A Village Feud (24 page)

Her guard was lowered and they chattered on about this and that, and it wasn’t until Beth caught her eye that she remembered how frightened of him Beth was. Maybe her first instincts were right. It was only when he began addressing his conversation to Beth, asking her about school and why she wasn’t there on a school morning and he’d seen her in the Rectory garden a few times and was she not well, that Caroline said between gritted teeth, ‘If you don’t leave us alone I shall call the manager and have you removed.’

‘Removed? Whatever for?’

‘For pestering us when you’ve been asked not to sit at our table.’

‘Now really, Doctor Harris—’

‘You’re still here.’

‘I’ve done nothing wrong, but I will go if that’s what you want.’

He didn’t, however, move.

‘Well?’

It was Beth who took action. She picked up his coffee pot, flipped open the lid, and poured the contents down the front of his jacket and trousers. And was it hot! He leapt to his feet and tried to brush the hot coffee from his clothes but it had soaked through in an instant.

He looked at Beth, but instead of the angry response Caroline expected he smiled and said, ‘My! What a feisty young lady you are. Very feisty. Wouldn’t like to meet you out on a dark night. You’d be a real handful.’ His voice and his face were filled with pleasure and not anger as he looked at Beth. But it changed to shock when he saw what Beth had laid on the table, and he slumped into his chair.

To her horror Caroline saw the vegetable knife from her kitchen drawer, somehow cleaner and shinier than normal, lying beside Beth’s mug with her fingers gripping the handle.

‘I shall use it, if you don’t move.’ The voice she used wasn’t even hers, and the anger in her face wasn’t Beth’s anger at all. She was a total stranger, with strengths and determination completely alien to her. She snarled, ‘Do you hear me? I shall use it, believe me.’ She edged the knife closer to him, staring into his eyes as she did so.

‘Beth! Get the shopping. We’re leaving. Now!’ Caroline didn’t know if she was moving to prevent Beth using the knife or to get away from this dreadful man. But Beth didn’t obey her. She sat stony-faced and deeply angry, staring at Andy. Her grip on the knife tightened a fraction, just enough for him to see she meant business.

Andy merely slurped down the rest of his coffee, smirked at Beth and headed towards the exit.

‘Put that knife in my bag this instant.’ Beth hesitated for a moment and then dropped it casually into her mother’s handbag.

On their way out Caroline and Beth were recognized by the person in charge at the cafe´ that morning. ‘Caroline!’

‘Beatrice!’

‘And Beth! what a lovely surprise. How nice to see you out, Beth. The Dean was asking only yesterday if I knew how you were progressing. I see you’re making great strides, he will be pleased when I tell him.’ Her sweet, kindly face broke into a huge smile.

Caroline, broken with horror by Beth’s appalling behaviour, managed to say, ‘Beatrice, you see the man leaving right now in that navy anorak? We’ve had to leave because he was pestering us. We even moved table and he followed us. You’d best keep your eye on him.’

‘Thank you for letting me know. We get all sorts in here. They’re all welcome so long as they behave themselves. Sorry about that. Are you both all right?’ She laid a kindly hand on Beth’s arm.

Caroline replied, ‘Don’t worry, we’re fine, just thought you ought to be aware. Be seeing you.’

She looked at Beth as they left the cafe´ and saw her with different eyes. She’d grown up these last months and today, at this moment, looked the young woman she would one day be. Her heart sank. Beth’s long ash-blonde hair, fair complexion and lovely bright blue eyes she’d inherited from her mother would shortly be a stunning combination. ‘Darling, never, ever do you carry a knife with you. I can’t believe you did that.’

Beth’s reply was harsh. ‘It had the right effect though. He wasn’t listening to you at all. He was
enjoying
me pouring the coffee over him.’

Her voice, flat and hard, shocked Caroline as much as her actions did. Where had the real Beth gone?

Beth was filled with revulsion. Home seemed the safest place to be. ‘Mummy, I want to go home. Right now. Come on.’

