For a shitty little store in a shitty little town, the supermarket was reasonably well-stocked. He managed to get most of what they needed, placating George along the way with sweets. He was looking at coffee, trying to remember which brand he liked best, when he felt someone watching him. He looked back over his shoulder, and a woman looked down as soon as he made eye contact. He didn’t recognise her, hadn’t ever seen her before as far as he was aware, so why was she so interested in him? And she definitely was, because when he’d chosen his coffee and crossed the aisle to pick up something else, he caught her staring again. Does she just not like strangers, or is there more to it than that? Does she know what happened with the police? Did she see them taking me into the station? Does she think I’m the killer…?
George moaned, still hungry. ‘Won’t be long now, sunshine,’ Scott told him. ‘Got to get nice food in for our special guest. Can’t have precious Jeremy thinking we don’t know how to look after ourselves now can we?’
‘’kay Daddy.’
‘We’re playing happy families tonight, mate.’
‘’kay Daddy.’
Shit. There was another one watching him now. Another fucking busybody watching his every move. One of the women on the tills was giving him evils, looking down her nose at him, almost sneering. Bitch. And now another dozy fucker, a kid who could barely see out from under his bloody floppy fringe, was waiting to get past. Dumb little bastard. Scott was about to say something but he thought better of it. No point, he told himself. You’re better than all of them.
He swung the trolley around the end of another aisle and almost collided with a family coming the other way. A man and a woman, two kids. The bloke looked shifty. Dodgy hair, even dodgier dress sense. The woman was about half his age and she was looking at Scott, staring at him. What the hell was wrong with all these people? Scott felt like going home, locking the door and never coming out again. He’d make sure he’d kicked Jeremy out first, of course.
‘Hello, George,’ the woman said, taking both Scott and his son by surprise. The woman was grinning broadly at Scott. She held out her hand. He just looked at it. ‘You must be Scott,’ she said.
‘Yeah…’ he replied, unsure, and he bit his tongue before he could follow it up with and who the fuck are you?
‘I’m Jackie,’ she said, still grinning. She waited for an acknowledgement which didn’t come. ‘Michelle’s friend Jackie from playgroup?’
‘Yeah, sorry… I’m not with it today. Nice to meet you.’
‘This here’s Dez,’ she continued, and Dez grabbed Scott’s hand and shook it vigorously.
‘Good t’meet you, pal,’ he said. ‘Heard you’d had a bit of grief lately.’
Jackie shot daggers at her partner but he remained belligerent.
‘You could say that.’
‘That Graham was a freaky fucker, mind.’
‘I noticed.’
‘Dez, don’t… not here,’ Jackie said, turning to apologise to Scott. ‘I’m really sorry about him. He doesn’t think.’
‘No worries,’ Scott said. ‘He was right anyway. The bloke was a freak.’
An awkward standoff followed, both sides blocking the other’s way through. Scott wanted to go, Jackie wanted to know more about what had happened but didn’t dare ask. Dez, however, remained completely ignorant. ‘I’ll tell you sumthin’ for nothin’, mate, this town is full of bloody odduns.’
‘What?’
‘Odduns. Weirdos. Freaks.’
‘Don’t listen to him,’ Jackie said, embarrassed.
‘S’true.’
‘Aye, Dezzie, but your definition of a weirdo is different to the rest of us. In your book a weirdo’s just someone who don’t do things your way, and as there ain’t no one else who does things your way, it looks like that’s all the rest of us.’
Scott managed a wry smile. He quite liked this woman. Nice face, great tits, and she seemed to talk sense. Couldn’t see what she was doing with this prick, though. George moaned again. ‘We should go,’ he said, glad of the excuse.
‘Course. Oh, how’s the kitchen coming along?’
‘What?’
‘The hole in your kitchen wall… it’s going to look lovely when you’re done.’
How the fuck does she know what’s happening in my house? ‘Not had a lot of chance to work on it this week,’ he said, swallowing down his anger. It wasn’t Jackie he was angry with, it was the others. He hated being kept in the dark and being talked about, and he’d have Michelle about it as soon as they got rid of Jeremy.
‘Course,’ Jackie said. ‘I should keep my nose out.’
‘You probably should.’
‘Let’s get on then,’ Dez said, urging Jackie forward.
‘Nice to meet you,’ she said, pushing her trolley around the end of Scott’s.
‘Aye,’ Dez added, ushering his kids away. ‘See yous around.’
Scott watched the family walk away. Fucking inbreds… Talk about strangers, are there any stranger round here than that bloke? With his eighties clothes and nineties hair, married to a woman who looked young enough to be his daughter… there was definitely something odd going on there. He was wearing a frigging Dr Who T-shirt, for fuck’s sake, and it was the old Dr Who at that. Wonder where he was the night Graham McBride died? Wonder where he was when the rest of them were killed?
Scott finished the rest of the shopping quickly, passing the family a couple more times in the next few aisles, the awkwardness increasing each time they met. He waited for an age at the one checkout which was still open. The woman who was serving barely even looked at him. Are you this rude to all your customers, or do you feel the same way about me as I do you? He loaded up his bags and pushed the trolley out to the car, keen to get out and get home until he remembered who was there.
21
He felt like he was a guest in someone else’s house, the way they were all fussing over bloody Jeremy. It made him sick. They never treated him like this. All he did for them, and Phoebe and Tammy had barely even looked at him when he got back with the shopping. And Michelle was just as bad, checking Jeremy was comfortable and that he’d got a drink, asking if he wanted to watch TV or use the bathroom before dinner.
To his credit, Jeremy looked as uneasy as Scott felt. When he saw that Scott was back he immediately got up from his seat and offered him his hand. ‘You okay, Scott?’ he asked.
‘Fine. You?’
‘Jeremy has been planning to take in the sights and sounds of Thussock,’ Michelle shouted from the kitchen.
‘Good luck finding any.’
‘Quite a place you’ve found here,’ Jeremy said, grinning broadly. ‘Shame I’ve only got a few days. It’ll never be long enough. So much to see, so much to do…’