‘You think? Let’s not kid ourselves, Dad. She thinks I was behind all the carry-on at home. You and I both know you’re the only one that loved me.’ She paused. ‘Where are you?’
‘In the car. I’m heading home from Crow Hall.’ Her words were hurting. All he’d wanted was for them to be a normal family. ‘The roads are terrible. Rain and floods.’
‘Listen, Dad, I need to go. Drive safely and call me when you know some more.’
‘I will. Bye for now, Nina. Love you.’
Back home, Luke was greeted by the dog pressing his face against the glass of the front door. ‘I know you miss her too,’ he said, once inside. He bent to stroke the animal. No response. The sound of high heels clacked on the marble floor. It was Sophie, searching his face for clues.
‘It’s OK, Soph. Nina’s OK, thank God.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘She’s travelling in the bush. She headed out from Sydney with some new friends. I’ve just spoken to her. She’s fine.’
‘You poor, poor thing. You must be so relieved.’
She put her arms around him and held him tightly. He was comforted by her embrace. Sophie hadn’t met Nina yet and Luke hadn’t told her why she was sent away. As far as Sophie knew, Nina’s departure had been voluntary. Best to keep things simple.
‘You’re shaking like mad.’
Holding his hand, Sophie guided him down the hallway, past the photos of smiling dark-skinned children, through the kitchen, on to the garden room. The stove was lit. A medical journal was open at the page containing his photo. It looked like she’d been reading about him. She guided him towards the window seat. Duffy followed as far as the doorway but didn’t come in.
‘Tell me what’s going on.’
‘I still don’t know,’ he faltered. ‘Alison and her dad are dealing with the announcement in the paper.’
‘What did they have to say about it?’ She stroked his hand and it felt soothing.
‘The paper said that as far as they know, they didn’t do anything wrong. They’re looking into it. And Alison and Cornelius have some crony of Cornelius’s, some press liaison guy, on the case.’
‘Are you going to take it to the police?’ she asked.
He didn’t answer.
‘Surely this is an offence of some kind?’
‘You know what? Right now, I don’t care. I think I’ll let the great Thompson machine take care of it. Alison and Cornelius are on it. And they’re more than capable.’
‘Really?’ Sophie looked worried. ‘I would have thought that was something for the police? A criminal matter?’
‘It may well be. If so, I’ve no doubt that Alison will take care of that. Alison and her father have hunted with some of the best legal counsel in the country.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘And how was the minister?’
Happily, Sophie hadn’t had the dubious pleasure of meeting Luke’s wife.
‘In command as usual,’ he replied. ‘Alison loves a good crisis.’
‘But you?’ Sophie asked. ‘How do you feel about it all? What’s going on in that clever head of yours?’
He looked into her eyes, felt the warmth of her hand, her concern, and it gave him comfort. ‘This whole thing is very unsettling … freaky.’ He paused. ‘I just couldn’t bring myself to imagine …’
Unable to continue, the words were left unsaid, suspended in the air.
Sophie squeezed his hand.
‘You really can’t imagine,’ he tried again. ‘You just can’t … when you have a child …’ He stopped, not wanting to dwell on it.
‘No, I don’t suppose I can.’ Sophie was divorced and she didn’t have children.
‘Nina means the world to you, doesn’t she?’ she said softly.
He nodded. The events of the morning had crystallised his thinking. ‘She’s my everything.’
Sophie withdrew her hand, falling silent. When next he glanced at her, she was staring into the distance, a hurt expression on her face. It struck him just how clumsy he’d been. He’d offended her.
‘Of course, I have to say that you, the gorgeous Sophie, have been a very welcome and unexpected addition to my world.’
‘I should be flattered, I guess.’ She turned to him. ‘Having access to the select world of the legendary Luke Forde.’
‘You sure should.’
He teased a smile from her. He didn’t like to see her upset. She was good for him. She was there when he needed her. She listened. She asked him how he felt. She cared about his feelings. Maybe in the early days with Alison it had been like that. If so, he couldn’t remember. He wasn’t immune to the attentions of women and until recently he’d soldiered on in his marriage, burying himself in his work. He didn’t need complications and Sophie made things easy.
