Zach was quickly on his guard. “Are we breaking up?” he asked suspiciously.
Victoria swallowed nervously. “Yes. I’ve found somebody else.”
“And I suppose you expect me to fade out of the picture, just like that?”
“Please, Zach, don’t make this difficult.”
“Difficult?” he snapped. “I’ll give you difficult! You owe me!”
“I don’t owe you anything!” Victoria protested.
Zach was now angry. “I got your dad off your back, didn’t I? I fixed him for you, just like you asked! And now you think you can just dump me? Well, you’re wrong!” He pointed a finger at her. “Listen, girl! You and I are a permanent fixture! You got that? You tell this other guy to take a hike!”
Victoria felt her face getting hotter. “It’s not a guy. It’s a girl.”
Zach stared at her. “What?”
“It’s a girl, Zach. I’m seeing a girl. Do you understand?”
Zach must have understood, because he suddenly burst out laughing. “You? A dyke?” he roared. “Who do you think you’re kidding?”
Victoria was annoyed at him. She spoke without thinking. “It’s the truth! I’m a lesbian!”
Louise had watched Victoria and Zach wind their way across the busy refectory. It was after ten, and the morning break was in full swing. Her heart had ached when she saw Zach putting his arms around Victoria. She wanted to run across the refectory and smack him. They had moved on, and Louise had seen them sit down together. Now all she could do was watch and wait.
“Oh, I could smack him!” Angela snarled, voicing Louise’s thoughts. “Why did he have to turn up now?”
“He had to turn up sooner or later,” Louise said sadly. She kept twisting around in her seat and craning her neck, trying to get a better view of them both as they sat talking.
Chrissy looked at Angela and Louise. “Am I missing something here?” she asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Louise and Tori are an item,” Angela said bluntly, craning her neck to see better like Louise.
Chrissy spat out her coffee and began to choke. Angela had to get up and pat her on the back. Chrissy had tears in her eyes when she finally began to get her breath back.
“What do you mean?” she rasped hoarsely. “How can Louise and Vicky be an item?”
Angela was blunt again. “They’re both, you know, lezzies.”
Chrissy’s eyes went very wide and round. “What…how…when?” A sudden thought occurred to her. “But I’ve slept with her!” she exclaimed in a very loud voice.
Everyone in the refectory heard her and there was a sudden hush. They all stared at Chrissy, then in the sudden silence someone on the other side of the refectory shouted, “I’m a lesbian!” and everyone turned and looked in the other direction. It was the first time Louise saw Chrissy blush in embarrassment. It wasn’t a slight tinge of red, it was a full on blush. Chrissy hastily hid her head under her hair against the table.
On the other side of the refectory, Victoria was also filled with embarrassment. Her words had coincided with a sudden hush in the refectory, and now everyone was staring at her.
Zach was laughing louder and louder. “You, a dyke!” he said in an equally loud voice. “It’s the best joke I’ve heard in ages! You’ve slept with more boys than there are at Eaton! If you’re a dyke, then I’m still a virgin!” Zach was now laughing so much he was almost crying.
Victoria hardly heard a word he said. She was too busy looking around the refectory in horror, seeing all the other students smiling and staring right at her. They all knew, and they were all laughing at her just like Zach. Victoria quickly got up and ran out.
Louise saw her go.
“Oh, no!” she exclaimed, and she got up and ran across the refectory after Victoria.
Zach spotted her when she drew level with him. He sprang up from his chair and quickly grabbed her. “Of course!” he shouted in triumph. “I should have known! It’s you, isn’t it? The babe from McDonald’s!”
Louise struggled with Zach in the middle of the refectory. She could feel his hands on her body and she hated it.
“Get off me! Let me go!”
Zach just laughed and lifted her off the floor. But he was no longer in a humorous mood as he spun her round and round, whispering in her ear.
