Borderliners (22 page)

‘Shut it, Dan. Shall we go and get our champagne? And, no, it’s not his wife.’

Looking around again to check, I saw that Vince had re-joined his sister and his friends outside. Inside the function room the air was thickening as people arrived, an exponential whirl of black tuxedos, aftershave and oceans of glossy evening dress. I knew almost everyone there but was wary: some I had only encountered as patients. I took Dan’s hand and plunged headlong into the crowd. There was no sign of my colleagues Dr Gostik or Dr Vaizey and their respective partners, but I wasn’t worried. They were supposed to be arriving together and I knew Dr Gostik and his wife were appalling time keepers.

After a few more minutes there was a slight stir at the front entrance of the function room, a temporal shift which made the hairs rise at the back of my neck. Straining to look through the thickening forest of bodies around me I saw that others were doing the same, unsettled by the slight disturbance in the steady ebb and flow of people. Julia and Iain had arrived.

Dan thrust a glass into my hand. ‘So, are you going to introduce me to anyone, or am I going to have to start making up names for people?’

‘All in good time.’

Outside the sky had thickened to a tangible black and I thought I could see small, bright dots appearing in the night sky past the large French window at the far end of the room. I collected myself and took his hand again, plunging him into the thick of it. Wondering, a little apprehensively, if Julia had seen us, I ran headlong into Paul.

‘This is Paul, a colleague of mine from the village council,’ I said. ‘He’s married to Lucy who works at the surgery. Paul, this is an old friend of mine, Dan.’ I could tell from the quizzical look on his open and amiable face, that Paul was weighing up what kind of friendship this might be.

‘Who else have you come with?’ Paul asked Dan.

Dan shifted from one foot to another. ‘I believe we are sitting with some of Elena’s colleagues from the surgery,’ he replied, draining his champagne glass.

I cut in. ‘Actually, they're here now - if you’ll excuse us.’

A shock of white, curly hair caught my eye at the far door and I turned to wave at Dr Gostik, who was just coming in through the front entrance followed by his wife and Dr and Mrs Vaizey. Gesturing that we could talk later, Paul turned away to greet a group of Rotary Club members standing on the other side of him.

‘I thought we'd never get here,’ shouted Dr Gostik across to us. ‘But you know what my wife’s like!’ He glanced at the small, nimble woman by his side. ‘And then we hit traffic. Oh well, what about a little tipple, eh?’

‘Hi Pat,’ I said to Mrs Gostik.

Dan reached across to grab two glasses of champagne from a nearby trestle table. Handing them to Dr Gostik and his wife he then grabbed two more for Dr Vaizey and his wife, Nicola. I chatted with my colleagues for a while, catching up with their news and enjoying their company outside of the surgery. Dan fetched more drinks and, sipping my second glass of champagne, I started to feel myself relax.

After a few minutes a slow swathe of people drifted into the banqueting hall to take their seats. Following the crowd we moved towards our table, but I was dismayed to see that Julia and Iain already seated at the next one. I froze, one hand on the back of my seat, the other on my clutch bag, which slipped, gently bashing the empty glass on the table in front of me. The clattering noise it made attracted the attention of Louise and Lucy, who were passing on the opposite side of the table.

‘Had enough?’ remarked Louise in a loud voice, looking more at Lucy than at me. Lucy smiled - a quick benign curve of the lip - before turning to Louise to grin more openly, covering her mouth as she did so. They were like naughty school girls. I thought of how quickly I could dispense with them if I wanted to, and turned away.

Nicola Vaizey caught my eye from her own seat, where she was now sitting. Her eyebrows were raised, but I waved the incident off. I looked across to where Louise and Lucy had been heading, to a table not far away. They were sitting in a boy-girl sequence, Vince in between them and Paul on the other side next to Vince’s partner. Emma had her back to me.

A Scottish lilt, calm and controlled accompanied by its owner’s cold hand on my arm broke into my thoughts. ‘We could have given you a lift, Elena.’

I felt a dropping sensation somewhere between my stomach and my gut, aware the blood had run from my cheeks. I swallowed and looked around before replying. ‘Thanks Julia but my friend Dan picked me up. We're old friends.’

‘That’s a shame,’ said Julia, the over-firm pressure of her hand still on my arm, ‘as I wanted to chat with you about something.’ Her eyes were fixed on mine like a cat’s or maybe a tiger’s. I itched to flex my muscles and throw her off, but it wouldn’t do here. Not yet.

