Jeremy leant against his car. A year-old Volvo, it was neat and tidy and efficient and completely lacking in excitement, just like its owner, Scott thought. He offered Scott a stick of gum which he refused. Scott wasn’t giving any ground.
‘Bit barren out here, isn’t it?’ Jeremy said, looking across the road at the featureless yellow-green fields which rolled away into the distance.
‘Suppose.’
‘Nothing like Redditch, eh? It is lovely, though, I’ll give you that. I drove through this place once when I was younger. Me and my brother were rebelling. We decided we’d just get in the car and drive as far north as we could and—’
‘I’ll ask you once more, why are you here, Jeremy?’
Jeremy smiled at the interruption. He’d been stalling for time, trying to break the ice and make things a little easier. It was a management technique he used all the time at work, but Scott wasn’t having any of it. ‘Like I said, I was concerned.’
‘And like I said, you don’t need to be.’
‘Well maybe I need a little more reassurance? Look at it from my perspective, Scott. You pack up everything and move my kids to the opposite end of the country. Now I genuinely don’t have any issues with you. We’ve had our differences and Christ knows you’ve had a lot to deal with these past twelve months or so, but you, me and Michelle have always managed to get on with each other and stay civil for the sake of the kids.’
‘And that hasn’t changed.’
‘I didn’t say it had.’
‘What then?’
‘The few times I have managed to speak to Tam and Phoebe since you moved here, they’ve sounded like they’ve been in a real state, Tammy in particular.’
‘It hasn’t been easy, I’ll give you that. But like I said, they’re fine. They just need to—’
Jeremy held up his hands as if to say I surrender, don’t shoot. ‘Let me finish, Scott. Don’t start attacking me or defending yourself ’til you’ve heard what I want to say, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘You always think the worst of me, don’t you?’ No answer. ‘Look,’ Jeremy continued, ‘when I spoke to the girls I told them both all the things I thought I should. I said they were going to feel a little weird for a while, disorientated. Short of emigrating, you’ve put yourselves about as far away from your old lives as you could have and I understand that. I know why you did it and, for what it’s worth, I think you’ve probably made the right move.’
‘I don’t need your approval. Look, Jeremy, you’re not making a lot of sense here. You’re talking a lot, but you’re not actually saying anything relevant.’
‘I was prepared to let it go at first,’ he continued, heart pounding but remaining outwardly unaffected by Scott’s thinly veiled aggression. ‘It was hard, really bloody hard, but I was willing to keep my distance to let the girls get settled. I’m big enough and ugly enough to know when not to stick my nose in, Scott.’
‘You sure?’
‘I knew that if I’d turned up any sooner it would have done more harm than good. All the hard work you and Michelle have been doing to help them settle would have been undone.’
‘So you thought you’d give it a week or so…?’
‘I just happened to be passing through.’
‘Bullshit.’
‘See, I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Fact is I’m needed at a site just outside Aberdeen later this week. I’m owed a few days leave, so I thought I’d drive up here rather than fly in for the meeting, that way I could drop in and see the girls first.’
‘Like I said, you should have called.’
‘And like I said, I’ve had trouble getting through. I also know you’d probably have done everything you could to stop me coming. Me being here is probably the last thing you need right now, but I’m here with the best of intentions. I know you can’t see that, but it’s true. I’ve had enough, Scott. Imagine how you’d be feeling now if you’d been separated from George and no one was telling you anything?’ He paused for a response which didn’t come. ‘I’m planning to spend a few days in the area, reassure the girls and myself and spend some time with them if I can, then I’ll move on. Put yourself in my shoes, mate… how could you not come and see your kids when…?’
‘When what?’
Jeremy took a deep breath. ‘When you see the town they just moved to on the news each night? When you can’t talk to your children to check they’re okay but you’re hearing plenty about a string of murders happening where they are, and you’re out of the country a lot of the time. I got back from Switzerland late on Sunday and the first thing I heard was that message from Tammy. She was beside herself.’
‘And I’ve told you why that was. It’s sorted now.’
‘Like I said, put yourself in my shoes. What would you have done?’
Scott wasn’t sure how to answer. A flurry of movement let him off the hook. Michelle pulled up in the car. She’d barely stopped the engine before the girls were out and all over their father. Jeremy raced towards them, grabbing hold of his youngest daughter first, squeezing her tight. ‘Love you,’ he said. ‘Missed you.’
‘Missed you too, Dad.’
‘I was passing through and I thought I’d drop in on you. Thought I’d surprise you both. That okay?’
‘That’s okay,’ she said, grinning.
Once she’d calmed everyone down and got her head around Jeremy’s sudden arrival, Michelle invited him to stop for dinner, checking with Scott first. She told him she needed to go back into town and pick up something to eat but Scott volunteered to go instead. It was preferable to sitting in the house with Jeremy, making awkward small-talk and watching the kids fawning all over him. Michelle scribbled out a list and gave it to him, cornering him alone in the kitchen. ‘Here you go. And can you get a couple of bottles of wine in and some beer? Something decent, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘You sure you’re all right about this?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘And you’re okay with Jeremy being here?’
‘If it helps the kids, I guess.’
‘Good. Thanks, love. This means a lot to them. It’s important.’ He turned to leave but she pulled him back. ‘I love you, Scott.’
20
Scott drove into town with George. There was a police cordon around the side of the community hall. A small crowd of people had gathered there, mostly school kids, held back at a distance. Scott just kept driving and didn’t even look up. He didn’t know what had happened and he didn’t care. It was nothing to do with him and he wasn’t about to give anyone any reason to think otherwise. Sergeant Ross was in the middle of it all as usual, and he could see that fucker DI Litherland too. Scott was paranoid that one of them would see him driving past and jump to another immediate, baseless, incorrect conclusion.
He parked outside the Co-op, and it was only when he had his hand on the door to get out that he stopped and realised where he was and what he was doing. This was where that McBride bloke had worked. Did the other people who worked here know who Scott was and what he’d done? For half a second he considered starting the engine again and going somewhere else, but there wasn’t anywhere else and, anyway, why the hell should he? ‘If they’ve got a problem with what happened then I’m happy to talk about it,’ he told George who didn’t understand and who wasn’t listening anyway and who, most importantly, wouldn’t answer back. ‘I’ll happily tell them what that pervert did and why I punched his lights out. They’re wrong about me. They can all go to hell for all I care.’
He plucked his son from his booster seat, shut and locked the car, then took a trolley (he might have left this trolley here, the bloke who died) and loaded George into the seat facing him. The automatic doors opened as he approached and he disappeared inside, and for a few seconds the familiarity and normality of the bright supermarket interior came as a relief. He worked his way around the fresh produce first, shopping list in hand, remembering all the things Michelle always said whenever he came back with the wrong stuff: check the best before dates, get bananas that are still a little bit green, check all the apples for bruises, don’t automatically pick up every offer you see; that second pack of mince might look cheap, but if we’re never going to eat it you’re actually spending more money, not less… Most of the time he didn’t give a shit, couldn’t bring himself to be so bloody petty, but it was different today. ‘Can’t give Mummy or Jeremy any reason to have a go at Daddy now, can we son?’ he said. George just looked at him.