by K Leitch
‘Hey,’ Carla said indignantly, ‘that’s a bit below the belt, the only reason I was getting drunk was…’
‘Okay…sorry,’ James held his hands up, ‘you have to allow me to have a poke at you after all you’ve said about me surely,’ he said, only half joking.
Carla had to admit that he had a point, neither of them had behaved very well over the last few months. ‘Yes well,’ she began, ‘I am still seeing Chrissy once a week, and she has really helped me to put everything into perspective. Actually James, I was thinking it might help if you had a couple of sessions with her.’
‘Me,’ James said, on the defensive. ‘Why me, I’m not depressed or drinking or anything am I?’
‘No, but obviously something was wrong wasn’t it or you wouldn’t have been seeing another woman would you? There must have been something that you didn’t feel you could talk to me about. I’m just saying maybe talking to Chrissy would help that’s all.’
‘Well no thank you,’ James said firmly. ‘I’m fine without her help, I know what was wrong with me…I was missing my wife and I was afraid every time you went out of that door to work that it might be the last time I’d ever see you.’ He shook his head and stopped himself from saying any more. ‘Look we’ve been over this time and time again, I don’t want to fight about it anymore…especially not now. I will bring the kids back in the morning if that’s okay with you, then you’ll have a weekend with them before the whole school routine begins again on Monday.’
Carla jumped up and gave him a hug, ‘Oh thank you James, I can’t wait to have them home and you needn’t worry I have really, really, learnt my lesson…there will be no more alcohol in this house I promise you.’ She wiped a tear from her eye. ‘This was all I needed don’t you see, to have my family back around me…it’s all I’ve ever needed.’
James raised a cynical brow at that. That was not how it had felt a few months ago. He kept his mouth shut though…Carla was looking more like herself again and who knew, with time and the old James Right charm, he might be able to win his family back too.
CHAPTER 58
‘Okay,’ Obie said with a sigh as he pushed back his chair and made his way out of his office, ‘let’s give this another go, has the duty solicitor arrived?’
‘Yes sir, fifteen minutes ago,’ Mandy replied breathlessly as she struggled to keep up with Obie’s brisk walk along the corridor.
Obie had asked Mandy to sit in on this interview with Billy because he seemed to be a bit calmer around women. At the first interview when he and Frank had taken charge, Billy had been almost hysterical and they hadn’t got anywhere. It was pretty obvious from what Billy had already inadvertently given away that he had been responsible for Ruben’s assault and also that he was their mysterious vigilante. But he’d kept his mouth shut tight whenever they mentioned anything about Lola’s kidnap or the possible whereabouts of Lewis. It seemed that Ms Metcalf had been right in that he had been “punishing” individuals that he deemed had either insulted or harmed Flora. He had an almost obsessional loyalty to the woman and got really furious if anyone said anything detrimental about her. Which led Obie to conclude that it was almost certainly the Twee kids that had been harassing the old lady, which was why they had felt the full force of Billy’s wrath. What they urgently needed to get from him now though, was the truth about what had happened to the kids and particularly Lewis, who, of course, was still missing.
Lola was in a dreadful state and only just clinging on to life so she wasn’t going to be able to tell them anything for a while. Meanwhile there was possibly a young boy out there who, for all Obie knew, was still alive and imprisoned somewhere just like Lola. All the other air raid shelters had been opened up and thoroughly searched, as had all the surrounding areas but there was no sign of the boy. The need to find Lewis had become an urgent priority and Obie was convinced that Billy was the key to finding him.
Billy was sitting with Meg Martin, the solicitor on duty, in interview room 1. He certainly appeared to have calmed down a bit this morning, but was still having trouble looking Obie in the eye, in fact he kept his head down and didn’t respond at all when Obie greeted him and introduced Mandy.
‘Billy,’ Obie made a start, ‘you’ve admitted in your statement that you attacked Hilda Clegg, Bob Simmonds, Zack Fletcher and Michael Prentice and you’ve told us why you thought they needed to be punished.’
‘They were ‘orrible and disrespectful…they upset Miss Metcalf and that’s not nice…they deserved it,’ Billy mumbled without lifting his head.
