No Questions Asked (2 page)

‘You don’t mess about’.

‘Jeff, I can see how lonely you are’.

‘Well yeah, I have more or less decided to give it a go with Rebecca’.

‘More or less?’

‘Well there’s always a whole set of unknowns when you go into a new relationship’ said Jeff. ‘So we’ll see what happens and take it a day at a time’.

‘Excellent. I think that’s the right decision’.

‘Except for one thing’.

‘What’s that?’

‘Well I’ve been holding off from even thinking about seeing another woman because to do so would mean I have to stop dreaming about Lillie Mae not being dead’.

‘Oh Jeff’ said Annabel. She rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Me and my big mouth. I’m sorry’.

‘No, no it doesn’t matter really’.

‘I just want you to be happy again’.

‘I want that too, Annabel, but to get to that point I have to finally accept that Lillie Mae is gone and won’t ever come back’ said Jeff, his voice trailing off. ‘That’s what’s been hard. I loved the bones of her, Annabel. Nobody had ever made me feel the way she did and when Toby came along it was like life was really complete. She was an exceptional wife and an exceptional mother and an exceptional human being. She was way out of my league and I was bloody lucky to have her even for those few years. I’ll never be that lucky again’.

‘Well no it won’t be the same with someone else like Rebecca, Jeff’ said Annabel. ‘Rebecca isn’t Lillie Mae. But she’s got gifts of her own and she could make you happy if you gave her the chance. You deserve to be happy again, Jeff. Give yourself that chance’. 

Debbie Mitchell drove her car onto the driveway of her house and stopped for a moment. She’d been to see her brother and sister-in-law who’d just had their third child. He was a bonny little thing and they’d called him Casey. Debbie was going to be a proud aunt who would dote on her nephew like she doted on her other nephews and nieces but she still wouldn’t be able to stop it all from breaking her heart. She was so desperate for a child of her own. She had to get pregnant and it wasn’t fair that she was still waiting.

She walked in through the front door just as Gary was coming down stairs. He was dressed in his usual check shirt with the long sleeves and the buttoned down collar and a pair of light blue jeans. She’d come to hate those kind of shirts that he was so fond of. In fact she’d come to hate most things about him.

‘Aren’t you going to put something else on?’ she grumbled.

‘What’s wrong with this?’ he asked, as if he didn’t know.

‘Jeff must’ve seen you in that old thing a thousand times’.

‘Debbie, Jeff is a man much like me. I won’t take any notice of what he’s dressed in and he won’t take any notice of what I’m dressed in’.

‘No but I do’.

‘Well get over it because I’m not changing’.

‘Have you only just got up?’

‘Yes’ he answered defensively. ‘I get up at six every morning except Sunday and if I want a lie in on a Sunday then I’ll have one’. Except that a lie in had meant nipping across the road to have it in Lucy’s bed as soon as Debbie had gone off to her brother’s.

‘You make me sound like a real nagging wife’.

Gary smiled. ‘You have your moments’.

‘Hey, I was joking you cheeky bugger’.

‘I wasn’t’.

‘Gary, haven’t I proved I’m not a woman of that kind?’

There was so much Gary could say to that. ‘You’ve proved many things lately, Debbie. I’m not sure I’m part of all of them’.

‘Gary, I thought you wanted a baby as much as I do?’

‘I do’ said Gary. ‘But it’s taking over our lives. I know that it’s all that you think about’.

‘Well isn’t it the same for you? Don’t you want to be a Dad?’

‘You know the answer to that, Debs’.

‘Well it doesn’t seem like it’ said Debbie. ‘I feel like I’m on my own in this most of the time’.

‘Well I sometimes feel like I’m some kind of stud service’ said Gary.

Debbie stepped closer to him. ‘I’m sorry you feel that way. I didn’t know’.

‘Well you wouldn’t because you’ve never asked me’ said Gary. ‘But look at what it’s doing to us. There’s tension in the air all the time’.

