‘I haven’t seen her for a while. She and my husband don’t get on.’
They picked up their cups of tea and sipped, both nodding in pleasure. ‘You make a perfect cup of tea.’ Gina took another mouthful, wondering what to say next. She hoped Jake wouldn’t be too long. He was much easier to talk to.
But at least Peggy hadn’t turned her away this time. At least they were sitting together trying to build bridges. She smiled. Bridges made of tea leaves.
* * *
Hartley sat in his car, smiling as he watched Jake arrive at the shopping centre. Once the other man was out of sight, he edged between the rows of cars, cursing when he stumbled. His damned leg wasn’t getting any better. He checked that no one was watching and got out the screwdriver he’d sharpened last night. Making sure that no one was watching, he stuck it into one of the rear tyres of the car, stabbing several times and watching in satisfaction as the tyre went flat, then doing the same to the other rear tyre.
‘See if the spare does you any good now!’ he muttered gleefully. He didn’t want his damned brother-in-law coming back and interrupting him while he was talking to Peggy. If necessary, he would have to insist she went home with him.
He rubbed his forehead as he went back to his car. It was aching again. It was Peggy’s fault for upsetting him. As he drove away from the shopping centre, he smiled. It was all falling into place, though. He’d soon have everything sorted out and his home back to rights again.
He parked the car away from Jake’s house, in case Peggy looked out and realized he’d come, then tried to nip in via the side, as he had done before. But the gate was locked by very solid bolts this time, and they were padlocked as well. The anger that had been simmering in him throbbed more strongly. How dare anyone keep him away from his wife?
As he was standing there, wondering whether she’d open the front door to him, the people on the far side of Jake’s house got into their car and drove off. Keeping his face turned away, Hartley walked briskly along the street, rang their doorbell and when there was no answer, opened their side gate. No bolts here and the fences in the street were old-fashioned wooden ones, with places to put your foot and climb over. He’d noticed that the other night.
‘I’ll teach you to leave me, you bitch,’ he muttered as he peered over into Jake’s garden. Pity he needed to be quick or he could have had some more fun trampling the plants. But he didn’t want to attract Peggy’s attention until he was inside the house.
Not without difficulty, he boosted himself up on the dustbin and dropped into the garden, stumbling as his bad leg gave way under him. He hid behind a bush while he waited to see if anyone had noticed him.
But everything lay peaceful in the sunlight. Ah, there was Peggy at the kitchen window. He kept very still.
When she moved away, he ran across the garden and wrenched open the back door.
* * *
‘Do you think—?’ Before Gina could finish her question, the door burst open and a man erupted into the room, grabbing Peggy by the arm and shaking her like a dog shakes a rat, shouting, ‘You stupid, stupid bitch! What do you think you’re doing?’
Kicking the back door shut, he began to drag her across the room towards the hall, one hand across her mouth. Peggy went limp, not attempting to fight him off, her eyes blank with terror.
For a moment shock kept Gina still. This had to be Peggy’s husband. Just so had her attacker kept her quiet as he dragged her. Fury sizzled through her at men who attacked women like this and she looked round for a weapon.
‘You’re coming home with me now and if you ever do this again, I’ll make you really sorry. You can’t—’ He broke off as he noticed Gina. ‘Who’s the hell’s she? Don’t tell me Jake has a fancy woman now.’
Peggy was trembling visibly and seemed incapable of speaking.
‘I can see why you left your husband,’ Gina said.
The anger was still zipping through her in a burning tide, but she was pleased she’d kept her voice steady. She couldn’t do anything about the man who had mugged her, but she could do something about this one. She picked up the fruit bowl and hurled it at him, fruit and all, with an accuracy born of years of playing ball games with Tom and the girls. The wooden bowl hit him on the side of the head and fruit rained down around him. He yelped and put up one hand instinctively to the wound. A trickle of blood began to flow down his temple.