‘Yes I can see that that upset you…what did Ruben do?’ Obie asked quietly.
Billy didn’t seem to know what to say to that, opening and closing his mouth for a minute or so before he said, ‘Well ‘e was one of them lot wasn’t ‘e?’ as if that explained everything.
‘Them lot?’ Mandy said for the first time making Billy look up momentarily, ‘who are you talking about Billy?’
Billy started getting agitated again, shifting in his chair and scratching at his palms. ‘Them lot…you know the Twees, Ruben Davies, Josh Glump…them lot. They were always nasty…picking on people you know…’urting things even animals…they were cruel, rubbish, Miss Metcalf said they were rubbish.’
‘Did they hurt you Billy?’ Mandy asked.
‘Nah…not me,’ Billy said shaking his head, ‘but Lola and Lewis ‘urt old man Crocker’s dog Whiskey, tied his back legs together so ‘e couldn’t walk proper and then tied a firework to ‘is tail…’ he lifted tear filled eyes to Mandy. ‘All burnt up ‘e was, had to ‘ave ‘is tail cut off.’ Billy’s eyes went from sad to hard and furious as he thought about it, ‘They was the worst they was.’
‘So you beat Ruben up because he was friends with Lola and Lewis…is that right?’ Obie asked.
Billy lost his tongue again. His eyes on the floor once more.
‘Is that why you took Lola, Billy?’ Mandy tried again…nothing.
‘What about Lewis, didn’t he deserve to be taught a lesson?’ Mandy continued, ‘From what I’ve heard, he’s the one that does the most damage, I bet it was him rather than Lola that hurt Mr Crocker’s little dog.’
‘No…it was both of them…they always did stuff together. All that stuff with Miss Metcalf it were them both together that did that… and Mimski…’ Billy stopped turning red, he hung his head and closed his mouth.
‘Mimski?’ Mandy queried ‘Who’s Mimski Billy?’
Billy didn’t respond but Mandy could see tears rolling unchecked down his cheeks.
‘Billy,’ she said gently, ‘it’s obvious to me that this Mimski, whoever he is, meant a great deal to you. Did they hurt him…is he a friend of yours?’ Billy kept quiet but his shoulders began to shake.
‘I can tell that you were only trying to protect the people you love Billy,’ Mandy went on in the same gentle voice. ‘I know you didn’t mean to harm anyone…did you?’
Billy shook his head without looking up, his nose was running now, great trails of snot were hanging down from his chin. Mandy found a tissue and handed it to him, he blew his nose noisily.
‘Did Lola and Lewis hurt Mimski Billy?’ Mandy said once Billy had sorted himself out.
He nodded still not looking up.
‘What did they do to him…was he someone you liked Billy, a friend of yours?’ Mandy asked again.
‘He was lovely,’ Billy said gruffly into his chest, ‘he would always come over to me and sit on my lap when I was ‘aving my tea like. Sometimes ‘e would rub up against my legs when I was doing the mower…’e wasn’t scared like, ‘e knew I’d never ‘urt ‘im.’
Suddenly the penny dropped ‘He was a cat!’ Mandy said with a smile.
Billy looked up at her as if she was stupid, ‘Yeh…Mimski, Miss Metcalf’s cat.’
Obie scratched his chin, ‘And Lola and Lewis hurt Ms Metcalf cat did they Billy?’ he asked.
Billy looked straight at Obie his eyes full of rage. ‘They killed him…they ti
ed ‘im up and killed ‘im…they were ‘orrible, they deserved to be punished for what they did,’ Billy raged working himself up into a frenzy again.
‘I understand Billy,’ Obie said calmly. ‘You had to punish them, so you locked Lola up in the shelter…but where is Lewis Billy? Did you lock him up somewhere as well…we need to find him Billy don’t you see?’
Billy completely shut down again. He lowered his head and refused to say another word, the only time Obie nearly got a response out of him was when he asked if Flora Metcalf knew about Lola in the shelter or if she had been aware that Billy had punished the Twees.
Then he began to cry in earnest, great gulping sobs that shook his whole body, at this point his solicitor called time on the interview, saying that Billy had had enough for one day.