‘I need a baby, Gary. I need a child of our own’.

‘But what if it doesn’t happen, Debbie?’

‘It will happen, Gary!’ Debbie insisted. 

‘But what if it doesn’t?’

‘But it will! And look, don’t drink any beer at the barbecue. I told you it can affect your fertility just like coffee’.

‘I’ll do whatever I can to get you pregnant, Debbie’ said Gary who’d seen that look on her face many times before. It was the look she gave him whenever she feared she might not get exactly what she wanted and it would all be his fault. It was always his fault when she didn’t get what she wanted whether it was his fault or not. Except this wasn’t about a new car or that house she’d seen. This was about the fault line underneath their relationship which was always threatening to tear it apart. ‘But I don’t believe all these old wives tales. I’ll have one beer, maybe two. And that won’t make any difference at all to when and if you get pregnant’.

Debbie slapped his face and then stormed off upstairs.  

‘It’s going to be another nice relaxing Sunday then?’ he called after her. 

Rebecca came back from the supermarket with four bottles of wine and a couple of large bags of nachos. In her imagination this was a normal Sunday that she would be spending with Jeff but the reality was that he’d only agreed to go out on a date with her and see where they go from that. But she’d been waiting so long just to get that far that for now it was enough to keep her happy and she was relieved that her journey here to finally confront the issue hadn’t resulted in a complete disaster. She put the bottles of white wine in the fridge and then joined Jeff at the barbecue where she placed the bottles of red wine next to the bowls of salad.

‘Thanks for all of that’ said Jeff. He couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward. It was true that he’d been denying to himself his feelings for Rebecca for a long time but it wasn’t like flicking a switch. They still had to work together after all and his instincts were still telling him to be cautious.

‘Those prawns look lovely’ said Rebecca. ’And so do the burgers. You’re obviously not a bad cook’.

‘Didn’t you already know that, DI Stockton?’ he teased.

‘Of course’ said Rebecca, blushing. ‘I’ve always known you’re perfect at everything, detective superintendent Barton’.

‘That’s what I like to hear’.

‘I know we shouldn’t really talk shop this afternoon but Joe Briers?’

‘What about him?’

‘Well I’m still getting my head round the fact that he was driven so crazy with resentment over his wife refusing him access to his daughter that he executed those members of the Gorton boys and Melanie Patterson’.

‘Well I hope his wife is pleased with herself knowing what her petty little power games led to’ said Jeff. ‘But she’s not the first and she won’t be the last. You can be sure of that’.

‘Jeff, I’m really glad that I did the right thing coming over here today’.

‘Becky, I’ve been abysmally slow on the uptake’ Jeff confessed. ‘And I’m sorry for that. But yeah, you did the right thing’.

‘I just want to say though, Jeff. Well, I just want to ask you really’.

‘Ask me what?’

‘Well you won’t just play along with me, will you? I mean, you won’t mess with my head like that?’

‘No, Becky’ said Jeff. ‘I’d never do that to you’.

Rebecca smiled. ‘Thanks. Now, where’s that red wine?’

Lucy and Jeff Barton’s sister Annabel fell into a comfortable friendship almost as soon as they’d been introduced. Jeff thought it was great that his sister would already have a friend on the street when she moved in and he walked over to the corner of the garden where they were sat together bonding over a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

‘You girls look like you’re stirring a witch’s cauldron over here’ he joked.

‘No we’re saving that until Debbie gets here’ said Lucy.

Jeff tut-tutted. He knew there was no love lost between those two. ‘Naughty’.

‘No, truthful’ said Lucy. ‘But we were actually talking about the only fit looking single man on the street’.

‘Oh and who’s that?’

Lucy stuck her tongue out at him. ‘Not you, so don’t flatter yourself’.

‘Ooh you’re so wounding. I’m off to cook some more sausages’.

‘Were you ever interested in my brother?’  Annabel asked after Jeff had gone back to the barbecue.

