The Back of Beyond

by Doris Davidson

  ‘Leila, what if she doesn’t want to come home?’

  ‘She’s probably still getting over Auntie Marge. She wouldn’t have known anything about that, remember.’

  ‘No, I forgot. But Auntie Peggy could have let us know what was going on?’

  ‘She won’t want to interfere. Mum’s got to make up her own mind.’

  ‘I’d have thought she’d be desperate to see us.’

  ‘You’re still too young to understand, David. Come on, we’d better hurry or we’ll miss the bus and we’ll have to wait an hour for the next one.’

  He dutifully speeded up, but his face told of his inner dissatisfication with the way things were turning out. They waited at what was recognized as a courtesy bus stop, but the bus didn’t arrive on time, and they argued for some minutes over whether to go home and come back in an hour to get the next bus, or, as David wanted, to start walking in the hope that this bus had been held up and would catch up with them. Leila had finally given in, and they were twenty minutes on their way when a car drew up alongside them.

  They knew the driver by sight and he explained that the postman had told him there had been an accident about a mile and a half back. ‘Somebody apparently ran on to the road in front of the bus. Goodness knows how long it’ll be before you’ll get one, so you’d better hop in and I’ll give you a lift into town.’

  They accepted gratefully, and while they were speeding towards the city, he said, ‘You’re Alistair Ritchie’s two, aren’t you? I was at school with him, a year younger – Sid MacConnachie.’ Gathering from their animated faces that they would be interested in hearing about their father’s boyhood, he told them of the mischief Dougal and Alistair had got up to, but he changed the subject when they came to the outskirts of Aberdeen. ‘I was sorry to hear about your Auntie Marge. I only met her once or twice – at the dances for the boys at the camp during the war – but she was full of fun. I wasn’t called up for service, you see … graded 4F at my medical.’

  ‘4F?’ asked David, his curiosity aroused. ‘What was that?’

  ‘Well, you know what A1 means?’

  ‘The best there is?’

  ‘Right, and they graded you down from that. 4F was the lowest, practically branding you ready to kick the bucket.’ MacConnachie gave a throaty chuckle. ‘They failed you for deafness, flat feet, asthma and that kind of thing … and I had the lot.’ He grinned at Leila through the mirror after negotiating the intricacies of Queen’s Cross, a meeting of five streets. ‘Where do you want me to drop you? I turn down Holburn Street.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ she smiled. ‘Let us off when you come to Holburn Junction. We haven’t far to go from there.’

  As soon as the car stopped, David started to run, anxious in case his mother or father phoned to tell them what had been decided, while Leila hurried behind him.

  It was, however, almost noon before the telephone rang, but when David dived to answer it, it was Lexie Fraser to tell them that their father had been in an accident with the early morning bus and was in the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, although she was so upset that the boy had difficulty making out what she was saying. ‘Lock up the shop,’ she instructed, after obviously pulling herself together, ‘and get a taxi to the hospital, you and Leila. Tell the driver I’ll pay when you get here.’

  David looked at the receiver for a moment after she rang off, and Leila asked, ‘Well? It was Mum, wasn’t it? What did she say? Is she coming home?’

  He burst into tears now. ‘It was Lexie. Dad’s in hospital … it was him that was in that accident … but how could it be? He’s in London with Mum, isn’t he?’

  ‘How is he?’ Leila asked Lexie, thankful that the woman had appeared quickly, because the man at the door had been most unwilling to let them in without visiting cards, and the taxi driver had displayed obvious disbelief that he would be paid.

  ‘He’s still unconscious, but I thought you should be here in case he comes round.’

  ‘Have you told my Mum?’ David wanted to know, finding his voice at last.

  Lexie looked puzzled. ‘I thought nobody knew where your Mum was.’

  ‘She’s back in Lee Green,’ Leila cut in, to avoid David going into a long explanation.

  ‘Do you know her telephone number?’

  ‘I know the three of them,’ Leila said proudly, her voice trembling just a little. ‘Should I go and find a phone?’

  ‘If you don’t mind. I’ll wait with David till you come back.’

