The Marriage

by K. L. Slater

  And also an interesting response from a man who found his son’s new wife’s age so distasteful, Irma thought privately.

  ‘Now look here. This is all getting out of hand.’ Billinghurst affected a let’s not overreact tone. ‘Coral McKinty was of a legal age to have sex, so please don’t try pinning exaggerated charges to me.’

  ‘But Coral was also one of your clients, wasn’t she?’ Tyra remarked. ‘As her counsellor I think you’d agree that’s totally unethical.’

  Billinghurst’s face turned puce and he clamped his mouth shut.

  ‘Did you know Ellis McKinty was your son?’ Irma changed tack.

  ‘Yes, of course I did. She … Coral, told me when she found out. But she was sleeping with her boyfriend too, although she swore the baby was mine. I told her to get rid, that I wanted nothing to do with her or the brat and I thought that was the last of it. Then she began to blackmail me, to extort money.’

  Irma glanced at Tyra. ‘I’m sorry, who blackmailed you?’

  ‘Coral McKinty! She approached me anonymously years ago, threatening to tell my wife and expose the lies to my employer.’

  ‘And you paid her?’

  ‘Of course I paid her! She only asked for two hundred pounds a month. Nothing really, so I played along. I let her think I didn’t know it was her who was benefitting from the money. It was a cheap solution to keep her off my back.’

  ‘How long did you pay her this money for?’ Tyra asked.

  ‘Five years. That’s all she asked for. Never could quite work that one out.’ Billinghurst’s brow furrowed. ‘Anyway, after five years I stopped the payments and I never heard another thing … until she came back for more a few months ago.’

  ‘Coral got in contact with you for more money?’ Irma clarified.

  ‘Yes … well, actually, she got Audrey Denton to do her dirty work. That hag has never liked me, she’s been waiting to take a chunk out of me since I married her best friend.’

  ‘What happened between you and Audrey?’ Irma said, steering him back on track.

  ‘She contacted me at college a couple of months ago, said Coral had told her I was the father of the boy and that they had proof of that even without me agreeing to a DNA test.’

  ‘Because your son and Ellis are brothers,’ Irma clarified.

  ‘Yes, that’s right.’ Billinghurst dropped his head briefly. ‘I agreed for Audrey to come to the house to talk about it. I was hoping to appeal to her better side, to tell her it would destroy Jill if this were all to get out and that she should remember it was also Jill’s money that she was demanding.’

  ‘Your money was in a joint account?’ Tyra asked.

  ‘Most of it. Always good to have a little salted by your wife doesn’t know about though, eh?’ It occurred to Irma that the ghastly grin on Billinghurst’s face seemed so disrespectful in the context of Coral’s recent death. ‘Go on,’ she said, her voice steely.

  ‘Jill was out for the afternoon and it would have been easy to say Audrey had called to see her if she’d returned early. The first thing she did was to deny that Coral had blackmailed me for five years. She said she’d have known about it, that Coral would have told her. I knew she was lying through her teeth, of course. Audrey told me that unless I wanted Coral revealing all to my family and to the college, which would mean losing my job, I had to double the monthly payments. I tried to get out of it but Audrey’s savvy.’

  ‘Tried to get out of it, how?’ Tyra pushed him.

  ‘Well, I’d paid a few months at the lower amount and it had nearly ruined us. I earn nothing like what I used to and Jill had noticed money was scarce. I told Audrey that if she continued to fleece me like this I’d have to speak to my wife about selling the house, which would destroy Jill. Do you know what she said?’

  Tyra and Irma waited without commenting.

  ‘She said it would be the best thing in the world for Jill. That hopefully she’d make a fresh start without me!’ His face darkened. ‘That girl didn’t have to keep the child. She was the one who chose to have him so why should I be made to suffer?’

  ‘Her name was Coral,’ Tyra snapped. Her fingers were laced so tightly together, the knuckles looked fit to burst through her skin. Irma caught her eye and signalled for her to relax and breathe.

  ‘And so did you agree to pay up?’ Irma pressed him.

