watch, and adjusting his trousers to accommodate the pleasantly uncomfortable bulge that was growing there.
42
Caroline Eades was beyond tired.
She couldn’t even be bothered to get dressed today; just sat on the sofa, staring at the TV. She usually had something planned for the day: yoga or lunch with her young friends, or shopping for the family. Today it was a hairdressing appointment. But she had phoned up and cancelled. Just couldn’t face making the effort to get dressed.
It had hit her when she woke up. Like a huge mattress had smashed into her and knocked her back on to the bed. She had forced herself to get up, help her children off to school, but flopped back down afterwards. And from then on she couldn’t move. It was even worse than she had felt in the first three months of pregnancy. Not surprising, lugging all that extra weight around. And the heartburn… like she had been eating curries for a week.
So that was it for today. On the sofa with a cup of tea and daytime TV for company.
She took a mouthful of tea. It tasted awful. She had been able to manage coffee, but her taste for tea came and went. She hadn’t realised just how much sharper her sense of smell had become. Everything heightened, accentuated. Things she used to like, or at least not notice, now repulsed her. Like the smell inside the fridge or Graeme’s aftershave. Even the smell of the tea made her gag.
She leaned back, closed her eyes. Tried to relax. But she couldn’t. No matter how she positioned herself, which way she shifted, she just couldn’t get comfortable. She looked around. Her usually spotless house was becoming messy. Graeme wouldn’t pay for a cleaner, said it was a waste of money when she was doing nothing all day. But she didn’t even have the energy to get up, never mind clean up.
Dinner needed making, she knew that too, and she had no one to help her with it. And no food in the house again. At least Graeme had said he would go to Sainsburys on the way home. He hadn’t seemed happy about it but then he didn’t seem happy about anything these days.
She checked her watch. He should have been back by now. He’d said he was taking the afternoon off. He had been getting increasingly distant lately. Spending more time at work, snapping at her when he was at home. And he had started dressing better, too. Got a decent haircut. Lost a bit of weight. Those thoughts about an affair went through her mind again, but she didn’t have the energy, or the courage, to face them fully.
She took another sip of tea, grimaced. Awful.
She replaced the mug on the coffee table, sat back, checked her watch again. He was late. But just at that moment, when she was allowing all sorts of ridiculous fantasies about his whereabouts to run through her mind, she heard the front doorbell. She sighed. He must have forgotten his house key. Or had too much shopping and wanted her to carry it in. Idiot. In her state. But it was the kind of thing he would do.
Prising herself up from the sofa, she managed to waddle slowly from the living room into the hall. The bell rang again.
‘Yeah, all right, I’m coming…’
She reached the door, turned the knob to open it. And thought: Graeme wouldn’t have forgotten his house keys; they’re with his car keys.
She opened the door fully, looked up. It wasn’t Graeme.
And then the hammer came down.
Her last thought: she wished she had gone to that hairdresser’s appointment.
43
‘I shouldn’t be here, Clayton.You know that. You promised me.’
Sophie Gale’s voice was low, hissing. She leaned across the table, kept hard, unblinking eye contact with Clayton. She was angry, he could see that. But he knew that underneath the anger there was something more. He just didn’t know what.
‘Yeah, I know. But what can I do? You’ve got to come in if the boss says so.You know the score. Look,’ he said, leaning across the table also and keeping his voice low, though where hers had been hissing, his was controlled, ‘don’t worry. And don’t panic. That’s the main thing. Main two things.’
Sophie Gale said nothing in reply. Just stared at him, her eyes no less hostile, her arms wrapped tightly around her body. She stayed like that, staring, for what seemed to Clayton like several hours but was probably only seconds.
Clayton and Sophie were in the twin of the room Phil was talking to Ryan Brotherton in. The same drab colour, depressing light, scarred table, absence of hope. There was no mirror, though. That, thought Clayton, was something.
He had asked to conduct the interview on his own, wanted to press on with the inquiry. But he knew the rules. He had been attacked while working on a case. There was a charge of attempted murder against his attacker. It was now deemed personal and there was no place for him on the investigation. Standard procedure. But still, he had hoped.
So he had sneaked in, tried to have a quick word before Anni arrived to take over. Out of all of the team it would have to be her, he thought. He knew that time was tight and he and Sophie would have to come up with something plausible very quickly.
‘I am so fucked,’ said Sophie.
‘No you’re not,’ said Clayton. But the phrase sounded weak even to him.
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ she said. ‘If I say Ryan was at home with me the night his ex got killed and you find out he wasn’t, I’ll get done by you lot. But if I tell you he was out that night, then he’ll have me. Either way, it’s not pretty.’ She sat back. ‘Thanks a lot.’
Clayton felt himself begin to get angry with her. And he knew that his anger had its roots in the same place as hers: fear. ‘Look,’ he said, his arms out wide, imploring, ‘it’s not just you, is it? It’s me as well. Whatever comes out about you comes out about me. And then we’re both fucked. And now thanks to your shithead boyfriend I’m off the case. So I shouldn’t be here and we haven’t got long. We’ve got to make this work for us. Think. We’ve got to sort this together.’
Silence descended once more.
‘This is what I think,’ said Clayton, speaking quickly. ‘This is what we should do. I go to my boss with what you said about Brotherton going out the night Claire Fielding was killed.’
She began to interrupt but he silenced her with a hand.
‘Just listen. I tell him all that. But I also say that you’re terrified of him. You didn’t want to tell me and only want it used on the condition that Brotherton be charged and kept inside. No bail. Because… because your life’s in danger.’ Clayton sat back, pleased with himself. ‘That’ll work. Yeah. What d’you think?’
Sophie kept staring at him. ‘And where’s the risk to you, then?’
Clayton frowned. ‘What?’
‘You said this is a risk to both of us. I don’t see no risk to you there. Just me.’
Clayton sighed. ‘It’s the best I can think of.’
‘Well you’ll have to think better. Because if I say that and they don’t keep Ryan in, I’m fucked. No job, nowhere