  Leila had rung her grandma’s number and her aunt’s before she found Gwen at Dougal’s, but it was Peggy who took control of the situation when she heard what had happened. ‘Leila, is anybody there with you … an older person, I mean?’

  ‘Yes, Lexie Fraser’s here. I don’t know yet how she found out about the accident, but it was her that phoned us. We’re all at the hospital, and Dad’s still unconscious.’

  ‘I’ll let Dougal know, and he’ll likely want to take your Mum up on the train. I’ll stay here with Nicky, and I won’t leave the house at all, so phone me the minute there’s any change in your Dad.’

  When Dougal and Gwen walked into the hospital waiting room the following day, both Leila and David looked ready to collapse, but stood up to hug their mother. Then Lexie rose to shake her hand.

  ‘I’m glad you’re here, Gwen,’ she murmured, ‘and you, too, Dougal, but we’d better leave the explanations till … later. I’ll take you along to see Alistair, but I’d better warn you, he’s not a pretty sight.’

  All five of them remained in the hospital for the rest of that day, taking it in turns to go to the small tearoom for a cup of tea and a biscuit, while the others kept vigil in the corridor outside Alistair’s ward. Dougal sought out one of the doctors to find out how hopeful they were of the patient’s recovery, and the elderly man, utterly worn out as he appeared to be, spent several minutes talking to him and Gwen.

  ‘He seems to think Ally should come round any time,’ Dougal observed cheerfully, when the doctor had left. ‘They can’t do much about anything till he does, so we’ll just have to wait to find out how the injuries will affect him.’

  Lexie insisted that she should take Leila and Dougal home that night, but it was three days later before Alistair regained consciousness and was pronounced out of danger, and another few hours before Dougal could persuade Gwen to leave the hospital.

  Not until they arrived at Benview, however, did she let her thoughts touch on the accident, and why Alistair had been in that particular spot at that particular time, a time when both Leila and David were under the impression that he had gone to Lee Green to fetch her home. ‘I’m sure Lexie Fraser knows something,’ she said to Dougal, when they were seated by the fireside. ‘She said explanations could wait, so … d’you think Alistair had been with her all night?’

  ‘Don’t torture yourself, Gwen. Look, why don’t I go and ask her to come and see you as soon as she can? It’s Sunday, and the shop’ll be shut by now. I’ll take Leila’s bike.’

  He had just tucked his trouser legs into his socks when they heard a vehicle drawing up outside. ‘It’s our car,’ Gwen muttered, looking out of the window. ‘Sandy Mearns is driving and Lexie’s coming out. So Alistair must have left the car there for some reason.’

  ‘Don’t upset yourself. Wait till you hear what she has to say.’

  They had to wait a further few minutes, Barry arriving to take his father back, before Lexie told them anything, and even if some of her story bordered on the unbelievable, it did go a long way to allay Gwen’s fears, though there were still a few things that niggled at her.

  ‘I wouldn’t have got through that night if he hadn’t been there with me,’ Lexie assured her. ‘Roddy had to go back on duty, so he was glad Alistair could stay. Look, Gwen, nothing went on between us, absolutely nothing. I don’t know why he came to see me, he didn’t get a chance to say because Roddy came to tell me they’d arrested Tom Birnie. He’s admitted to killing both his wife and my fathe
r, and as you can imagine, I was in such a state, I think Alistair was scared I’d do something silly … and maybe I would have, if he hadn’t been there.’

  Gwen still looked puzzled. ‘I understand all that, but why was he coming down from the tower at that time of morning? That’s what I can’t understand.’

  ‘To be honest, neither can I.’ Lexie met her eyes squarely. ‘Maybe he was trying to make up his mind about taking you back, and he’d decided he would. That would explain him rushing back … to pick up his car.’

  This bolstered Gwen’s flagging hopes of reconciliation with her husband.

  Roddy’s face told Lexie that something dreadful had happened, and he burst out with it as soon as he closed the door. ‘Tom Birnie committed suicide last night! Poisoned himself! We don’t know exactly what it was he used, we’ll have to wait for the autopsy report.’

