‘Right. I need everyone to pull their weight today and work as a team,’ said Karin. It was the morning of the launch and she had gathered everyone together to run through a few final things. ‘Remember we’re under scrutiny from the press and TV cameras, so we absolutely have to get this right.’
Morale had taken a knock this week with the news of Will. Not least her own. But Karin had managed to turn this into a positive, by encouraging everyone to work hard for Will’s sake. ‘Today has to be perfect,’ she added, concluding her team talk. ‘We’re doing this for Will.’
So far the police had not been back asking any more questions. As far as she knew, they still thought his death was accidental. By misadventure. Nevertheless, it still felt like a torrent of water was only moments away from rampaging through her life, sweeping everything along with it.
It was simply a matter of time.
Certainly all the pressures of the launch had helped take her mind off other matters. The last thing Karin wanted was for anything to kick off, either in the run-up, or on the day itself, and she was relieved that both Mel and Aaron were respecting her wishes to deal with these other matters once today was over.
Aaron was now aware of the situation with Louie. Or rather, he knew as much as Karin dared tell him. He found her yesterday morning, head in hands, slumped over the side of the bath and it just didn’t seem fair to keep him in the dark any longer. So Aaron knew that Louie had blackmailed Karin out of her mother’s money, even if he didn’t fully understand why. Karin just told him that the reason for not mentioning it sooner was out of embarrassment for having allowed it to happen in the first place. In turn, this had led to the lie about her mother withdrawing the payment altogether, for which she apologized. Aaron was furious, naturally, and wanted to take action immediately. But Karin had made him promise not to do anything until they could both sit down and work out a plan together. She never even mentioned the connection with Will’s death, and that Louie possibly had something to with that.
Karin just wished this would all go away quietly. But it wasn’t going to.
Her only hope was that Louie would see sense quickly and they could reach some kind of compromise. What Karin hadn’t yet worked out was how much more to reveal to Aaron about why Louie had the power to blackmail her to begin with. Rather ironically, although she had no intention of telling him, Karin now felt that Aaron could possibly forgive her for what she did to her stepdad, as long as she explained absolutely everything to him. Whereas having sex with Louie in the toilets just before he proposed to her was still something he would never be able to deal with. Karin didn’t doubt for a minute that Louie would use the latter to her advantage if pushed.
She still wasn’t convinced that Louie would be vindictive enough to send her to prison. After all, what would that achieve? Besides, Louie could be done for blackmail herself presumably. Mel had kept hold of those earlier intimidation notes. And then there was Will’s death too. At the same time, Karin did wonder how things could conceivably work out with both her secrets and her relationship with Aaron intact. They were supposed to be getting married. Sometimes she had to remind herself of that.
For now, though, she had to concentrate on the launch. None of these other matters could occupy her mind today.
‘The BBC are coming. We’ll make the evening news,’ said the site manager, flying at her as she came out of Will’s room.
‘It’s just the local news,’ she replied. ‘Don’t get too excited, Ron.’
‘Nope, it’s the national! The Government’s supposedly rolling out some half-baked initiatives to try and tackle this problem. We’re in the spotlight and so are they.’
It was only after celebrating this incredible news with him that Karin considered its implications. This was as high-profile as it could get, which meant that even her mother might see it.
She began to reflect on the person she used to be:
Karin the useless daughter
Karin the hopeless student
Karin the basket case
Karin the suicide victim
Today simply had to go well. Not only for her sake, but for the sakes of all the people on the scheme, and many more besides who would benefit if this one was deemed a success. She didn’t think for a minute that anyone would jeopardize things from within the project. Even if some still needed help to adjust, everyone had put their heart and soul into it. There had however been a few murmurings in the local and wider community, the minority voice claiming this was nothing more than a glorified hostel or halfway house.
In the end, trouble came in another form which Karin hadn’t expected.
It was the same two police officers as before. They were shown into the site office flashing their ID, addressing her as Miss Rhodes, wanting to ask her a few more questions about Will.
‘We’ve spoken again to … your housemate …’ The police officer stopped to consult her notebook. ‘Melanie Pritchard.’
