The Dinner Party

by R. J. Parker

  ‘Do you need to sit down?’

  Ted shook his head.

  ‘Don’t mind if I do?’ Renton gestured to a chair.

  Ted shrugged while Renton sat.

  He interlinked his stubby fingers in his lap and looked up at Ted. ‘He left no message, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

  He wasn’t. Should he have? But it was no surprise; Jakob had been out of control.

  ‘I’ve just heard his sister is flying out this evening. Do you know if Mr Eriksson had any financial issues?’

  ‘He was a teacher. I think he and Evie had their fair share, but I wasn’t aware of anything major.’

  ‘He didn’t confide in you about anything like that?’

  ‘No.’ Ted didn’t want to be in the room any longer.

  ‘Can often be the case. Somebody suppresses their problems day in, day out and all it takes is that one extra nudge to push them over the edge.’

  ‘I really don’t know.’ The chemical smell seemed to get stronger.

  Renton nodded. ‘OK. There’ll be an autopsy so we can find out exactly what he had in his system. You think he may have taken something?’

  ‘It did seem that way.’

  ‘Something that he must have taken when he got home, immediately after he’d been with his friends for the entire evening.’

  Ted noted the cynicism in his voice. ‘Yes. He may have been drunk when he left us, but he was still the Jakob I knew.’

  ‘And he wasn’t in the park?’

  ‘No.’ Ted tried to keep his temper in check. ‘Can I go now? I need to be with my wife.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Renton remained seated. ‘Go and discuss it with her. I’ll be in touch presently.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  When Ted walked into the hallway, Juliette came down the stairs. She paused on the last one, expression on hold, and remained there while Ted closed the door and hung up his jacket.

  ‘Are you OK?’ she whispered.

  Ted walked up the hallway to her. He’d felt numb for the entire journey home, awaiting an emotional reaction that hadn’t come. ‘Georgie in bed?’ he whispered.

  Juliette looked briefly back up the stairs and nodded once, lips tightly sealed.

  ‘They’re doing an autopsy to find out if he’d taken something.’ Ted kept his voice low. ‘There was no note, but I didn’t think there would be.’

  Juliette’s eyes briefly darted. ‘Nothing at all?’

  ‘No. So now we’ll never really know what happened.’

  Juliette sat on the third step from the bottom.

  ‘Are you OK?’

  He joined her there.

  She dipped her head forward, short grey bob hanging over her face. ‘I’ll be fine. I just had to tell Georgie.’

  Ted frowned. ‘I thought we were going to wait until I got back.’

  She looked up again. ‘He kept asking what was going on. Where you’d gone. I couldn’t lie to him.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘That there was a terrible row, that his uncle got too angry and his auntie got badly hurt. So hurt that she’d have to have a funeral like his grandad. And that Uncle Jakob was so sad about what he’d done that he wanted to be in the same place.’

  Ted recalled the chat they’d had with him before Juliette’s father’s funeral. He’d found refuge from the uncomfortable conversation by playing with his toys.

  ‘He didn’t speak when I was getting him ready for bed. He said he wanted to have another shower and he’s only just come out.’

  Ted offered her his hand. ‘Let’s go.’

  She took it and her fingers were freezing.

  Ted led her into the lounge, and she sat on the couch. A cartoon was on with the sound turned down. He arranged the TV blanket around her. ‘I’ll go and see Georgie and then make us coffee.’

  ‘We haven’t eaten all day.’ But it was only a statement.

  Ted was positive neither of them would be having dinner. ‘What about Georgie?’

  ‘He had some pizza earlier.’ Juliette stared through the screen.

  Ted went upstairs to Georgie’s room. As he entered his son hurriedly arranged the duvet over his legs. He’d obviously been listening at the door and jumped in when he heard Ted coming. ‘OK, scout?’

  He nodded his mess of wet hair.

  That was unlike Georgie. He enjoyed repeatedly combing it in the mirror. ‘You should use the hair dryer before you go to sleep.’ But Ted could tell he wasn’t tired. ‘As it’s Saturday though, maybe you can catch up on some screen time first.’

