False Friends

by False Friends (retail) (epub)

  ‘He’s fond of you and he’ll realize that you aren’t tainted by your father being convicted. Tell him everything, then he’ll understand.’

  To Lowri the words sounded like a mother pacifying a child with false words.

  ‘The missing money is the stumbling block to accepting that,’ she said. ‘The prosecution convinced a jury that Dad had been embezzling money from the business and that was why he had to kill Owen. How can I expect him to understand that? Even saying it aloud it’s hard to convince myself sometimes.’

  ‘Anyway, he has to be told. It will be harder to convince him if he learns from someone else.’

  ‘I suppose it’s a miracle he hasn’t found out already.’

  ‘There you are, a small miracle! Now all we want is a big one!’

  Smiling at Marion’s attempt to cheer her, Lowri decided that she would tell Ken the next time they met. But the small miracle was not to be, she had waited too long.

  They met at five thirty when the post office closed and Ken handed her a bag of sweets, coconut macaroons, her favourite. His sweet ration was usually spent giving her little treats on their dates. He had the car and they drove towards the cinema, but he pulled into a lay-by and turned off the engine. Turning in his seat, he stared at her, his expression almost invisible in the pale light from a nearby street lamp.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Is something wrong with the car?’

  ‘You’ve been evasive when I’ve asked where your parents live,’ he said, his voice catching in his throat. ‘Is it because your father is in prison?’

  ‘Who told you?’ she asked in a low voice.

  ‘It doesn’t matter who, what does matter is it should have been you.’

  ‘I couldn’t. I’m sorry, Ken. I’ve lost so many friends since this happened and I didn’t want the same to happen to you.’

  ‘Perhaps I’d have walked away, if you’d told me straight away, I don’t know. But finding out after all these weeks is an insult.’

  ‘You’d better take me to the bus stop. I’ll find my own way home.’

  ‘You believe I’d do that? Your opinion of me must be even lower than I thought.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I think we should abandon the pictures, but shouldn’t we go somewhere and talk about what happened? I’d like to hear your version rather than the newspaper reports which is where I have my information from, after someone put it on my desk this afternoon.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I read enough to learn about the trial, waited until the shock had subsided, then threw it into the waste-paper bin. Loudly, so everyone could hear, I then announced that the gossip was not necessary as I already knew.’

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ she whispered. As Ken started the car and drove off, Lowri shrank back in her seat struggling to hold back tears. She would never be free of this. Never.

  They drove back to Badgers Brook and with Marion visiting her family they were able to talk. Ken listened in silence as she told him the story of her father’s arrest and sentence. ‘So, with this Ellis Owen, whom your father believed was responsible for stealing from the business, now dead, there’s no one to prove otherwise,’ he summed up.

  Hesitantly, she told him of her foolish belief that she had seen Ellis. ‘I know it was only wishful thinking,’ she said before he could comment. ‘But his survival is the only chance my father has of being reprieved. So I believed it – for a while at least.’

  ‘D’you think every person guilty of a serious crime is able to convince his loved ones he is innocent?’

  ‘Dad is innocent!’

  ‘I can’t imagine my father harming a soul, and even faced with the most damning evidence, I would still not believe it.’

  ‘So I should accept his guilt and forget miracles?’

  He turned to look at her, with such compassion in his eyes that she felt a lessening of her anxiety, a sensation that she was no longer alone. ‘I wouldn’t,’ he said softly.

  Although he kissed her as he left, there was a lack of warmth. She was saddened by the realization that news of her father’s predicament had created a space between them, an awareness that he had metaphorically taken a few steps away from her. They continued to meet but there was a tension that hadn’t been there before. She was afraid their feelings for each other were on a slow slide into oblivion and there was no one to blame but herself. She should have told him, trusted him.

  *

  Since Lowri and Marion had become tenants of Badgers Brook their friendship had grown, yet there were still parts of Marion’s life into which Lowri was not allowed to enter. Besides visits to her family, and the odd hours she worked, Marion often went for walks, always on her own. On these occasions, she insisted that she needed to relieve herself of excess energy, and although Lowri was offered a casual invitation to go with her, she was left with the strong impression that her presence was not really required. Lowri would watch her friend set off at a gentle run, down the path and across the road, where she would jump the ditch before disappearing among the trees.