  ‘I said I needed some time to think about it but I knew then that they’d never stop. Whatever I did, whatever I agreed to, they were going to ruin me. I knew that’s what Audrey wanted.’

  ‘Why did Audrey dislike you so much, do you think?’ Irma had to stop herself adding, apart from the fact you’re a misogynistic, entitled pig, that is?

  Briefly, the arrogance disappeared from his face and he actually looked a little rueful. But it didn’t last long.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said, offhand. ‘Probably some innocent comment I made that she took the hump over. She’s very over-sensitive, like most wom …’

  His voice trailed off as he caught Tyra’s murderous expression. Even Irma had a brief twinge of fear that her colleague might decide to lunge across the desk and throttle him.

  ‘What comment?’ Irma said.

  ‘I don’t know, probably some comment I made a few years ago when Tom was about halfway through his sentence. A little joke that she took the wrong way.’ Irma raised her eyebrows in anticipation and he fidgeted in his chair. ‘I’d said something about my wife being out of action and might Audrey be up to fulfilling some of her … marital obligations.’

  ‘By “out of action” I assume you mean her GP had diagnosed your wife with anxiety and depression and so you weren’t having sex?’ Tyra said bluntly.

  ‘Heavens!’ He grinned and looked at Irma. ‘They don’t train them in subtlety these days, do they?’

  Finally, Audrey’s duplicity was making sense. As Jill’s lifelong friend, Irma had been trying to work out why Audrey had embarked on a persecution of Robert that also seemed to betray her friend. Now the pieces were slotting into place.

  ‘Did you think about telling the police you were being blackmailed? Or at the very least, did you consider speaking to your wife?’ Tyra said.

  ‘That would’ve meant massive implications for me.’ Billinghurst folded his arms and scowled. ‘I was in a straitjacket. I had so much to lose whatever option I came up with.’

  ‘Except one, it seems,’ Irma remarked. ‘If you got rid of Coral, then maybe Audrey would be warned off and the problem would go away.’

  ‘I told you, I didn’t mean to kill her. I was angry with her but even so, I tried to resolve things amicably. I went round to Audrey’s house first, tried once more to reason with her that the additional payments would ruin us but she seemed completely resolved and wouldn’t be persuaded. I left her house – inadvertently leaving my scarf behind – and contacted Coral directly, asked to meet her and I told her not to mention it to Audrey or the deal was off. Coral was the one who suggested we met in a lay-by near the wood. We sat in my car talking, but she quickly got hysterical when I told her I wouldn’t be selling the house to pay her. She started threatening me with all sorts of despicable things, said she’d tell Jill, tell my employer. Then she got out of the car and ran off. I waited a few moments to see if she reappeared, but she didn’t. So I drove away, and that’s when she dashed out into the road in front of my car. I’d glanced down, just for a second at my phone, and the next thing, there was an almighty thud and I’d hit her. My first thought was to call the police and then all the implications hit me and … I realised this insurmountable problem I had would die with her.’

  There were a few moments of terrible silence as Irma thought about the horror of Coral left behind at the scene.

  ‘But Coral wasn’t the only person who knew all this about you. Audrey did too,’ she pointed out.

  ‘Crucially, Audrey also had a lot to lose. She’d lose her job at the charity shop if I revealed her part in the blackmail and that’s basically all s
he has in her sad little life. Jill would obviously never speak to her again either.’ He sighed. ‘I didn’t mean to kill Coral, but when I left the scene and thought it through, I realised it could work. It just might solve all my problems.’

  ‘Except it hasn’t done that at all, has it, Mr Billinghurst?’ Irma remarked coldly. ‘You have so many problems, and the day has finally arrived when you must face them all.’

  Fifty-Nine

  Jill

  One month later

  When I closed the door behind Robert and the police that day, I’d sunk back against the wall. My breathing was erratic, my heart pounding and I felt like crying – tears of freedom, of relief.

  At last he was gone and my life was my own. The house was up for sale and Robert was in custody awaiting trial, charged with the manslaughter of Coral McKinty.

  Mid-afternoon, I sat in the kitchen with a gin and tonic talking to Bridget.