“What have you been telling her, you bitch? Been filling her head with lies? Do you think you can take Zach’s girl from him? Well, I’ve got news for you, bitch! Tori’s mine! And she’s no dyke! I know her better than you! You’ve just confused her, that’s all! She’ll be back in my bed in no time! But, hey! Don’t worry! You’ve got a nice body! We can make up a three-some any time!”
Louise began to cry as she could only kick wildly in the air as Zach spun her around. She was conscious all the time of everyone watching them. They were all just a blur, but she could feel their eyes on her. But there was nothing she could do. Her feet caught the edge of a table and knocked it over with a crash.
Chrissy suddenly landed on Zach’s back and he crumpled to the floor. Louise went sprawling, knocking a chair over. Angela jumped on top of Chrissy and Zach, and the three of them began to wrestle about on the floor, knocking more chairs and tables over. Everyone had to dodge out of the way. Louise stared in shock, frozen to the spot.
Then Angela shouted at her. “Louise! Get after Tori! We’ll deal with Zach! Go on!”
Louise got up and ran, pushing her way through the crowd. She ran in the same direction she had seen Victoria leave. She ran as fast as she could, sobbing all the time, the tears running down her face. She left the refectory and ran down a corridor. But Victoria was nowhere to be seen. Louise ran on, burst through some double doors and found herself outside. There was still no sign of Victoria.
“Vikki!” Louise shouted in despair. “Vikki!”
There was no answer. Louise ran around the side of the building, but all she saw were people she didn’t know who stared back at her.
“Vikki!”
The people passing by now turned and stared at her even more. Louise hastily wiped the tears from her eyes. There was no sign of Victoria anywhere, so she did the only thing she could think of. She went home. It was the only other place she could think of that Victoria might go to. She had nowhere else, did she?
All the way back to her flat, Louise was worried sick. She was in such a hurry and yet everything seemed to happen too slowly. It was as if everything was trying to delay her. People kept getting in her way as she hurried to Saint Peter’s Square, the traffic lights would change against her making her wait as the cars sped by, even the tram was too long in coming. And all the time she kept looking for Victoria, but there was no sign of her. As Louise sat nervously on the tram, it seemed to take twice as long on its journey.
When Louise finally got home, she found the flat empty. She knew it was empty even before she opened the door, but she still ran into Victoria’s bedroom calling out her name. She stared at the empty bedroom. Louise was frantic, she ran around the flat searching, as if Victoria could be hiding somewhere. But there was still no sign of her.
After she had searched every room, Louise came to a halt in the middle of the lounge. She was scared and confused. She was worried sick about Victoria, but she had no idea where to look anymore. What should she do? Where should she go? Where could Victoria be?
Louise had a sudden thought. She ran out of the flat and bounded down the stairs and banged on Rosanna’s door.
“Rosie! Rosie! Is Vikki with you?”
There was no answer. Rosanna wasn’t in.
Louise’s heart sank. Now she was desperate. Where had Victoria gone? A nagging doubt began to grow in Louise’s mind. Maybe she hadn’t left the University after all? Maybe she was sitting somewhere on campus crying and alone even now. Louise ran out of the house. She was crying as she ran down the street. Oh, where had Victoria gone?
Chapter Forty-One
Special Arrangements
“I
knew the Headly’s would be a problem,” Connors said, shaking his head in dismay. He was sitting at his desk. Shawcroft had told him what had happened as soon as he got back to the police station.
“It was my fault, Sir. I should have been more careful with the wording.”
“No, there was nothing you could do. Their solicitor was right. To be fair, we haven’t cautioned either of them. That will now change. But before we can prove that Max is our murderer, we must first prove that Scott isn’t. Our mistake was picking on Max on his own. With his alibi, there isn’t enough evidence against him to get him into a line up without a fight.”
“But there is enough evidence against Scott Headly,” Shawcroft pointed out.