Dan held up a bottle of wine. ‘Would you like some wine?’ He looked questioningly at Julia.

‘Oh, this is my next door neighbour, Julia,’ I said.

‘Hello. Was it Dan?’ Julia showed no signs of moving back over to her own table. ‘You’re an old friend of our Elena here?’ Her smile was fixed and didn't reach her eyes. ‘It’s quite a long time since we had a doctor in the local surgery who wasn’t from round here. I don’t know what she must think of us!’

‘You mean a psychotherapist?’ Dan asked, his smile also not reaching his eyes.

The temperature inside the banqueting hall seemed to lurch up and down as I tried to stabilise the myriad of feelings which washed over me. I could not help but marvel at Julia's charade and I wondered if the whole village knew of this rift between us or if, in fact, if nobody knew. Even if they didn’t, it felt like everyone in the hall must surely be able to feel our mutual hostility. I looked away from Julia’s cat’s eyes to search for a lifeline in the crowded room around me. Another heartbeat passed before, without warning, my arm was released. A sharp jingling quietened the room down to a low murmur and Julia took her leave of us to sit down. I followed suit and lowered myself into my seat to focus on the Rotary Club welcome speech and charity auction. My colleagues formed a ring around me, sitting forwards into the table. Although it had not been discussed, they seemed to pick up on my unease. Nicola squeezed my arm affectionately whilst her husband winked, Dan made witty asides, designed to make me laugh. The Gostiks enquired after my wellbeing, listening with maternal concern as I answered.

As the auction drew to a close, my pager flashed, its pale light blinking from within my clutch bag. Grabbing it out of the bag I flicked it open to see an urgent message from Kate asking me to meet her and Linda. It didn’t look like it could wait. I stared at the screen for a moment, irritated, before grasping my shrug from the back of my chair. Although I made myself available to my patients out of hours, an emergency call like this was rare. But still. That in itself alarmed me. What could be so urgent?

‘I have to pop down to my office. I’ll call a cab and I won't be long,’ I muttered to Dan in a low voice. He sat back in his chair and winked. A surgeon, he knew the drill only too well. He nodded as I waved curtly at the others before leaving the room. I didn’t check to see who else was watching me leave, hoping that the quickest and most unobtrusive exit would be best.

The surgery was dark as I let myself in through the front door. Although it was Saturday evening, Jenny, the practice nurse was still on duty, albeit with her coat on indicating she was about to leave. She was talking to two women who were sitting in the waiting room. I screwed up my eyes to see who they were and the pale anxiety of the younger woman gave me the answer I'd feared.

‘Thanks Jenny,’ I said. ‘I’ll lock up here when I’m done.’

Looking at the women, I wondered briefly why Linda wasn’t under the care of the hospital psychiatrist by now, remembering I hadn’t followed it up, so preoccupied had I been with other events which had happened subsequently. As I reached them I saw that Linda’s eye make-up had become a dirty, black sludge underneath her eyes. She was sweating, her hair matted as she pulled and fiddled with it distractedly. The girl’s distress was disturbing.

We went through to my consulting room and after a brief talk with Linda, I picked up my phone to dial the number of the local psychiatric ward.

‘You've got a bed tomorrow? Good.’ I put the phone down and explained to Linda that I wanted her to go to hospital the next day.

‘You’re sectioning her?’ asked Kate, her voice shrill.

‘Not me, I can’t do that.’ Again I turned to Linda. ‘But I strongly recommend you take my advice and go to hospital for a check-up tomorrow. When you get there, you’ll need to be evaluated, and yes, the consultant there may decide to section you for a period.’

Linda looked up, as if seeing me for the first time. ‘They’re going to get me tonight. They’re after me.’

I regarded her for a moment, trying to comprehend her response. ‘You need to go home, go to bed and get some sleep tonight. I don’t think you should be going anywhere or meeting anyone. Just home to rest.’ And then to Kate. ‘She should be all right overnight until you can get her into the hospital, but if you’re worried, take her straight to Accident and Emergency.’

Remembering the clippings file, I continued. ‘Don’t leave her alone if you can help it please. She needs to have someone with her until she goes into hospital tomorrow.’

