Chosen Child (5 page)

James slid out of bed and grabbed his jeans, stumbling in
his hurry to get into them.

‘Go downstairs!’ he hissed. ‘Keep him in the kitchen!’

Amanda fumbled into her bathrobe. Gareth hadn’t called out
to her; he would know it was Jaden’s nap time. She could hear him in the living
room below; he was going through to the kitchen now and the coffee mugs and
plates were still on the table. The mugs would still be warm… And James’
Peugeot was in the driveway, blocking the entrance to the garage.

Gareth was back in the hallway, no, no – what was she going
to say to him?

She thrust bare feet into her slippers and ran from the
room. Gareth was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up, and the
expression on his face... she had never seen it before.

‘What’s going on, Amanda?’

His voice was quiet and Amanda clutched the bathrobe round
her neck. It must be perfectly obvious what was going on.

‘Julie was here for lunch, but I had a bit of a headache so
I went for a lie down when she left.’ It didn’t sound convincing even in her
own ears. She started down the stairs, holding on to the banister as if it
would protect her from whatever was going to happen. ‘I’m fine now. Let’s have
coffee – there’s still plenty of cake.’

He didn’t budge from his position on the bottom stair. His
eyes met hers, staring coldly.

‘That isn’t Julie’s car outside.’

There was a creak from the bedroom, and Amanda suppressed a
groan. James had stood on the loose board by the door. That was it then. Her
gut cramped; her knees were knocking together and her thighs hurt.

‘Is – is your leaving do over already?’ she said, her voice
feeble.

Colour drained from Gareth’s cheeks and his chin began to
tremble. He lurched up two steps until he was towering over her, and Amanda
flinched. She could feel the warmth of his breath and the slight spit as he
hissed into her face.

‘You weren’t expecting that, were you? It was a brunch,
Amanda. Didn’t you know? And
I’d
like to know who’s
up there in my bedroom.’ He pushed past her and strode upstairs, his feet
thudding on each tread.

Amanda released her grip on the banister and stumbled after
him. She had never seen him so angry; his lips were white round the edges and
his breath was coming in hoarse pants.

Jaden’s voice cried out from his room. ‘Ma-mama!’

‘Gar, it’s not – ’

Gareth disappeared into the bedroom and Amanda staggered
after him. This was the worst, the very worst thing she had ever lived through.
What would he do to James – were they going to fight? No, she had to stop that
– she had to get them out of this. Grabbing Gareth’s t-shirt, she pulled him
back. He shook her off and she reeled against the wall, knocking a picture of
the three of them to the floor.

James was fumbling with his shirt buttons. Amanda could see
the horror in his eyes as he stepped towards Gareth, a trembling hand raised in
what was probably meant to be a placatory gesture, but it still felt like a bad
film. Gareth balled both fists, and James retreated again.

Jaden’s howls were filling the house now but she didn’t have
time to think about that. ‘Gar, no, stop –’

Gareth lunged at James, hands reaching for his throat. ‘You
bastard! You -’

‘Gareth! Leave him! You can’t -’ Amanda sprang forward then
side-stepped as James dodged Gareth, pushing him back towards the door. Gareth
tripped over Amanda’s jeans on the floor and pitched towards her. Panicking,
she shoved him away as hard as she could, sobbing as he swayed, pulling James
with him as he collided with the mirror on the wardrobe door. The glass broke
with a horrible tinkling sound. A sickening crack as both men hit the floor
sent a shiver right through Amanda. She screamed, hearing the echoing shriek
from Jaden.

James leapt to his feet, blood dripping from his arm onto
Amanda’s jeans on the floor. Too horrified to speak, she stood in the wreckage
of her bedroom. Shards of mirror lay in front of the wardrobe door, and Gareth
was sprawled in the middle of them. His eyes were open and staring. He wasn’t
moving.

Amanda sank to her knees beside him, feeling splinters of
mirror pierce her skin. Her hand shook on Gareth’s chest. Dear God, was he
breathing?

‘Gar? Can you hear me? Are you - ’ Panic swept through her
and she moaned, shuddering as she scrambled to her feet and staggered
backwards, colliding with the door frame. No, no – look how his head was
twisted… and there was no expression at all in those terrible grey eyes…

Unremitting screams from Jaden’s room made the scene before
Amanda a million times more awful. ‘He’s dead!’ Her teeth were chattering.

