Next of Kin

by Welfare, Sue

  Woody nodded. ‘If you need me…’ he let the sentence hang.

  Sarah smiles, grateful. ‘Thank you.’

  Sarah heard the van pull up at around half past six and, taking the tee shirt and the jewellery, she waited for a couple of minutes to let him get inside and then went downstairs to Ryan’s flat. She caught him at the door just as he was fumbling around in his pockets for his keys. The sun had bleached his hair, he looked tanned and fit and happy. He looked up as she picked her way down the steps behind him.

  ‘Hi, what’re you doing? I thought your text said you were going to be at work tonight?’ he said.

  ‘I was but something’s come up; I wanted to have a chat.’

  ‘Oh okay, sure come on in,’ Ryan said brightly, shouldering the door open as the key turned. ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess.’ He grinned. ‘I’m thinking I really ought to get myself a cleaner. How are you fixed? Or do you want me to come upstairs? I’ll just grab a quick shower. I was wondering, is there any chance you could cut my hair? I could do with a bit off the back and off the fringe.’ He grabbed a handful.’ Just maybe take the ends off?’

  When they were little their mum had always cut their hair. Since she had gone Sarah had taken over the job. Ryan was happy and tired and Sarah was reluctant to embark on the conversation that she knew she had to have with him. She had been nearly six when Ryan was born, and when he was little she had loved him so fiercely that she thought she might die. She didn’t want him to be a liar or a thief, she wanted him to take all the clever bright funny things that he was and be more than this, be more than the bundle of jewellery she was holding in her hand. He was worth so much more; all her love for him was worth that alone.

  ‘So, do you want me to come up later?’

  ‘No, here is just fine,’ she said, following him inside. The air in the basement was heavy and stale, thick with the scent of frying, damp washing and the smell of sweat and old trainers.

  ‘Do you want some tea?’ he asked, opening the fridge, pulling out a carton of milk and sniffing it speculatively.

  ‘No, thanks. I’m fine.’

  ‘So to what do I owe the pleasure, then? If it’s about the money I’ve had off Woody then don’t start, okay? I’ve got it here. Cash, two hundred and forty quid; you can have it now if you like.’

  Sarah nodded. ‘That would be good.’

  He slipped his hand into the back pocket of his jeans, pulled out a fold of notes, counted out some, and dropped them onto the table. ‘There you go. Do you want to sit down?’

  ‘No, not really.’

  He eyed her up; cooler now. ‘So what is it? If it’s about the rubbish round the back door I promise I’ll sort it out tomorrow. And I’ve got a couple more days’ work next week too. Don was saying he might be able to find me something a bit more regular. Maybe even on the books. I told him to sign me up. Show me the way. You know, like a proper job?’ Ryan laughed. ‘You sure you don’t want a drink? I’ve got a beer here somewhere; it might be a bit warm though.’

  Sarah set the tee shirt down in amongst the chaos on the kitchen table and picked up the money.

  ‘What’s that?’ Ryan asked, tucking the rest of the notes back into his pocket.

  ‘I think you probably already know.’

  Ryan shrugged. ‘No, I don’t. Why would I?’

  She looked at his face. Oh he was good. ‘Ryan, please, don’t do this,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t do what? I don‘t know what it is. Something I’m meant to have lost or spoilt or put in with white wash, what?’ He picked up the tee shirt. It fell open as if he really didn’t know what was wrapped up in it. Clever, very clever. The jewellery spilt out onto the table, clattering down in amongst the bowls and the mugs and the bottles of sauce.

  He looked at Sarah. ‘For fuck sake, what’s all this? Is it some kind of joke?’ His good mood had evaporated. ‘This is my tee shirt.’

  Sarah nodded. ‘I know.’

  His expression darkened. ‘Oh right, I get it. Here we go again. I know where this is going, Ryan the thief, Ryan the liar. Ryan who can’t be bloody trusted,’ he growled. ‘That’s what you think, isn’t it?’

  ‘I don’t want to think that, Ryan, but how else do you explain it?’

