by Taylor Leon
Cade helped him into the back of the car. ‘Sean, this is Erin.’
‘Hi Sean,’ I said, and he glanced up at me and smiled. A great big beam of a smile.
Then he turned to Cade and whispered. ‘She’s pretty. Is she your girlfriend?’
Cade laughed as he pulled the seatbelt across his son and clipped it in. I think I blushed. I felt my cheeks burn, for sure.
‘No, she’s not my girlfriend,’ Cade said, his eyes twinkling when he looked over at me. ‘Erin works with me.’
‘Is she a policeman too?’
‘Why don’t you ask her?’
He turned around to face me. ‘Are you a policeman?’
‘I’m a policewoman,’ I smiled and reached out a hand to shake his. ‘Very pleased to meet you, Sean.’
Cade jumped back into the driver’s seat. He looked so proud.
‘He’s so sweet,’ I whispered.
Cade turned around and winked at his son. ‘You ok back there, buddy?’
Then back to me. ‘You want me to drop you back at the station?’
I looked down at my watch. It was three-thirty. ‘Where are you guys going?’
‘I thought we might grab an ice-cream at Treat Yourself, then I’ve got to drop Sean back at his Mum’s house. We’d love you to join us. Wouldn’t we Sean?’ Cade twisted around in his seat.
I heard a high pitched “Yayy!’ in response from the back.
An hour’s chill time wouldn’t hurt anyone, so I went with them to the dessert lounge.
Treat Yourself was designed like a late night drinks bar, only it served desserts; waffles and pancakes with ice-cream being their speciality.
Cade and his son looked so sweet together, I could have sat and watched them all day. Cade’s face was glowing with pride, and his son spoke through his chocolate-button expressive eyes as much as he did through his mouth.
‘So how many times a week are you on the school run?’ I asked Cade once we were seated.
‘Oh, I drop off a couple of morning’s in the week. This is just a one off to help Sean’s mum out.’
The waiter brought over our desserts. Both the boys had ordered a lemon and sugar pancake with two scoops of vanilla and mint ice cream. I’d ordered a banana waffle with chocolate sauce.
‘Look at the size of the thing,’ I said as the waiter placed it in front of me. It was larger than the plate.
‘It’s a small plate,’ the young waiter joked.
‘You’ll manage,’ Cade laughed.
I picked up my fork and spoon and whilst looking at Sean, rolled my eyes and gave a big dramatic sigh. That sent him into fits of giggles.
For the next half hour or so I really did manage to turn off from the daily stresses. Cade and his son were great company, and we laughed a lot.
Afterwards, we drove twenty minutes to drop Sean at his mum’s place.
‘Bye, bye Erin,’ he squeaked as he climbed out of the car with his Dad.
As I watched them cross over to his ex-wife’s house I did wonder why she had let Cade go. I mean, he was good-looking, witty and seemed like a good guy. More than that, I wondered what she must be like. I craned my neck to try and see her at the door, but there were bushes and shrubs hiding her from view.
Cade was back in the car a couple of minutes later.
‘Thanks for doing that,’ he said.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I said. ‘I had a good time. He’s a great kid.’
‘Yes, he is.’
I glanced down at my watch. ‘I should get back to the office though. I have a few more names I’m waiting to come back to me, and a pile of paperwork to get through.’
We pulled away from the kerb into the traffic.
‘Little bit awkward with the ex back there,’ Cade smiled. ‘Sean told her he’d been out to eat with Daddy and his new girlfriend.’
I forced myself to fake laugh. ‘You put her straight didn’t you?’
He laughed and it didn’t sound forced at all.
‘Actually no. Let her sweat on it for a bit.’ He looked at me slightly concerned. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’
I smiled. ‘No, that’s fine,’ I said.
And I meant it.
11
THE SWANN PUB was heaving. Noisy enough that no one could overhear us, but quiet enough that we could hear ourselves, even out here in the beer garden.