James was wrapping his boxer shorts round his bleeding arm.
‘Don’t be so bloody stupid, he’s not dead. It wasn’t even a hard - ’ He bent
over Gareth, feeling for a pulse as he spoke, and Amanda moaned as his face
blanched. He sat down heavily on the bed. ‘What are we going to do?’

If she hadn’t known it was James speaking she would never
have recognised the voice, a grainy, appalled whisper.

Amanda clutched the door frame, panting. ‘Call an ambulance!
Quick, quick – where’s your phone?’ She stretched a hand towards him.

‘He’s dead, he doesn’t need an ambulance!’ James leapt up
and pushed her onto the landing. ‘Get Jaden and come downstairs. We have to
talk.’

‘We have to get a doctor – they might be able to save him!’
Aghast, Amanda pulled away from him. Her mobile, where was her mobile? Jaden
was still howling, and she called out to him. ‘Sleepy-time, lovey! Be a good
boy!’ Unsurprisingly, this only made him cry harder.

James tightened the bloody boxer shorts round his arm, his
face sheet white. ‘I reckon his neck’s broken. He’s gone, Amanda.’

He pushed her towards Jaden’s room. Amanda grabbed her son
from his cot and dashed down to the kitchen. James was leaning over the sink
washing the blood from his arm, breathing hoarsely through his mouth. ‘Got a
plaster?’

‘Boo boo,’ said Jaden, and Amanda stared. Up till now his
only words had been Mama, Dada and bus. She strapped him into his hated high
chair and gave him a generous slice of apple cake to keep him busy. Thank God,
oh thank God he was too young to understand what was going on. The nausea had
returned, dizziness was coming in waves, and her teeth were chattering. Hands
shaking, she reached into the high cupboard for the first aid kit. James
rummaged for a strip of plaster and she helped him stick it on.

‘We have to call the police, James.’ It didn’t sound like
her voice either.

‘Don’t be so stupid. If we do that there’ll be hell to pay.’
He drummed the fingers of his uninjured hand on the table.

Amanda glared at him. What was he getting at? They didn’t
have any choice. ‘We
have
to call them. Or an
ambulance.’ It was unbelievable. Gareth – her husband – was
dead
.
Ten minutes ago he’d been alive, happy to be coming home, looking forward to
his holiday… and then his last moments had been filled with such horror.

James leaned forwards. ‘We both pushed him, Amanda. They’d
arrest us and charge us with manslaughter, even though Gareth attacked me.’

‘We can’t pretend it didn’t happen.’ Amanda sank her head to
the table top.

‘We have to plan what we say, then – we have to make it look
like an accident.’

‘It
was
an accident!’ She was
crying now; the sheer irrevocability of Gareth’s death was crushing. Jaden’s
eyes were fixed on her, his lower lip trembling, and she patted his hand.

James scratched his chin. ‘You’re right. Yes… You could say
he was getting changed after work and he fell over something and crashed against
the mirror. If we don’t tell them about me the police’d have no reason not to
believe you. I’ll go and you can make the bed and phone -’

He strode out to the hallway and Amanda ran after him. Was
he going to leave her to face the police alone in the wreckage of her life?
James came to a halt by the hall window, moaning as he stared out. Amanda
looked too and saw the reason for his alarm. Bob Charles across the road was
out washing his car, and a noisy group of boys were playing football on the
deserted street, the goalpost level with James’ car. And Mrs Gray next door was
sitting in the sunshine beside her lilac tree.

‘Fuck, Amanda – they’ll see me when I go. When you report
Gareth dead the police’ll ask around… and my car’s been outside all the time. We
have to think of a way out of this.’

Amanda sank down on the stairs and sobbed. There was no way
back from a dead man.

James sat beside her and hugged her, and for a brief moment
she leaned on him. Jaden was howling in the kitchen and Gareth was dead and
there was no one else to lean on.

‘We have to make this look as if it has nothing to do with
either of us. Think. Who’s the next person expecting to see Gareth?’

Amanda started back into the kitchen. ‘Well – me, and…’

It was difficult to think clearly, but as far as she knew
there was no one expecting Gareth to turn up anywhere soon. He was finished at
work, next week he had planned his walking tour, and the week after they were
going to Scotland.

