The Witness

by Jane Bidder

  “I don’t need to go,” she began but as she spoke, everything dipped in and out like a fuzzy picture on the telly.

  Ahead, she could see Seb being helped to the back of the ambulance, a grey blanket draped around his shoulders.

  “Can you tell me what happened, Kayleigh?” asked the policeman as they followed. “Was the driver going too fast?”

  Yes, she almost said. But then Seb turned round. His eyes were fearful. Pleading. Please don’t split on me, they said.

  Kayleigh hesitated. But only for a second. “It was the other car,” she murmured, feeling really sick. “The red one. That was the one going too fast. We had to swerve to get out of its way.”

  “Thank you,” said Seb’s eyes. “I owe you one.”

  And Kayleigh felt a warm flush of gratitude because she’d done something that Seb wanted. Now he liked her, so she had to like him too. Because that was the way it worked if you wanted someone to love you.

  “Will they let me go home with you?” she asked Alice within seconds of her arriving at the hospital.

  They’d put her in a side room with a big white machine at the side that kept bleeping. There was a wire attached that led into a vein in her hand – it had hurt like fuck when they’d put it in – but the nice Irish nurse who had shown Alice in had said the readings all looked “nice and healthy”.

  “As soon as they’re happy with you.” Alice was holding her other hand, the one without the wire. “You’ve had mild concussion and also you’re in shock.” She shuddered. “You were both so lucky. The car’s a write-off. You could have been killed.”

  There were tears in her eyes as she spoke. Kayleigh felt awful that she’d upset Alice so much. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have got in the car with him.”

  “Had he been drinking?”

  “I don’t know but he was going quite …”

  She’d about to say fast but then remembered Seb’s face and the good feeling she’d got when she’d lied for him.

  “Quite carefully.”

  Alice gave her a strange look as though she didn’t believe her. “That’s what you told the police, right?”

  Kayleigh nodded.

  “Sometimes we say things – or don’t say things – to please other people,” said Alice slowly. “It’s because we want to win their friendship.” Her hand tightened. “Real friendship is when people want to be with you, whatever you’ve done.”

  “Like us?” whispered Kayleigh, scarcely believing she had the courage to say this.

  Alice nodded. “Exactly. I believe in you, Kayleigh. I want you to know that. You’ve had a rough deal. Just as I had … when I was your age. So I want you to be all right in a way … in a way that I wasn’t.”

  Kayleigh tried to concentrate but her eyes were growing heavy and the curtains round her bed were looming in and out.

  “You need to rest,” said a voice. Was it Alice’s?

  Kayleigh tried to claw it back. She needed to check, just to be sure, that when she woke up, she could go back to Alice’s and that the social worker with her silly earrings, wouldn’t stop her.

  “Mum,” she murmured.

  “We’ve left a message on her mobile,” said a voice. “But we’re still waiting to hear back.”

  “I need to find my brother,” she tried to say but she wasn’t sure if she was speaking out loud or in her head. “I need to help him,” she murmured. “Callum’s waiting.”

  But then she fell into darkness. Down, down and down.

  It wasn’t until Kayleigh woke, in the hospital bed, that she realised she must have fallen asleep. Or maybe she was still dreaming. She could hear Alice arguing angrily outside the door.

  “How could you?”

  Alice’s voice was clearer now: like it was in the room.

  “What’s it to you anyway?”

  This other voice was sharp and mean. If she raised herself onto her elbows, Kayleigh could just about make out a sharp-faced angular woman with a thin nose and expensive looking silver bangles on her wrist that rattled as she spoke.

  “It’s everything to do with me.” Alice’s voice rose. “Don’t you realise the damage you’ve done to our family not to mention yours? Haven’t you thought about Seb and …”

  “Don’t you bring my son into this.”

  My son? So that was Seb’s mother?

  “Alice,” called out Kayleigh weakly. “Please don’t blame Seb. It was an accident. That’s all.”

  The narrow-eyed, sharp-faced woman turned to her, eyes narrowing. “So that’s the tart who made my son crash. Distracting him, were you?”