  ‘You’ve heard that saying, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone?’ I said, and Bridget nodded. ‘Well, I didn’t know how much I needed to get rid of him until he walked out that door.’

  Bridget nodded. ‘Some things you have to find out for yourself.’

  ‘I’ve certainly done that,’ I agreed. ‘What about you? What have you found out for yourself?’

  Bridget thought for a moment. ‘I think I’ve found out that no matter what I do, I can’t keep Jesse alive. I started visiting Tom because he had so many memories of him, like me. I kept Coral around because I wanted Ellis, believed he was the part of Jesse that was still here. Though of course that wasn’t the case at all.’

  ‘I admire you so much for what you’re doing. Making a new family with Ellis and Tom.’

  ‘If I’m honest with you, Jill, I have my worries about whether it can work, the three of us together, but we’re determined to give it a go. Ellis still isn’t close to Tom, but he’s getting better, and one day he’ll find out the truth that Tom is his half-brother. But he’s had so much trauma to deal with, we have to take it slowly. We start our family counselling next week. We’ll tell Ellis the truth at some point, in the safety of that environment. I do feel like I have a lot more living to do yet.’

  Nobody could accuse Bridget of trying to hide her lust for life. She wasn’t your typical middle-aged woman.

  ‘I love Tom and I’d never want any harm to come to him. I’ve forgiven him for his part in Jesse’s death; the restorative justice programme helped us both with that. What about you, Jill? How do you feel now about me and Tom?’

  ‘It’s a relief for me to let Tom live his life and not keep tabs on his every move. We both know that life can deal some very tough blows, but things don’t turn out as badly as you might think – in my case, anyway. I’ve spent what feels like my whole life expecting the worst at every turn, and sometimes the worst doesn’t happen.’

  Bridget nodded. ‘It must be an exhausting way to live.’

  ‘So exhausting. And trying to control every last detail doesn’t work anyway, because stuff still happens. The feeling that you’re controlling life is an illusion. Nobody can do that. Not even me. But for what it’s worth, I think what you’ve done – accepting Ellis as your grandson and forgiving Tom for not telling you about Robert being his father – is very noble. It can’t have been easy.’

  ‘The way I look at it, Ellis is my grandson. I love him with all my heart. And Tom didn’t tell me for all the right reasons. The same reasons he didn’t tell you. He didn’t want to hurt us. When I first found out about Ellis, I wondered if Tom had married me to get close to his brother, but he pointed out that if that was all he’d wanted, he would have made a play for Coral. We always had a connection, you know, even when the boys were growing up. Obviously completely innocent and platonic back then, but we were close, we’ve always cared about each other.’

  ‘I know that,’ I agreed. ‘I loved Jesse too. I admit I used to feel jealous sometimes. Tom would come home and say what a great time he’d had at your house and that you were such a great mum.’

  ‘That’s understandable,’ Bridget said. ‘I can see now that I was too lax with Jesse. Teenagers are bound to think that’s cool and push the boundaries.’ She hesitated a moment. ‘Have you heard from Audrey?’

  I nodded and said simply, ‘We’ve spoken.’ Audrey had called at the house and begged for me to listen to her side of the story. She told me about the pass Robert had made at her which I’d been totally unaware of and how, when she realised she would never get through to me about the kind of man he was, that she’d rather help someone who did listen.

  I’d also confided in Audrey that I had a policy maturing when I was fifty, a nice lump sum that as yet, Robert was unaware of. ‘I knew then you’d be OK for money if Robert paid Coral,’ she’d said. ‘And she really needed the money to stop Bridget controlling her.’

  ‘I don’t know if I can trust her again, Bridget. I’ve had enough people lying to me to last a lifetime. She wanted to help me, save me from Robert and she wanted to help Coral, too. Audrey is stuck in a different hell, involving herself in other people’s lives and how she thinks they should live them.’

  ‘I suppose while she’s sorting out everyone else’s problems, she doesn’t have to dwell on her own lonely life,’ Bridget murmured.

