Rush of Blood (9 page)

‘Tell him some of the ones you have worked on,’ Marina said. It wasn’t clear if she was asking Dave to tell Ed or the boy.

Barry spoke up before Dave could say anything. ‘You need to get off that bloody computer now anyway,’ he said. ‘Haven’t you
got homework?’

‘He can do it tomorrow,’ Angie said. ‘Can’t you?’

The boy mumbled a ‘yeah’ and took a step away from the table, his eyes pleading with his mother.

‘OK, go on then,’ Angie said. ‘Don’t let us keep you.’

The boy was out of sight in seconds, but the girl lingered. She nodded towards Marina and said, ‘I love your hair.’

‘Thanks,’ Marina said.

‘You might need to save up,’ Dave said.

The girl touched a finger to the side of her nose. ‘That’s cool too. Do you always wear a stud?’

‘A ring sometimes,’ Marina said. ‘You should get one.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Angie said. She reached across for Marina’s plate.

‘Loads of the kids have got them now,’ Marina said.

Angie said, ‘Yes, well,’ and told the girl she should probably go and get back to her friend upstairs.

When the girl had left the room, Ed said, ‘Nice kids.’

‘Bright,’ Sue added.

Dave looked across at Barry. ‘Do they all get on? Laura and Luke and your lad?’

‘Nick doesn’t see them,’ Barry said. He stood up and took the empty plates from Angie, carried them out into the kitchen.

Angie leaned in to the table and whispered. ‘It’s all a bit tricky with Barry’s ex.’

The others took the hint and voices were lowered.

‘That’s awful,’ Marina said. ‘You know, when kids are involved.’

‘She’s a total bitch,’ Angie said. ‘She uses that poor kid like some kind of bargaining tool or whatever. It really gets Barry
down, to be honest.’

Marina shook her head. ‘Awful,’ she said again. ‘I mean whatever happens between a couple, you never stop loving your kids,
right?’

‘Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have them,’ Dave said.

Sue said she’d go and give Barry a hand. Angie said that he’d be fine, but Sue stood up anyway. Ed grinned and told Sue to
make sure it was just a hand she gave him.

‘Right then,’ Angie said.’ I hope everyone’s left room for pudding …’

*

When Angie came out of the downstairs toilet, Sue was waiting to go in. They smiled at one another, then swapped places outside
the door, laughing for no good reason.

‘Listen, thanks for doing this,’ Sue said. ‘It’s really nice to see everyone.’

‘No, thanks for
coming
,’ Angie said.

‘Our place next time, all right?’

‘Oh that would be great.’ Angie stepped forward and hugged Sue, pulling her close while the cistern refilled noisily on the
other side of the toilet door. When they had separated, Angie glanced towards the kitchen. ‘I
think
everyone’s having a good time.’

‘Oh definitely. The food was amazing.’

‘Ed certainly seems to be enjoying himself.’

‘That’s one way of putting it,’ Sue said.

‘I take it you’ll be driving?’

Sue laughed. ‘It’s fine.’ After a few moments of staring at feet, just as Angie was about to turn away, Sue put a hand on
her arm. ‘Listen, I know Barry was a bit sniffy and Ed was being a wanker about it, but you should send those photographs
to the police if you really want to.’

‘I don’t know,’ Angie said.

‘What you were saying made perfect sense to me.’

‘I’ve probably just read too many thrillers.’

‘It’s up to you,’ Sue said. ‘But it can’t hurt, can it?’ They looked at each other and Sue shrugged, then said, ‘Right, well
…’ and pushed open the toilet door.

After she had popped upstairs to check on the kids, Angie walked back into the kitchen in time to hear Marina groaning in
disbelief or perhaps exhaustion at something Ed had said. He was leaning back in his chair, looking pleased with himself,
while Dave stared down at his plate and picked at what was left of his cheese and crackers. Barry was outside on the patio,
smoking.

‘Right, who wants coffee?’ she asked.

Marina and Dave both said yes. Ed passed, but said he thought Sue would probably want one.

