Beezer was buried in the family plot beside his mum and dad and his little brother Colin. It was the send-off Harlan had promised it would be. There were flowers and cars and lots of hymns, everything that Beezer could have wished for. Charlie made absolutely sure that the thing was done right.
Then when the ceremony was over and Beezer was laid to rest, they all went back to Charlie’s place.
Nula managed – at last – to get Terry alone.
‘Terry!’ She grabbed his arm as he passed by. Couldn’t deny, silly old mare that she was, that just touching him still had the power to excite her. He looked at her hand on his arm and his expression made her let go, quickly. ‘I need to talk to you. In private.’
Nula could see Jill, with a right face on her, watching them from across the room.
‘About what?’ he asked.
‘Not here.’
‘Oh for fuck’s—’
‘Look,’ said Nula sharply. ‘I’m not arsing around here, Terry. This is serious.’
He let out a sharp sigh. ‘All right then. Where?’
‘Meet me out by the buggy in ten minutes.’
‘This had better not be—’
‘It isn’t,’ said Nula, walking away.
Ten minutes later, they were there by the buggy that ferried Charlie down and back beyond the orchard, to the reptile house or the helipad.
‘Christ, I hate that bloody thing,’ said Nula, letting out a jittery gust of cigarette smoke and nodding to where the rotor blades of Charlie’s latest toy sat still and silent. ‘He keeps saying, come up with me, you’ll enjoy it. Like fuck I would.’
‘What’s this about, Nula?’ asked Terry, sounding irritable and tired. His old friend had died; he was gutted and now Nula could see him thinking that here she was again, this pathetic crazy old bitch, giving him the glad eye.
Nula took another deep drag of nicotine. She’d taken up smoking about a year ago, when the worry of her life had felt like too much. She drank a bit, too. Much more stress and she’d be sampling Charlie’s product, and then it would be non-stop down the highway to hell.
‘I know what you think of me, the lot of you,’ she said. ‘Mad old Nula, always back and forth to the nuthouse. But I’m not a fool. I can see trouble when it’s right under my nose.’
‘What trouble?’ asked Terry.
‘Harlan.’
‘What about him?’
‘He’s going to nudge Charlie out of the way, someday soon. I can see it. Can’t you?’
Terry was silent for a long while. ‘What have you heard?’ he said at last.
‘Nothing. I’ve seen plenty though. The people he’s surrounding himself with. Things that have happened. Things like Beezer deciding to top himself and Harlan there as the only witness.’
Terry frowned at her.
‘Charlie won’t listen to anything I say about Harlan. But nothing’s ever added up about him, nothing. Not from the very first moment he came into our home. And that’s not me, being crazy. That’s a fact.’ Nula threw the stub of her cigarette to the ground and shakily crushed it with her shoe. ‘Look,’ she said.
Over by the house wall, Nipper was lounging in the sunlight, smoking. He’d been watching them. As Terry’s head swung round toward him, he looked away.
‘Him and the other one, Ludo, they’re always hanging about, watching everyone. They’re Harlan’s men, one hundred per cent. Not Charlie’s. Pretty soon, the manor and everything in it is going to belong to Harlan. You can count on it. And when that day comes, where does that leave me? In the crap, that’s where. He hates me, he always has. Tried to fucking kill me once, I know he did, but he didn’t succeed. And you, as Charlie’s friend, as his right hand? You’re surplus to requirements, mate, that’s what you are.’
‘Go on,’ said Terry.
Nula shrugged. ‘Nothing else to say. Only, if I were you, I’d be getting Belle right out of his way. Abroad somewhere maybe. Because once Harlan’s in charge, her arse is fried. He’s always had a thing for her, and once the brakes are off, he’ll do whatever the fuck he likes with her.’
A muscle was working in Terry’s jaw. ‘He wouldn’t fucking dare,’ he said.
‘You don’t think so?’ Nula gave a thin smile. ‘You’re kidding yourself,’ she said, and walked unsteadily away. Then she turned and strode back to him. ‘It’s our twentieth wedding anniversary in a month.’
‘So?’ It was his and Jill’s twentieth too, just gone; they hadn’t made a fuss over it. He’d bought her some flowers, that was all. Charlie of course would be different. There had been talk for a long while about a big celebration for the event. But now Beezer had upped and died, maybe no one would be in the mood.