  ‘But where would he have got poison? Wasn’t he searched?’

  ‘You’re as bad as my Super. He was stripped and searched, and nothing was found on him or his clothes, but he left a note … to rub my nose in it.’ Roddy’s long-suffering sigh told of the scorn his superintendent had heaped on him. ‘He said he had always known he was bound to be caught some time, and he had taken the precaution of making ready for it. He’d hollowed the heel of one of each pair of shoes he bought over the years, hidden a capsule of poison in the cavity then fixed a rubber heel on top.’

  ‘He’d been doing that for twenty years?’

  ‘It would always have been at the back of his mind, though nobody noticed anything odd about him. His wife says he was the kindest of men. She’s totally shocked, can’t believe the things he confessed to. He even boasted he’d married her bigamously, after running out on his second wife.’

  ‘Poor woman!’

  ‘It’s her I feel most sorry for, and all the other poor women he brutalized, including you. How are you, now, my dear? Have you got over …?’

  ‘I didn’t have time to think about that for days … but you don’t know, of course.’

  She told him about Alistair’s accident, about him still being in hospital in Aberdeen, then continued, ‘He stayed with me all night, you know, after you told us you’d arrested Tom Birnie.’

  Roddy looked at her questioningly. ‘You said he was running down from the tower and came out on to the road in front of the bus. What had he been doing up there?’

  Lexie took a moment to answer. ‘We’d had a disagreement, and he rushed out …’

  ‘A disagreement? Good God! At a time like that? What was going on, Lexie?’

  Having resolved to keep nothing back from him, she murmured, ‘I told you he never felt the same about me as I did about him when we were younger, but that night …’

  ‘You mean … he tried something on … after what I’d just told you?’

  ‘No, no, it wasn’t that. He wouldn’t believe that I didn’t love him, and he said I was a fool for … he said I was just a bit on the side for you, so I slapped his face. He wasn’t stable, you know. Being a prisoner of war changed him, and then Gwen leaving him …’

  Roddy bit his bottom lip. ‘I always had the nasty feeling there was still something between you.’

  ‘There wasn’t, just … a girl always has a sort of soft spot for her first love, no matter how he treated her. But he was mad at me for hitting him and he just slammed out.’

  A rather uncomfortable silence fell then, while she frantically thought of some way to change the subject. ‘Does Nancy know about Doctor Birnie?’ she asked, at last.

  ‘Last time we talked to her, she was told that he’d been arrested, but she doesn’t know that he killed himself.’

  ‘Oh, Roddy!’ Lexie burst into tears now, and as he held out his handkerchief to her, he said, ‘I know how you feel, my dear. You wish he hadn’t been such a coward. You wish he’d lived to be hanged for what he did. Am I right?’

  She nodded, but after a moment, she said, in a contrite little voice, ‘Is that bad of me?’

  ‘Not in the slightest. He was a monster, and even if he could turn on the charm and be a model husband, like this last “wife” says, it doesn’t excuse the anguish and agony he put his victims through, including his first wife. You should think of yourself now, put the past behind you.’

  Her heartbeats speeded up, but she could’t say what she knew he wanted her to say. There was still something holding her back, still the fear of being manipulated into something that would end in tears.

  ‘What’s wrong, my darling?’ His arms stole round her, and his eyes, and his voice, softened. ‘Is it still too soon for you? If it is, it’s all right. I love you, my darling, and I’m willing to wait.’

  She shook her head sorrowfully. ‘Oh, Roddy, I’m sorry.’

  ‘No need to be sorry, Lexie. As usual, I’ve jumped in with my size thirteen boots and made a muck of it.’

  ‘No, no! It’s not you … it’s me …

  There was something in his face now, a quirkiness that banished all her fears. This man could never hurt her. She would be safe with him … wouldn’t she?

  As if he sensed that the love blossoming within her was still quite fragile, his lips touched hers reverently, brushing, lingering, until, with a soft sigh, she gave herself up to the magic of his kisses, the magic of him.

  ‘Lexie,’ he murmured after a minute or so, ‘I want you to be quite, quite sure, before you commit yourself …’

  ‘I am,’ she whispered into his ear, ‘quite, quite sure.’