  I thought she had a point. ‘For as long as I’ve known her, Audrey has always fought for the underdog, seen it as her life’s mission to help others out, find solutions. At college she’d fight the popular causes and rush to someone’s defence if she felt they’d been slighted. I asked her once why she did that stuff but she shrugged and said she was just that kind of person who hated any kind of injustice. Now I realise any David and Goliath situation, where one side is more powerful, well, that really pushes Audrey’s buttons. When she met Coral, she admitted she felt sorry for her and then probably saw a way to get back at Robert, who’d never liked her and now we know why. But I think she really did care about Coral in the end and wanted to make him pay.’

  ‘I saw Audrey and Robert at the door of your house when I was driving past on the way to town. I went into the shop to let her know, to have the satisfaction of doing it. I’d heard she’d been bad-mouthing me around town. I did really think she was having an affair with Robert.’

  ‘Me too,’ I said. ‘When I looked through her kitchen window and saw his scarf, it all seemed to fit. There’s still one little mystery I’d like to unravel.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Bridget said, taking a sip of her gin.

  ‘Well, money has been tight for a while now, and after they took Robert into custody, it came to light he’d been paying a thousand pounds to Coral for a few months. I searched his office, found all his bank statements going back years. Turns out this payment business isn’t new. He’d been paying out two hundred pounds every month for the first five years of Tom’s sentence then inexplicably, it suddenly stopped.’

  ‘What was he paying for?’

  ‘Well, that’s the mystery. He’d been drawing out cash on the last day of each month from the savings account. It wasn’t for day-to-day expenses because he was also drawing cash from the current account. The regularity of it, the same amount, on the same day each month for exactly five years shows it was for something specific. Something I was completely unaware of. Twelve thousand pounds of our savings that I had no clue about.’

  ‘Is it possible Robert siphoned money away from your joint accounts for his own use?’

  I shook my head. ‘DI Barrington asked him about it and he told her he’d been “anonymously” blackmailed about being Ellis’s father for five years but that he knew it was Coral all along. That was why, when Coral made her new demands via Audrey, he assumed she’d got greedy and wanted to reinstate the agreement. That made him doubly angry and he demanded they meet to discuss it.’

  ‘But you’re saying, in fact, the five years previously wasn’t anything to do with Coral?’

  I shook my head. ‘Audrey categorically denies it. S
he claimed Coral wouldn’t have had the confidence or the knowledge to set that up on her own. It’s one reason I still can’t trust her, if I’m honest. I’d have thought more of her if she’d admitted it. Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge now. I’ve had to draw a line with lots of things, and that’s one of them. I’m moving on in every way. I want to get this place sold now and buy somewhere smaller.’

  ‘Exciting times for you.’ Bridget bit her lip before continuing, her voice softer. ‘Jill, where do we go from here? I’d like us to be good friends again, to meet for a coffee and chat about old times and, if it’s not too much to ask, to build some fresh memories.’

  ‘We can set a time to meet up for a coffee,’ I said. ‘But I start back at the library next week so I’ll have less time on my hands soon.’

  ‘Wow! That’s great.’ Bridget looked genuinely pleased. ‘Is it full-time?’

  I shook my head. ‘It’s part-time for three months, and then there’ll probably be a full-time position coming up if I’m interested.’ I smiled, unable to keep the excitement from my face. ‘Part of my duties will be book repair.’

  We both glanced at the set of shining red and gold books that took pride of place on the shelf where Robert’s community award used to live.

  ‘They look amazing,’ Bridget said admiringly. ‘They must have taken so much work.’

  I nodded. ‘They really did but in a way they helped to set my mind straight, too. Something about clearing my head and immersing myself in the here and now … it made me realise how I’d been so stuck in the past and what had been, you know?’

  Bridget nodded and said simply, ‘I know how that feels. I’ve pared back the photographs and tributes to Jesse in the house. I don’t need that stuff to remind me of my son and I know now he’d want me to live for the future, not what might have been.’

  ‘For most of my marriage, I’ve thought I’d be nothing without my husband. After Tom went to prison, I became so insular. I honestly believed I needed Robert to survive.’