Kate nodded and took Linda's hand. Linda was shaking and as I watched them go, I bit my lip. Once they were gone, I typed some notes up in Linda's records and closed my computer down.

An icy shiver grasped my body, compelling me to pull my shrug more tightly around my shoulders. I couldn’t rid myself of negative thoughts tonight – of Vince and his games, of Julia’s menace and of Tony. Where was Tony? I hadn’t seen him or contacted him since our discussion about the clippings file, and the omission suddenly clung to me, squeezing at my heart.

When I returned to the ball the band was playing and there was a large crowd on the dance floor. It didn’t surprise me that I could see no sign of Dan anywhere. I knew he’d be in the thick of it. Scratching my head, I looked around the room. Most people had finished eating: plates were already being cleared away and the after dinner band looked like it was in full swing. I scanned the room for a clock, noting when I found one that it was a lot later than I had presumed. After another second of waiting in the doorway I made up my mind to push through the crowded room towards the bar. I brushed past a man drinking a pint of bitter whilst chatting amiably to a woman with bleached blond hair in a black dress and matching black knitted shawl. They glanced at me briefly, dispassionately. Community members, I wondered, but dismissed it. I glanced back at the man again, just to make sure and he caught my eye, a nasty smile crawl across his features before he turned back to his partner. I shuddered, regretting the eye contact immediately.

I reached the bar and turned to the man next to me. He was alone there, presumably getting drinks for his friends.

‘Hi Vince.’

He turned, eyes flickering over me to rest on the tattoo at the base of my spine before returning to hold my gaze. ‘I’m getting some drinks in. Did you want one?’

‘No thanks, I’ll get my own,’ I replied, my gaze as steady as his. ‘Are you enjoying the evening?’

‘Hmm. It's a laugh, isn't it? And you ladies do like to dress up.’ He jerked his head towards the corner table where his sister and his friends were playing an uproarious drinking game. Lucy and Louise were cackling at Emma, who appeared to be leading the proceedings. I looked over at them, tight lipped, not attempting to hide my disdain.

‘However, I’ve got things to look out for, as have you.’ There was a brief silence before he continued, a theatrical upturn to his voice. ‘Well!’ He picked up his three beers and a glass of wine. ‘I’d better go and keep
them
out of trouble.’

He left me standing at the bar.

I remained where I was for a few moments considering his words, keeping my shoulders straight whilst I looked down at the slender expanse of silver dress which reached to the floor. My hair was irritating me, so fetching a clasp out from my bag, I started twisting my hair into a loose bun before a voice behind made me jump.

‘Leave it, it looks lovely down.’ It was Dan and I relaxed into a smile. He reached over and ruffled my hair, winking as he did so. I laughed and ruffled his back.

‘Dan, you scared me! I thought you’d gone.’

‘Who's your friend?’ he said, glancing over at Vince’s table. ‘I’m still waiting for you to introduce us.’

'Oh he's not a friend,' I said, quickly twisting up my hair once again. 'I know him from the village council.'

'What about the girlfriend? She a friend of yours?' Dan asked, eyes still twinkling.

'I don’t think she’s a girlfriend.'

He raised his eyebrows. 'Look, why don’t you join me on the dance floor?’

'All right, I’m coming.'

We started walking over towards the dance floor, weaving our way through tables and past knots of people dotted along our route. When we were almost there, Dan stopped me. ‘I almost forgot. You never told me exactly what was up with that Julia person? She’s the leader of that crackpot community you told me about, isn’t she? Cold fish, if you ask me.’

I opened my mouth to reply but quickly shut it again. Julia had appeared behind us.

‘Hello again.’ She greeted us with the same tight, bright tone as before. ‘I noticed that you disappeared for a while earlier.’

‘Patient emergency,’ I retorted.

‘Anyone I know?’

‘Sorry, I can't break patient confidentiality.’

‘I see. Yes, of course.’ Again, the tight-lipped smile. ‘I wanted to ask you about something actually. Shall we take a walk?’

‘Actually
, I need to go to the bathroom. Please excuse me. I'll be back in a minute.’

I pulled Dan’s arm and together we exited the Great Hall in the direction of the bathrooms. Once in the corridor, I changed direction and led Dan outside where we strolled for a few moments together down the path leading from the stately home to its gardens, before I stopped and turned to face him. Putting my arms around him I pulled his head down to my ear.