Next of Kin (15 page)

The sitting room door was ajar. ‘Sarah?’ he called.

The room was empty, the TV burbling away in the corner. It wasn’t like her to watch daytime TV, maybe she was sick. There was a pile of paperwork on the coffee table. He didn’t plan to look. Although he made a show of ignoring it, Ryan knew all about the bills and the work on the house that needed doing. He took a cursory glance and stopped. This wasn’t Sarah’s paperwork, it was Woody’s; there were a few bills, paperwork for his car, a loan agreement and something else. Something all together more interesting. Ryan reached over and picked it up. It was a lined A4 pad with signatures all over the first page and the second – Woody’s signature. He had obviously been practising signing his name over and over again.

Ryan stared at it, trying to work out what it meant, when he heard someone up on the landing going into the bathroom. He could hear Woody upstairs, presumably talking into a phone.

Very carefully, with his eye firmly fixed on the door, Ryan tore out the second page, rolled it up and tucked it into his shirt and then, heart pounding, made his way back into the kitchen. He considered going straight back down to the flat but the mud and water on the kitchen floor would give him away if Woody had the wit to notice, so instead he slipped his jacket back on, opened the back door again and this time shut it hard and called out. ‘Hello, Sarah? Hello. Anyone home?’ And then he took his time taking his jacket off, hanging it up – making a show of arriving.

There was no reply so he called louder this time. Seconds later there were the sounds of footfalls on the stairs and Woody stuck his head round the door.

‘Hi,’ said Ryan running his fingers through his damp hair. ‘Sarah about, is she?’

Woody shook his head and hastily closed the hall door behind him, cutting Ryan off from the rest of the house. ‘No, she had to go into work this morning. They rang to see if she could cover another shift.’

Ryan nodded. ‘I thought you would be in college today.’

‘I’m busy doing an assignment, papers all over the place.’

He was moving toward Ryan encouraging him back out of the house. Ryan grinned. ‘Aren’t you going to at least offer me a cup of tea? I’m soaked.’

‘Sorry, mate it’s not a good time, I’m up to my ears. Books, papers, notes all over.’

Ryan nodded. ‘Okay, fair enough. Can you tell Sarah I dropped in?’

Woody nodded. ‘Sure.’

Ryan crouched down to put his boots on. ‘Don’t forget your jacket,’ said Woody.

Ryan nodded. ‘I’ll get it later. It’ll dry better up here over the radiator than it will downstairs. Do you mind?’

Woody shrugged.

‘I was thinking about the flat.’

Woody’s eyes narrowed.

‘You know,’ said Ryan. ‘The one you were thinking of doing up?’

He saw comprehension dawning on Woody’s face. ‘Oh yeah. I’ve put it on the back boiler a bit while I’m finishing my assignment off.’

‘So is it off?’

‘No, no, not at all. I’m still trying to sort a few things out. Why – are you interested now?’

Ryan pointed to the window. ‘Yes, especially if the weather carries on like this. Nice indoor job would suit me down to the ground.’

Woody nodded. ‘Fair enough. Let me see what I can do,’ he said.

Sarah

‘So after the wedding. What was life like, Sarah?’

‘It’s so hard to describe; it felt like I was in limbo, waiting for whatever it was that was coming next to happen. I could feel it coming, like the change in pressure when a storm is on the way. Trying to get back to anything close to normal was impossible.’

‘You were still working?’

‘Yes.’

‘And were you having a sexual relationship with Woody?’

‘No, no it was never like that between us. I think that he despised me. Us.’

‘You and Ryan?’

‘Yes. I caught him looking at me sometimes like I was something dirty. And like I told you, he was out a lot of the time. But even when he wasn’t there I could feel him in the house, like he was never really gone. And he would just turn up without warning, as if he was trying to catch me out, so it felt like I was living on edge all the time.’

‘So the marriage was never consummated?’

‘I hated him.’

‘Woody?’

‘I got to the stage where I couldn’t bear it when he was there. I spent a lot of time in my room. Ryan told me that I was being melodramatic, but it felt like he had set us up. Used us to get what he wanted. And the house felt different.’

‘In what way?’

‘Tense, I couldn’t relax. Like I said, it felt like we were waiting for something else to happen.’

‘You and Ryan?’

‘Yes.’

‘And what about Ryan? How did he seem?’

‘Uneasy, unsettled, unhappy. He was working but he was drinking more. I felt like I was on the outside all on my own.’

‘And what about friends? The people at the nursery? The restaurant?’

‘Anessa tried to talk to me about Woody.’

‘Talk about what?’

‘At the wedding she had tried to talk to him about where his family came from in Quetta. Where they lived. She went over there a couple of years ago with her family for a wedding, but she said that Woody wouldn’t talk to her about his home. When I went back to work after the wedding, she wanted to know what I knew about him.’

‘And what did you tell her?’

‘Nothing very much. What could I say to her? I only know what he told me, so I told her that. I think she thought he was just being rude.’

‘And what did you think?’

‘Honestly, I don’t know.’

‘And did you discuss the conversation between you and Anessa with Woody?’

‘No, I was afraid he would make me give up my job at the nursery, and to be honest work was the only time I was away from the house. I had to watch what I said, but it was better than being stuck at home, and I was afraid of saying too much. And I was worried in case Josh came into work. I kept an eye out for his truck. I didn’t feel safe.’

‘With Josh?’

No, at home. I just got the feeling that there was something going on.’

‘Can you explain?’