  ‘I can’t explain it. I don’t need to explain it. I’ve never seen any of this stuff before.’ He stopped and looked closer. ‘Hang on, those are Mum’s earrings, aren’t they? You think I’d steal jewellery that belonged to Mum? Where did you find all this stuff?’

  ‘ Woody found it in the shed.’

  ‘Okay, well I can’t remember the last time I was anywhere near the shed. I have no idea how it ended up there. Do you understand?’

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘You don’t believe me, do you? You think I put it there, don’t you?’

  ‘How else could it have got there?’

  ‘I don’t know, and if I’d stolen it why did I hide it? Why didn’t I sell it or pawn it. Why hide it, Sarah? It makes no sense. Have you talked to Woody about it?’

  ‘Woody?’ said Sarah.

  ‘Yeah. I’m assuming this is Anna’s stuff that got stolen. I wasn’t the only one in the house that night, you know. Have you asked him what he knows about it? What he was doing? Did you get around to accusing him?’

  Sarah stared at him; the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. ‘No of course not.’

  ‘Why not?’ Ryan snapped.

  ‘You mean Woody, the man who you’re always telling me is minted, who you’re always borrowing money off? Why would he steal someone else’s money and jewellery? Tell me that? You told me yourself he’s as sound as a pound.’

  Ryan ran his hands back through his hair and then gestured towards the jewellery. ‘It wasn’t me, all right? You have to believe me. I don’t know anything about this stuff or how it got in the shed. I really don’t, Sarah. Someone else must have been here. And I’m serious about Woody, what if he is having people round when we’re out, you never know.’ Ryan was gabbling now, looking for another way out.

  Sarah nodded. ‘You’re right. I will ask him. I’m going to take the things round to Anna’s tomorrow.’

  ‘And say what?’ Sarah could see she had his full attention.

  ‘That I found it in the garden. Ryan.’ She paused. ‘But this is the last time I’m going to lie for you. I can’t cover up for you if you break the law, do you understand? This has got to stop. I don’t care what you tell me. You need to turn your life around, get a grip – sort it out, before it’s too late.’

  He slammed his fist down on the table, the shock of the blow making Sarah jump as cups and bottles tumbled over, a glass crashing to the floor. And then he looked up at Sarah, his face a mask. ‘For god’s sake, I already told you that I didn’t do it, didn’t I? What does it take to make you believe me? Some of this is Mum’s stuff. I just said I wouldn’t take Mum’s stuff, surely you ought to know that?’

  Sarah said nothing. She wanted to believe him but the problem was that Ryan lied to her all the time. She gathered the jewellery back up into the tee shirt and rolled it up; the truth was, however much he protested, however much she hated it, Sarah didn’t believe a word he had said.

  ‘I promise you it wasn’t me,’ Ryan said as she was leaving. ‘I’ll show you. I will.’

  Sarah nodded and went back upstairs. She had heard it all before.

  Sarah

  ‘You say that you’d heard it all before, Sarah? What do you mean?’

  ‘When Ryan was, I don’t know, nine maybe, he got caught shoplifting in the local newsagents. Mr Patel, the man who owned the shop, rang my mum up. He knew my dad was sick and he didn’t want to involve the police if possible or upset my mum any more than necessary. At the time I think we were all stunned, but it kind of made sense of lots of things that had been happening at home at around the same time, money had been going missing, my pens and things, some of my mum’s oddments – just knick-knacks mostly, ornaments, costume jewellery. The thing was th
at Dad was really ill and it was only a matter of time. Maybe by then he’d just got a couple of months left, I can’t remember exactly, but I remember he was at home, downstairs in the front room of our old house, and there was Mum nursing him, up all hours of the night, sorting every out, trying to keep it all together. Mr Patel didn’t press charges because he knew Mum and Dad. Mum said she thought it was Ryan’s way of dealing with the stress. His reaction to Dad being ill and the centre of attention; and that he was attention seeking, finding a way to make people take notice of him.’

  ‘It was a long time ago.’

  ‘But it wasn’t the only time. When Mum was first diagnosed with cancer, Ryan and a couple of his mates stole a car. Stupid. I wanted to kill him. We’d got enough on our plates without anything else happening, and there he was off joy riding.’