Gina moved out from behind the table, holding a chair in front of her for protection, hoping to get Peggy away from him. She jabbed it at him as if she was a lion tamer and he stepped hastily back, cursing.
His face was such a dark red and his expression so ugly, she hesitated to follow up with another jab. He shoved Peggy aside and as his wife stumbled and fell, he went for Gina. Laughing scornfully, he grabbed the chair by its legs and after a short tussle, yanked it out of her hands.
‘You must be another of those bitches from the women’s centre. Well, all you man-haters need teaching a lesson and I’m in the mood to do exactly that!’ He grabbed Gina by the arm and threw her against the wall.
She was stunned for a few seconds by the impact, but managed to jerk aside and avoid the punch he aimed at her. ‘Help me, Peggy!’ she begged, backing away from him.
Her sister whimpered and cowered back, hands pressed against her cheeks.
‘We’re two against one, Peggy. Help me!’
Hartley stopped to laugh at that, a harsh, jeering sound. ‘She wouldn’t dare. Look at her. She’s always been a coward. All she’s good for is looking after me and my house, and by hell, that’s what she’s going to do from now on.’ Then he turned his back on his wife and advanced on Gina again.
Peggy stared at him for a moment or two, stung by his scorn, then scrambled to her feet and picked up the heavy wooden fruit bowl that had fallen nearby. She smashed it down over his head, standing like a frozen creature as he crumpled to the ground. She opened her hands and it fell on top of him.
Gina could see that he was only partly stunned. ‘Come on! Quick!’ She grabbed her sister’s hand and hauled her along the hall out of the front door. ‘We need to get help.’
* * *
Brad saw Gina’s car parked further along the street and waited. He didn’t know what he was waiting for but something was still making him feel anxious.
When he saw the two women rush out of the house, looking dishevelled and upset, he flung open the car door and ran towards them. ‘Gina! Over here! What’s happened?’
‘Oh, thank goodness.’ She pulled her sister towards him. ‘Peggy’s husband’s inside the house. He tried to force her to go home with him and then he attacked me.’ She glanced over her shoulder as she spoke. ‘He was like a madman.’
‘You were wonderful,’ Peggy said. ‘The way you stood up to him.’
Gina smiled. ‘You weren’t bad yourself, smashing that bowl over his head.’ She turned to Brad. ‘He was only partly conscious when we left him, but he may be recovering now. I think we should call the police.’
‘We’d better check that he’s not seriously hurt first. Stay behind me.’ Brad led the way towards the front door.
As they entered the hall, footsteps echoed from the side of the house and there was a clunk that sounded like a bolt being shot before the footsteps resumed. Brad swung round, pushing the two women behind him. The person wasn’t coming towards them, however, but moving away from the house. ‘Wait in the doorway!’
He ran outside again and saw a man running away down the street with a strange lurching gait. For a moment Brad was tempted to run after him, but he didn’t, because it was far more important to make sure Gina was all right.
* * *
The phone rang just before lunch time, as Jane was getting ready to go to work.
‘Mrs Quentin? I’m afraid your son’s been hurt. Not badly, but he has a sprained ankle and it’d be better if he came home and rested it. He may also have mild concussion. Can you pick him up?’
Jane sighed. Casey
was going through a very clumsy stage at the moment and had had several small accidents like this. He’d grown so fast he didn’t seem able to manage his own body properly and walked into things all the time. ‘I’ll come straight over to pick him up.’
‘Your daughter was nearby when he fell down the stairs and she got rather upset. She wants to come home too.’
‘They’re very close, those two.’ Jane smiled as she said that because it was something that had always pleased her greatly.
When she got them home, she pretended to scold Casey for his carelessness, but he hopped across to the sofa and dropped on to it. ‘You know I don’t do it on purpose, Mum.’
‘Sit there with that foot up and I’ll put a cold pack on it. I’ve learned to keep one in the freezer for you over the past year or two.’
‘I’ll do anything as long as you feed me.’ He put his hands into a praying position. ‘They wouldn’t let me eat any lunch.’
