I’d lain awake for a long time straining to hear any unearthly sounds from anywhere in the house. Eventually I had fallen asleep around three in the morning and consequently slept right through my alarm.
It was only the sound of Steve clumping around outside on the scaffolding that finally woke me. I lay still for a moment trying to work out why my room was so bright and why I could hear the birds so clearly. Then a quick glance at my watch told me I should have been at work almost thirty minutes earlier.
My mobile was still in the kitchen where I’d abandoned it in my panic. I stumbled downstairs and into the kitchen. Of course it looked perfectly normal. No spooky mist, no weird noises, no smell of lavender.
I found my phone and called in sick. There was no way I could cope with Nasreen and the bank today.
“I thought you had work today. Are you okay?” Steve ambled into the kitchen carrying his tool bucket.
“I had a rough night so I called in sick.”
He tilted his head to one side and peered at me. “You do look a bit ropey.”
“Gee, thanks.” I was pretty sure I looked as rubbishy as I felt.
“I was going to start work in the bathroom, do you want me to wait a while?”
“About thirty minutes would be good.” He didn’t look so great himself. Dark smudges lay under his eyes as if he hadn’t had that much sleep either. “Do you want a cup of tea?”
“No thanks.” I didn’t think my stomach would cope with it yet. I needed more time to come round.
Our conversation felt like hard work. I started to pull the washing from the machine to peg out later conscious of Steve watching me from across the kitchen table.
“You look tired this morning too, Nas said you had a gig.” It was out, I’d said it. I pretended to be interested in untangling my jeans from my tee shirts.
“Not really. I helped someone out, that’s all.”
He didn’t look at me as he tossed the bag of pegs into the basket.
“I wondered if you were thinking of going back into the music biz.” What was wrong with me this morning? It must be the bad night and lack of caffeine that was making me blurt out all this stuff.
“No, I’m not. It was a favour for a friend, that’s all.” Steve’s dark brown eyes locked with mine and I wished I could read his thoughts.
“I’ll go and get changed. I’ll be out of the bathroom in fifteen mins.” I left the washing on the table and scuttled off upstairs cursing my cowardice for not asking him if Chloe had been the friend in question.
I quickly washed and dressed before returning downstairs to hang out the clothes on the line in the orchard at the side of the house. The air was already warm and from the lack of clouds it appeared as if it was set for a nice summer day. The peaceful normality of the garden made the contrast even greater between the sunny morning and the mystery mist of the night before.
I finished pegging out the washing and rounded the corner of the house near the walnut tree. Steve, his mobile pressed to his ear, was pacing up and down across the stone flags. He paused with his back towards me, oblivious to my presence. I hesitated, not wanting to intrude in case it was a private call.
“I don’t know what else to do, it never seems to be the right time or I can’t find the right words.”
The scrap of his conversation floated towards me. I turned ready to step away not wanting to hear anymore in case he was talking to her.
“You know what Kate is like.”
The mention of my name stopped me in my tracks even though I knew that eavesdroppers never heard anything good about themselves. Who he was talking to and why he was discussing me?
“Okay, after this wacky séance thing here on Saturday night is over with. I’ll try and talk to her then, I promise.”
He moved further away and I didn’t catch any more of the conversation. I hurried round the corner out of sight, my face burning with embarrassment.
Presumably the wacky séance thing I’d heard him mention was Brian and Beaner’s paranormal investigation at the cottage. Whatever Steve planned to talk to me about, it sounded as if he were bracing himself to say something which he didn’t think I would want to hear.
Steve has always said I’m an ostrich. I never want to hear bad news of any kind, so I’d rather stick my head in the sand and ignore it. I suppose that’s why I hadn’t realised my relationship with him had run into trouble.
I leaned against the side of the cottage, a tight hard lump settling like a lead weight inside my chest. I still loved Steve. My breath whooshed out of me as the implications of what that meant sank in. Ever since he’d moved out of the cottage and into the caravan I’d missed him. I’d kidded myself that it was for the best and that I could move on. Instead I realised that what I most wanted was for him to move back.