‘Before the wedding Woody was very controlling, but he was even more so after we were married. He told me he didn’t want me answering the phone, that I should let it go to voice mail, and that he would pick up the messages when he got home. And that I wasn’t to answer the door – and he kept his room locked all the time. Before this thing with the money and Farouk, I’d gone up there and run the hoover round once a week, dusted. I know it sounds crazy. I mean it’s not like I’m that paranoid or fragile but he made me feel as if anything could happen, anything at all and nothing good.’

‘And you agreed to the new rules?’

‘It wasn’t about agreeing; he made it clear that it wasn’t in my best interests to break them.’

‘What does that mean, Sarah?’

‘He made me feel uneasy, vulnerable.’

‘Woody threatened you?’

‘Not directly, but he told me that if I didn’t do what I was told, things could get difficult for all of us.’

‘Difficult? What did you take that to mean?’

‘I don’t know really. I kept thinking that maybe Farouk might come back but I don’t really know. I just kept wondering how long we could keep it up, living like that.’

‘And did Woody give you any idea how long you’d have to keep up the pretence of being married?’

‘He said that there were legal formalities that he needed to get sorted out, things that needed to be signed and witnessed, and then it would just be a matter of time before it was all over. And then he would move on.’

‘He said that? Move on? We need you to say yes for the benefit of the tape rather than nod, please. Sarah.’

‘Yes, he said he would sort things out with me, and then he would move on.’

‘And he was out a lot?’

‘More and more. Sometimes he was out all night. Although he would pop back at odd times. As I said before it felt like he was trying to catch me out. I thought he was at college or staying over with friends. He was studying for his finals.’

‘For his MBA?’

‘Yes. That’s what he had told me at the beginning when he came to rent the room. Anyway, I got back from work early one afternoon and I was in the kitchen, sorting out the recycling, and the rubbish. There was a bag in there, in the bin we keep for things we needed to burn; when I looked inside I realised the stuff wasn’t mine, and that they were all addressed to Woody. To Mustapha. I think he had probably planned to burn them. He was always outside in the garden burning things. And I found some letters.’

‘Letters.’

‘I kept them in the biscuit tin. The one on the table over there.’

‘But they’re photo copies.’

‘I know, I was worried what he would do if he knew I’d seen them, so I copied them.’

‘Onto your computer?’

‘No, I’ve got a printer that you can use as a copier.’

‘Okay, and had you got any idea what was in them?’

‘No, not at the time, some were official, but lots of them were hand written – what looked like personal letters. I couldn’t understand them but they looked personal. And…’

‘And?’

‘I suppose I was like Anessa. I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to try and understand what was going on. I thought if I knew more then I could find a way to get rid of him. So I steamed open the letters and copied them and then put them back in the rubbish so that he wouldn’t know that I’d seen them.’

‘Risky. What if he had come in?’

‘I don’t know. I did them one at a time. Took them out one at a time.’

‘And what did you find out?’

‘It took me a while but there were all kinds of other things, things I could read. First of all he hadn’t been attending lectures. There was a note from someone asking if he was okay, asking when he was coming back, and reminding him to hand an essay in. And letters asking him to pay things, things he was in arrears with. And then there were the personal letters.’

‘Do you read Urdu or Pashto?’

‘No, I did think about asking Anessa if she could read then, but she had been odd with me since the wedding; a bit distant, so I asked one of the regulars at the restaurant if he would translate them for me. I mean, I paid him and I took off the address and things.’

‘And he agreed?’

‘Yes. I told him they were for a friend. I don’t think he was convinced.’

‘But he did translate them?’

‘Yes, as a favour.’

‘So what did they say, Sarah?’

‘One was from Woody’s father; he sounded really upset. He wanted to know why Woody hadn’t called home or answered any of his letters or phone calls. It said that his mother was very upset that she hadn’t heard from him, and when his father had rung the college to find out where he was, they’d told him that Woody hadn’t attended any of the courses that semester.’

‘Did what you found give any idea of how long this had been going on?’

‘Since he moved in, roughly – I think – from what it said in the letters.’

‘And this was all news to you?’

‘Yes, completely. I mean, he left the house every day, and up until that point I had assumed he was going to college. The letter said that his father was very disappointed, and that if Woody didn’t get in touch that they planned to stop his allowance.’

‘Which would mean his income stream would be cut off?’

‘Yes, I suppose so. Although he always had money.’

‘And had you any idea why he stopped contacting his family?’‘None, or going to college for that matter
.
When he first took the room he said he was likely to get a distinction; the highest grad
e
. I mean, why give that up? I didn’t understand. And also it was obvious from the letters that Woody hadn’t mentioned wanting to stay in the UK or told them what he was doing.’

‘By doing, do you mean marrying you?’

‘Yes. I also wondered if maybe he had told them and they were upset about him wanting to make his life over here, although his father didn’t mention it in any of the letters. I had wondered why he wasn’t in touch with them. He never rang them, never talked about them.’

‘And did you ask him about it? About them?’

‘Yes, after I found the letters. I asked him if he had told his parents about his plans. He was dismissive, as if he didn’t want to talk about it. So I suggested that he should email them and put their minds at rest. I didn’t say I’d read the letters, just that I thought that if he was my son I’d like to know how he was and what he was doing. It was horrible; he was livid. He said his parents were his business. He said I might try those games on Ryan – he meant trying to control him – but it wouldn’t work on him. And anyway—’

‘And anyway what? Are you all right? Do you want to stop? We could have a break now if you’d like to, Sarah.’

‘No, I’m fine. It was just horrible. He was angry and really nasty. He said they would never have let him marry someone like me, and then he said that he was engaged and they had arranged a marriage for him at home, that there would be a huge scandal. They would be disgraced if they knew he was already married. If anyone contacted me, anyone at all, asking for him then I wasn’t to take the call or tell them anything.’