  Georgie half-smiled for his benefit but made no move to grab his tablet from the table beside him.

  Ted seated himself on the edge of the bed. ‘Have you been thinking about Auntie Evie and Uncle Jakob?’

  He nodded again.

  ‘I feel a bit sick thinking about it. Is that how you feel?’

  Georgie looked up. ‘When you both argue …’

  Ted could see the fear in his eyes. ‘No. Listen, we argue sometimes, like you do with your friends, but we always make up. It’s the rule.’

  ‘You promise?’

  ‘I promise,’ Ted said resolutely.

  Georgie didn’t look convinced. ‘Do you swear on your mother’s life?’

  Ted swallowed. ‘We don’t do that.’ But he knew his son might have heard Connor say that in the past. Georgie had obviously done his share of eavesdropping during their get-togethers downstairs.

  ‘But if you’re telling the truth, why wouldn’t you?’

  ‘Because it’s not a nice thing to say. A personal promise is enough. You’re nothing if you’re not as good as your word.’

  Georgie thought about that.

  ‘Do you think I’m as good as my word?’

  ‘You did say you’d clear out the garage as a den.’

  ‘And I will. Because I promised. But first I promise that what happened to Auntie Evie and Uncle Jakob will never happen in this house. Do you believe me?’

  ‘Is that cos you’re not an issue like Uncle Jakob?’

  Ted assumed that Georgie was again using a word he might have overheard. ‘I think Uncle Jakob might have had some “issues” but that’s a little more complicated to explain. We can talk about that another time.’

  Georgie seemed confused. ‘But I thought Uncle Jakob was an issue. What is an issue then?’

  ‘Who said Uncle Jakob was an issue?’

  Georgie looked sheepish.

  ‘Were you listening when you shouldn’t have been?’ Ted began to scour his recent conversations. ‘If you’ve heard anything today that you don’t understand then just ask me and I’ll explain.’

  ‘No, this was last week when Auntie Evie was here.’

  ‘At this house?’ But only the day before Juliette had said she hadn’t seen Evie and Jakob since May. And hadn’t they all reiterated that at the dinner party? ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘She came round after I got picked up from Peta’s.’

  ‘And Uncle Jakob wasn’t here?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Which day?’

  ‘Tuesday, I think. That’s when I heard Auntie Evie say he was an issue.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Ted confirmed with Georgie that Evie had been speaking in the kitchen with Juliette the previous Tuesday evening. That was the night he’d had leaving drinks with a colleague. ‘How long did Auntie Evie stay for?’

  Georgie shrugged. ‘Not very long.’

  ‘And did you hear her say anything else?’

  He shook his head but looked down at his SpongeBob duvet cover.

  ‘I’m not angry if you were listening.’ Which wasn’t consistent with the chat they’d had with him about eavesdropping. ‘Not on this occasion. Just think back to what she might have said.’ Why hadn’t Juliette told him?

  ‘That was it. Auntie Evie sounded upset and said Uncle Jakob was an issue. I didn’t listen to anymore. I thought they might be secretly talking about my bi
rthday party.’

  Ted understood why he would lose interest once he’d established they weren’t. ‘So Auntie Evie didn’t come in to say hello to you?’

  ‘No. She went out the back door.’

  Why had Evie come over, flustered, three days before the dinner party and then acted as if she hadn’t seen them for eight months? He tried to replay the conversation when she’d arrived with Jakob on Friday. Had Ted just assumed she hadn’t been there recently, because he’d been out when she’d called in on Tuesday? But surely Juliette would have mentioned it to him, particularly if Evie had been emotional. ‘So you don’t remember anything else?’

  He shook his head again and seemed nervous of Ted’s expression. ‘Am I in trouble now?’

  ‘No, of course not. Dry your hair and I’ll be in to turn out your light. Screen time until half eight, OK?’

  Georgie brightened at that.