Since he’d moved to live in the caravan it was dawning on me more and more that this was it. We were over and there was no way back.
I don’t know how long I stayed there, the warm morning sunshine drying the tears that trickled slowly down my face rolling off my cheeks onto my tee shirt.
Eventually the sound of Steve singing while he worked in the bathroom bought me to my senses and I realised I needed to get away.
Within a few minutes I’d collected my handbag and car keys and was on my way out of town. I hadn’t given any thought as to where I intended to go. I’d simply jumped in the car and set off, as if on automatic pilot. It wasn’t until I found myself at a familiar looking crossroads that I realised I’d taken the road that led past the barn conversion. My barn conversion, the one that was supposed to have been mine and Steve’s forever house.
I pulled into a lay-by overlooking the field where the barn stood and gazed out across the emerald grass. A child’s red swing now stood in the garden and I could see where the new owners had planted a row of saplings presumably to give privacy as they grew and to stop nosey parkers like me from gawping into their garden. Washing hung from a rotary line, drying in the sunshine and all around me I could hear birdsong and the occasional, distant moo of a cow.
While I watched, a woman stepped out of the back door with a washing basket under her arm. She dropped it down on the grass and began to take down her dry clothes from the line. A surge of resentment rolled through me, burning me with white hot anger. She was living my life, in my house. Even though I knew I was being irrational and unreasonable, I couldn’t stop how I felt.
The buzz of my mobile sounded from the depth of my handbag. I took one last glance at the barn and retrieved my phone to take the call.
“Hello Kate, I’m sorry to disturb you while you’re at work, but I’m getting rather worried about Chuck.” Mum’s voice sounded wobbly as if she were trying not to cry.
“It’s okay, I’m off today. What’s happened?” All sorts of things flashed through my mind. The business with the house, the cheque Mum had given him, and his mysterious trip to London.
“I think something may have happened to him.” Mum’s voice broke on a sob.
“What, you mean he’s ill or had an accident? Where is he?” I was confused.
“Oh Kate, I don’t know. I had this strange phone call from him last night and then this morning his mobile is dead and I don’t know where he is or if he’s all right.”
I could barely make out what she was saying through the tears.
“Listen, don’t worry. I’ll be with you in about ten minutes. We can work out what to do then.” I ended the call and turned my car around.
It was a miracle that I made to Mum’s without collecting a speeding ticket. All the way there my imagination worked overtime trying to figure out what had happened to Chuck. Had he done a runner?
Mum was on the doorstep waiting for me as I pulled up. Her face was pink and blotchy with tears.
“Oh Mum.” I gave her a hug and we went inside. For once there was no music playing as she sat down beside me on the sofa.
“Tell me what’s happened.”
Her hands trembled as she picked at a crumpled and soggy tissue. “I told you Chuck had to go to London. He had to visit the embassy to sort out something about a visa and then he planned to meet one of his old business partners and sort his banking out.” She paused to blow her nose.
“And?” I waited for her to continue with her story.
“I called him last night on his mobile. He’d planned to be home today but he said something had cropped up and he needed to go back to the bank again. He sounded so strange, as if he couldn’t wait for me to get off the line, not at all like my Chuck. I called him this morning and his phone kept going through to voice mail and now it’s completely dead.”
“Do you know where he was staying? Perhaps it’s simply some problem with the mobile?”
“Yes, I called the hotel where he’d said he was staying and they said they hadn’t any guest with that name. That’s why I think something must have happened.”
She clutched at my hand.
“Mum, I’m sure Chuck is fine. Perhaps he’ll call you when he gets his phone sorted. Maybe you mistook the name of the hotel or there may be more than one hotel with that name.” I didn’t know what else to say to her. I didn’t want her to panic and maybe, just maybe I might be wrong.
My head whirled with all the possibilities. If Chuck was a con man and he’d vanished with the money Mum had given him then we would have to try to get the bank to stop the cheque and call the police to find out what our options were.