“Yes, but the last thing we want is for Geddes to identify him instead of his brother. From what you tell me, Scott probably knows that. No, the line up is out, at least for the moment. But with the suspicion we have that they are working together, we could still bring them both in for further questioning; Scott on suspicion of murder, and Max on suspicion of withholding evidence. We both know it is the wrong way round, but if we can put them under enough pressure, I’m sure they’ll break.”
Shawcroft was still indignant at his ejection from the Headly household. He wanted revenge. “I still like the idea of a line up. What if I went round to the Shere Khan to see if any of the waiters can remember John King and his dining partner?”
Connors expression brightened. “Good idea. Check on the Hanaan too. See if anyone can remember seeing Mike Geddes and Joanne Henshaw together. The more witnesses we can get, the better. That way, even if we can’t get Max into a line up, the threat of one might be enough to do the trick.”
Shawcroft smiled. “Trick being the operative word?”
“If you’re insinuating that I might try and bluff young Headly and his solicitor into changing their story, you’d be right!”
Connors stood up. “And while you’re out visiting restaurants, I think I’ll arrange a little surprise for Scott Headly. I think it’s about time we dropped him down a peg or two. And I know just the person to do it for us.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Last Chances
Mrs Thorne wasn’t pleased. She could understand the crying and the grief. She felt it just as much as they did. But fighting in the refectory? And the boy wasn’t even a student. No, she wasn’t pleased at all.
Chrissy and Angela were given a stern telling off by Mrs Thorne, who warned them that a repeat performance would lead to their expulsion from the University. And Mrs Thorne had added that just because Victoria and Louise had managed to get away didn’t mean that they wouldn’t get the same treatment. She didn’t care whose boyfriend he was, she was not having that kind of behaviour on campus.
The aforementioned ‘boyfriend’ had already left. Well, thrown out actually. Mrs Thorne had had Zach escorted off the premises by a security man. He was under strict instructions not to return –ever.
Chrissy and Angela looked scruffy and ragged when they came out of Mrs Thorne’s office. They were stained with dried coffee and tea. And Chrissy’s ribs ached from the additional bad treatment they had received from rolling around on the hard refectory floor. But neither she, nor Angela were the least bit contrite.
As they walked slowly back to class, Angela looked up at Chrissy and said tentatively, “It was a good scrap, wasn’t it?”
Chrissy immediately laughed. “Did you see his face when we sat on him?”
Angela smiled broadly. “I liked it best when you tried to feed him that half eaten role somebody had trodden on!” she said excitedly.
“Yeah! He nearly gagged!”
“Served him right! The git!”
Their smiles faded as their thoughts moved on from the fight to their missing friends. Angela was worried about them both.
“I hope Louise caught up with Tori,” she said.
Chrissy looked thoughtfully at her. “Were you serious about Louise and Vicky?” she asked.
Angela nodded. “They’ve moved in together.”
“That doesn’t make them lesbians.”
“Louise told me.”
“When?” Chrissy asked in surprise.
“A few days ago. But I think I always kind of knew. It was the way Louise would look at some girl. I could tell straight away that she fancied Tori.”
Chrissy shook her head in disbelief. “But Vicky isn’t a lesbian. I’ve known her for years. She’s never acted in any way that would make me even think she was a lesbian. Never.”
“They’ve done it together.”
Chrissy stopped walking and just stared at Angela.
Angela stopped a couple of steps ahead of her. She turned and said, “It’s true. They’re in love.”
“Well, I’ll take my knickers off!” Chrissy said then shivered. “I’m going to have to learn not to say that,” she added quickly. Then she had another thought. “Angie, you aren’t hiding anything from me are you?”
“No, I am not!” Angela replied indignantly.
“Alright, keep your hair on. It’s just that everybody else I know seems to be changing sides suddenly, so I thought I better ask.”
“Well I haven’t!” Angela assured her. “I’m as straight as a die!”
“So am I!” Chrissy said firmly.
“Good!”
“Right then!”
Having agreed on their own sexuality, they started walking back to class again. But they hadn’t gone far before Chrissy voiced her continuing doubts about her friends.