‘I was, yeah’ Lucy admitted whilst she checked her phone for text messages. The mother of her son Bradley’s friend Luke had telephoned her earlier to say that Bradley would have to catch the bus home but that she’d see him on to it. Then Bradley had sent her a text an hour ago saying he was on the bus and on his way. She’d sent him one back telling him to come straight to Jeff’s barbecue. He should’ve been here ages ago. She sent him another text asking where he’d got to but she hadn’t had a reply to that one. It was unusual for Bradley. He was normally pretty good at returning texts. ‘I thought that maybe one single family and another would find their way somehow to something. I’ve always fancied Jeff but I think it was another case of me being lost in my own little dream. It’s always been like that with me and, you see. I just take whatever I can when I can and I don’t delude myself anymore that I’ll ever be happy’.

‘You can’t know that for sure, Lucy’.

‘Oh I can, believe me. If past experience is anything to go by’.

‘I take it you and this Debbie are not bosom pals?’

‘She’s the most Stepford of all the Stepford wives’ said Lucy, helped along in her revelations by another gulp of wine. ‘She’s smug. She definitely looks down on me like she’s just stepped in me but then they’re all like that round here. I’m definitely the outsider’.

‘God, they all sound delightful’.

‘Oh they piss me off the lot of them’ said Lucy. ‘They’ve all been lucky and found someone who wanted to share their life with them. But I’ve never even come close to that. I don’t really know anything about looking after a husband because I’ve never had one to look after. I’ve been good at having fun with other peoples but I’ve never had one of my own’.

Annabel laughed. ‘You terror! That’s how I lost my ex-husband’.

‘Oh look I’m sorry, I … ‘

‘ … don’t be, don’t be, I’m not going to judge you. Especially as I’m now doing the same with someone else’s husband’.

‘Getting your own back?’

‘Not really’ said Annabel who felt a little twitch down below when she thought of her lover Dermot. How was she going to manage her relationship with him after she moved down to Manchester?  ‘I fancy the arse off him and the sex is fantastic’.

‘Same as me and mine there’ said Lucy. ‘I just wish it could go further, you know?’  

‘Oh Lucy, love’ said Annabel who sympathized with her new best friend. Lucy was such a pretty girl and yet so lonely and in need. ‘What about Bradley’s father? What happened there?’

‘He’s the same married guy I’m seeing now’ Lucy revealed.

‘Really?’

‘Oh yes. We had an affair a few years ago. It finished because he was getting guilty about his wife. We lost touch and then years later our paths crossed again and we couldn’t stop ourselves’.

‘Does he know that Bradley is his son?’

‘No’ said Lucy. ‘That’s a little bomb I haven’t detonated yet’.

When Debbie arrived with Gary they were holding hands as they walked through to the back garden. Debbie made straight for Lucy after telling Gary once again not to have a beer.

‘Lucy, I noticed that your lounge curtains aren’t quite closing at the top in the middle’ said Debbie, her face full of fake concern. ‘And since you’re only renting the property and not actually owning it I sent an email to Brian and Isobel in Dubai to explain that you’d be getting in touch about repairs’.

‘You did what?’

‘Well I thought I’d save you the job’.

‘But do you walk down the street looking at everyone else’s curtains?’

‘Well no but then they all own their properties so it’s their business’.

‘You never miss a bloody trick, do you?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Don’t play the innocent. I just feel sorry that you feel you have to pick on me in order to feel better about yourself’.

‘This conversation is over’.

‘Are you pregnant yet? That’s where I can go one better than you because I’ve got my Bradley and all you’ve got are negative test results’.

Although Annabel thought that Lucy may be going a bit far she couldn’t help but smile. This Debbie woman obviously really got to her.

‘Watch your mouth lady’.

Lucy stood and squared up to her adversary. ‘Why? What are you going to do if I don’t?’

‘Ladies, please’ said Jeff. ‘Come on now, everyone is here just to enjoy the afternoon’.