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Authors: Sheila O'Flanagan

Tags: #Fiction, #General

Stand by Me (40 page)

BOOK: Stand by Me
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‘Oh dear.’ He laughed. ‘The dreaded golf dinner. You won’t have got a great impression from them.’
 
She couldn’t help smiling a little. ‘Not entirely.’
 
‘Boring, unattractive, style-free, sexist misogynists?’ he suggested.
 
She looked startled.
 
‘That’s what my former wife used to call us.’
 
‘Not you, surely?’ The words were out before she could stop them. Because in a million years she couldn’t call the man in front of her unattractive. The jeans and shirt weren’t a riveting style statement, she supposed, but they looked damn good on him. As for the rest . . . well, she probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to find out. But she’d give him the benefit of the doubt.
 
He grinned. ‘Glad I’ve made a good first impression.’
 
‘You bought my house,’ Dominique said. ‘That was bound to make a good impression. Are you a big cheese in the golfing world, Mr . . . ?’
 
‘Paddy. Paddy O’Brien.’ He held out his hand and she shook it. ‘A minor cheese, I’m afraid. I never won anything big, though I managed to make a living from it for a while.’
 
‘A reasonably good living.’ She glanced at the rolling gardens of Atlantic View. Even with a deeply discounted price, it had been an expensive purchase.
 
‘Yes,’ Paddy agreed. He looked at her sympathetically. ‘I truly am sorry that you had to sell your house.’
 
‘Oh, well ...’ She swallowed. She wasn’t going to cry in front of the new owner.
 
‘And I wish we could have met under happier circumstances,’ said Paddy.
 
‘I
hated
having to sell the house,’ she confessed. ‘But thank you for buying the contents as well; that lifted a burden from me.’
 
‘It lifted a burden from me too,’ said Paddy. ‘I needed somewhere I could move straight into and I don’t have time right now for interior decorating and furnishing and all that palaver. But ...’ He paused.
 
‘But what?’
 
‘Well, if there’s anything in particular that you didn’t want to sell . . . anything you want to take with you - please do.’
 
She looked at him in surprise. ‘Thank you. That’s really kind of you. But I don’t want anything. Honestly.’
 
‘Are you sure?’ asked Paddy. ‘If you change your mind, just let me know.’
 
‘I will. Thanks again.’
 
‘So what are your plans?’ He looked enquiringly at her.
 
‘None yet,’ she told him. ‘I haven’t been able to make any until the house was sorted.’
 
‘I actually meant, what are your plans for right now,’ amended Paddy. ‘I wondered if you’d like a drink, a cup of tea or anything.’
 
‘Oh.’ Dominique looked at him in confusion. She was so used to thinking about her long-term future that she didn’t consider the short term any more. She would have loved something to drink, because she was hot and thirsty, but she couldn’t possibly be a guest in her own house. ‘No thanks. I’d better get going.’
 
‘You’ll be OK, right?’
 
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Sure. I’m thinking of moving away,’ she added.
 
‘Where?’
 
‘I don’t know yet.’
 
She didn’t. The idea of moving away had only just come to her. She hadn’t thought of it before, but the idea of living near Atlantic View when somebody else owned it was painful.
 
‘Well, look, I hope things work out for you.’
 
‘Thanks.’
 
‘Dazzling Domino.’
 
‘Sorry?’
 
‘That’s what it said in the photo caption.’
 
‘That’s generally what they used to call me,’ she admitted. ‘But these days it’s usually Deserted Domino. Or Downcast Domino. Or sometimes Dopey Domino, which is probably the most accurate.’
 
‘He was a fool.’
 
‘You don’t know him,’ said Dominique. ‘You’re making assumptions from what you’ve read.’
 
‘Oh.’
 
Dominique hitched her bag on to her shoulder. ‘I’d better be going. That was the last of the zappers, so there won’t be any more unexpected visits from me.’
 
‘Did you want to go inside one more time?’ asked Paddy. ‘Was that why you came?’
 
She hesitated.
 
‘It’s not a problem,’ he said.
 
‘No. Thanks.’ She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t have gone in. I don’t have keys. It’s not my house any more. I just wanted ... but it doesn’t matter. Better if I go now.’
 
‘OK, then.’ He held out his hand again. ‘It was nice meeting you.’
 
‘You too, Mr O’Brien,’ said Dominique as she opened her car door.
 
‘See you again sometime,’ he said.
 
‘I doubt that,’ she told him.
 
‘Pity,’ he said.
 
She smiled at him and drove away. She didn’t look back.
 
Chapter 21
 
Detective Inspector Peter Murphy came to see her again. They sat in Lily’s living room while he told her that as yet they’d had no luck in tracing Brendan but that they were sure he’d eventually turn up. The world was a much smaller place than it had once been, he reminded her, as if she didn’t know that already, and it would be hard for him to stay missing for ever. Meantime they had an open file on the Barbados money, but until the complex web of inter-company transactions was unravelled, they couldn’t forward a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions because they still hadn’t uncovered any criminal actions. The fact that the money wasn’t in the account that had originally been opened didn’t mean it had been fraudulently misappropriated, the detective told her.
 