‘We any closer to getting ourselves a new trainer?’ Bella asked no-one in particular.
I leaned back in my chair, looking up at the darkening blue sky, breathing in the beautiful summer scented air. I was determined to enjoy this weather while it lasted.
‘You want a new trainer,’ I said closing my eyes, feigning sleep. ‘The rest of us are fine with Ben.’
‘Bella, you’re going to beat up whoever’s brought in,’ Frankie added. ‘That’s the point. Remember Seth.’
‘Seth?’ I said, opening my eyes. Frankie looked at Moira next to her, who in turn deliberately looked away.
‘We don’t talk about that,’ Moira said.
There was a short uncomfortable silence.
‘That was different,’ Bella muttered.
‘Besides, Ben is Edgar Mansard’s cousin,’ Frankie said. ‘We need people around us we can trust.’
‘Who is Edgar Mansard?’ I asked.
Frankie laughed and nodded across to Moira. ‘Best let the oracle explain.’
Moira rolled her eyes. Being the oldest out of us four by quite some distance, and having been in the Coven the longest, she was regarded as our resident historian.
‘Edgar Mansard was the Coven’s founder,’ she said.
‘So what happened to him?’ I asked. ‘Is he still around?’
‘He’s retired now. Lives away on the coast.’
We were interrupted by a tall fair-haired guy in a white t-shirt and denim shorts who appeared at our table. He was holding a pint glass of beer and kept turning to snigger at a couple of other guys sitting around a table on the far side of the garden.
‘Can we help you?’ Bella said.
He tried to stop laughing long enough to get some words out. He was already the worse for wear. This clearly wasn’t his first drink of the evening.
‘Me and my mates,’ he burst into laughter again, covering his mouth with one hand, while managing to spill some of his beer with the other. ‘That’s Robbie and that’s Doug.’
He grinned at them over his shoulder, and they in turn raised their pint glasses to salute him.
‘We see them,’ Bella said, giving him a cold stare. That wasn’t a good sign.
‘Well, we wondered if you ladies wanted to join us for a drink?’
‘We’re kind of busy at the moment,’ Moira said. ‘So, no thank you.’
She’d sounded ruder than intended, and the guy turned on her, his tone suddenly more aggressive.
‘I don’t know if you noticed Grandma,’ he snarled. ‘But there’s only three of us, and four of you, so guess what? You’re excluded anyway.’
He tipped his head to a small table of pension-aged silver-haired men nearby. ‘They’re more your type.’
That was out of order. Moira may have been the oldest of us four, married with two kids, and yes, she sometimes dressed a bit too frumpily for my liking, but at the end of the day, so what? She didn’t deserve some snotty rat bag insulting her like that, drunk or not. But I didn’t get a chance to say anything because Bella was already on her feet, around the table, and sizing up to him with clenched fists.
‘Bella, no!’ Frankie said.
Bella stared at the drunken idiot, who in turn grinned back inanely at her.
‘What are you going to do, knock me out?’ he said.
Oh Jesus, I thought. ‘Bella, he’s drunk. Let it go.’
Bella looked across at Moira who had bowed her head in embarrassment. ‘The guys are right Bella,’ Moira said. ‘He’s not worth it.’
Bella nodded at her best friend. I’d been told to never come in between th
ose two. Frankie once told me that Moira had ‘saved’ Bella when she was a down and out junkie living in London’s cardboard city. She’d run away from home after being abused by her step-father and two Uncles. Bella considered she owed her life to Moira and would defend her against anyone and everyone, no matter what.
‘You have no idea how lucky you are,’ she said to the guy. ‘Now push off before we change our minds.’
‘You gonna make me?’
‘Lester!’ The others called across from the far table. He looked over at them and held up a hand as if to say he had it all under control.
Bella was like a coiled spring, ready to lash out.
