if you don’t mind waiting.’

Ted smiled confidently. It was amazing how such a sum of money could boost your confidence.

‘Of course not,’ he said, relaxing back into his chair. His smile widened as he began to fantasise about the life that lay in store for him. His own secret, and a very healthy, bank account. That was one in the eye for Marjorie. Except she would never know about it.