Karin felt her body freeze. ‘Okay. Yes, Mel.’
‘We’ve found some items of jewellery near to the scene of the incident. We wondered if you’d ever had any go missing, Miss Rhodes?’
Karin tried to swallow. Anything she said could potentially contradict what Mel had already told them. They were waiting for her answer, weighing up every second’s delay. It was like being on some quiz show against the clock where the answers had to completely match.
But Mel was a loyal friend. She had tried to ‘cover Karin’s arse’. Her words. So she felt sure of her answer.
‘Erm no. We trusted Will, totally. Like I told you, he and I were good friends.’
Apart from anything else, Karin really couldn’t bear the idea of anyone thinking Will was a thief, and especially not today. He was dead. The least she could do now was defend his honour. A flash of inspiration suddenly came to her. Another lie, but what difference would one more make?
‘He did say once that he had a few bits of his mother’s jewellery. She died. I never saw it or anything but that’s possibly what you found.’
Her answer seemed to satisfy them but they weren’t ready to leave just yet.
‘Would you mind showing us round, Miss Rhodes?’
Karin had to disguise her unwillingness. She began with Will’s room, in the hope this might be enough and then they would go.
‘We’re still calling it “Will’s Room”,’ she explained as they walked down the hallway to the last door on this level. ‘For the time being anyway. There’s nothing of Will’s in here though. He didn’t actually move in. Just decorated it, ready for when he did.’ As she turned the handle, she wondered whether to warn them about the colour scheme they were about to encounter, but stopped herself.
It still smelt of paint.
‘Gosh,’ said the female officer as she stepped into the room.
Royal blue with flame red woodwork.
‘Will always said that he liked to hear colours,’ Karin found herself explaining. ‘To make up for not hearing sounds.’ The memory of Will’s eagerness to show her the finished result came flooding back. It just made her sad whenever she came in here now, especially as she knew that the next occupant would probably find it too noisy and stressful and want to change it.
Karin sniffed, wiping away a tear.
‘Was there anyone who might have wanted this room, enough to want Will out of the way, do you think?’
‘Erm. I wouldn’t think so. It doesn’t really work like that. People have to earn their place, work hard, train up to get the necessary skills.’
They wanted to see the garden after that. Karin had foolishly pointed out the commemorative bench they had been able to see from the window.
‘A couple of the other project workers made it,’ she informed them. ‘This was Will’s favourite tree, and we’re going to have a plaque too.’ The bench wrapped around the trunk of an ancient oak at the bottom of the garden. For now, it just had R.I.P. WILL carved into the bark.
Although it was a relief when they said they were going, Karin felt their visit was rather cursory. Insulting to think they were only paying lip service to investigating Will’s death. In the scheme of things, his life didn’t really matter. A deaf homeless man. Will was only too aware of that himself.
Karin stood in the porch and watched them go. In her mind she was running after them, shouting, as they climbed into the police car: I have more information for you. Wait!
Will deserved so much better than this. From Karin. From everyone.
But she waited until they had disappeared down Ashby Road and then returned to his room. On her way there, people were coming at her from all angles trying to speak to her. She told them she needed a moment on her own.
Sitting on Will’s bed she felt the emptiness and loss all the more. She pictured him at his desk, his head in one of those Russian novels, stroking his beard. She must have stayed like this for at least a quarter of an hour, in quiet contemplation. It was the hideous colour scheme which revived her in the end, and becoming aware of it again made her laugh out loud. ‘What the hell were you thinking, Will?’ she said, getting up off the bed.
She had to get back. There were things to be done, to oversee. People were relying on her. As she was about to open the door she noticed there was a missed call from Mel on her phone, so she listened to her voicemail before going out.
‘Karin. Just had those two sniffer dogs back asking about Will. They’ve found some jewellery and were asking if we’d ever had anything go missing. I said we hadn’t. Hope that was what you’d want me to say. Am guessing the sniffer dogs will probably be on their way over to you now. I wanted to warn you, so hope you listen to this before they get there. Hope it goes really well today. So sorry I’m working but I will look out for you on the TV. Bye for now.’
Karin kissed her phone and went back out again.