DUMBSTRUCK, DANIEL WATCHED AS the red lights of the car vanished into the half darkness of the estate. He kept hearing the echo of the voice in his ear. It had been the last response he expected, yet, somehow, it was the reaction he had most feared.
Chris couldn’t be his father, he thought. His father would never do that to him. Never. But if this man was his father, the way he acted would explain a lot.
He began walking slowly. He was trying to think, to replay things in his mind – the look on Chris’s face, the tone of his voice – but there was only a muddle in his head. He couldn’t focus on anything. At the same time he felt tears running down his face. ‘Mum,’ he said aloud, hearing his own voice like an echo of his thoughts.
He took out his mobile to ring . Before he could press the button a light flashed behind him. At first he thought it was something to do with what he was feeling. He blinked, clearing his eyes. He wiped his face, then he realized that the flashing light came from the headlamps of a car behind him. He turned around to face it, and the car pulled up in front of him.
Two black men got out. They were big. Daniel was six feet tall, but both of these men were taller and wider. ‘What’s your game?’ one of them said roughly.
They were standing on either side of him and Daniel had a sudden feeling of alarm. It was fully dark now, and there were no cars going past. The entrance to the estate was several hundred metres away. There was no one to see what was going on.
‘I’m going home,’ Daniel said.
The man laughed. ‘You shoulda gone home a long time ago, mate,’ he said. ‘What’s your game?’
At first Daniel had taken them for some kind of private security. Now he wasn’t so sure. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said. ‘Just leave me alone.’
‘We’ve had enough of this,’ the man said. ‘You scratch one car and you’re fucked.’
It hit Daniel then that they took him for some kind of vandal. The thought made him want to laugh. ‘You’re making a mistake,’ he said. ‘All right? Goodnight.’
At the same time he started to push past the man who was blocking his way. After that, it was all over in a second. The man’s bulk was hard and solid. As Daniel pushed, the man behind caught him round the shoulders and threw him against the car. Daniel twisted round, his hands up in a reflex of self-defence. One of the men punched him in the face and he went down. As he scrambled up on his hands and knees, someone kicked him in the ribs. He went down again. ‘Stay away from here,’ a voice said in his ear.
Daniel didn’t pass out, but he remained lying on the pavement, trying to catch his breath. When he could move again, he sat up, hunching over in an effort to ease the pain. Slowly, he tested his limbs: nothing broken, but his face hurt. The skin felt tight and painful. One eye seemed to be closing and he could feel it swelling. He tried to stand up, but he was so dizzy that he had to sit down again. He looked around. There was no one in sight. It was as if he was in the middle of nowhere.
He fumbled for his phone. Ringing his mother was out of the question, he thought, and Louise was away. There was no one else who would come and pick him up without questions. He ran through his friends in his mind. He didn’t want any of them to know about this. At the last moment he thought of Judy. She would come. Strangely enough, the thought of her knowing didn’t worry him.
He rang her number and she answered on the first ring.
‘I need some help,’ he told her. ‘Can you come and pick me up?’
She lived nearby and she arrived in about twenty minutes. She was cruising slowly along. He tried to get up but it hurt too much. He sat down again, but her headlights picked him out, and the car stopped. She got out, put her arms round him and helped him to stand. Then she levered him into the front seat next to her.
‘Are you all right?’ she kept asking. ‘Were you mugged? Do you want to go to hospital? Shall I call the police?’
Daniel said no to all except the first question.
‘I’m taking you back to my house,’ Judy said firmly. ‘Then I can take a good look at you.’
Daniel simply nodded his head. From the moment Judy turned up he had given up control, glad to have someone else decide. In the car she glanced sideways at him. ‘What happened? What were you doing there?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ she said.
Slowly, he told her about the last few days, starting with his visit to the old teacher, Brownjohn. While he talked they arrived in front of her house. She parked and switched off the engine, still absorbed in his story. When he got to Chris, and what he had said, she drew in her breath sharply. ‘You think he sent those men?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Daniel said.
‘He can’t be your father,’ she said. ‘If he was he wouldn’t do that. Believe me. He wouldn’t.’
‘I don’t know,’ Daniel repeated.
She was about to say something else, but hearing the fatigue in his voice she stopped. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s get you inside.’
She had lived in the house with her husband. Now he was gone she lived alone.
‘You can stay in the spare room,’ she said.
‘I’ll go home in a bit,’ he told her.
‘You need to lie down,’ Judy replied. She helped him up the stairs, and into a small bedroom. ‘Get undressed and get into bed,’ she said. ‘Your face needs cleaning up. I’ll get something.’
He did what he was told. He was lying in bed, the duvet drawn up to his chin, when she came back. She sat beside him on the bed and began swabbing his face with disinfectant. ‘Your eye’s almost closed,’ she said. ‘Maybe we should have gone to the hospital.’
He shook his head. ‘No, I’m OK.’
‘Why do you think they would do that?’ she asked.
Up to that moment Daniel had felt numb, like a puppet on a string. Hearing the question he had, for the first time, a sudden feeling of rage. ‘You keep asking that. I don‘t bloody know,’ he snapped at Judy. ‘I don’t know why any of this happened.’
She made no answer. Instead she took his chin in one hand, and began drying his face with the cotton wool. He looked at her with his good eye. In the last hour, he realized, he hadn’t really looked at her. She was still dressed to go out, in a short denim skirt and a white shirt. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and as she bent over him he could see her breasts moving under the shirt.
‘Sorry,’ he muttered. ‘This isn’t your fault.’
‘Stupid question,’ she said briefly. She pulled at the duvet, drawing it back. ‘I’m going to look at your chest.’
The bruise was a deep red under his skin.
‘This looks nasty,’ Judy said. ‘Does it hurt.’
‘Yes.’
She touched him gently over the bruise, stroking some kind of cream into his skin. Daniel closed his eyes. In his mind was a feeling of surprise about the fact that, tired and injured as he was, his penis was erect. Stiff as a board, he thought.
He felt Judy’s hand pause and move slowly down over his stomach. Then he felt her touching him lower and lower. He reached out and pulled her down towards him. They kissed, gently at first, a long touch of lips. Then her mouth opened over his. Her hand curled around his penis, cuddling it gently.
She got up off the bed, and moved away. The sudden sense of loss made him gasp. He didn’t speak. He didn’t have the strength, and he didn’t, in any case, know what to say.
The light went out and he felt Judy come back and get under the duvet next to him. She must have taken her clothes off because he could feel her cool skin against him from top to toe. He turned and put his arms around her.
‘Kiss me again,’ she whispered. ‘Kiss me.’