Civvy Street (24 page)

Maddy lowered herself onto a chair opposite Susie and reached across the table to hold her hands. ‘Oh God, you must be so worried.’

Susie nodded, bleakly. ‘I tried ringing him on his mobile but it goes straight to voicemail.’

Maddy was at a loss. ‘Do you have a work number for him? Has he turned up at his desk today?’

‘I tried a while ago and was told he wasn’t in yet. I daren’t try again... you know... in case...’

‘In case?’

‘Maddy, suppose he’s done something desperate.’

Maddy froze then she quickly recovered herself. ‘No, no, he’s much too balanced for that. Anyway, I know things aren’t perfect—’

She was interrupted by a derisory snort from Susie.

‘—but you’ve got a house, you’ve both got jobs and things could be so much worse. He wouldn’t do something that would really wreck the family. He loves you all too much for that.’ Maddy hoped to God she was right.

Susie brightened fractionally. ‘You think?’

Maddy nodded, trying to display a confidence she didn’t entirely feel. ‘Tell you what, would you like me to see if I can get hold of Mike at work? He might be there by now.’

‘Would you?’

Maddy nodded again and picked up the phone. ‘What’s the number?’

Susie told her and Maddy dialled carefully. After a few seconds it was answered. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Could you put me through to Mike Collins, please?... Yes, I’ll hold.’ She smiled at Susie encouragingly. ‘Oh, hi, Mike.’

Beside her, Susie burst into tears.

‘Look, Mike, I’ve got Susie with me and she’s been a bit worried. I don’t want to interfere but I think you ought to have a quick word with her.’

Maddy handed the phone to her friend, picked up Rose and legged it out of the kitchen, shutting the door behind her. Whatever Mike and Susie had to say to each other, they didn’t need her eavesdropping.

A few minutes later Susie found her in the sitting room where she was kneeling on the floor stacking beakers for Rose to knock over.

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Susie.

Maddy scrambled to her feet and hugged her. ‘You have
nothing
to be sorry for at all. Nothing. Honestly. You and Mike have had so much to cope with recently and all that upheaval would make life tricky for anyone.’

‘I know, and it’s been hard on the girls too. I don’t suppose it helps that they’re getting to That Age.’

‘A change of school, a change of lifestyle, a change of friends
and
a change in hormones... I can see it would all be very difficult.’

Susie shook her head. ‘You have no idea
how
difficult it can be at home. It’s awful.’

Maddy looked at Rose. ‘I can’t imagine this one being a stroppy teen but I imagine it’ll happen.’ She bent down and scooped up her daughter. ‘More tea?’

Susie shook her head. ‘I ought to get back.’

‘Come on, one won’t hurt. Besides, it was your boss who dragged you down here.’

Susie smiled. ‘I suppose.’

‘I’d say it gives you
carte blanche
.’ The pair returned to the kitchen and Rose was popped back in her high chair and given some carrot sticks to chew on while Maddy slopped the dregs out of their mugs and put the kettle on again.

‘I suppose I ought to tell you the gory details,’ said Susie.

‘Not if you don’t want to.’ She was gagging to know.

‘Well, it all stemmed from something the girls overheard me say...’ And Susie recounted the awful cause of Mike’s precipitate departure, and then the twins’ heartbreaking attempt to make things better.

‘Oh, Susie,’ said Maddy, passing Susie her tea. ‘Kids, eh? So where did Mike go?’

‘Nowhere really. He spent the night in the car. Then he waited for me to go to work before he snuck back in to shower and change. He must have had such a miserable night.’

‘Probably no more miserable than yours. At least he
knew
he was safe and well so he wasn’t wracked by guilt and worry like you were.’

‘I suppose,’ said Susie, doubtfully. She sipped her drink. ‘But what I said was so hurtful in the first place.’

‘You didn’t mean it to be. Susie, you were just making a bit of a joke.’

‘A joke Mike didn’t find funny.’

‘No, but maybe under other circumstances...’

‘Or maybe not.’

‘Look, tell you what, how about the kids have a sleepover with me tonight?’ Maddy held up her hand. ‘And I truly don’t think Ofsted will have a go at us about one night, and you cook something lovely for Mike and have a proper heart-to-heart over a nice meal.’

‘He may not want to.’