Obie was seething with frustration when he got back to his office upstairs. ‘I know Lewis is near that airfield somewhere, Frank we need to get as many people as we can spare and we are going to search every inch of that whole area again including gardens and sheds…he’s got to be there somewhere…I just hope we’re not too late.’
‘Sir,’ Mandy said tentatively a moment later, ‘don’t you think it’s strange that all of these things were happening and Flora Metcalf knew nothing about them. I mean Billy doesn’t seem to be able to think very clearly for himself does he and he seems to rely heavily on Ms Metcalf…you don’t suppose she was in on it do you?’
Frank overheard what Mandy said as he came into the office, ‘No…I can’t see it, she seemed really distraught that Billy had been going around attacking people on her behalf. No I think she may have put the idea into his head by telling him that they deserved to be punished, but I can’t see her playing an active role in any of it can you Obie?’
Obie had been very quiet while Frank was talking, ‘I’m not so sure Frank,’ he said after a while, ‘I tend to agree with Mandy. Billy seems to be someone that could be very easily influenced it wouldn’t take much to fire him up into righteous indignation.’
‘Oh yeh, he’s definitely a sandwich short of a picnic,’ Frank said opening up his own carefully prepared egg and cress sandwich and taking a huge bite, ‘but I don’t think for one minute that Flora Metcalf would ever think he’d actually go round caning people or kidnapping them for Christ’s sake.’
Obie wasn’t convinced, he decided he needed to speak to Ms Metcalf again, maybe she could give him some clues as to where Lewis Twee might be found at least.
CHAPTER 59 - MAGGIE
Her heart racing, Lucy stared at the TV screen in disbelief. Tendrils of fear ran down her spine, as the grim faced news reader told of the grisly murder of nursery leader Emma Greenwood, who’s badly mutilated body had been found by walkers on Dartmoor the day before.
“Mrs Greenwood was reported missing by her husband nearly a week ago,” Hugh Edwards was saying, “when she didn’t come home from the nursery school that she ran in Brixham, Devon. Police are asking for anyone who might have information regarding this cruel and senseless murder to contact them at the number on the screen, Mrs Greenwood is survived by her husband and two children. …Now for today’s sports news…”
Lucy looked away from the screen, her heart was beating hard in her chest, her palms were hot and sweaty…she felt like she might pass out at any moment. Emma…lovely, kind Emma, was dead and it was all her fault!
Lucy knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was Trevor’s doing. He had always hated her friendship with Emma and had tried many times to destroy it. But Emma had been too strong, too brave. She hadn’t cared how much Trevor had insulted her or humiliated her she had remained a loyal friend to Lucinda, even helping her to get a CRB check and giving her a fake reference which had enabled her to get this job. ‘Oh God,’ she thought feverishly, as a fresh new fear raised its ugly head. ‘If Trevor had killed Emma, then he was on his way…he was coming for her…’ Lucy had to force herself not to jump up, grab Katy from her bed pack up her little car and run away. As it was she was having real trouble sitting still and not throwing up.
‘Listen to this,’ Maggie was saying, completely unaware of Lucinda’s state of complete panic. They were all (that is Maggie, Duncan, Lucy and Dom), relaxing in front of the TV. The kids were in bed and the dinner plates had been cleared away and they had all gathered in the living room to watch Emmerdale which would be on after the news. Maggie was reading a magazine and had been regaling them with snippets of gossip from it for the last ten minutes.
‘Listen to this,’ she said again, ‘according to a survey, 25% of women in this country are taking some sort of medication for a mental illness.’ She looked up over her reading glasses, ‘25%! That’s quite worrying, I mean that seems an awful lot doesn’t it…’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Duncan said stroking her leg. ‘That means there are 75% of you nutters wandering around without receiving any sort of medication at all…now that really is scary.’
Maggie threw a cushion at him, ‘Bloody chauvinist,’ she said laughing, ‘er… you need to be a bit more careful about how you speak to me sweetheart…for all you know I may be a woman on the edge, one wrong word may tip me right over. What do you think Lucy?’ Maggie said looking over at Lucy, who seemed to have her eyes glued to the TV screen… ‘Lucy?’ she said again when she got no response.