“I still can’t believe it,” she said. “I’ve known Vicky for years. She’s had boyfriends. And Louise doesn’t even look like…well, what you’d think she would look like if you knew she was a lesbian.”
“What were you expecting?” Angela replied tartly. “A placard stuck to her head with ‘I am a lesbian’ stencilled across it?”
“No, but–” Chrissy sighed. “Oh, I must sound awful. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just such a surprise, that’s all. Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“What do you think Tori was about to do in the refectory before ego on a stick arrived?”
“But if you knew, you should have told me before.”
“I couldn’t. Louise was pretty shy about it. I think she was frightened about what people might think.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now,” Chrissy replied. “Everybody in Uni is going to know by tonight.” She paused before adding sadly, “I wonder where she is.”
“I hope she’s caught up with Tori,” Angela said. “She didn’t look at all happy about what happened.”
“Oh, Vicky will be alright. She’s as tough as an old boot. She’ll just get drunk like usual.”
Angela wasn’t convinced. “I hope you’re right. But I also hope she stays sober. Getting drunk is exactly what Zach wants. She was getting on really well with Louise. I’d hate to see them break up now.”
That afternoon both Victoria and Louise were not at class.
Chrissy and Angela sat together as they waited for the lecturer. Everyone kept smiling at them. Even though none of them said anything, it was obvious that they all knew what had happened. Gavin made it even more obvious. He kept making very unsubtle and lewd jokes until Chrissy leaned forward over her desk and smacked him on the head with her ruler.
Mrs Thorne arrived with the lecturer and sighed with relief as the class finally got under way. She noticed the two absences and nodded thoughtfully. It didn’t look like Victoria Kenyon was going to stay the course. She had already been warned several times about her absences from class. And now she seemed to be having a bad effect on Louise Taylor. It would be a shame to have to exclude her as well. However, the tragic news about Jo Henshaw was exceptional, and in the circumstances she could afford to be lenient. But there was a limit to her leniency. Mrs Thorne quickly decided that if either of them failed to turn up for the following morning’s classes, then that would be it.
Chapter Forty-Three
Second Thoughts
The stone was black. The lettering was in gold. It was still bright. In Loving Memory of Donald Kenyon. 1949 – 1997.
Victoria was sat on the grass in front of the stone. She was crying. She had been there for nearly an hour when Zach turned up.
“I knew you’d be here,” he said standing behind her.
She turned and glared up at him through red eyes.
“Bastard!” she exclaimed. “Why did you laugh? What was so funny?”
Zach shrugged. “The idea of you being a lesbian, hey, how did you think I was going to take it?”
Victoria stood up and shouted at him. “But you laughed! In front of all those people! You made a fool out of me, Zach! In front of the whole fucking University!”
Zach held his arms out. “Hey, baby, I didn’t mean it! It was just so funny!” He was almost laughing again.
Victoria was appalled. “Funny? You think what you did to me was funny?” She stepped closer to him. “You made me feel ashamed!” she snarled through clenched teeth. “You made me feel dirty! You made me feel like shit in front of all those people! You made me feel the way I felt when my daddy played with me! You’re evil, Zach! Just like him!”
Zach became angry. He began slapping her about the head and face. “Don’t you ever compare me with him!” he shouted. “Do you hear me? I never did what he did! Never!”
“Liar!” she shouted back tearfully. “You’re just the same as him! As all the rest of them! You only want one thing, and you don’t care how you get it! You’re not in love with me! You just want to use me for sex! Sex! Sex! Sex!”
All the time she was talking Zach kept slapping her. Now he slapped her even harder. She tried to shy away from the blows, but he grabbed her arm and continued slapping her.
“You bitch! I never knew you felt like that!”
“Yes you did!” Victoria shouted back. “You know I hate it! Why else do you think you have to get me drunk first?”
Zach looked stunned. He released her, and she collapsed to the ground, sobbing, but still angry.
The Look of Love Page 27
