Heathen/Nemesis

patches on Donna’s sweatshirt and jeans. She thought the dark stain on her thigh was blood.

Jackie found tears coursing down her own cheeks, so touched was she by the plight of her friend.

Gradually Donna stopped sobbing. Jackie held her close again, rocking her as she would rock a child. She kissed the top of Donna’s head, pressing her face against the other woman’s hair. Donna pulled back slightly and looked at her.

‘It happened yesterday,’ she said quietly. ‘A car crash. I had to identify his body.’

‘Donna, I’m so sorry,’ Jackie murmured, wiping tears from her own face before pulling a tissue from her handbag and wiping Donna’s face. The older woman sat still and allowed her friend to minister to her.

‘Have you been here on your own all night?’ she asked.

Donna nodded.

‘Why the hell didn’t you call me? You need someone with you.’

‘I need Chris.’

Jackie nodded slowly and swallowed.

‘Have you slept?’ she wanted to know.

‘A few hours. I must have dropped off on the bed last night. You woke me up, ringing the doorbell.’ She smiled thinly.

‘Come on,’ Jackie said, holding out a hand and beckoning her. ‘You’re going back to bed.’

‘I can’t sleep. I couldn’t sleep. Not now.’

‘You’re out on your feet. If I hadn’t woken you up you’d still be asleep now. Come on.’

‘I’ll never be able to sleep, Jackie.’

‘I’ve got some sleeping pills in my handbag; you can take those if you have to. Please, Donna. You need some sleep now.’

Donna got to her feet and allowed herself to be led upstairs to the bedroom. There, Jackie drew the curtains and turned down the bed while Donna slipped off her clothes and threw them to the floor. Naked, she slipped between the sheets. Jackie sat on the edge of the bed stroking her hair until she saw her friend’s eyes begin to close. It took a matter of minutes before she was asleep. Jackie took one more look at her then hurried downstairs.

In her sleep Donna rolled over, her lips parted slightly, her breathing even.

One hand slid across the bed to rest where her husband would normally have slept.

Nine

She awoke with a start for the second time that day, sitting bolt upright, her head spinning.

Donna looked round to see Jackie standing by her bedside, a tray in her hand. On the tray was a bowl of soup, some bread and two mugs of tea. Donna smiled thinly and sank back onto her pillows, pulling the sheet round her breasts. She glanced across at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was almost two-thirty. A watery afternoon sun was trying to fight its way out from behind a bank of thin, high cloud.

‘You should have woken me earlier,’ she said, rubbing her eyes.

‘You needed the sleep,’ Jackie told her, setting the tray down on the bed. ‘You need food, too.’

‘Jackie, I can’t,’ Donna murmured wearily.

‘I don’t care whether you can or can’t, you need to eat. Take it.’ She pushed the tray towards her friend and perched on the edge of the bed. Donna looked so tired, so drained. Normally, the two women were not dissimilar in appearance. Both were blonde and about the same height, Jackie perhaps a little bigger around the hips and bust, but they shared the same well-defined features; on more than one occasion they had been mistaken for sisters. At the moment, Jackie thought, Donna could have passed for her mother.

Reluctantly Donna reached for the soup and began sipping it.

‘The doctor will be here at about four,’ Jackie announced, raising a hand to silence the protest she saw forming on Donna’s lips. ‘I don’t care how much you complain, it’s better he looks at you. He might give you some tranquillisers or something.’

‘I don’t need bloody tranquillisers,’ Donna said irritably.

‘You need something to help you through this, Donna. They’ll do you good. Our doctor prescribed them for my mum when my dad died.’

‘What are you trying to do, turn me into a junkie?’

‘He’ll probably give you valium, not cocaine.’

Donna managed a smile. She reached out and squeezed Jackie’s hand.

‘Thanks for what you’ve done, Jackie. I appreciate it. I’m sorry if I’ve put you to any trouble ...’

‘Don’t be so stupid. What was I supposed to do this morning, just turn around and walk away? What would you have done if you’d found me the same way?’

‘Exactly what you’ve done. But I’m still grateful.’

She sipped more of the soup, then some of her tea.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Jackie asked quietly.

‘No, not really, but I suppose I’m going to have to eventually. People will have to be told.’ She sighed and rubbed a hand across her face.

‘Chris didn’t have any family, did he?’

Donna shook her head.

‘Neither of us did, but there’s my sister. I’ll have to let Julie know.’

‘It’s all taken care of. I phoned her before I phoned the doctor. She said she’ll be here tomorrow morning. She’s taking time off work.’

Donna looked blankly at Jackie.

‘She’s your sister, Donna; she should be with you. You shouldn’t be alone. Not now.’

‘Thank you,’ Donna said softly.

‘So, do you want to talk?’

Donna nodded.

‘It was a car crash, somewhere in Central London as far as I know. He was working there for a couple of days, researching a new book. He’d been using the British Museum Library a lot. So he said.’ She repeated the sequence of events which led up to the identification of her husband’s body the previous night.

‘It must have been terrible for you. I’m sorry, Donna.’

‘Jackie ...’

I think he was having an affair.

The words were there but Donna could not bring herself to say them.

‘What?’ Jackie wanted to know.

Donna shook her head.

‘It’s all right,’ she lied. Then, trying to change the subject: ‘Did anyone ring while I was asleep?’

‘Two or three people rang. They wanted to speak to Chris. I just told them he wasn’t available.’ Jackie shrugged. ‘I didn’t think it was my place to tell them the truth. You’re not mad, are you? I suppose if I had done it would have saved you the trouble. Perhaps I should ...’

‘You were right,’ Donna said. ‘As usual.’

It was Jackie’s turn to smile.

‘The police rang,’ she said after a moment or two, the smile fading. ‘They said that you could pick up Chris’s belongings whenever you wanted to. Some bloke called Mackenzie. He said he wanted to speak to you when you felt better.’

‘He was there last night,’ Donna said. Then she frowned. ‘I wonder why they need to speak to me again? I identified Chris.’ She swallowed hard. ‘What more could they want to know?’

Some details about Suzanne Regan, perhaps?

Could you tell us how long your husband had been having an affair, Mrs Ward?

She wiped a tear from her eye and sniffed, pushing the tray away.