  Ted closed the door after him and went back downstairs. How would he broach asking Juliette about Evie’s visit? It appeared Jakob was oblivious to the meeting as well. He’d needed prompting about the last time they’d all got together. Why was he an ‘issue’?

  But when Ted walked into the lounge, Juliette was asleep, her face on the arm of the couch and the TV blanket pulled up under her chin.

  He stepped quietly to the kitchen to make the coffee. When he opened the cupboard he saw that the ashtray had been replaced in its customary position on the top shelf.

  Ted went about filling the coffee maker on autopilot while he considered all of Juliette’s behaviour during and since the call from Evie. She had to know more about what had happened between Evie and Jakob, so why was she hiding it? He thought again about what Renton had said about a relationship between her and Jakob.

  He carried their two cups into the lounge and put his on the coffee table. ‘Juliette.’ Ted didn’t get a flicker from her eyes. ‘Juliette.’ He couldn’t keep the impatience from his voice.

  She responded to the louder utterance of her name, squinted at the drink he was holding and took it from him.

  Ted sat on the couch next to her and she shifted more to her side. He picked up the remote and started flicking through the channels. ‘I can’t stop going over and over things in my head.’

  She took a sip of her coffee.

  ‘Trying to remember how Evie and Jakob were the last time we saw them.’

  Juliette nodded but still seemed a little dazed.

  ‘Maybe something major happened between now and last May we didn’t know about.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Juliette curled herself against the arm of the couch.

  Ted hated that he was laying a trap for Juliette but wanted to give her plenty of opportunity to come clean. ‘Had Evie been in touch with you in between, you know, given you an inkling of anything that might be wrong?’

  ‘Yeah. We spoke on the phone but that was about her treatment.’

  Ted considered how to proceed. ‘D’you think she wanted to avoid seeing you because of the treatment? Is that why you didn’t meet up before last night?’ Had that been too obvious?

  Juliette gulped coffee and hesitated. ‘That was probably why. Are you going to settle on a channel?’

  Ted was aware that he’d been robotically flicking through them and switched off the TV.

  ‘You want to go to bed? I think I’d prefer to stay down here for a bit.’

  Ted looked at her. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about Evie coming around here on Tuesday?’

  She turned to him, her frown an immediate admission of guilt.

  ‘I know she came here to talk to you about Jakob, but you didn’t mention it to me or to the police. Not then, not now. Tell me what’s going on.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Juliette’s expression shifted from faux puzzlement to resignation. ‘Georgie?’

  Ted nodded.

  She tightened her lips. ‘I thought he was upstairs.’

  ‘I think we should always assume he might be listening.’

  ‘What did he tell you he heard?’

  ‘You tell me.’

  Juliette sat up straight and let the blanket fall to her lap. ‘I’m sorry. I knew you had a lot on your plate at work.’

  ‘It wasn’t just an omission. We talked about the last time we’d seen Evie and Jakob on Friday night.’

  ‘Evie wanted it to remain private, like Jakob did when he phoned you.’ She raised an eyebrow.

  That was fair enough, but Ted waited for her to continue.

  ‘I also didn’t want to worry you about Jakob.’

  ‘What have you been hiding?’

  Juliette took a sip of her coffee.

  Ted wondered if she was playing for time.

  ‘He’d tried to commit suicide before.’ She put the cup down on the table.

  That was the last thing he’d expected to hear. It was what made his death so hard to take: there was nothing in his character to suggest it was something he’d ever consider. Connor was the friend he’d been most anxious about, particularly after the comment he’d made when they last got together for a drink. But he’d shared those concerns with Juliette.

  ‘That was why she came by.’ Juliette cast the blanket aside.

  ‘When did he do it?’ Was all Ted could think to ask.

  ‘Saturday before last. She wanted it to remain between the two of us and I respected her wishes.’

  Exactly a fortnight ago. ‘Jakob seemed absolutely fine before Evie’s game.’