Frankie looked over at me, and I could tell from her expression that she was calling up a spell in her head. She threw a hard look at the boy’s hand.
The pint glass started gently vibrating. He looked down, his eyes widening.
‘What the hell?’
It shook more violently as though it was a small animal trying to wriggle free from his grip. He lurched forward to put it down on our table just as it blew up and shattered in his hand. He let out a high pitched yelp. The glass had been completely obliterated and the beer was down his t-shirt and shorts.
There was laughter from the tables around us.
‘Jesus! Shit! Jesus!’ he said wringing his wet hands. He glared over at Bella. ‘What was that, some sort of voodoo magic?’
Bella walked back round to her chair. ‘Nothing to do with me.’
We watched him scuttle away back to his table, wiping his front. There was a further chorus of laughter when he got there.
‘Nice one Frankie,’ Moira said.
Bella sat back down. ‘Deep breaths,’ she told herself out loud. She did this a lot to try and bring her temper back under control. It was like self-therapy. Frankie once told me Bella’s temper had got her into serious trouble in the past, but didn’t say how. Coupled now with the revelation about Edgar Mansard, I realised that having only been in The Coven for just over a year there was so much about its history and these girls’ backgrounds that I didn’t know.
Bella looked across at us. ‘I know, I know. I sometimes need to calm down.’
Moira placed her hand over Bella’s. ‘We wouldn’t want you any other way.’
Bella smiled softly back at her.
‘Although I have to say,’ Frankie said between mouthfuls. ‘You do seem grouchier than usual these days.’
Bella pulled her hand away from under Moira’s and continued picking at her chips. ‘Me and Sandy are going through a rough patch.’ Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve been taking it out on you guys.’
‘I think you took it out on poor Ben earlier,’ Frankie said.
‘Maybe.’ She looked up at us and rolled her eyes. ‘Guys, I’ll say something to him next week, okay?’
Frankie nodded. ‘So what’s up with Sandy, I though you two were tight?’
Bella shrugged. ‘She’s getting too possessive.’
‘Possessive?’
‘Yeah, like even tonight if I’m coming out with you guys, then she wants to know where I’m going, exactly who is going to be there, and what time I’m going to be home.’
‘That’s not such a bad thing is it?’ Moira said. ‘I mean Max asks me the same things.’
‘I know, but Max asks out of genuine concern. Sandy asks me because she thinks I might be cheating on her.’
‘Have you told her how you feel?’ I asked.
Bella shook her head.
‘But you care about her, don’t you?’ Frankie said.
‘I love her.’ Bella said it so sincerely and with such tenderness it made my heart burn. Maybe it was because that soft side of her was in such stark contrast to her usual angry, tough persona.
There was a short uncomfortable silence which Frankie then broke.
‘What about you Erin, do you have anyone in your life at the moment?’
I surprised myself by automatically thinking of Cade when she said that, but immediately felt guilty. I mean he was my partner. I couldn’t let that sort of attraction get in the way of my job.
‘No-one right at this moment,’ I said, realising even as I said it that my tone lacked conviction.
Frankie’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head with a small smile.
‘Me thinks you’re hiding something from us.’
****
It was 10.30 and dark when we left the pub and followed the small pathway through a screen of trees into the car park.
‘You ok dropping Moira home if I take Bella?’ Frankie asked.
‘No problem.’
We heard them before we saw them.
‘It’s the “Dyke Express”,’ they called.
They were right behind us. Robbie, Doug and…what had they called him earlier? Lester. All drunken lop sided leers. They muttered a whole load of drunken comments that we couldn’t make out, followed by raucous laughter, as we walked another fifty or so yards.
I didn’t want to tell them I was an off duty cop. I knew someone who’d done that once, got involved in the fight anyway, then had complaints fired at him and was suspended.
But then Bella sighed and said, ‘To hell with it.’
She turned around to face them down. Bella had been bruising for a fight all evening, so this was only ever going to end one way.