Maddy raised an eyebrow. ‘If you don’t try you won’t find out. The offer is there, let me know, and if the answer is yes, you can drop the twins over to me along with some overnight kit when it’s convenient. It’s Friday, they don’t have school tomorrow, I can let them stay up and watch some DVDs, we can make popcorn, have a few treats, have a girls’ night in. I’ll send Seb off to the mess, get him out the way for an hour or so. Do think they’d like that?’

‘It’s so kind of you but I think we might be better having a nice supper together. The girls might feel we’re trying to exclude them, like Mike and I don’t want them around. They made such an effort to make it up to me last night, writing that note of apology and clearing up and everything, I need to meet them halfway.’

‘If that’s what you think. It’s up to you but the offer stands and if you ever want to take it up, just give me a shout.’

Susie looked as if she might cry again. ‘This is what I miss so much... the support of the patch wives.’

‘We’re still here, you’re still one of us, really. Just because you live a few miles away doesn’t mean you don’t belong right here too. And if you ever need a shoulder to cry on again... well, you know where I am.’

‘God, I owe you.’

‘No, it just makes us quits. I haven’t forgotten what you did for me when I had that mad stalker.’

‘Quits then.’

Jenna was busy washing a client’s hair in the converted bathroom of the master suite. She’d got to the stage of massaging the conditioner deep into the scalp of her newest customer. Soothing music played in the background, her customer sat, head back, eyes shut, enjoying the pampering while Jenna worked her magic with her fingers. She heard the door to the salon open and shut, and the creak of a chair in the reception area as someone else came in and took a seat. She wasn’t expecting anyone – maybe it was someone wanting to make an appointment. It reminded her that she could really do with a receptionist but, frankly, given the turnover so far, there was no way she was going to be able to afford one for a bit. On the other hand the business was growing nicely and maybe, in a couple of months, it might be a real consideration. She mightn’t be rushed off her feet but she was pleasantly busy and her client base was certainly increasing.

Still massaging she glanced at the clock on the wall – time up. Mrs Laycock had had more than her five minutes. She switched on the taps and began to rinse the conditioner out.

‘Water all right, Mrs Laycock?’

‘Lovely,’ came the murmured reply.

Jenna rinsed and rubbed the hair until the water ran clear then took a comb and made sure the newly washed locks were tangle free. After she had wrapped Mrs Laycock’s head in one of the new towels she led her to a chair in front of the mirror. It was only then she turned to see who it was who had come in and sat down. A female soldier, and then she realised just which female soldier it was. Chrissie Summers – or Perkins as she was probably called now given that she was the new wife of her ex-husband. The husband she’d been unfaithful to while he’d been out in Afghanistan. The husband who’d been injured in a Taliban ambush while she’d been in bed with Dan Armstrong. The husband whose savings bank account she’d emptied to set up her own illicit hairdressing salon at her previous quarter.

‘Bloody hell,’ she whispered.

‘Jenna?’ Chrissie’s eyes were wide with shock, disbelief and something that verged on dislike.

Jenna recovered herself a fraction. ‘What... what are you doing here? You’re up in Catterick, aren’t you – you and Lee?’

‘No, no. Lee got posted back here a couple of months back, but he’s with A Company now, so there’s no reason you should know. I’m surprised to see
you
here though – given your track record.’

Miaow. ‘Dan, my new partner, is with the REME here. Technically we aren’t part of 1 Herts.’

‘I’d say that’s probably for the best, wouldn’t you?’

Double miaow. ‘It works for us,’ responded Jenna as calmly as she could.

‘No, well...’ Chrissie got up to go.

‘Hang on, did you want an appointment?’

Chrissie looked at her. ‘I did, but I’ve kind of gone off the idea now. Knowing, as I do, what you did to Lee I’m not sure I want to contribute to your profit margin, given the fact that Lee and I don’t have much in the way of spare cash – well, nothing in the way of savings, at any rate.’ She gave Jenna a long stare before she left the salon, banging the door shut behind her.

Jenna, with a fixed, forced smile on her face, turned to her customer and whipped the towel off her head. ‘Right, Mrs Laycock, what am I doing today?’

Mrs Laycock stared at her in the mirror. ‘Wasn’t that Chrissie Summers?’

‘Might have been,’ said Jenna.

‘I remember who you are now,’ said Mrs Laycock. ‘I remember you from the old barracks. You know, I thought I recognised you when I walked in but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I couldn’t quite place you. Well, I never.’