Rosie tossed her school bag on the floor and opened the fridge. ‘You don’t deserve it, but I’ll get you a glass of juice and a sandwich, Mr Clumsy.’
Casey grinned at his mother. ‘See. I’ve got my big sister to look after me. You can go to work now. You don’t have to stay at home with me. I’m a bi-i-ig boy.’
‘Too late. I’ve rung them to say I can’t come in. So we’ll all have a lazy afternoon together.’
‘Cool. When I’ve had something to eat, I’ll go and work on my computer.’
As she was helping her mother put some food together for Casey, Rosie asked, ‘Is it still all right for me to go out with Brad tomorrow?’
‘Yes. I thought we’d agreed about that.’
‘I know. Only Dad’s like – well, he won’t speak to me about it.’
‘That’s his problem, not yours, love. He won’t talk to me about anything at the moment, either.’
Rosie looked at her with a troubled face. ‘I didn’t mean to cause trouble between the two of you. I just wanted to know where I came from.’
Jane nearly brushed this off, then decided her daughter was old enough for the truth. ‘Maybe your father and I needed shaking up a bit. We seem to have drifted apart lately.’
‘That’s because he cares more about his school stuff than he does about us.’
Jane didn’t know what to say to that, didn’t even know if it was true. In the end she sighed. ‘I don’t think it’s only his fault. I’ve been a bit busy lately, doing extra hours at work.’
‘You’re not going to leave Dad or anything, are you?’
‘Heavens, no! It’d take too long to train another husband.’
Rosie let out a sigh of relief.
‘I’ll just clear the kitchen up, then I might as well go and do the main shopping.’
‘I’ll come with you if you like, Mum.’
‘I’d rather you stayed here and kept an eye on the boy wonder. Don’t let him overdo things or try to fly down the stairs again.’
‘Yeah. All right.’ Rosie shuddered. ‘He bounced down the stairs, Mum. I thought he’d killed himself. I felt sick till I saw him move.’
Jane gave her a hug, then drove away wondering what Stu would he be like next year, working as an ordinary teacher. It was stupid to waste skills and enthusiasm like his, and he’d got such good results from kids other teachers had given up on. Had the Education people gone crazy?
* * *
Jake waited inside the shopping centre, getting more suspicious by the minute. Hartley knew this area well, so there was no chance of him being lost and he hadn’t far to drive. Maybe he wasn’t coming. Only, why would he make the arrangement if he didn’t intend to keep to it? Worried sick, Jake fumbled in his pocket for his phone so that he could ring Peggy and warn her to lock the doors. Then he realized he’d left it behind on the sideboard where he’d put it so that he wouldn’t forget it. Fat lot of good that had done him!
He scanned as much of the shopping centre as he could see, but there was no sign of Hartley’s large figure ploughing through the crowds in that arrogant way he had of expecting others to get out of the way.
Right then. Better go home.
At his car he stopped with a muttered curse. The rear tyres were both flat and when he went to examine them he found holes, several of them, so he guessed then that Hartley had done this to delay him getting back.
Terrified for his sister, Jake ran across to the taxi rank, pushing to the head of the queue and calling out, ‘I’ve got an emergency at home and someone’s slashed my tyres. Can I please take the next taxi? It’s a matter of life and death.’ Which might not be all that much of an exaggeration.
The people in the queue nodded and the lady at the front said, ‘I’ve been waiting so long, another few minutes won’t hurt.’
It was a minute or two before a taxi drew up and Jake kept looking anxiously at his watch. When one arrived he jumped into it and begged the driver to get him home as fast as he could.
As they began to turn into his street, another car squealed round the corner coming towards them and the taxi had to run up on to the pavement to avoid it.
That was Hartley’s car. Jake would recognize it anywhere. ‘Did you get his number?’ he asked the taxi driver.
‘No. It happened too quickly. We’re lucky there wasn’t a lamp post here.’