‘What…oh God…sorry Maggie, what were you saying?’ Lucy said looking round quickly at Maggie’s voice.
‘Nothing important,’ Maggie said giving her a look, ‘are you okay love? You seem really pale.’
Lucy gave her a weak smile, ‘Oh I guess I’m just a bit tired…actually I do have a bit of a headache, I might go up and lie down…try and sleep it off you know.’
‘I’ve got some tablets somewhere,’ Dom said getting up, I’ll dig them out for you…do you want a hot drink, cocoa maybe?’
Lucy smiled and laid a hand on his arm, ‘It’s nothing Dom really…I just need to lie down, please don’t worry.’
Dom wouldn’t be put off so Lucy waited patiently. He found her some headache tablets and made her a hot chocolate before she could escape to her room. Once there she fell onto the bed and stared at the ceiling wrapping her arms around herself to try and stop the shaking.
‘Oh no,’ she wailed into her pillow, ‘oh God what shall I do?’ then she sobbed again even harder when she remembered that Emma was dead, her husband had lost his wife, her children their mother. ‘Fucking hell I am such a stupid selfish cow,’ she whispered, ‘my God poor Emma…oh God…I’m so sorry Emma…I’m so sorry.’
She went on like this for some time, one minute panicking the next grieving for her friend and her friend’s family. Finally she lay exhausted and tried to think clearly.
Trevor was coming for her, of that she had no doubt. What she didn’t know was what he’d managed to find out, or if he had any idea where she was. She had been very careful not to tell anyone where or even when she was going. Of course there had been that awful day when she’d bumped into Jenny in Redbank, but that had happened weeks ago and nothing had happened so she didn’t think she had anything to fear from that. Nevertheless the dye was cast… no matter how much she hated the thought of leaving this lovely home, she knew she had to. There was no other option, she would not put Maggie and her family into danger and if she stayed here she knew that was exactly what she would be doing.
‘Oh God,’ she wept again, her heart breaking at the thought of all she was losing again, her new friends, a secure home and of course Dom. The tender feelings between her and Dom had blossomed and grown into something so precious, so wonderful, that she had allowed herself to hope that with him she might be able to have the life she’d always dreamed of. He was her ideal man, he was funny and kind, so considerate and a wonderful father to Jukie. Obviously he was drop dead gorgeous as well, but he didn’t seem to be aware of just how lovely he was, in fact he was quite shy and insecure. A devastating combination and Lucy had fallen for it, hard and amazingly it seemed that he w
as smitten as well. Although apart from that heartbreakingly tender kiss a little while ago, there had been no other physical contact, the attraction that flowed between them was almost tangible. Lucy was aware of Dom watching her whenever they were in the house together and he continually sought out her company. Maggie had definitely noticed something as well and it seemed she approved, she found any excuse to leave the two of them alone together and was constantly quizzing Lucy (as subtlety as she could, which wasn’t very) on how things were going between them.
Lucy cried even harder into her pillows at these thoughts…she had to leave him, she had to leave all of them, her first chance at real happiness and she had to give it up for his sake…there was no other option. Lucy sat up on her bed and blew her nose decisively. Jukie was playing a carrot in the school play on Friday and she had promised him faithfully that she would be there, so she would stay until then. But she would leave at the weekend she decided, when Maggie and Dom took Jukie to the local swimming baths, (a Saturday morning ritual) she would slip away then.
Lucy continued to lay awake weeping and making plans and it wasn’t until the first birds started singing outside her window that she finally drifted off to sleep.
The next morning her eyes were like a couple of boiled eggs and her head was pounding fit to explode. Maggie took one look at her and told her to go back to bed.
‘You are no use to anyone like that woman,’ she said as she bustled her back upstairs, ‘I’m at home today so I can look after both the kids, no…’ she held her hand up as Lucy would have protested, ‘don’t bother arguing, I’ll enjoy doing it, in fact I’ll invite Jools over with baby Matty, we can have a sort of crèche day can’t we…it’ll be fun.’
Lucy gave in and gratefully got back into bed. She hadn’t really felt like facing the world today anyway and it would give her more time to plan.