‘I’m going to get Moira home,’ I said to Frankie. ‘Have you got this?’
Frankie nodded. ‘I’ll keep an eye on things,’ she said. ‘Make sure they don’t get too far out of hand.’
I glanced around. We were the only ones out here.
Small comfort.
‘Bella don’t do this,’ Moira tried one last time.
‘Go home,’ Bella said without looking at us. Her gaze remained fixed on the three men who now stood in a row fifty or so yards behind us.
I cast a final look at Frankie and then gently pulled Moira after me.
‘We can’t just leave them,’ Moira hissed.
‘You’ve got a husband and kids to get home to Moira and I’m a cop. A carefully organised damnation is one thing, a random street fight is quite another.’
‘But Bella and Frankie-’
‘Will be fine.’
We climbed into my car. In the rear-view mirror, I could see shadows dancing around
‘I feel bad,’ Moira continued.
‘Don’t.’
I reversed out of the space and turned the car around so I was facing the exit.
Whumpf!
A body crashed onto the bonnet.
‘Bloody hell!’ Moira said.
Lester sat up dazed, blood pouring from his broken nose. He rolled off my car. I pulled my window down and leaned out, watching him slide down to the floor. He tried to crawl forward, but instead collapsed in a heap.
I could hear more thumps and groaning out there in the darkness.
‘Bella, mind the car!’
‘Sorry,’ she yelled back.
My window slid back up and I started driving forwards again.
‘She really has got to get a grip on that temper of hers,’ I said.
12
‘THEY REALLY WILL be okay,’ I said after a few more minutes of silence.
Moira nodded, but carried on staring out the car window.
I reached down and turned the radio on, needing something to break the uncomfortable silence.
‘This okay?’ I said, as the eighties synthesizer sound echoed around us.
‘Well, it is my era,’ she said bitterly.
‘You’re not still hung up about what that dickhead said to you back there, are you?’
Moira shrugged. ‘Grandma.’
‘He was drunk, and you blew him out.’
Moira continued to look away, staring out into the dark night. ‘I feel old.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not old. What are you, forty-seven?’
‘Forty-six’
‘You don’t look forty-s
ix,’ I lied.
‘Please don’t patronise me.’
There was another awkward silence which was broken when Moira turned to face me.
‘You know something,’ she said. ‘I was against you joining The Coven.’
Wow, bitch attack from my blind side.
‘Why are you suddenly bringing that up now?’
Moira shrugged. ‘No reason. I just thought you should know.’
She was staring out the window, but I saw her angry reflection.
‘Taking on a policewoman for Christ’s sake,’ she continued. ‘I mean Frankie took one hell of a gamble that night when she brought you in.’
‘She read me first. So did Victoria.’
‘They’re not infallible. I told Victoria at the time it was a risk. I almost didn’t come out on your first damnation, I was convinced you were luring us into a trap.’
‘Well I wasn’t, was I?’
Moira didn’t answer.
‘And what do you think now?’ I said.
She shrugged. ‘You’re still here.’
‘The Coven is for life,’ I said recalling what I’d been told during my initiation.
Moira nodded. ‘That’s right, for life.’
The music was still playing but I couldn’t hear it anymore.
‘Has anyone ever tried to leave?’ I asked.
Moira frowned at me. ‘Only once that I know of. A long time ago. Desiree.’
I could hear the hesitation in my own voice. Leaving was something I hadn’t dared discuss before, not even with Frankie. ‘What happened to her?’
‘Why, are you thinking of leaving?’
I kept my eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead.
‘Pull over,’ Moira said.
‘What?’
‘Please. Just up here on the left. The drinks have gone to my head. I need to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.’
I pulled into a small lay-by. There was a long screen of trees alongside the road, and a small pathway that led into woodland behind them.
Moira climbed out and headed down the path.
Getting out after her, I called out. I had no desire to start wandering through a forest at eleven o’clock at night.
