‘ Er, how could you do it now?’ asked Donaldson. He propped himself up on one elbow. ‘It would be your word against his, wouldn’t it? Pretty damned difficult to get a conviction, especially after six months.’
Karen took a deep breath. ‘Just after it happened I was in deep shock and I didn’t really know what to do about it. I went away for a month to Greece — Skiathos, but before I did I went to a rape crisis centre in Manchester. They were very kind to me. It’s a fantastic place, in its own way. I had a few days’ counselling there and made a statement while it was all fresh in my mind. And 1 saw a doctor too.’
‘ So?’ Donaldson was puzzled.
‘ A specially trained doctor who specialises in sexual assault cases. She took photos of my injuries, made her own notes and took samples, swabs for evidence — and kept them all. It’s the sort of place where they understand that the victim isn’t always completely together mentally and may not be in a position to press charges. So they take the samples and store them at the correct temperatures, just in case the victim wants to pursue it at a later date.’
‘ You mean all the forensic evidence is still there, intact?’
She nodded.
‘ Well I’ll be damned!’ he exclaimed. ‘That’s handy.’
‘ I feel I may want to press charges, but I’m still not sure. I’m still in two minds about it.’ Tears stood in her eyes.
‘ Hey, calm down, don’t upset yourself.’ He stroked her hair.
‘ Sorry. I need to discuss it with you, but not now, not here — I’ve a lot of love-making to catch up on — but soon. Do you mind? I’ll understand if you don’t want to get involved.’
‘ I want to get involved all right,’ he said, ‘physically and mentally, OK?’
She slipped a hand around the back of his neck and eased him towards her. ‘I love you,’ she said. They began to kiss.
Dave August stirred and rubbed his eyes. He looked at his watch. Six-thirty in the morning. He pushed the sheet back and swung his legs out of bed. Then he realised where he was. Janine’s house, somewhere south of Manchester. A smile spread across his face as he glanced round at the sleeping female next to him in the large bed.
Carefully he pulled the sheet off her and looked at her bare flesh with a tinge of pleasure.
He felt himself move again.
But no. He had to leave.
Janine stirred and moved over the bed to rub her bare breasts against his naked back.
‘ I need to be going,’ he said reluctantly. ‘You said you’d give me directions to the motorway. I don’t know this area at all!’
‘ Later,’ she murmured, and gently slid her hand around to grip his twitching penis, taking it firmly in her palm. She squeezed it, began to manipulate it. It expanded rapidly.
August placed a hand on one of her breasts.
As soon as August and Janine left the house some twenty minutes later, a removal van pulled up outside. Six men descended on the property. In less than an hour every piece of furniture and every fitting had been removed and placed in the back of the van. A ‘For Sale’ sign was erected in the front garden and the van, men on board, drove away.
The house was back on the market, being sold by a small chain of estate agents, ultimately owned by one man.
Lenny Dakin.
Chapter Nineteen
‘ Daddy, I know I like it ‘n’ everything, but why are you living over a vet’s?’
‘ Don’t ask stupid questions, Leanne,’ her older sister Jenny admonished her. ‘Mummy and Daddy have split up because Daddy’s become a drunk and an adulterer, and you need to live somewhere, don’t you, Daddy?’
‘ Yes, dear, I suppose that sums it up,’ said Henry, restraining himself from a smile despite the accusations.
‘ Well, I know all that,’ Leanne said dismissively. She was sitting in the back seat of the Metro with a couple of dolls in her lap, and they were all en route to the Lake District. ‘But why over a vet’s?’
‘ Because it’s cheap and interesting,’ he said.
‘ When you get divorced,’ began Leanne, about to pose one of those dreaded questions, ‘will you marry the vet? She seems like a nice lady. I’d like her to be my second mum. I could have all sorts of pets to mend, couldn’t I?’
‘ Whoa, hold your horses,’ said Henry. ‘Your mum and me aren’t divorced yet. We might be getting back together.’
‘ Mum said that hell would have to freeze over first.’ Jenny grinned at her father. ‘But she was in a real bad mood when she said that.’
‘ Oh really?’ said Henry. He felt his guts twist.
‘ And not only that,’ interrupted Leanne again, ‘why are you driving this crappy car?’
Henry burst out laughing.
Henry had rented a log cabin owned by one of his workmates, situated high and lonely in the hills above Hawkshead in an idyllic position. He’d been there on many previous occasions with his complete family and the girls particularly enjoyed it.
The single-track path leading to it was long and arduous. The Metro struggled valiantly over the bumps and up the incline and made it more or less intact. They unpacked quickly — they were only staying the night and had a minimal amount of gear — and Henry assembled his fishing tackle.
‘ Right — you two be OK for a couple of hours while I go up to the tarn to fish?’
‘ Yeah,’ they said in unison.
‘ Good. I’ll be back by four at the latest. Then we’ll go over to Windermere on the ferry for tea. Tomorrow we’ll have a look at Beatrix Potter’s place. OK?’
‘ Yeah,’ they said. ‘Excellent.’
‘ Good.’
‘ Tight flies, Daddy,’ chirped Leanne. ‘Don’t be long.’
With a grin on his face at her child-like mistake, he hunched his equipment onto his back and over his shoulders and headed towards the trees, breathing deeply of the cool, pine-laden air. He felt as if this was the first day of the rest of his life. He’d felt the same way on many other occasions over the last few months though — and most had turned to rat-shit, so he wasn’t foolish enough to totally believe it; yet somehow today did feel different.
He’d made a start by deciding to cut out two things that seemed to cloud his life at the moment — alcohol and women.
He was determined to woo Kate again and get back to a normal happy existence. The bachelor life didn’t do much for him, he had to admit. He longed for the warmth of family life; being with the kids made him miss it even more.
But how to get back into Kate’s good books?
That would take some doing.
Betrayal couldn’t easily be forgotten.
And he knew things could never be as they had been in the past; it was the future that interested him.
Once into the trees, coolness and darkness reigned. The pine tang in the air became almost overwhelming, like a drug. The ground was firmly soft to walk on and he dawdled along, halting occasionally as he spotted some bird or beast. He broke back into open sunlight soon after and pushed on upwards.