  It took her a while, but at the end of February, when she and Ken were walking the few steps home from a visit to Kitty and Bob Jennings, she suddenly laughed and said, ‘It’s a boyfriend!’

  ‘What is?’ Ken asked, sharing her smile, aware that a joke was about to be explained.

  ‘Marion’s secrecy! I think she has a boyfriend and for some reason doesn’t want to tell me about him. D’you think he’s much younger than her? Or covered in spots? Or so dull she’d be too embarrassed to introduce him? Perhaps her parents don’t know and when she says she’s going home, she’s really meeting this secret friend.’

  They exchanged ideas about the unseen young man as they unlocked the door and went inside. The gas light was low and Lowri pulled the thin chain to bring it to its full strength, then whispered, ‘Shall I face her with it? Demand the truth?’

  ‘The truth about what?’ a voice asked and Lowri jumped, and found herself in Ken’s arms. ‘Marion! What are you doing in the dark?’

  ‘I’ve been sleeping and you noisy pair woke me rather suddenly. What time is it?’

  ‘Eight o’clock. Are you ill?’ Concerned, Lowri went towards Marion and saw to her horror that one side of her face was badly scraped. Blood had seeped through where the skin had been pulled away and her eyebrow was cut and still bleeding. ‘Marion! What happened? What have you done?’

  Ken went to the kitchen where he knew they kept their minimal supply of medication and brought out cotton wool and some salve. He scrubbed his hands then, while Marion sat trembling with shock and explained what had happened to Lowri, he bathed her injuries and applied the ointment.

  ‘I went through the wood following the tracks of the badgers,’ Marion told them. ‘Then I went further and climbed the hill. Evening mist was creeping across the fields and I realized I’d gone too far and it would soon be dark so I hurried back. I came along the track to the right at the top of the lane, creepy place it is after dark. I picked up speed, tripped over the rough grass and fell down the side of the track. I did this as I rolled through bushes into the field below. Stupid, eh?’

  ‘But what were you doing on that side of the wood?’ Lowri asked, offering her friend a cup of hot sweet tea.

  ‘I had a lift for part of the way then I walked around the outside of the wood instead of cutting through. It was getting dark and I thought I was less likely to trip. I forgot how terribly overgrown that track has become, idiot that I am. It was so overgrown and dark I imagined someone watching me and I ran. Mam told me someone once tried to kill himself by running his wheelchair off the track. Someone who lived in Badgers Brook. Thinking of this I was really spooked, I certainly wasn’t concentrating.’

  Lowri glanced at Ken and they shared a frown of disbelief. Whatever happened to Marion, she was not telling them the true story. Ken left soon after and Lowri asked no more questions. Marion was secretive and obviously not telling her the truth bu
t she didn’t want to pester her after the shock she had suffered. Tomorrow she would persuade her to talk, and hopefully find out what had really happened.

  For a fleeting moment she wondered whether the mysterious boyfriend had hurt her, but realized that the injuries did not appear to be the result of a fight. Neither did they represent a fall through bushes and on to a soft, soggy, wet field. Besides, on the clothes Marion had discarded and which Lowri brought down for washing, there wasn’t even the smallest patch of mud.

  When Lowri woke the following morning there was no sign of Marion. A note on the table told her that her friend had an early start at the house of Mr Morgan, a man for whom she occasionally cleaned, but whom she had never met. This wasn’t surprising, several of Marion’s clients, as she called them, were out all day and left money and instructions for her.

  At lunch-time, after eating a snack at the cafe, Lowri went to the telephone box and spoke to Dic. She described Marion’s accident, exaggerating the mystery to amuse him.

  ‘Whatever she did, it wasn’t falling in to a muddy field. It looked as though she’d scraped her poor face on a brick wall! Perhaps it was a rock face and she’s a climber, a modest and anonymous member of a rescue team?’

