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Dom has driven us to a business park on the outside of town. It’s Saturday so the place is all but deserted, with the exception of two other learner drivers pootling about the deserted roads and car parks. We swap seats, and I feel him watching me as I fiddle with the seat back and mirrors.
‘So I want you to pull out, drive along this street and then turn left.’ He points towards a turning about a hundred metres in front of us. ‘And then pull in somewhere round the corner.’
‘Okay.’ It feels a bit weird driving Dom’s car. It’s bigger than the standard driving instructor super-tiny, super-economical models, but I think I do all right. I pull in and stop around the corner.
Dom grins. ‘Pretty good. Right. Shall we do some manoeuvres then?’
I pull into an empty car park and, after a couple of misfires that I put down to it being a much bigger car than I’m used to, I successfully bay park in three different spaces of Dom’s choosing. I also manage to turn the car in the road using forward and reverse gears and make short work of reversing around a corner.
‘You’re pretty good.’
‘Thank you. I told you. I just need more practice.’
Dom shrugs. ‘Do you though? I mean I know we’ve only done manoeuvres but you seem fine. Are you sure you wouldn’t be better off putting in for your test?’
I shake my head. ‘I’m not ready to do it on my own yet. It’s different with an instructor. They’ve got the dual control thing, so it’s not all on me.’
‘But I don’t have dual control, and you’ve been fine today.’
He’s right. I have. That’s Dom though. There’s something very safe about being with him.
‘Do you want to drive home?’
I shake my head.
That’s another good thing about Dom. He doesn’t push me. We swap seats again and I settle into the passenger side for the drive home, blocking my ears to Dom’s chuntering about what on earth I’ve done to his seat position and mirrors. I think I hear the term ‘long-armed midget’ under his breath.
I like Dom driving us places. I like watching his hands on the wheel, while I sit back and let him take us where we’re going, all calm and in control. I snap myself out of the lull. There was another point to today, besides the driving lesson. Another chance for Dom to feel needed and a step towards finding out what secrets Tania’s hiding. ‘How do you research someone?’
‘What?’ He sounds confused by the question.
‘How do you find out about somebody? Like about their past?’
He glances at me before flicking his eyes back to the road. ‘Someone historical?’
‘No. Someone still alive.’
‘Erm, well I presume you’ve tried Googling them?’
‘I didn’t find much.’
‘Okay. Have you tried local papers?’
‘I don’t think she’s from around here.’
‘She?’
‘Tania.’
His eyes flick towards me again, but he’s stuck concentrating on driving. Maybe I should have lied.
‘Why don’t you just ask her whatever you want to know?’
Sometimes, for a very clever man, Dom can be really stupid. ‘Because she’s hiding something.’
‘What?’
I sigh. ‘I don’t know, do I? She’s hiding it.’
‘Well, the history centre at the main library hold local papers for all over the place, so if you know where she’s from, you could try that.’
Penzance. She said something about Penzance, but that’s still all I’ve really got to go on.
‘And some of the indexes of births and marriages are online now. I can send you the links Or you can look those up at the history centre too, at least for the Midlands and South West. You might have to pay though.’
‘That’s fine.’ It’ll be worth whatever it costs, if I can find out the truth and get Tania out of my dad’s life forever.