‘Very well. This is the quickest way.’

‘We’re not in that car park, are we?’

Caroline stopped and thought. ‘Oh no, of course we’re not. We’re in the new one. I must be going mental. But why on earth did you bring that knife with you? What were you thinking of?’

‘To defend myself. And you. There’s no one going to spoil my life ever again. Not … one … single … person. And if a knife makes me safe a knife I shall use, and I mean it.’

There was that strange voice again that didn’t seem to be Beth’s. Caroline answered, ‘You know full well that’s totally against what we stand for. Absolutely. You must never take that knife, or any other for that matter, out of the house again. Do you hear me?’

Beth looked at her and ignored what she’d said. But then they reached their car and Andy was standing beside his with eyes only for Beth. Caroline’s skin crawled and she felt sick with fear and disgust.

They drove home in silence until Beth said right out of the blue, ‘One night when I couldn’t sleep I saw him get in his car and drive away. He came back about an hour later. I couldn’t see what he was doing before he set off, but I did think he’d put something in his car boot before he left. Afterwards I thought I’d dreamed it perhaps. But when I think about it now, I’m sure I didn’t. It did seem odd. I remember it was the night you’d fallen asleep on my bed and I slept in your bed.’

Caroline scrabbled about in her head to remember when that was. ‘Can you remember when?’

‘No. All those nights when I couldn’t sleep for screaming ran one into the other.’

‘They’ve almost stopped now, haven’t they?’

‘Thanks to Dottie. I don’t know what it is about her but she does help me.’

‘How does she do that, when I can’t?’

‘There’s something so comforting and understanding about her, and she calls a spade a spade.’

Hardly able to speak the words, Caroline blurted out, ‘Have you told
her
what your worries are?’

Beth placed a gentle hand on Caroline’s knee, ‘No, but she did ask me if I’d been raped. Which I hadn’t.’

The car swerved slightly as she took in what Beth had said. After she’d regained control Caroline said, ‘I wanted to ask but emotions got in the way and wouldn’t let me. I certainly knew I must, but the words wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t bear, you know, asking. I suppose I couldn’t face what the answer might be, which was utterly stupid of me because it would have been vital for me to know. Tests and such. Don’t think that all men are like that, they’re not. You only have to look round our village to count up loads of decent men, loving and kind like your dad. He’s a great man to be married to.’

‘I know he is. But that Andy Moorhouse wants locking up. Here we are. Shall we put the car away?’

‘Yes, you open the door.’

Andy saw them opening up the garage doors as he arrived home. Not having the privilege of his own garage he only had to manoeuvre his onto his now flattened garden and lock it up. He got inside his house before Caroline and Beth, and stood in his kitchen thinking about Beth.

Ever since Jenny he’d relished the idea of women cowering because of him. Women longing for him to dominate them, women submitting to his anger, grovelling just like Jenny did. It gave him such power, the kind he’d never had over anyone, man, woman nor child, in all his life. He wiped the sweat from his top lip and the ecstasy from his mind. Fancy that little bitch carrying a knife. God! She was a handful and not half. His pulse raced at the prospect.

The mother was no fool though. She wouldn’t tolerate someone like him thinking about her precious daughter in that way. Huh! But what did she know about life, the real, hardbitten knife-edge kind of life he’d led? She’d have spent her whole life being cosseted and cared for, protected and loved by everyone who met her, and that was something he had never had; real, deep, lasting love. Not that he was desiring deep lasting love from Beth. No, it was about domination, sexual satisfaction and submission. Andy’s mind roved over Beth’s good looks. She was a beauty with her flawless complexion, startling blue eyes and slender young figure, almost a woman but not quite yet. The sweat broke out again; face it, she was gorgeous. He recollected the look on her face when she’d poured the coffee over him, the passion surging within her, the disgust and the barely veiled hatred, too, which thrilled him. And then the knife! He was right, she was feisty and not half.