  ‘Or perhaps her secret lover is a hermit, living in a cave far from human contact apart from her visits? Or she steals birds eggs? Or photographs rare creatures, wearing camouflage and hanging from dangerous ledges like a bat?’

  Whether it was the fear of laughing aloud, remembering Dic’s comments, Lowri hesitated to ask Marion any questions that evening and as days went by and the skin on Marion’s face, legs and arms slowly healed, the moment passed and it was no longer easy to bring up the subject. Her friend was a perfect housemate, apart from her determination to keep part of her life a secret and Lowri knew that if she offended Marion by demanding answers, she would have difficulty finding someone else who would share Badgers Brook with her so amicably.

  *

  Dic was restless. Work needed his concentration and the figures he designed just wouldn’t grow under his ministrations. He had almost finished the humorously crooked boat, which he intended giving to Lowri, and he put it aside. A moment’s carelessness and it would be ruined. He closed the shop thankfully at five thirty and went to collect the children from his parents’ home.

  His mother was out with Sarah-Jane and Katie. They had gone to the pantomime and wouldn’t be home for another hour. Dic took the opportunity to talk to his father.

  ‘Dad, how d’you feel about Jimmy Vaughan after these past months? Do you still believe he’s guilty?’

  ‘I swell with anger every time I think of him. We’d started from nothing and built up a good business and he ruined it by stealing the money we should have been putting back into the business. It would have trebled the size in another year and he ruined it by impatience and greed.’

  ‘Don’t you ever wonder if he was set up by someone else?’

  ‘Ellis Owen, you mean? No, I don’t. Ellis didn’t have the intelligence. He might have had more opportunity for fraud, being responsible for the accounts, but Jimmy had always overseen what Ellis did, and looking back, his interest was unnecessarily thorough. No, Dic, I have no doubts that he was guilty of fraud.’

  ‘And the murder? You knew Jimmy for years, can you believe him guilty of killing someone for money? The amount was substantial, but as you say, it was less than he stood to make over the next few years.’

  ‘I couldn’t believe it at first, but when the case was made in court there seemed no doubt. I try not to think of him these days.’

  ‘Why? Do you have doubts?’

  Angrily, Jack stood up and glared at him. ‘I know what’s going through your mind! You’ve been seeing Lowri and feel sorry for her. It’s clouding your judgement. It was you who first pointed the finger at Jimmy, remember. And your evidence that convicted him. So wishing won’t change anything. The facts were clear. Jimmy lost his temper when Ellis threatened him with the police, then the fear of being discovered turned him into a murderer.’

  ‘But this is so out of character, you and he built the business and it was on the way to a real success story. I just can’t believe he would change so much that—’

  ‘Forget him!’ Jack shouted. ‘And forget Lowri, she’s your uneasy conscience. Getting a man imprisoned for fraud, and suspected of the death of Ellis is on your conscience and something you’ll never forget while you keep seeing Lowri and feel sorry for her!’

  In the silence that followed his father’s tirade, Dic heard the sound of a car outside and he took a deep breath and turned to greet his daughters. They ran in, rosy-faced, both trying to tell him about the performance they had enjoyed. He knelt down and hugged them and asked questions until their need for food overcame their excitement. Then Katie, aged three, reached into her pocket and brought out some warm, soft toffees. ‘I saved these for Lowri,’ she told him proudly. ‘I wanted to eat them but I saved them for when we go to Badgers Brook.’

  ‘Can we go tomorrow?’ her sister pleaded. ‘We want to tell her about the panto and sing her the song we learnt.’

  Dic glared defiantly at his father and said, ‘Of course we can. We’ll go at the weekend. Now, sing your new song to me.’ Dic was aware of his father’s anger at the mention of Lowri, but smiled at Sarah-Jane and Katie and encouraged them to perform.

  Together they sang the silly song that ‘Buttons’ had taught them and he hugged them and told them he was proud of them. But the moment, so precious, was spoilt by the stiff-backed anger of his father, that seemed to fill the air around him. As they sang it a second time, Dic smiled and imagined the scene at Badgers Brook as they performed their new song for Lowri. Relaxed and happy in that warm and wonderful place, away from doubts and anger, just the joy of watching his daughters in the peaceful companionship of Lowri.