“You could be right.” Mum’s expression brightened. “Or maybe the desk clerk was mistaken. I’m probably being silly. He could be on his way back here right now.
It’s a good thing you’re such a sensible girl, Kate.”
I managed a weak smile. I knew if I was to get information from her that it was important that she didn’t panic.
“By the way did Chuck give you the receipt for the deposit on the house before he left?” I tried to sound casual.
Mum looked puzzled. “No, dear, I think with Lou’s scan and everything we forgot about it. Why?”
“Oh, no reason, it’s just that the house you liked seemed so nice I searched on the net to see if they had any interesting properties that Steve and I could look at as our next project. I saw a couple and rang the agents. We got chatting about your house. The agent seemed to think it was still for sale and I wondered if there had been a mix up with the deposit.” I had my fingers crossed behind my back.
She gave me one of the piercing looks she’d always used when Lou and I were small and had been up to no good. “I knew it. I told Chuck that you wouldn’t be able to resist checking the agents and the house out.”
I wondered if that was when he’d decided he needed to leave town on urgent business.
“Oh, what did he say?”
“Well, you know what men are like. He was a bit grumpy at first but then as I told him with you being in the property business he should have expected it.”
“Who did you make the cheque out to for the house deposit? Was it a bank or something?”
She rolled her eyes as if I were being particularly trying. It didn’t appear to have hit her yet that Chuck might have taken her money and run.
“I made one cheque out to Chuck so he could pay it into his account when it got sorted out. That would reimburse him for my portion of the deposit. I drew the rest out in cash lump sums and gave him that as my share while we were away. It was so difficult you see with Chuck’s money being tied up in America.”
My stomach rolled and I began to feel sick. “How much money exactly have you given Chuck?”
She stared at me for a moment as the full impact of all my questions began to sink in.
“Oh God…” She let out a moan and bent forward to rest her forehead on her knees, her hands placed on her temples.
“Mum.” I leaned over to try to take hold of her hands, alarmed by her reaction.
I barely registered the shrill buzz of the doorbell.
“Oh, Kate, I’ve been so stupid, haven’t I?”
The doorbell sounded again as I tried to comfort her. I tried to ignore it as I pressed a tissue into her trembling hand.
“Get the door, Kate. It might be someone important.”
I wasn’t sure who someone important might be. It was something Mum had always said when Lou and I were living at home, ‘get the phone, it might be someone important. Get the door it might be someone important.’ We’d often teased that she’d probably faint if we ever answered and someone important had been stood there, like the Queen or Donny Osmond.
It was Steve, not Donny leaning on the door jamb with his thumb pressed on the doorbell. My heart lifted.
“Is everything okay? I came as soon as I read Claire’s text.” His brow creased into anxious lines as he studied my face.
“You’d better come in. It looks as if we were right to be concerned about Chuck.”
My mother seemed to have aged ten years while I had been opening the door.
Suddenly her slender frame appeared shrunken and I noticed silver threads in her curly dark blonde hair.
Once Steve was in the picture things moved quite quickly. I contacted Jo at the bank while Steve called the police. Mum remained adamant that we weren’t to call Lou because of the baby. I knew my sister would be majorly annoyed but Mum was determined.
The rest of the day slid by in a kind of blur. Steve and I eventually left Mum late in the afternoon once she’d been interviewed by the police, given information to the bank, spoken to the estate agent in Devon and done a million and one other things.
I wanted to call one of her friends to stay with her or for her to come back to the cottage but she insisted she wanted to be by herself.
“Are you going to call Lou?” Steve accompanied me out to my car.
“I’ll ring her later.” My headache from the morning had returned and my limbs were so heavy with fatigue I could hardly walk.
“You look exhausted.” Steve touched my shoulder lightly with his hand.
My lower lip started to tremble at the concern showing in his eyes. “It’s been the most awful, horrible day.”
He took the keys from my hand. “Jump in the passenger seat, I’ll drive you home. I can come back for my truck later.”