Across the kitchen he saw the chocolates he’d bought for Jenny before … before he’d throttled her. He could give them to Beth as an apology, and why not? Give him a chance to see her, perhaps make another move forward in gaining her confidence. He dwelt on the idea for a few minutes, dwelt on the thought of touching her, stroking that blonde hair … The phone interrupted his thoughts.

‘Andy Moorhouse speaking.’

He listened and found to his horror that it was the head of his department speaking.

Nine o’clock sharp tomorrow morning with his case files for a department audit. See you.

He put the phone down and felt his world fall apart. This was the summons he’d been dreading would happen one day, perhaps next month, or the next, or the next. But not right here and now. The fake references, the hours spent away from the office, the colleagues who shunned him. His carefully constructed empire was toppling down on his head, remorselessly.

Should he run before the final showdown?

Might be a good idea after Jenny.

He’d miss his chance with Beth.

Leave the house he owned?

He glanced at the chocolates again. He didn’t
have
to face the music in the office. If he did a disappearing act, they couldn’t get at him if they didn’t know where he was. The chocolates. Just a glimpse of her before he left.

That damned telephone call had ruined his pursuit of her. Another day, a few weeks, and all that lovely promise of beauty could have been his to control. He washed his face, combed his hair, threw some aftershave on, and opened the front door to find Inspector Gould and his sergeant – triggered by Caroline’s call about his night-time escapade and the episode in the Abbey Coffee Shop – each holding out their identification, just about to ring the bell.

‘Fortunate that, Mr Moorhouse. Very fortunate. Need a word. We’ll come in.’

Gould and his burly sergeant were in the hall in an instant, staring at the box of chocolates in his hand.

‘Going somewhere, Mr Moorhouse?’

The sergeant asked, ‘Nice chocolates those. Taking them to a friend, are we, Mr Moorhouse?’

Andy couldn’t speak. Thoughts raced through his head. He couldn’t speak for thinking. Why were they here? They’d finished with him, he thought. Why were they ringing his doorbell? More clues? Had they found Jenny?

Trouble was they didn’t speak. Just stood there like vast lumps of dumb, unmoving stone, staring at the box of chocolates.

Eventually he broke the silence. ‘Well, officers, what can I do for you? I was just going out. Hope it’s not important.’

‘We want you at the station. Questions to ask that’s all.’

‘What about? I’ve helped you all I can with the store vandalism. I’ve got to take these.’ His mind became obsessed with his mission to see Beth.

‘On foot? Then we’ll accompany you, and
then
we’ll go to the station. You’re willing to come?’

‘Of course. I’ll help in any way I can. Must deliver these.’

They edged him out of the door after checking he had his key. If it hadn’t been for his obsession about delivering the chocolates to Beth he’d have realized he was confirming their suspicions.

He strode purposefully to the Rectory door, and rattled the knocker.

It was Alex who came to the door. ‘Good afternoon. How may I help?’

‘Is Beth in?’

‘Yes, but she’s busy and can’t come to the door.’

He thrust the box at Alex. ‘Give her these. From Andy, with my apologies.’ He stepped away from the door and the police officers hustled him away.

As they stuffed him into their car, carefully parked out of sight at the top of Shepherds Hill, the sergeant said, ‘So we were right. You were stalking Beth Harris.’

The rapid walk to the car had woken Andy up. ‘That is absolutely ridiculous. Of course I haven’t been stalking her. They live next door and we happened to go into the Abbey Coffee Shop today at the same time and shared a table. What’s wrong with that?’

But they didn’t answer and left him to sweat all the way to Culworth.

Now there was no Store for meet people in, it was slowly becoming common practice to gather by the bus stop even when there wasn’t a bus due. They would sit on the seat to wait, in the hope that someone they knew would miraculously appear. That day there were three people waiting: Greta Jones, just finished work for the day; Sheila Bissett, waiting for the bus to Little Derehams and wishing she was still living in Turnham Malpas; and one of the weekenders, Joyce, who was spending extra time in her weekend home.