  He explained his father’s anger to his mother and Cathy sympathized. ‘I’ve been unable to talk about it but I’ve never believed Jimmy was guilty,’ she whispered. ‘A man died and Jimmy must be partly responsible because of the fight they had, but none of it is Lowri’s fault. Give her my love when you see her, try to explain, tell her I miss her, will you?’

  Without saying anything further to his father, afraid of causing another argument, Dic took the girls to Badgers Brook on Sunday afternoon and found the house full. Kitty and Bob Jennings from the lane, and Stella and Bob from the post office, plus Betty Connors, glad of a break from her full-time job at The Ship and Compass, Gwennie Flint and Geoff and Connie, the owners of Badgers Brook. As he ushered the children in, he wondered whether the gathering was to celebrate a birthday.

  ‘No birthday,’ Lowri said in reply to his question. ‘There’s never an excuse needed. This house gathers people in and instantly there’s a party.’

  ‘My mother must have guessed,’ he said. ‘She sent you a few sandwiches and a cake.’ He handed her a couple of carefully wrapped packages. Knowing they were from Cathy Morris, who had never spoken to her since her father was arrested, made her want to throw them into the bin, but she thanked him and added them to the pile of overladen plates in the kitchen, and filled the kettle. ‘Tea now and food in an hour. All right?’

  Solemnly, Katie pulled out the now misshapen toffees and handed them to Lowri. Lowri knelt down and hugged both girls and thanked Katie for her present, sharing an amused glance with Dic. They then announced they had a new song and proceeded to sing it three times.

  As the food was being set out on the long Welsh oak table in the kitchen, Dic managed to have a few private words with Lowri.

  ‘I know your father’s situation seems hopeless,’ he began, ‘but there must be something somewhere that will break the chain of evidence. Someone searched your belongings. It wasn’t a normal opportunist thief, nothing was stolen, so he must have been searching for some specific thing.’

  ‘Don’t build up my hopes any more, Dic,’ she said sadly. ‘I’ve been foolish, dreaming of a miracle and
imagining I’ve seen Ellis Owen. I have to stop, accept what can’t be changed and get on with my life.’

  ‘Of course. You must do those things, but while I have this niggle in the back of my mind, like you, I will never really give up hope of that miracle.’

  She hugged him and whispered a tearful, ‘Thank you.’ She stepped towards him and his arms came around her, he lowered his head until his cheek rested on her hair. She was reluctant to move.

  ‘Anything you find, or remember, I want you to tell me and no one else. Right?’

  ‘Right,’ she promised.

  ‘Can I borrow that key?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘It might fit the hut your father and mine used when they were fishing early morning or late at night.’

  ‘That’s very unlikely. The police have searched it several times, most recently when my father escaped. There’ll be nothing to find.’

  ‘I still want to look.’

  She found the key and he held her hand as they went to the kitchen where the impromptu party was underway.

  Scars were still visible on Marion’s face and arms, but everyone had accepted her story about falling on the track beside the wood.

  ‘That’s where poor Ralph Murton fell from his wheelchair,’ Stella said.

  ‘Talking about falling, did you hear about a young woman who almost fell from the cliff a week or so back?’ Connie asked. ‘Apparently she was hanging on to a rope but was having difficulty getting back up and a man passing in a small rowing boat called for someone to help. A man appeared and she was hauled up. When the police arrived there was no sign of them.’

  ‘How stupid, fooling about at the edge of a cliff,’ Marion said quickly. ‘You wouldn’t catch me doing anything that dangerous.’

  Lowri said nothing, but she was thinking of the evening Marion was sitting in the dark, covered with unexplained scraped and bleeding skin.

  Leaving the children at Badgers Brook that afternoon, Dic went to see Tommy and Rachel Treweather, the farmers on the other side of the wood. They owned the hut on the cliffs and he wanted permission to go there.