  “No.” Kayleigh started to say but Alice cut in.

  “Don’t you dare talk about her like that. Get out. Go and look after your son. And leave my husband alone.”

  Kayleigh’s jaw dropped. Husband? So this was the woman who’d been having it off with Daniel? Immediately, she wanted to comfort Alice. Just like she’d comforted Mum all those times when her blokes had dropped her. “Don’t take any notice of that silly bitch,” she called out.

  Alice gave a little laugh. It sounded shocked but admiring at the same time. “You know what I like about you, Kayleigh? You say what you think. It’s what I should have done, years ago. Now let’s get you ready, shall we? The doctors said you’re all right to come home now.”

  Home? Did that mean the emergency care was over now? Or that Mum had come back from Spain? She didn’t want that. Not now.

  Alice was actually smoothing her hair like she was a kid. “Yes. To our house. It’s yours too, remember? For the time being, at any rate.”

  There was a snort behind. Kayleigh hadn’t realised the sharp woman with the spiky hair was still there. “You’re insane, Alice. Know that? No wonder Daniel can’t cope any more.”

  Kayleigh was about to say something rude when Alice got there first. “Get out of my sight, Monica. Daniel is my husband. You know nothing about our marriage and I’ll thank you for leaving us alone. Go and look after your own family, including your son who’s lucky not to be facing charges, if you ask me. Or is he?”

  Impressed, Kayleigh watched Seb’s mum turn her back and flounce out. That was the way to do it, she observed. Classy. No swear words. Just straight talking.

  “I wish you were my mum,” she found herself saying.

  Alice looked surprised but pleased. “That’s really sweet. Thank you. Actually, something happened when you were out last night.”

  “You found your husband having it off with that cow?”

  A shadow flitted over Alice’s face. “No. Something else.” The shadow cleared and a light filled it, in its place. “I had a phone call from my son. I spoke to him, Kayleigh. I actually spoke to him.”

  Her face lit up in such a way that Kayleigh felt a rush of jealousy. Then it looked sad again. “But we still don’t know when he’ll be back.”

  Good. If he did return, Alice might not want her around.

  “Stay away,” she willed quietly. “Stay away, Garth. And leave us alone.”

  It seemed both weird and normal to be back at Alice’s. “Why don’t you go to your bedroom for a bit of a rest?” Alice had suggested when they drove home.

  But as she lay on the bed, she could hear arguing in the kitchen. Daniel’s voice was loud. Furious. It reminded her of Callum when he got cross.

  Fuck. In the accident, she’d forgotten. He’d be waiting for her in the centre by the toilets. He’d think she’d let him down.

  Meanwhile, the voices continued. “Don’t you see what you’re doing, Alice? You’re trying to make up for not having Garth. What’s going to happen when he comes back?”

  “We’ve got enough room.”

  There was the sound of a chair being scraped across the floor. “For God’s sake. When will you look at the really important things in life.”

  “Like you and that tart?”

  It was all Kayleigh could do not to clap her hands and say “Go on.”

  “Monica isn’t a tart. She’
s lonely. Like me.”

  “So you want to leave me, do you?”

  Kayleigh froze.

  “No, Alice. I don’t want to leave you. I just want a proper marriage, that’s all. Is that so much to expect?”

  There was a muffled noise then – from Alice? – and a dog barking. Then a slammed door. And then silence.

  When she woke up the next day, Kayleigh stayed very still for a few minutes. Listening. There was no sign of last night’s argument or anyone telling her she had to go. That was a relief.

  Then she got out of bed, had a shower, and wandered along the huge landing and down the stairs. Somehow, she had to find a reason to go into the city and find Callum.

  But Alice wasn’t in the kitchen. Still searching, Kayleigh found herself in another room with three guitars – three! – and a music system which must have cost a bomb.

  Eventually, she found her in a little room, overlooking the garden, mending a yellow and blue plate with a pot of glue by her side. Kayleigh was incredulous. “What do you want that old thing for? Can’t you just throw it out?”

