‘Kate, if only life was that simple.’
She instinctively moved into his body and rested her damp face against his chest.
He stood still, not knowing what to do. He could feel her body trembling as she thought about what she hadn’t been able to do. Brady knew better than anyone the ‘what if’ game. Masochistically going over an event again, and again, imagining making that vital difference. It was a pointless, painful exercise.
Before he had time to question it, he gently placed his arms around her fragile shoulders and pulled her in close. He held her tight and waited. He didn’t want to think about how good it felt to have her pressed against him. He breathed in her smell and pretended for a moment that nothing had changed. That he still had her all to himself before Matthews had come between them.
They had had an argument about him needing to go away. His younger brother had suddenly upped and left the North East one night. Brady had heard rumours that he had got involved way over his head with a gang in Wallsend and that he had taken off. He had been told that his brother was in London, so that was where he was heading. Before he left, he had broken it off with Kate, angry that she had tried to prevent him from going, never dreaming that she would meet someone else before he got back. Worse than that, that it would be Matthews. He was Brady’s closest friend and he had trusted Matthews, never questioning why he was always hanging around with them. Nor did he question the intimacy that was developing between Kate and Matthews. With hindsight he could see that Matthews had been biding his time with Kate. She was already pregnant with Evie when he returned. They were married within six months of Brady leaving for London and had a baby daughter three months later.
Brady had coped, but it had been hard. For a long time he wanted to get Matthews up against a wall and punch the hell out of him. But he didn’t. He chose to walk away. If he hadn’t needed to go to London, then it might have been him who had the big house in Earsdon and the teenage daughter. Life had a way of fucking you up when you least expected it. He had never asked Kate if she had turned to Matthews on the rebound. He didn’t need to, it was obvious to both of them that she had used Matthews to hurt him. But then life had taken a momentum of its own and somehow that hurt had come back to haunt her.
‘Oh God, Jack! What am I going to do?’ she asked, bringing him back to the present moment.
He presumed she was talking about Matthews. He didn’t answer.
‘What’s going on?’
Kate abruptly shook herself free from Brady’s embrace.
‘Evie? What are you doing? I thought you were in bed ill?’ Kate asked guiltily as she moved away from him.
Brady was completely thrown. Not only had he banked on her being at school, but he no longer recognised her. He noticed that she looked tired; the dark patches of skin under her puffy, bloodshot eyes suggested that she hadn’t slept too well.
Kate walked over to her and tentatively felt her forehead.
‘Don’t touch me!’ Evie snapped as she pushed Kate’s hand away.
‘Evie, please don’t be so rude,’ Kate replied, embarrassed.
‘What’s he doing here?’ she asked Kate accusingly.
He steadied himself as he looked at her. He couldn’t believe how much she now looked like Matthews; especially her eyes. Sometimes Brady had wondered whether there was a possibility that Evie could have been his, but stood there, it was evident that she was Matthews’ daughter.
Brady slowly took in what he had missed; her growing up. Her long, straightened, blonde hair was identical to the victim’s and like the victim her fulsome body was more akin to an older girl’s. Brady had to accept what Matthews had said, it would have been easy to have mistaken the victim for Evie.
Brady realised she was at least three inches taller than Kate and her build was wider, more powerful. He was still taken aback by how much older she looked, even without make-up she could have passed for eighteen. The happy little girl with gangly legs and scabby knees had been replaced by some petulant teenage Midwich Cuckoo. One who hated his very being. And considering what he had to tell her, he couldn’t see matters really improving.
‘I didn’t recognise you, Evie,’ Brady said, attempting a smile. ‘You’ve changed a lot since the last time I saw you.’
‘Yeah? Well, a lot of things have changed since I last saw you,’ she replied. ‘Uncle Jack!’ she added contemptuously.
Brady knew she had good reason to hate him.
‘Aunt Claudia not with you then?’
Brady didn’t answer. It was pointless. He knew she was lashing out at him.
‘Oh yeah, that’s right, she’s left you, hasn’t she? Finally realised you couldn’t keep your hands off my mother, was that it?’
‘Evie, please!’ cried out Kate. ‘This is unacceptable.’
Evie turned to her mother.
‘It’s you that’s unacceptable. What about you lying to me?’
‘Evie, don’t talk to me like that!’ Kate retaliated, humiliated that Brady was witnessing their exchange. ‘It’s not what you think.’
‘Yeah? How often does he come round when I’m at school and Dad’s at work, eh?’
‘Evie, stop it now! Apologise … I mean it! You apologise to Jack right now!’ Kate demanded, her cheeks flushed.
‘You’re both as bad as each other, do you know that? You deserve Dad as much as he deserves you.’
Brady watched uncomfortably, feeling every bit the stranger he had become. He shifted uneasily. He knew why Evie was so angry with him. Brady had known Kate longer than she had known Matthews. It was no surprise that Kate had rung him, needing to talk when she had found out about yet another one of Matthews’ casual affairs.
Admittedly, the last time Evie had sleepily stumbled in on them it hadn’t looked good either. Kate, drunk and desperate for comfort, had suddenly kissed him. It was a kiss filled with regret for all those years she could have had with him. But what Evie had failed to notice was that he had resisted, despite wanting more. Loyalty to Claudia first had forced him to stop. That and the sobering fact that if Matthews had found out they had crossed the line, he would have killed Brady.
Since that night over a year ago he had kept his distance from Kate, realising he was getting too involved in Matthews’ marriage, more than he was in his own.
Evie gave Brady a stabbing look of disdain before turning and walking out.
‘Where are you going?’ Kate called out, the panic apparent in her voice.
She didn’t reply.
‘Evie, wait. Jack needs to have a word with you … it’s about …’ Kate faltered.
Evie stopped and irritably turned round.
‘Sophie, I need to talk to you about Sophie,’ said Brady.
Evie’s face paled as she looked from her mother’s distraught expression to Brady’s dark, foreboding countenance.
‘Stop it! Stop it!’ screamed Evie.
‘Please Evie,’ Brady persisted. ‘I need to know who might have done this to Sophie.’
Kate grabbed Brady’s arm.
‘For God’s sake, Jack, what the hell are you playing at?’ she hissed. ‘She’s already told you she knows nothing!’
Brady pushed on.
‘Evie? Do you understand how important this is? Do you? Someone did something terrible to Sophie. They hurt her, really hurt her and it’s my job to find out who did that,’ Brady doggedly continued, ignoring Kate.
He couldn’t believe that Evie was refusing to talk to him. From the moment he had begun interviewing her she had been evasive. Refusing to even look at him, let alone answer any of his questions. She even had the audacity to take out her iPhone and start texting while he was asking questions. He couldn’t understand her attitude given the gravity of the situation. She just seemed to have switched off from the reality of what had happened to