‘I can do you one of those special little ones, if anyone fancies it,’ Angie said. ‘Expresso or whatever it is. Barry bought
us this flashy machine.’

‘That sounds great,’ Sue said, walking back in.

‘Me too,’ Dave said.

‘Right then.’ Angie turned and half walked, half danced her way back out into the kitchen. An hour or so before, Jamie Cullum
had given way to Michael Bublé and finally, Amy Winehouse.

A few minutes later, Angie carried the coffees across to the table on a tray, along with a carton of cream and a box of Swiss
chocolates. As she handed out the cups, Barry began piling up dirty dishes, leaning across the table and asking people if
they’d finished with their cutlery. Angie told him to sit down. She said that people had not yet finished eating, but Barry
insisted that he was happy to make a start on getting things cleared away and continued ferrying plates and glasses out to
the dishwasher.

‘Don’t knock it,’ Sue said. ‘I wish Ed was that bloody helpful.’

Ed pursed his lips, made kissy-kissy noises.

‘So, we all going back again next year?’ Marina asked.

‘God, that reminds me,’ Angie said. ‘Did you hear about those tourists being shot?’

‘In Sarasota?’ Dave asked.

‘When I was searching online to see if there was any news about the girl …’

‘Amber-Marie,’ Ed said. ‘Her
name
is Amber-Marie … if you can believe that.’

Sue told him to be quiet, told Angie to carry on.

‘There was all this stuff on there about this French couple that were murdered.’ Angie took a mouthful of red wine. ‘Shot
in the head for a few dollars. Really nasty.’

Ed leaned towards Marina. ‘Well, I think that answers your question,’ he said. ‘We should avoid the place like the plague,
because it’s clearly become the crime capital of Florida.’

‘Bad things can happen anywhere,’ Barry said, reaching across Angie for a plate.

‘You came out with that little gem before,’ Angie said, a little sharp.

Barry reached towards her wine glass. ‘Maybe I should take that.’

‘I’m still drinking it,’ she said.

‘I know.’

‘Seriously though,’ Marina said. She looked around the table. ‘Do you think you would go back there again?’

‘I would,’ Angie said. ‘Me and Barry loved it.’

‘You’d go back to the Pelican Palms?’

‘Well, maybe not there, you know … because of what happened.’

‘I don’t think we’d go back there, would we, Suze?’ Ed said, looking at Sue. ‘Not because of the girl or anything, I just
think next time we’d want somewhere a bit more upmarket.’

There were a few seconds of silence before Barry said, ‘You what?’

‘With a better class of guest, you mean?’ Marina asked. She wasn’t quite as far gone as Ed, but the look on her face made
it obvious that she was happy to take him on. ‘Where there weren’t people like us lowering the tone.’

‘I didn’t mean it like
that
,’ Ed said, a little too loudly. ‘I just
meant
that if we go again, we might treat ourselves to somewhere a bit more expensive. A hotel or whatever.’

‘Somewhere where there weren’t retarded kids running about making too much noise,’ Barry said. ‘Spoiling the view.’ He picked
up a plate, added it to the pile he was already carrying. ‘That what you meant?’

‘Now you’re just being ridiculous,’ Ed said.

‘Come on,’ Angie said.

Barry turned and walked back into the kitchen.

‘I don’t get it.’ Ed shook his head and held out his arms. ‘It just came out wrong, that’s all, and now you’re all looking
at me like I’ve shagged your mum or something.’

Marina laughed and sat back. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound quite so aggressive.’

‘Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you,’ Angie said, laughing.

‘I think we’re all feeling a bit weird about everything,’ Dave said. ‘The holiday and all that, because of what happened to
that girl.’ He put his hand over Marina’s and leaned across towards Ed. ‘Everyone’s just that bit more sensitive than they
might normally be, that’s all.’

‘Why though?’ Ed asked. ‘There’s worse things than that happening every day of the week. Serial killers and terrorists killing
hundreds of people at a time. Jesus, you’ve only got to turn on the television.’

‘Yes, but we were
there
.’