  Alice shook her head. “It’s too precious.”

  “Like that Cash in the Attic programme? Mum loves that.”

  Alice smiled. “This isn’t worth anything. Not in terms of money, anyway.”

  “Then why are you trying to mend it? You can’t be skint. Not with a house like this.” Kayleigh looked round at all the stuff in the room. There was loads of china on the sideboard and also other plates on the wall. “If you are, maybe you can sell some of this stuff on eBay.”

  There was a tinkly laugh; but not an unkind one. Kayleigh loved it when Alice laughed. It made her face softer instead of tight round the eyes like when Daniel was around or that bitch in the hospital yesterday. “I mend things for other people because they are precious to them. It’s not about money. It’s about feelings.”

  Slowly, Kayleigh absorbed this. “I get that.” Her eye fell on a big silver bowl. That would fetch quite a lot on the market. At least a tenner. Anything would help, Callum had said. Anything.

  “You know you said we could go shopping,” she said slowly.

  “Sure.” Alice was carefully fitting a small piece of china into a jagged gap in the bowl, using a pair of tweezers. “Maybe tomorrow. I need to finish this first. How are you feeling? Sorry. I should have asked before. It’s just that I get so absorbed in all this. And it takes my mind off things …”

  She stopped.

  Kayleigh nodded. “I know just what you mean. Books do that for me. They help me forget the shit. So do my dreams. Sometimes I imagine that my father is coming to find me.”

  Alice tilted her head to one side questioningly. “Where does he live?”

  She turned away. “I don’t know. But he’ll find me one day. I know he will.”

  “That’s wonderful.” Alice smiled but it was a sad smile. “Never give up your dreams, Kayleigh. It’s what keeps us going.”

  “Right.” Kayleigh wondered how to work the next bit. “Can I go shopping this afternoon?”

  Alice’s eyes widened. “So soon after the accident?”

  “I’m better. And the doctor said I could do normal stuff. Remember?” She held her breath.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “There’s a bus in half an hour. I’ve worked it out from the timetable you gave me the other day. I need to get out. You know. Forget what happened in the car.”

  Slowly Alice nodded. “I know what you mean. Sure you feel all right?”

  “Sure,” said Kayleigh fast, sensing victory.

  “I’d like you back by 5p.m.”

  “Promise.” Kayleigh nodded earnestly, her eyes on Alice as she reached over for her bag and drew out five twenty-pound notes. “This is more than you’ll need. Get yourself some new jeans and some shoes too.”

  She fingered the crisp notes, disbelievingly. “Ta.”

  “Oh, and Kayleigh?”

  She paused by the door, half-expecting Alice to say she’d changed her mind. “Don’t take a lift with anyone. Will you?”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  The police weren’t going to prosecute Seb over the crash. There weren’t any witnesses and no one had been hurt. When Alice had heard this through Janice (who’d gleaned the information through someone whose ‘daily’ did for Monica too), she was cross.

  How many injuries – both emotional and physical – never came to light simply because there wasn’t a witness?

  “What are you going to do about Monica?” Janice wanted to know.

  Alice concentrated on measuring out the tea. “I’m not sure.”

  It was the day after she’d allowed Kayleigh to go shopping in Plymouth on her own. “Why did you do that?” Daniel had demanded angrily when she’d told him after dinner, while Kayleigh was playing music in her room.

  “She wanted to and I thought it might be a test,” Alice had replied quickly. “See if she could do it without getting into trouble.” She glowed. “And she did.”

  It was true. The girl had come back with a pair of canvas loafers and a thin pair of jeans which had cost sixty pounds. The rest had gone on the bus fare so there wasn’t any change.

  Alice had pushed the little flutter of distrust to the back of her mind. How often had she been shopping with Garth, only to be appalled by the cost of an ordinary pair of jeans? The memory gave her a jolt in her chest. He had to come back safely. He had to.

  Meanwhile, she still had to work out what to do about her marriage – if indeed, it was her decision.