‘Everything seems to be OK. Leave it for now. Let’s do something fun,’ she said, trying to lift his spirits. ‘It hasn’t exactly been the weekend we’d planned. What do you fancy doing for the rest of the day?’
He stared out at the rain coming down in sheets. A walk was out of the question. He hadn’t been cycling in weeks. Sophie wasn’t the outdoor type, preferring the gym and kickboxing. She looked fit in her sweater, casual jeans and boots. He looked playfully at the ceiling indicating the bedroom. It seemed as good an idea as any.
‘After what’s happened today I’m surprised you have the energy.’
‘For you, Sophie, I keep a reserve. How about finishing Breakfast at Tiffany’s?’
Sophie smiled. Alison never had the patience to kick back to watch old movies. Maybe they could salvage something from this awful day after all. Sophie took him by the hand and led him up the slatted stairs.
A wraparound window dominated the master bedroom. It had views up the lough towards the hills and down the lough towards the town. On a clear day, the room felt like an eagle’s nest. And at night, the lights of the city sparkled in the distance.
Setting his phone on the bedside locker, he edged as casually as he could towards the window and he scanned outside. He double-checked. All was good. The scrawl on the boathouse wall couldn’t be seen from here. He exhaled. He could relax. For now.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
By the time he returned from the bathroom, Sophie was under the covers. She’d retracted the TV from the end of the bed and was in her underwear, hugging her knees. She fiddled with the remote, trying to find the point where they’d stopped watching. Luke hopped in beside her. He could watch Audrey Hepburn for ever. The beautiful bones of her gamine face, her doll-like figure, that voice.
Eyes on the screen, he slipped his hand between her thighs.
‘Wait.’ Sophie reached across him, her warm skin brushing his face, and she opened the bedside drawer. He held his breath. He had found this unusual at first. There’d been nothing like this with Alison. He watched, mesmerised.
Sophie pulled the black silk from the drawer and smoothed it out slowly and deliberately. Climbing astride him, she leaned over until he could feel her breath hot on his neck. Her concentration was absolute. She was moving trancelike.
She lifted his head, securing the scarf with a knot, then guided him inside her, swiftly, almost roughly. She moved rhythmically at first, slow, then fast and faster. He listened to her breath, rapid, rasping. Restricted by the tightness of the silk, he struggled for air. He gasped suddenly, stung by the sharpness of her teeth. As her nails dug into him, she gave out a cry. He also cried out – in pleasure and in pain. He felt her slide down beside him.
The room fell silent. Still blindfolded, he turned on his side to touch her. He couldn’t reach her, and pulling off the scarf, he saw she’d turned her back. Resting on an arm, he watched her. She was staring out at the water, tears trickling down her cheeks. He felt deep satisfaction that he could bring such tears of pleasure to her. He leaned back on the pillow, savouring the experience.
She suddenly sat up and pointed. ‘See there, the tops of the turbines turning where the hil
l dips …’ Embarrassed, she was trying to direct attention away from herself. He found it endearing and felt drawn close to her.
‘We’re going to see a lot more if Zephyr get their way.’
Putting her feet on the bed, she pulled her knees towards her. ‘Big boys always get their way. After my divorce I thought about coming out here to the lough. I’m glad I decided to stay in the city, especially now they’re going to trash the place with those turbines.’
Luke’s eyes flicked over her. How flat her stomach was. She pulled the sheet around her, covering herself as if embarrassed by his gaze. She hugged it tightly.
‘I remember looking at a few old cottages, fixer-uppers. But I had the strangest feeling that the estate agent didn’t actually want me to buy anything. Even when I went for a browse around the town, it felt like people were looking at me, sizing me up. It was weird. Unsettling.’
It made perfect sense to Luke. Anyone that wasn’t born and raised in this Clare townland was treated with suspicion. The agent, Seth Quigley, was a childhood hunting pal of Alison’s. Luke suspected that the suitability of newcomers to Lough Carberry was being screened through Crow Hall. Like Japanese knotweed, the Thompson reach was silent and pervasive.