  ‘So you had good reason to suspect that Ryan may have taken the jewellery from Anna’s room? You didn’t have a problem with believing that it was Ryan?’

  ‘I didn’t say I didn’t have a problem with it. I hated it. He’s an adult now, not a child anymore. He’s got no excuse for it. I didn’t want to believe it; I didn’t want him to be a thief and a liar. I felt like he had betrayed me, betrayed us.’

  ‘But you took the jewellery back?’

  ‘Yes. The next day on my way home from work. I told Anna that I’d found it in the garden shed; I told her about my mum’s stuff being in there too. I could see that she didn’t believe me, but you could see that she was glad to get her things back.’

  ‘Okay, and was this around the time that you first met Josh Phillips?’

  ‘Yes, I was working at the nursery, with my friend, Anessa. We were sorting out a delivery of plants when he came in. I can’t remember what he wanted now. He just sort of stopped and looked at me and then he grinned, and Anessa pointed at him and said, ‘I think you’ve got an admirer.’

  ‘You’re smiling, Sarah.’

  ‘I know. I’m sorry, I can’t help it. It felt like rain after a long drought. Josh was a breath of fresh air. I laughed and said maybe he was looking at her, and she said, “No way”. And then he came over and we just started talking. It just seemed so easy. I can’t remember what we talked about now, exactly, and then he told me he was a garden designer, and Anessa said she would leave me to help him – at which point I told him I was rubbish with plants. I think he thought I was joking.’

  ‘And he asked you out?’

  ‘Kind of. I’d only gone in for a half day to help Anessa with the delivery so he said he’d come back when I was finished and take me out for lunch. I said I’d cycled in, so he put my bike in the back of his truck.’

  ‘And you just went with him?’

  ‘I know, I suppose it was crazy but yes, it felt okay. It felt good. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at me.’

  ‘I find that hard to believe, Sarah.’

  ‘Okay, maybe it was a long time since I’d looked at anyone.’

  ‘But you looked at Josh Phillips?’

  ‘Yes I did. I really did.’

  Chapter Five

  ‘God, this is so nice. What did you say it was again?’

  Josh grinned. ‘I’ve got no idea. Some sort of goulash, I think. You have to take potluck here. It’s always the same. They do three starters, three main courses and three desserts.’

  Sarah spooned the last chunk of meat into her mouth. ‘The same three things?’

  ‘No, always seasonal. And the food’s always been really good every time I’ve been in. I eat here a lot. ’

  ‘I can see why,’ she said, tearing a hunk of bread from the newly baked loaf the waitress had set down in the middle of their table.

  They’d taken the window seat in a little café in an alleyway a stone’s throw from the market square. The cafe was squeezed in between an upmarket dress shop and a place selling second hand books. It was long and narrow and set with bench tables, and it was busy. Most of the tables were full, full with people sharing with strangers, tucked in elbow to elbow. At the table next to them a group of Chinese tourists were busy taking pictures of each other.

  Josh smiled and, leaning in closer, wiped something from her chin. ‘There we go,’ he said. ‘That’s better.’

  ‘Gravy?’

  He nodded.

  Sarah blushed. His touch made her feel hot, and she giggled. ‘Thank you. Sorry, I was ravenous.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ he said. ‘Do you live locally?’

  ‘Not that far away, in Maudsley Terrace. It’s just off Victoria Road. Other side of the river to Jesus Green?’

  Josh nodded and mopped up the last of the juices from his own bowl. ‘I think I know where you mean. To be honest I’m just getting my bearings.’ He glanced up at the day’s special, written on a blackboard above the counter. ‘Do you fancy a dessert?’

  She nodded. ‘Sounds like a good idea.’

  They ate treacle tart and drank coffee, talking and laughing while the other diners moved around them almost unnoticed.

  ‘So where do you live?’ Sarah asked, spooning the froth from the coffee into her mouth.

  ‘I’m renting a cottage in Cottenham at the moment. It’s nice, small. A mate of mine, Andy, runs a landscaping and garden design business, and he asked if I wanted to go in with him.’