I opened my mouth to protest but instead I found myself obediently clambering into the car and buckling my seatbelt.
“Claire is a tough cookie. She raised you and Lou on her own, remember.
She’ll bounce back.”
I wished I was as confident. “That creep has taken all of her savings. That money was supposed to give her a nice retirement. Time for her to enjoy herself a little bit. She worked hard for that money.” A tear rolled down my cheek and I dashed it away with the back of my hand. Right now I felt more angry than sad.
We stopped at a red light and Steve reached over to squeeze my hand. “Jo is trying to see if there is some way of recovering the money. The fraud squad are looking at tracking Chuck down through the bank system and they’re in touch with the US via Interpol. From what they were saying it sounds as if Claire isn’t his first victim.”
His fingers were warm and the calluses on the tips of his fingers felt rough against my skin.
“It’s not fair. You read about this kind of thing happening to other people and you wonder how they could have fallen for something like this. Lou and I both thought there might be something shifty about him and neither of us said anything to Mum. We might have stopped him before he could take her money.”
The lights turned to green and Steve released my hand leaving me strangely bereft.
“You had no proof and Claire was head over heels in love with him. She wouldn’t have listened to you. All that would have happened is that there would have been a big row and he would have managed to convince her to take his side. It might have made things a lot worse. She could have lost her home.”
In my heart I knew he was right but it didn’t stop me from feeling that I should have done something sooner.
Steve shot me a glance. “Stop beating yourself up over this, Kate. You’re not your mother’s keeper.”
I bit my tongue as I knew he meant well. A few months ago I would have come back with some snarky remark convinced he was having a dig about my tendency to want to control everything and make it all perfect. It had been one of the mysteries about our relationship.
Steve was laid back to the point of being horizontal. Rules weren’t necessarily to be obeyed; they were more guidelines. I, on the other hand, liked to know that everything was in its place. I liked rules, order, planning.
It was a big part of why Steve and I had split. I had been planning for our forever home, marriage and babies while Steve had been happily pottering along with life. It wasn’t that we hadn’t been on the same page, we hadn’t even been in the same book.
Steve pulled to a halt next to his caravan and tugged the handbrake into position.
“Thanks for coming over today. Mum really appreciated you supporting her.”
I’d appreciated him being there too. It had made me realise how much I’d taken his quiet support for granted in the past.
“Your mum has always been good to me, for an Osmonds fan.” His grin was back in place.
“You know you’d have hated it if she’d been a Danger Line fan like Nasreen.”
I couldn’t help smiling back.
“Yeah, that would have been pretty awful.” His smile faded as his gaze locked with mine.
Every nerve in my body snapped to attention at the signal from my hormones and desire heated low in my abdomen.
“We were pretty good together, you and me. What went wrong, Kate?” He stroked a long lean finger down my arm making my skin goosepimple with pleasure.
It was hard to think while he was touching me and making my stupid body respond to him.
“It turned out we wanted different things, remember?” I tried to keep my tone light.
His gaze continued to hold mine and I wished I could read his thoughts.
“Did we?” His question came out as a low rumble as his mouth closed on mine, capturing me in a sweetness so strong it made me want to cry.
For what seemed like a few delicious minutes I gave in to his kiss, enjoying the taste of his tongue against mine and the heady heat from his body.
“I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to do this.” I inched my body away from him trying to place a gap between us in the confined space of the car.
“We need to talk, Kate, about us.” Bafflement mixed with hurt showed for a brief moment on his face.
“There isn’t any us anymore.” It killed me to say those words but deep inside I knew it was true. We couldn’t go back to where we were before however much my heart wanted me to. I opened the car door and freed myself from the seatbelt, almost strangling myself with it in my haste to escape.
“I have to go and call Lou. Thanks for bringing me home.” I closed the door before he could say anything and stumbled away towards the cottage, my vision blurry with tears.
I let myself in through the back door and closed it behind me, leaning against the smooth painted wood. I waited for a moment. To both my disappointment and relief, Steve made no move to follow me.