Here we go, thought Jenna. She knew Mrs Laycock’s sort and as soon as she got out of the salon she’d be telling everyone she knew about this little nugget of knowledge. It might have taken several weeks for Jenna’s past to emerge but it finally had. Just as Jenna had predicted. She wondered what the repercussions would be. A boycott?

‘Anyway,’ said Jenna, firmly. ‘Your style.’

It took several attempts to get Mrs Laycock to concentrate on what she wanted done with her hair and, as Jenna started to cut it, there was no chit-chat about holidays or her kids or any of the usual topics. Instead, Mrs Laycock had her phone out and was busy texting all and sundry. Even though Jenna couldn’t read the texts from where she was standing, she had a pretty shrewd idea what the old bat was spelling out with her thumbs.

As soon as her last customer had left the salon, Jenna locked up, grabbed Eliot from the crèche and zipped round to Maddy’s house.

‘You’ll never guess,’ she said without preamble as soon as the door opened. ‘I told you this would happen and it has.’

‘Hello, Jenna. Never guess what? What’s happened?’ Maddy ushered her visitor in, helping Jenna get the buggy over the front step.

Jenna related the details of Chrissie’s visit and Mrs Laycock’s reaction.

‘Was that Sergeant Major Laycock’s wife?’ asked Maddy.

‘Search me. I don’t know half the people who use the community centre. When I worked at Zoë’s salon, back at the old barracks, I didn’t know half the ladies because other stylists dealt with them, and then I didn’t have my own place long enough to build up much of a clientele.’

‘If it is who I think it is,’ said Maddy, ‘she may cause a problem or two. She’s real old school, real dyed-in-the-wool career wife.’

Jenna rolled her eyes ‘That’s all I blooming need on top of Chrissie. You know she had the cheek to have a pop at me over Lee’s savings!’ She held up a hand. ‘Yes, I know I was wrong, I know I shouldn’t have taken his dosh but we
were
married and I honestly thought I could make a go of it. Anyway,’ she said a bit petulantly, ‘it’s water under the bridge now, not that Chrissie seems to want to let it go,’ she added darkly.

Maddy raised her eyebrows a smidge.

‘Look,’ said Jenna, ‘I know what I did was out of order, but it was Lee’s money I borrowed...’ She saw the look on Maddy’s face. ‘OK, nicked. But it wasn’t hers. I wouldn’t mind Lee having a go at me, but I resent it coming from Chrissie.’

Maddy sighed. ‘You may have a point, technically, but I wouldn’t go taking the moral high ground over this.’

Jenna nodded. ‘No, you’re right. Of course you are. I’m just being a bit of a cow. But,’ she added, ‘Chrissie was too.’

Maddy grinned. ‘I expect you weren’t overly intimidated.’

‘Nah... well... except I don’t want to get involved in another cat-fight. Don’t want to get too much of a reputation.’

*

After Jenna had gone Maddy had to get her skates on to get Nathan from his playgroup before racing home to make lunch for everyone. September had started off nice enough but now, as it was drawing to a close, it was decidedly autumnal but without the poetic mists-and-mellow-fruitfulness baloney. The icy north wind nipped at Maddy’s ankles and rain spat at her intermittently from a sky that threatened worse. The trees, still laden with leaves, were thrashing about and no matter that Maddy had pulled her winter coat tight about her and was hurrying as fast as she could with Nathan standing on the buggy-board behind Rose’s pushchair, she felt chilled through. Bugger it, she decided, when she got in she was going to light the gas fire in the sitting room and she and the kids could hunker down in the warm fug for the afternoon, playing games, looking at picture books, maybe watching
Peppa Pig
– again.

As she opened the front door she heard the phone ringing. It was a race to get the kids indoors and the front door slammed behind her before the phone stopped. She was panting slightly when the caller spoke.

‘Maddy? It’s Caro.’

‘Caro?’ Blimey.

‘I need to talk to you.’

‘What about?’ Maddy wondered if she should sound more enthusiastic but she couldn’t help feeling wary. After all, her last couple of encounters with her former friend had hardly been congenial.

‘Look, can I come round?’

‘Suppose so.’ Hardly gracious but did she care?

‘I’ll be round in five.’

‘See you then.’ Maddy put the phone down. Bloody hell, she thought as she got Nathan out of his all-in-one and then lifted Rose out of the buggy, what was this going to be about? Another rant about Seb’s promotion, maybe? Or had Caro found something else to have a go at her for?