‘I know who he is. We should contact the police. He’s been behaving erratically lately.’ He scribbled Hartley’s name and address down and handed it to the driver as the taxi drew up in front of his house.
‘I’ll report it straight away. There are too many lunatics on the road. Here we are.’
Jake fumbled in his pocket for the money. ‘Could you wait, please? I may have to go out again. It’ll only take me a minute or two to find out if I need you.’
‘OK. And I’ll want your name and address as well for the police.’
‘Jacob Everett,’ he called over his shoulder as he rushed into his house.
Three people swung round to face him as he ran through into the kitchen. He’d expected to find Peggy in tears if Hartley had been here, but instead she was flushed and bright-eyed, seeming energized not crushed.
‘Are you all right, love?’ he asked. ‘I thought I saw your Hartley driving away.’
Peggy explained quickly what had happened, ending, ‘We fought him off, Jake. Gina and I did it together.’
The two women clasped hands, smiling mistily at one another, then Peggy bit her lip and the worried look came back into her eyes. ‘What am I going to do about him if he won’t obey the injunction?’
‘I can’t drive you anywhere till I get my tyres changed, but I’ve got a taxi waiting outside,’ Jake said. ‘I think we should report this to the police and ask their advice.’
‘Gina and I both have cars if we need to go anywhere,’ Brad said. ‘I don’t think you’ll need the taxi.’
When Jake came back into the house after thanking the driver and sending him away, Peggy was pacing up and down, arms wrapped tightly round herself as if for protection. ‘I can’t get what Hartley said out of my mind. He said Gina must be another bitch from the women’s centre and that man haters like her all needed teaching a lesson. Jake, he’s been following Jane when she went to and from the centre, I saw him myself. What if he’s gone after her now?’
The others stared at her in dismay.
‘Nay, surely he’d not—’ Jake began then broke off. ‘But then I’d not have expected him to slash my tyres or attack anyone.’
‘Jane?’ Brad asked. ‘Jane who?’
‘Jane Quentin. She goes to my meditation class. Only I don’t have her phone number or address.’
Brad felt sick at the thought of either Jane or Rosie being attacked by a man who seemed to have gone crazy. ‘I know her and I’ve got her mobile number. I can phone her and tell her to lock the doors.’
‘Oh, thank goodness!’ Peggy stopped her pacing to listen as he dialled.
But when he got through, Jane said she was out shopping so he expl
ained quickly what had happened and suggested she get home immediately. ‘I’ll meet you at your house. Can you ring Rosie’s mobile and warn her?’
‘Have you got her number with you, Brad? Right, you phone Rosie and I’ll ring Stu. The school where he works is only a couple of streets away. He can get there more quickly than anyone.’
As the phone rang, Brad muttered, ‘Answer, dammit! Come on, Rosie.’
There wasn’t a sound in the room as everyone waited.
CHAPTER 35
England
Casey yelled suddenly from upstairs, ‘That guy in the white car who’s been following Mum just pulled up and hey, he’s coming towards the house. Rosie, he looks like Hell Man on the rampage. Lock the front door, quick.’
She ran down the hall but the door was thrown open before she could get there. A burly man whose eyes were wild and angry limped inside and grabbed her arm before she could run away.
‘Where is she?’ he demanded. ‘Where – is – she?’
Rosie tried to pull away from him but his hand was clasped tightly around her upper arm. ‘Where’s who?’
He looked at her then, as if he’d not really seen her before. ‘The woman who lives here. Jane, she’s called.’
‘Mum? She’s out, won’t be back for ages. She’s doing the shopping. And you’re hurting me.’
He ignored that. ‘Then you and I will just have to wait for her, won’t we?’
‘You’ve no right to come in here and tell me what to do.’ She struggled to get away.
He shook her hard and thrust his face closer to hers. ‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up and be still.’ He dragged her from one room to the other, checking them out, muttering to himself, then looked up the stairs. ‘What’s up there?’
‘Three bedrooms and a bathroom.’
Family Connections Page 28