Nula shrugged. ‘I’m going ahead with it. Right here. A big party.’
‘You sure?’
‘I’m thinking that it’s what everyone needs after this. And it’s a month away. That’s time enough for it to look decent. I asked Charlie about it before the funeral.’
Terry stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and looked at the ground, then at her. ‘Maybe you’re right. Maybe we could all do with cheering up.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ said Nula. She paused, staring at his face. ‘I meant it, Terry. Every word.’ Then she grinned. ‘Wise words from mad old Nula!’ Then her grin vanished and her eyes skewered him. ‘I got something to ask you. And Terry – I want the truth.’
‘Go on,’ he said cautiously.
‘Where did the pair of you really get him from?’
Terry was staring at her face. ‘What?’
‘Harlan. Once I tried to contact the woman who brought him here from the adoption agency all those years ago. I couldn’t. It all stank, you know? No one in the office knew of her. People who’d been there, like forever. Nobody had ever heard of a Mrs Bushell.’
‘Nula . . .’ Terry half-turned away, eyes downcast.
Nula grabbed hold of his arm. ‘Look,’ she said fiercely, her eyes blazing into his. ‘All this has nearly driven me bollock-mad crazy. You know it has. Don’t you think I deserve the truth now? After all I’ve been through?’
Terry was visibly wavering. ‘Look . . .’ he started, then stopped.
‘What?’ Nula’s heart was pounding in her chest. Was she finally – at last – going to hear the truth from someone about that cuckoo that Charlie had thrust into their nest?
Terry’s eyes met hers. ‘I do think you’ve had a raw deal. I agree with you on that. But if any of this ever gets back to Charlie, I’ll deny it and I’ll say you’re mad too.’
Nula was nodding. ‘All right. OK. Whatever you tell me, it’ll stay between us. I promise you that.’
‘She was a junkie,’ said Terry.
‘What?’
‘Harlan’s mum. We were in town, Charlie and me, and we went into this squat, and there she was, dead on the kitchen floor.’
He paused, hands in pockets, frowning heavily.
‘Go on, for God’s sake,’ said Nula breathlessly. She couldn’t believe it and yet she did. All these years, and here it was, confirmed. Charlie had lied to her. And Terry had colluded with him over it.
‘We found the kid in a cupboard under the stairs, hiding away. God knows what he’d had to live with, what he’d seen and been through, with that skank for a mother.’
‘Oh Christ.’ Nula had to lean against the buggy; she felt dizzy all of a sudden. Shocked to her core.
‘But Charlie straight away saw it as an opportunity. Well, you know Charlie.’
Nula was silent. Apparently, she didn’t know Charlie at all. Her husband of nearly twenty years had deceived her in more ways than one. He’d not only fucked Terry’s missus behind her back – raped her, for God’s sake – he’d also foisted some dirty tramp’s bastard onto her. When she had thought she was getting a normal child.
Terry went on: ‘Charlie knew how much you wanted another kid. That you were gutted by the fact that you couldn’t do it. And Charlie?’ Terry gave a smile that was almost sad. ‘Charlie’s an empire builder at heart. He wanted a son. Someone to pass it all on to. And there was Harlan. Charlie saw the kid as a gift, a solution to a big problem. But he knew you wouldn’t go for the true story. That you’d hate the very idea of it. So he . . .’
‘So he lied,’ finished Nula, her mouth dry, her mind in a spin. She’d been right. All this time, all the times Charlie had said to her, You’re crazy, what’s the matter with you? All the time, she’d been right.
‘He was shielding you from the truth,’ corrected Terry. ‘He got one of our girls to pretend to be from the adoption agency. That’s why when you contacted them they’d never heard of her. She’d never been there. It was all a lie.’ Terry turned and looked her straight in the eye. ‘So now you know.’
Nula’s face was twisted in anguish. To think that Charlie had brought that thing into their home. Harlan had tormented her, tried to kill her. Nearly caused her to lose her mind. And Jake. Oh Christ – Jake!
‘The woman. The mother. What was her name?’
‘I’ve no idea. I never felt comfortable with any of this, Nula. I’m fucking sorry.’
Nula didn’t say another word. She turned and walked away, back up to the house.