‘Those poor families up that hill – they won’t get a wink of sleep with the growl of turbines,’ Sophie said.
‘I never had you down as an activist, Sophie. You’re not going to go all political on me? I’ve had enough of that over the last while.’
Her brow furrowed. ‘I don’t like to see little people trampled on, that’s all.’ She stood, heading to the bathroom. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all Greenpeace on you. There’s only room for one Lucy Considine.’
The warm glow of intimacy instantly receded. The unease that had briefly left him now settled back around him. He didn’t give a toss about Lucy Considine. The activist could tear through town buck-naked for all he cared, as long as her son, Sebastian, stayed the hell away from Luke and his family. It would have been better for everyone if Sebastian Considine had never turned up. Luke could kick himself, he should have taken care of things sooner. He’d been distracted, he’d let things go too far.
There came a click and the hum of the shower. Luke lay on the bed, brooding, his arm behind his head. It stung a little where Sophie had broken the skin. He didn’t want to embarrass her by drawing attention to it.
‘The farmers up there are kidding themselves if they think they’re in line for any payoff from Zephyr Energy,’ Sophie called out. ‘Social media has it that Roddy Gilligan will be the one to benefit. The turbines are going onto his estate.’
‘Ah, the weasel Gilligan. You know who he is, don’t you?’ Luke shouted. ‘He’s Alison’s business partner and—’
‘Friend with benefits?’ Sophie called from the shower.
‘You got it right in a oner.’
It was the first time they’d broached the subject of the shambles of his marriage. Luke liked that Sophie didn’t pry. He’d asked her only once about her ex. Not out of any curiosity but because he imagined it was expected of him.
‘I don’t really see much point in talking about any of that,’ she’d said. ‘I don’t ask about your wife, do I?’
He imagined Sophie and her husband had been able to work through their divorce quietly and in private. He doubted he’d be afforded any such privacy. He’d be in the spotlight. Journalists crawling all over him. Poking their noses in. The prospect sent shivers up his spine.
‘Stay to the end?’ he asked as she emerged from the shower. Audrey Hepburn’s eyes were batting child-like on the screen.
‘I’m sorry, I need to get back. I have to feed the cat. It’s time for his injection too. I’ve left the shower running if you want to hop in.’
‘Thanks.’
Upstaged by a cat. Luke had always thought that cats were self-sufficient. But if Sophie needed an excuse to leave, he wouldn’t challenge her. She’d probably had enough of his troubles.
‘Maybe you could swing by the hospital again during the week?’ he suggested after his shower.
‘Yeah, sure.’ She smiled up at him. ‘You know it’s no mean feat getting past that secretary of yours. She’s quite a piece of work.’
‘You’re not talking about dear old Fran?’
‘Dear old Fran?’ Still smiling, Sophie raised her eyebrows. ‘I was there the other day, standing right in front of her when she put that call through to you.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘Last Wednesday?’ Sophie continued. ‘When I drove the whole way over to the hospital in case you might be free for lunch?’
He shook his head. It didn’t ring a bell.
‘She picked up the phone to you and said, “That woman is here again!”’
‘Oh, that …’
He had the good sense to stop himself from smiling. Fran often overstepped the mark, out of what he imagined was some kind of misguided maternal instinct.
‘Ah sure, that’s just the way she is. If it’s any consolation, she calls Alison “Eva Perón”.’
‘Well, that’s a whole load better than “that woman”.’ Sophie wasn’t smiling any more. ‘Who the heck does Fran think she is? She’s not a surgeon. Scowling away at everyone, hammering like the hounds of hell on her keyboard, watering all her creepy spider plants with that creepy little watering can.’
Duffy pricked up his ears from where he was lying near the doorway. He could sense the change in mood. He growled.
‘All right, boy,’ Luke soothed him. It was the first time he’d seen Sophie properly angry. Fran had clearly rattled her. ‘You know what? I’ll have a word,’ he said seriously. ‘You’re right, that is bad form.’