‘We should think about making a move,’ Sue said.

‘It’s early yet,’ Angie said. ‘Isn’t anyone up for a brandy or something?’

‘Brandy sounds nice,’ Marina said.

Dave said he was fine and Sue said nothing. Ed said it would be bad manners to let Marina drink on her own. Angie called Barry
in and asked him if they had any brandy in the cupboard. He shook his head, and said, ‘There might be some Baileys.’

‘Even better,’ Marina said.

‘It’s not quite a piña colada,’ Angie said. ‘But it’ll have to do.’ She watched Barry go back into the kitchen, then said,
‘I was thinking that it might just have been the best thing, that girl being … the way she was. It might actually have been
a blessing.’ She spoke slowly, taking care to avoid slurring her words, as though keen to elucidate something that she had
been considering for some time. She looked across the table at Marina and Dave, then round to Sue and Ed. ‘If you can’t understand
what someone’s going to do, if you don’t
know
what those horrible things are … then maybe you aren’t afraid.’

Marina’s head was back and her eyes were closed. She had kicked off her shoes and her bare feet were braced against the glove
compartment.

‘You asleep?’

‘Nearly.’ Her voice was thick with sleep and booze. ‘Where are we?’

‘Croydon,’ Dave said. ‘Probably best to keep your eyes closed.’

She laughed. ‘That was fun, wasn’t it?’

‘It had its moments.’ He glanced at the speedometer, eased his foot off the accelerator. Keen as he was to get home, there
were a lot of speed cameras on the road. ‘Last half an hour was … interesting.’

‘She had tears in her eyes,’ Marina said. ‘Angie did, did you see that? When she was talking about the girl, about whether
or not she would know what was happening to her. She was really emotional.’

‘She was pissed,’ Dave said. ‘So was Ed.’

Marina lowered her feet to the floor. She rolled down the window an inch and leaned towards it to get some air. ‘Terrible,’
she muttered.

‘What?’

‘They should be ashamed of themselves, losing control like that.’

‘This is exactly what I was talking about,’ Dave said. ‘People having
a few too many and then saying stuff they don’t mean.’ He glanced across, smiled at her. ‘It’s the only time you’re ever bitchy.’

‘Is it, babe?’

He reached across and rubbed her leg, but she did not react. ‘I did like it when you had a go at Ed, though. He can be such
a knob …’

‘Guess what?’ she said, leaning her head back again. ‘
I
know more Manchester United players than you.’

Dave laughed, but not loudly. ‘So what?’

‘Lightweight,’ she said.

He slowed as the car approached a speed camera, stayed at thirty across the lines on the road and then put his foot down.
‘I mean, I’m bloody sure you
don’t
, but still, so what?’

Marina closed her eyes again and slowly began naming footballers.

Most of the tableware had been cleared away and there were just a few napkins and unused items of cutlery scattered about
on the table. Red wine rings and a couple of candles all but burned out. Angie wandered across to where Barry was busy at
the sink. The dishwasher was already full up and running and now he was starting to wash the remaining pots and pans by hand.

Amy Winehouse was singing ‘Back to Black’ for the second time.

Angie held up one of her souvenir placemats. ‘Look, somebody forgot to take theirs home with them.’ She tossed it on to the
worktop and sat down at the island. ‘Now I’ll have to post the bloody thing.’

‘You don’t have to do anything,’ Barry said, his back to her.

‘Course not, I can give it to them next time.’ She sang along for a few bars, humming when she didn’t know the words. ‘Forgot
it, or left it on purpose, what do you think? The placemat.’

Barry said nothing, choosing to ignore the question, or else not hearing it above the music and the dishwasher’s hum and the
clatter of pans beneath the suds.

‘It was good tonight, wasn’t it?’ Angie asked. ‘You think it was good?’

‘Went well,’ Barry said.

‘
I
think it was good.’ She hummed along with the song for a few seconds, then said, ‘Sue told me to send those pictures to the
police. She said she agreed with me about whoever took that girl being in the photos. That there was a chance, you know.’
She picked at a few crisps that were left in a bowl on the central island. She laughed. ‘She said Ed was being a wanker …
and he
was
… all that “Amber-Marie” stuff, taking the piss.’

