‘Yes she hit me that afternoon, gave me a right shiner.
‘What did we argue about? You’d have to ask her. Oh no, you can’t.
‘No, I don’t think it’s a joke. I think she’s a scheming little cow, that’s what. She’s disappeared somewhere with some bloke, not caring what mess she leaves behind. She’ll have found some sailor boy and be off with him on his boat.
‘No, I do not think she’s come to any harm. She’s a survivor that one.
‘Yes, I know several people heard me threaten her at Vlad’s on the poker night. I’d had a few. We all had. She’d taken a bloody great hunk of my wages, cunning little cow. It was a joke, what I said, about wanting to kill her.
‘No, I don’t make a habit of wanting to kill people – that’s why it was a joke.
‘Yes, after she hit me I went looking for her. 288
‘I didn’t go immediately, no. I needed a piss first.
‘Up at the North End, yes. Old Betty, I mean Miss Elisabeth, told me that’s where she was headed. I cycled up after her. I heard someone say later that she’d took Alison’s bike, so I guess I would have got there around ten minutes or so after her.
‘No, I don’t know the exact time because I had no bloody clue I’d need to know the time, did I.
‘No, I do not own a balaclava.
‘No, I didn’t see Beatrice Wallace or Charlotte what’s-her-name.
‘Christie? No, she didn’t go after her as far as I know. If my wife was out searching for anyone, she’d be after me, not Hannah. She didn’t find her, even if she had been looking for her. She’d have told me if she found her or if anything happened up there.
‘Why did Christie have beef with Hannah? Oh, you’ve heard about that have you? She thought me and Hannah had a fling. We didn’t.
‘Yes, I might have suggested we did at one point. But we didn’t.
‘It was just a laugh, bar talk. Teasing. Hannah didn’t mind. You can ask—
‘Can’t see that’s any of your business what happened with me and her. It had nothing to do with this. It was well in the past, all that.
‘No, Christie has never had a pink coat as far as I know; not much one for fashion, me.
‘Yes, I said something like it was a pity that bloke with the balaclava hadn’t found Hannah rather than those visitors he attacked, but I didn’t know she was really missing then, did I? It was meant as a joke. Yes, another. 289
‘Yes, I did see Hannah up there at the North End, very briefly that day. She was round the other side of the rocks, high above me. She was with someone. No, I don’t know who. I couldn’t make them out. I didn’t see exactly what they were wearing, or if their face was covered. It was only a glimpse. They had their back to me.
‘It was tipping it down by then, so I decided to get back home.
‘Yes, just like that. Changed my mind. I hadn’t got the right gear on to be out in that. I imagine anyone up there would hotfoot it down as soon as they could in that weather.
‘No, I didn’t go near her. I didn’t touch her. I don’t know what happened to her.
‘Look, I didn’t have to tell you I’d seen her, did I?’
That’s what Sam told them. None of it was a lie.
He understood why he was one of the first people they wanted to talk to.
It was bloody freezing in the community centre, where the coppers had set up shop. He was glad to be out of it when they’d finished. He wanted to go straight to the pub, but he had to finish work first. And he’d promised Christie that he’d get back early today to tell her how the interview had gone.
There was stuff Sam didn’t tell the police.
He could hardly tell them what he wanted to do to bloody Hannah. The little cow proper walloped him. She might have had his eye out when she punched him, and he was steaming. And he’d had enough of bloody women bloody hitting him, thank you very bloody much.
They asked if Hannah was with someone up there. There’d 290been a witness who’d told them they saw her arguing with someone who was wearing a pink waterproof. And sure, Christie might have had one of them pink coats. She once said that she was going to buy one. But Sam never saw it, that much is true. He could swear on the bible about that.
As far as he could tell.
Because he couldn’t see it. It’s a condition. Bang to rights, protanopia. Christie would joke it was more to do with him being blind drunk.
She’s the one who sees red. Vicious if provoked. But …
His bloody wife irritates the hell out of Sam. Nag, nag, bloody nag. But he loves her. He loves her with all his heart. The boys love her. She’s a good mother. She’d never hurt the lads. And he couldn’t risk her getting banged up and depriving them of their mum, could he?
So, just in case …
He didn’t mention the other stuff. Her nasty streak. She-Hulk, his missus. Can lash out if provoked. Apparently, he’s always provoking her.
So, he told the police she didn’t have a pink coat as far as he knew. That wasn’t a lie. It’s the least he could do.
And he could hardly tell them that he might have done something to the bloody barmaid if he’d found her first, but someone else was doing it for him by the looks of it. On the rocks high above him – Hannah and someone else fighting up there. He couldn’t see who it was. He only got a glimpse. Perhaps … it might have been Christie. Someone wearing a waterproof at any rate. But he legged it before he saw what happened. Deliberately turned away. He couldn’t make out much because of the rain anyway. Mental it was, that afternoon. He got himself out of 291there as fast as possible. He couldn’t afford to see for sure … just in case. Walked all the way round the bloody island and stood on top of Tommy’s Hill watching the storm, the sea a huge churning mirror, until his ears screamed with the wind; until he was shaking and soaked and sober. Call him a coward if you like.
No one needs to know anything about that.
It’s not that he’s frightened of his wife, not at all. He loves her. She’s a good mother.