Sophie’s expression mellowed. Alison had always been unfazed by Fran. Alison and Fran circled one another. As a kid, Nina used to do a brilliant impression of her mother saying, ‘I’m here to see my husband – on personal business.’ Nina would pretend to be Alison, looking Fran up and down. Luke had creased up laughing at her. But Sophie was a different person to Alison. More sensitive, less robust. Which was part of her charm and one of the reasons Luke had felt drawn to her.
‘I wouldn’t dream of treating anyone like that. I’d lose my job on the spot if I did that.’ Sophie went to the window. Her eyes scrunched up, as if she were examining something. For one horrible moment Luke worried she’d spotted something he’d missed outside.
‘You know if it doesn’t stop raining soon, sink holes are going to open in your garden,’ she said.
Relieved, he leaned across to the chest of drawers, pulling out a fresh T-shirt and boxer shorts. He stood and dressed. Stepping over the dog, he followed Sophie down the stairs to the front door.
‘You don’t think I’m heartless for leaving?’ She looked up at him, fluttering her lashes, doing an Audrey Hepburn impression.
‘Not at all.’ He smiled.
‘You feeling OK about Nina now?’
‘I’ll relax when she gets home. Don’t you worry about me, Soph. Go back and feed your cat. I’ll crack on here. I’ve got a paper to write.’
‘The one about prosthetic valves?’ She stood on her toes to kiss him.
‘The very one.’
Front door open and keys in hand, she looked up at him admiringly.
‘All those brains. That intellect,’ she said. ‘I’d love to see inside that head.’
Luke said nothing. Of one thing he was certain. Sophie would definitely not like to see the inside of his head.
‘Call you later,’ she shouted as she walked across the gravel to her car.
Letting his smile drop, Luke closed the door, walked across the hallway, and opened the heavy swing door to his basement.
A New Normal
Fran’s immediate reaction to the death announcement in the Herald was to get the police involved. Returning to his desk from his ward round on Monday morning, Luke found Fran in a highly agitated state.
‘This is no joke, Luke.’
‘You don’t hear me laughing,’ he responded.
‘The police need to be told about this. Dear Lord, a death notice …’ Her voice was brittle.
Fran had helped out with Nina a lot when she was a kid. Luke needed to set her mind at rest.
‘Don’t worry. Alison and her father are looking into it.’ The now familiar words tripped off his tongue.
The problem was that Fran didn’t trust the Thompsons.
‘Infuriating,’ she hissed. She vented displeasure, clattering paper trays and desk tidies around her desk. Luke suspected what she was really annoyed about was his willingness to let Cornelius and Alison handle the incident.
‘What’s the problem?’ He’d indulge her if only to shut her up.
‘Bloody cleaners,’ she fumed. ‘They’d annoy a nation. I’ve warned them plenty not to go anywhere near my desk.’
Fran bundled a sheaf of headed notepaper, lining up the edges. She was like a nettle. ‘Nothing’s ever where I leave it. I finally found the practice credit card and that file you were looking for. I was about to cancel the card when I found it here under a pile of paper.’ She looked at him, eyes like flint. ‘I don’t want any of those cleaners near my desk. God knows where half of them are from. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them.’
Luke often wondered if Fran trusted anyone. Given that she was already spitting bullets, he shouldn’t let the opportunity pass. He might as well have a word with her about her attitude to Sophie.
‘Do I get the sense that you’re not too fond of Sophie either?’
She stared at him blankly at first. He imagined she was fomenting a response.
‘She’s just a secretary, you know.’
‘Who is?’ He affected innocence.
‘Sophie Ellingham.’
‘Ah Fran, that’s not fair. There’s no “just” about it. You’re a secretary yourself. And a good one too.’
She slammed the lid of the photocopier. Fran lunched once a month with the other medical secretaries in the region. Luke reckoned their gossip alone could power a wind farm.
‘I’m guessing your investigations didn’t turn up that Sophie is also qualified as a nurse?’ He stared Fran in the eye. ‘An accomplished woman, I’d say.’ Fran needed to be put back in her place. She was becoming difficult to manage. Her face darkened and she moved stiffly to the waste bin.
Guilty Page 15