  With a quick intake of breath, he took her face between his hands. ‘Isn’t it about time you told me how much you love me?’

  Needless to say, it was some hours before Detective Inspector Roderick Liddell left the house behind the general storecum-Post Office, during which time everlasting love had been sworn, a proposal of marriage had been made … and accepted.

  1950

  Chapter 37

  After going over and over it in her mind, Gwen decided that she’d have to tell Alistair about Lexie and Roddy Liddell. Once he started going out again, he would hear it for himself, and it was better that it came from her. The trouble was, he was so unstable, how would he take it, and when would be the best time?

  She waited until afternoon. She generally sat with him for a couple of hours after lunch was over and her housework was done, and before she had to prepare the evening meal. It was a peaceful time, a time to discuss what was in the newspaper and on the wireless, a time to talk about anything she was sure would not upset him. Even after six months, he was still fragile, in mind as well as body, and had to be treated with kid gloves.

  ‘The new man’s taking over the shop today,’ she began, carefully.

  ‘Aye,’ he said, in his usual expressionless voice, so that she could never be certain if he had actually taken in what she said. ‘Sandy Mearns told me this morning.’

  The postman had been a lifeline to Gwen. He had arranged that their delivery be the last of his morning round, which let him have half an hour or so to sit and speak to Alistair over a cup of tea and a biscuit. Perhaps it was because he was older, on the verge of retirement, that he was the only one who seemed to get through to him. Not even David, nor Leila who was his favourite, could hold his attention for more than a few minutes, yet he chatted away to Sandy all the time he was there, which gave her freedom to do things she couldn’t get at otherwise. If she was out of Alistair’s sight for longer than it took to go to the bathroom, he was shouting for her.

  Dragging her thoughts back to the matter in hand, she said, brightly, ‘I’m glad for Lexie. She waited a long time, and she couldn’t have picked a nicer man than Roddy.’

  Alistair’s brow wrinkled. ‘Roddy? The ’tec? But he hasn’t taken over the shop?’

  She couldn’t help wondering, not for the first time, why he seemed to have such a down on the man, but she let it pass. ‘No, it’s a Bill Munro, and I don’t know where he comes from. I meant … Lexie’s marrying Roddy on Saturday in Aberdeen and I w
ish I could go and see her. She’ll make a lovely bride.’

  Her husband was silent for so long that she wished she hadn’t raised the subject after all. Lexie was one of his closest friends, and besides helping Leila and David at the time of their father’s accident, she had stayed at his bedside until his wife managed to be there with him. Had there been more than friendship between them? Had the romance of their childhood carried over into adulthood, or had it lapsed when he went to London and been revived again when he returned to Forvit? There had been other occasions when she had been suspicious, had felt jealous of Lexie, but it had always blown over. Not this time.

  Yet … if he loved Lexie, why had he been so upset when he learned about … his wife’s one and only slip? It would have been an ideal let-out for him, a perfect reason to file for divorce, but he hadn’t taken it. That was why she had always hoped …

  ‘Aren’t you happy for Lexie?’ she asked, wanting to get at the truth once and for all. In his present state, he wasn’t capable of carrying off a downright lie. ‘You thought quite a lot of her at one time, didn’t you?’

  His eyes, when he turned them on her, were accusing, as if he knew exactly what she was up to. ‘Yes,’ he said, slowly and very deliberately, ‘I’ve always thought quite a lot of Lexie, and if Dougal Finnie hadn’t whisked me off to London, I’d likely have married her. Is that what you wanted me to say?’

  Disappointment almost choked her. She’d wanted him to tell her that it had only been puppy love between him and Lexie, that it was his love for her that was the real thing, the true love, but she had been deluding herself all these years. ‘So … you’re not happy for her?’ she got out with great difficulty, laying herself wide open to further heartache.

  At that moment, the telephone rang, and she jumped up, relieved yet angry at being interrupted. He watched as she listened intently for a few seconds, and then without having said a word herself, she held out the receiver to him. ‘It’s Dougal,’ but held her ear as near to it as she could.