‘We’re meeting his mum in Glasgow the week after next.’

‘And the walking tour?’

Amanda clutched her head with both hands. She’d been looking
forward to Gareth’s week away. It would have given her and James a lovely long
time of meeting whenever they wanted to. What a terrible person she was.

‘He’s going alone. He often does that. Sometimes he goes
with friends but this time…’

James tapped his fingertips together. ‘Okay. So
theoretically he could have an accident out walking next week? He could fall
over a cliff, couldn’t he?’

Amanda felt stupid and slow; her mind wasn’t working
properly. Gareth was planning to walk along the coastal path from Lamorna,
heading towards Plymouth. They’d done a section of it together before Jaden was
born. The views were magnificent, but the path was tricky in places. There was
nothing Amanda could think of to say to James. What on earth was he proposing?
To throw Gareth over a cliff at midnight? She could feel her eyes widening in
disbelief.

James sat staring at nothing, then reached over and grabbed
her hand. ‘Listen. We’ll work something out, but until we do we have to make
sure we behave absolutely normally. Give me a couple of large bin bags and some
tape. I’ll wrap him up and come back later to take him away. I’ll go back to –
to work now, though how I’ll manage anything I don’t know. You clean the room
upstairs. Next time I come I’ll have thought of a plan. I promise. There’s no
sense us going to prison over this; it wasn’t our fault.’

But it was, thought Amanda. If they hadn’t been in bed
together none of this would have happened. But if the police came here and saw
the bedroom in the state it was now… if she was arrested… She looked at Jaden,
happy again with his cake. Wiping her nose on the sleeve of her robe, she
blinked at James, then pulled the roll of bin bags out from under the sink. He
slunk from the room, and she buried her head in her arms on the table,
listening as he slow-stepped upstairs. This was surreal; what were they
doing
? But what choice was there? She couldn’t leave her
boy while she was arrested and proving her innocence. Supposing the police
didn’t believe it was an accident? Jaden stretched out his arms and she lifted
him and tried to hug him, but he wriggled until she put him down.

It was impossible to block out the sounds from upstairs. The
rustle of bin bags, then thumps and scrapes, and groans from James. He was
putting Gareth into the spare room. His face was like grey marble when he came
back down, and Amanda saw blood seeping through his plaster. Not speaking, she
pulled out the first aid kit again.

When she was done James hugged her tightly for a few
moments, then left. She heard him drive off down the road.

He hadn’t been gone two minutes when Gareth’s mobile rang
upstairs.

Friday 16th May

Rick’s car swung into the driveway, and Ella closed her eyes
in relief. At last.

‘Sorry, sorry, got stuck on the phone to India. I’ll just go
and change.’ He ran upstairs, barely looking at her.

Irritation gone, Ella stood at the front room window. Ten
minutes till Mel and Soraya arrived. Would she stand here one day, waiting for
Soraya to come home from school? Or would she collect her daughter? Some of the
local mothers did group school runs, she knew. Anticipation fizzed through
Ella; this must, this simply must work out for them. If someone came now and
said, ‘You can’t have Soraya,’ she would be devastated.

Mel’s car pulled up at the roadside and Ella hurried to the
door. Mel was standing beside the driver’s door, leaning on the roof, so
obviously she wasn’t coming inside. Soraya emerged from the back and ran up the
path, her face one big question mark.

‘I’ll collect her at five!’ called Mel, and Ella waved.

Soraya didn’t look back, and Ella took her hand and led her
inside.

‘What are we going to do?’

Ella laughed. ‘Hello to you too. We’ll go for a walk first,
to look at the sea, and then we’re coming back here for the best tea you can
imagine, and then we’ll play in the garden.’

‘I wanted to make a sandcastle and go paddling and have an
ice cream on the beach,’ said Soraya, her voice disappointed.

Ella remembered what Mel had advised about being firm.
‘We’ll save that for another time. A whole afternoon at the beach needs better
weather, and there isn’t much we can do about that, is there?’

Soraya peered up at the sky, where grey clouds were scudding
in front of the wind. ‘Where’s Rick?’

‘Right here,’ said Rick, running downstairs. ‘Come on, I can
smell the sea. Put your jacket on, you’ll need it.’