  “What do you mean you’re not sure what you’re going to do about Monica?” repeated Janice, helping herself to one of the carrot sticks she had brought along in her handbag. (Janice, who was a perfectly acceptable size twelve in Alice’s view, was always on a diet.) “Haven’t you got a plan? And what exactly happened at the hospital?”

  Pulling up a chair, Alice joined her friend at the heavily marked pine kitchen table overlooking the lawn. She loved every one of those marks. That dig over there had been from Garth’s toddler days when he was still trying to master a knife and fork. That other one – a pattern of dots – had been an angry teenage Garth, deliberately stabbing his fork into the wood during yet another ‘please revise’ argument. At the time, the marks had distressed her but now they were comforting reminders; especially now he was so far away.

  “Daniel and I have decided to put any decisions on hold,” she replied, aware that she sounded rather prim. “At the moment, Garth has to be our first priority.”

  Janice fixed her with a you-don’t-get-out-of-that-so-easily look. “You’re avoiding the question, Alice. What happened at the hospital between you and Monica? You said she was there. You must have said something.”

  Sometimes Janice was too pushy. Too familiar. Yet she had been the first friend that Alice had made when they’d come down to Devon. They’d done school runs together; watched their boys go through teenage years together (although Janice’s sons had been far more biddable when it came to revision and were now at Oxford). If she couldn’t tell Janice, she couldn’t tell anyone.

  “I told her to keep off my husband if you really want to know.”

  Janice nearly dropped her coffee mug with excitement. “Good for you. So what did Daniel say?”

  Alice drummed her fingers on the fork marks. “I told you. Daniel doesn’t want to talk about it until Garth is back.”

  Janice gave her an uncertain look. “Until Garth is back? Look, I don’t want to dampen your spirits, Alice …”

  “Then don’t.” Alice put down her mug and stood up, walking towards the French windows. It was a mild day and the lavender bed outside drew her to it. Lavender was so soothing.

  “I just felt I ought to point out that you might have to wait longer than you want to. Brian says …”

  Alice rounded on her. “He’s discussed our case with you?”

  Janice had the grace to look embarrassed. “Not in detail. Only to say that he hoped the witness w
as going to be able to pull rank.”

  Picking a piece of lavender, Alice began to shred it to bits, carefully keeping the bits in the palm of one hand.

  “They do things differently out there, Alice.”

  Slowly she raised the palm of her hand to her nose, breathing in the lavender. It took her back to the time when, as a child, she and a school-friend had cut up her mother’s stockings into small sections and stuffed them with lavender and rose petals. Mum had been livid. The stockings had apparently been new.

  “So Daniel keeps telling me. Garth rang me, you know.”

  Janice nodded. “Brian said.”

  Alice began to shred another piece of lavender. “Do you know what it’s like to hear your son from the other side of the world and be unable to help him?”

  Janice bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”

  “When did you last speak to the twins?”

  “Last night.”

  “And before that?”

  “I don’t know.” She frowned. “Maybe three days earlier, although they don’t always pick up. You know what they’re like. Alice, where is this leading?”

  “I’m trying to point out that it’s easy for you.” Alice felt her words spilling out in anger. “Your sons aren’t locked up in prison. You can ring them whenever you want. Your marriage might have had its issues from what you’ve said but it’s all right now. You weren’t abused as a teenager – something that your own mother didn’t believe …”

  Janice laid a hand on her arm. “Is that what the lawyer meant, in court?”

  Dammit. Why had she let that slip out? Alice flung the bits of lavender on the grass and began to march on down the lawn, towards the old tree-house that had belonged to the family before them and which Garth used to hide in when he wanted to smoke.

  “You were abused?” Janice was running to keep up, puffing slightly. “What happened?”

  “It’s personal.”

  Sitting on the bottom step of the ladder leading to the tree-house, she gazed up at the apple tree fanning its branches over her. Janice, to her irritation, sat next to her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but sometimes people imagine things when life gets difficult. It’s a sort of escape. And you have had a lot on your plate …”