  ‘And are you going to go in with him?’

  ‘Yes, or at least I’m seriously thinking about it. At the moment he’s got more work than he can handle. I’m giving it a year. See how we get on working together. I’m already bringing in work – so we’ll see. So far, so good. I’m enjoying it.’

  ‘We’ll be seeing a lot more of you then?’ Sarah said, conversationally.

  Josh smiled and leaned in close, holding her gaze. ‘I hope so.’

  Sarah felt her colour rising. ‘I meant at the nursery.’

  Josh grinned. ‘Oh right, yeah. And there too.’

  Their plates were empty, their coffee finished, but it didn’t seem like either of them wanted to leave.

  ‘I really ought to be going,’ said Sarah finally, pulling her purse out of her handbag.

  ‘My treat,’ he said, taking out his wallet.

  When she began to protest, he said, ‘Don’t worry, you can get it next time.’

  Sarah grinned. ‘So, there’s going to be a next time, is there?’

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘Okay, you’re on,’ she said.

  Reluctantly, Josh got to his feet. ‘I’m going to go and look at a garden this afternoon. I know it’s a bit of a busman’s holiday but don’t suppose I can persuade you to tag along, can I? Dry shade; I’d really value your opinion on the planting.’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ Sarah was hesitant, not wanting to seem too eager.

  ‘It’s also only about a five minute drive from here.’

  ‘I already told you I’m genuinely rubbish at gardening.’

  He grinned. ‘I can’t say I haven’t been warned then, can I?’ He held out a hand to help her off the bench and she took it, enjoying the sensation of her hand in his.

  Sarah

  ‘So am I right in thinking that you re-advertised the second room, the room that Anna had rented, at around the same time as you first met Josh Phillips?’

  ‘Yes. I think so. More or less.’

  ‘And how did you advertise the room?’

  ‘On Gumtree and a couple of other websites. I’m not great with computers but I’ve got a laptop. I didn’t think we’d have a lot of trouble letting it again. We’d had lots of interest first time round and I couldn’t be sure that Ryan would stick to what he’d said about not subbing off Woody. I wanted to be sure that there was regular money coming in.’

  ‘Okay. And what about Ryan? How did he react when you said you were trying to find someone else to take the second room?’

  ‘When I tried to talk to him about it he said that I didn’t have to do it. He told me that he would sort things out, and that he was going for an interview for a proper jo
b; that he would show me that he could be the man. That he wanted to sort stuff out – turn things around.’

  ‘And that’s what he said, “Be the man”. I’m not sure I understand?’

  ‘It’s what my mum used to say to him after Dad died, when he started to kick off or there was something important that she wanted him to be good for. “You have to be the man now, Ryan”. I think she was hoping that it would make him feel important, make him toe the line.’

  ‘Right, okay, and so when he said that to you, you assumed Ryan meant what exactly, Sarah?’

  ‘That he would step up, get himself a regular job. He’d done it before when Mum was in hospital. At least eventually he did when Mum had a word with him. I thought that maybe the thing with the jewellery had shaken him up. Being caught more or less red-handed.’

  ‘And so did it?’

  ‘It seemed to, at least to begin with. He started paying money towards the bills regularly, not always his full share, but most of it. He seemed different. He was working most weeks. And he cleaned himself up.’

  ‘And so did you have any takers for the second room?’

  ‘A couple of people came round, but then Ryan came in one afternoon and told me that he’d got this project sorted out – some sort of big contract – and that we’d be all right, that we wouldn’t have to let the other room.’

  ‘And you believed him?’

  ‘Not really but he kept on about me needing to learn to trust him. To let him prove himself.’

  ‘So you gave in over renting the room?’

  ‘Reluctantly. I suppose I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, even then. Although I did try to persuade him that it would be much easier for both of us if we had another lodger – it would take the pressure off – but he was adamant. He said he hated having strangers living in the house. But I wasn’t so sure. He’d had a couple of regular jobs over the years but they’d never lasted that long, although this sounded more promising, like he was working with people he’d worked with before.’