  ‘I think that’s been the problem. Jakob has spent the last year carrying on as if everything was normal, even during Evie’s treatment. He was strong for her but when it was all over, he still wouldn’t show any emotion. They were having problems before, but everything went on hold when Evie had her diagnosis. They went through hell together, but he gradually closed himself off from her.’

  ‘How did he …?’

  ‘Pills and vodka. She got an ambulance out to him in time and they took him to the hospital and pumped his stomach.’

  Ted shook his head. Why hadn’t Jakob confided in him? But they didn’t have those sorts of conversations. He knew he missed his family, but like a lot of his male friends, emotions were taboo.

  ‘He wouldn’t talk to Evie about his attempt, carried on like it hadn’t happened.’

  ‘So why didn’t you mention any of this to Renton?’

  Juliette closed her eyes.

  Ted waited while she breathed through her nose.

  Eventually she opened her eyes again and seemed to have composed herself. ‘Because I feel responsible. I wanted her to play her trust game. I thought it was her way of forgiving him for it.’

  ‘But his suicide attempt wasn’t a secret.’

  ‘He’d done it in secret.’

  ‘So you thought they could reconcile over after-dinner coffee?’

  ‘It was a therapy exercise, not just some petty game.’

  ‘You’re right, it certainly wasn’t.’ Ted regretted the harshness in his tone.

  Juliette clenched her jaw. ‘He refused to talk to her, wouldn’t go to anymore therapy sessions. I thought that if they were surrounded by their friends—’

  ‘And you’re sure the others don’t know?’

  ‘I told you,’ she said firmly. ‘It was between me and Evie.’

  ‘Because they all seemed to be on your side when Renton was here.’

  ‘That’s because they all regret being part of it as much as I do.’

  ‘And they’ve told you as much?’

  ‘No, but it’s obvious. Why don’t you feel that way? Whether you were coerced or not, you played the game.’

  ‘And because we did, Evie’s dead? And now Jakob?’

  Juliette’s face froze and she nodded.

  And for the first time since finding Evie and identifying Jakob’s body, Ted felt the burn of tears.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Ted was sure Juliette slept as fitfully as he did, but they both rose with Georgie the next morni
ng for their traditional family breakfast. Sunday meant pancakes and Georgie started laying the table in readiness. ‘Let’s have it in front of the TV today,’ Juliette suggested.

  Ted knew why.

  Georgie didn’t need to be told twice.

  They both sat before whatever cartoon Georgie wanted to watch and mechanically chewed their food until Ted’s phone rang.

  ‘Mr Middleton?’

  Ted recognized Renton’s dour voice. ‘Any news?’

  Juliette tensed as well and turned to him.

  ‘I’m sorry to disturb you on a Sunday, but I was wondering if you both would mind coming down to the station.’

  So here it was. But perhaps it was better that they come clean with him instead of having it hanging over them. ‘Today?’

  ‘If you can find time …’ Renton said, as if Ted had a choice.

  Ted wondered if the others were about to get the same call. Juliette had already broken the news to them about Jakob’s suicide. ‘Can I ask what for?’

  ‘There’s something I’d like you to take a quick look at.’

  That wasn’t what they’d expected. ‘OK. We have to quickly arrange a babysitter though.’

  ‘I’m probably talking a few minutes. Why not bring your child along. Someone in the office can keep an eye.’

  Great Oak Police Station was only ten minutes away and, when they’d parked up outside, Georgie was still in a mood because they’d dragged him away from the TV.

  ‘Come on, scout. It’s not every day you get to see inside a police station.’

  Georgie was wrapped in a black scarf and bobble hat and reluctantly undid his belt and wriggled out of his seat.

  They both took his hand and walked to the main entrance.

  Did Renton have something else in store for them? Ted thought it unlikely that he’d allow Georgie to come along if he was going to interrogate them, but maybe he was luring them into a false sense of security. Ted told himself to stay calm. They weren’t criminals. Even if Juliette had withheld some information, it had nothing to do with their presence at the crime scene. They’d been summoned there by Evie and had responded.

  But neither of them said a word as they entered and approached the reception.