‘He just wants to be the centre of attention.’

‘Poor thing can’t help what her name is, can she?’ She emptied the last few crumbs into her palm and poured them into her
mouth. ‘It’s funny that, isn’t it?’

‘What?’

‘I still say “is” and not “was”, like she’s still alive.’

‘We don’t know she isn’t,’ Barry said.

Angie sang along with the chorus, then stood and walked across to the sink. She moved up behind Barry. ‘Why don’t we leave
it until the morning?’

‘Best to get it done,’ he said.

She wrapped her arms around his chest and leaned into him. ‘Come on, leave it and let’s get up to bed.’

He pushed back just hard enough to make her step away and reached for a tea towel to wipe his hands.

‘Don’t be like that.’ She stretched out an arm, but he walked past it. ‘I only wanted to cuddle up, that’s all.’

Barry picked up his cigarettes on the way out into the garden.

‘Well, there was a disappointing lack of garden gnomes … as far as I could see, anyway.’ Ed let out a small belch. ‘Maybe
they were hiding. There was no sign outside saying
Bazza ‘n’ Angie’s Place
and I was wrong about Simply Red.’ He raised a pointed finger with a theatrical flourish. ‘But there
was
a fluffy toilet-roll cover in the shape of a poodle.’

‘I think Angie’s nice,’ Sue said.

‘I’m not arguing.’

‘They both are.’

‘I never said they weren’t.’

‘You’re taking the piss.’

‘Didn’t seem to bother you earlier.’

They had made the journey from north London to Crawley in Ed’s Volvo estate. There was a little more room than in the battered
old VW that Sue drove and Ed would be able to claim the mileage on expenses. It smelled faintly of the Armani aftershave that
Ed favoured, but mostly of something that was supposed to be ‘good, old-fashioned English leather’, thanks to an air freshener
that dangled from the indicator stalk. When the car cornered, cardboard boxes filled with Ed’s samples moved around in the
boot and CD cases slid about in the passenger footwell. Nothing by Simply Red of course. Ed preferred music that had a little
more ‘edge’, which meant that the most recent albums by Coldplay and Keane were currently on heavy rotation.

‘I’m wiped out,’ Sue said. ‘We should have left an hour earlier.’

Ed grunted, thought. ‘She
really
wanted us to stay longer, did you notice that? She didn’t want people to go. You ask me, I don’t reckon she’s got a lot of
friends. Either of them.’

‘I don’t think she’s got very much to do.’ Sue flicked on the car’s main beam. They were on a short stretch of the M25 without
lighting and there were no other cars in sight. ‘That’s all. Kids are old enough to look after themselves, she’s a bit … lost.’

‘
He’s
hardly the best company in the world, is he?’

‘I just think she’s one of these people that needs to be busy. That needs something to get hold of.’

‘Maybe that’s why she’s got this thing about the girl,’ Ed said, turning to look at her. ‘That business with the photos.’

‘Actually, I encouraged her,’ Sue said. ‘I told her she should contact the police.’

‘What the hell did you do that for?’

‘I felt sorry for her.’ A car on the opposite carriageway flashed, so she dipped her lights. ‘Look, they won’t take it seriously,
or else they’ll
waste a couple of days trying to trace a few blokes by a swimming pool in the back of some holiday snaps. Not going to do
any harm, is it?’

Ed said, ‘I suppose not,’ and they drove on in silence until the sign for Cobham services.

‘I’m going to come off here for a bit,’ Sue said.

Ed sniffed and smiled. ‘See if you can find a quiet corner of the car park.’

She indicated and drifted across towards the slip road.

‘Somewhere nice and dark,’ he said. ‘Then I can tell you just how sexy that expensive new hairstyle is.’

She looked at him. There was a thin sheen of sweat above his eyebrows, yellowish for a few seconds as they passed beneath
a row of lights. ‘I just want some coffee,’ she said.