‘So all his investments could be perfectly legitimate,’ said Dominique. ‘And he hasn’t scarpered with the lot despite what everyone is trying to make out.’
 
‘It’s always possible,’ said Peter, although he sounded highly sceptical. ‘The whole set-up is very complicated.’
 
‘I don’t know anything about it,’ she said. ‘I’ve never known anything about it and I really and truly can’t help you.’
 
‘Would you?’ he asked. ‘If you knew where your husband was, would you tell me?’
 
‘But I don’t know,’ said Dominique, ‘so that’s a stupid question.’
 
‘You’ve had no communication with him at all?’
 
Dominique looked at him curiously. ‘Do you have my phone tapped?’
 
He laughed. ‘No.’
 
‘I wish he would get in touch with me,’ she said fervently. ‘I’d tell him what a total tosser he is to have landed us in this mess.’
 
‘The word is that you’ve no money,’ said Peter. ‘That he left you in the shit too.’
 
Dominique sighed. ‘Brendan used to build house extensions, for God’s sake. Bigger kitchens for people. Bigger living areas. He made a lot of money doing it. He should’ve stuck to it.’
 
‘I like you, Mrs Delahaye,’ said the detective. ‘Please tell me if you hear anything from your husband. The sooner we find him, the sooner everything will get sorted out.’
 
‘Sorted out for who?’ Dominique knew she was going to cry, and she grabbed a tissue. ‘Every time I think things are getting better, they just seem to get worse.’
 
 
Lily wanted the whole family together for Sunday lunch. Dominique told her that it would be far too much work for her, but Lily snorted and said that she’d get in some cold meat and salads and bake some bread herself. Dominique insisted on doing the shopping, because she knew that Lily found it a strain to hold her head high every time she went out. She found it a strain herself.
 
She stood in the queue at the supermarket checkout, her eyes studiously on the contents of her shopping trolley. Even though she told herself she was being paranoid, she couldn’t shake the feeling that people were looking at her and making comments about her all the time. When they leaned towards each other and spoke, she was sure they were saying that she had a cheek to show her face in the town, given that her husband had ripped off half the county. But the girl at the till - young and bored - didn’t give her a second glance as she packed her groceries and handed over her money.
 
Maybe I only think people are looking at and talking about me, thought Dominique as she walked back to her car. Maybe it’s all in my head. Then she took a deep breath as she saw Stephanie Clooney and her husband in the parking bay beside her. She was ready to greet them when Stephanie pointedly turned away from her.
 
Not looking at me, and talking about me but not to me, thought Dominique. And it’s not in my head after all.
 
 
Nobody enjoyed lunch, even though Lily had done her best and the table was groaning under the weight of food. But not one of them was hungry and there was still only one topic of conversation among them, although they avoided it until the two youngest children had left the table. Alicia, Kelly and Joanna hadn’t come to lunch, saying that they were meeting friends. Dominique was glad. She wouldn’t have liked her daughter to hear the contempt in Barry’s voice as he said that Brendan deserved to go to jail. Or June’s scathing remark that it was Dominique’s expensive lifestyle that had driven Brendan to robbing friends and family.
 
‘You’re being really hard on Domino,’ Greg told them. ‘You can’t blame her for what Brendan’s done.’
 
‘Oh, we all know that you’d support her no matter what,’ said June scornfully. ‘You’ve got a very soft spot for Domino, haven’t you, Greg? You’ve quite enjoyed being her knight in shining armour. But then she enjoys you being there. She has you wrapped around her little finger. And more.’
 
There was a sudden taut silence around the table. And then Emma - who hadn’t spoken to Dominique since the day she’d seen her with Gabriel at Lily’s - pushed her chair away and stood up.
 
‘You’re a poisonous cow,’ she told June as she walked out of the room.
 
Greg looked helplessly after her.
 
‘Are you going to stay or go?’ asked June waspishly. ‘Who needs you more? Your wife or your sister-in-law?’
 
Barry put his hand on his wife’s arm.
 
‘For God’s sake!’ Maurice spoke, startling them. ‘It’s not right, everyone fighting.’ He stood up. ‘I’m going outside for a smoke. I don’t like this.’
 
‘Neither do I,’ said Dominique shakily. ‘I’m sorry. Sorry for everything.’
 
‘It’s not your fault,’ said Greg. He got up from the table and left the room.
 
‘God in heaven!’ Barry turned to June. ‘Why do you open your big fat mouth like that?’
 
‘Because you won’t,’ said June. ‘If you’d opened your mouth sooner, then maybe Brendan wouldn’t have run away with our money.’
 
And June also walked out. Barry looked at Lily and at Dominique, then shrugged his shoulders and followed her.
 
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Dominique again. ‘Somehow I’ve managed to bring this down on your head, Lily.’
 
‘Is it true?’ asked Lily sharply. ‘Is there something going on between you and Greg?’
 
‘No!’ cried Dominique.
 
‘They have their troubles, those two,’ said Lily.
 
‘Not because of me,’ Dominique told her. ‘Really. I’ve never ... there’s never ...’ She buried her head in her hands. When she eventually got herself under control, she realised that she was the only one sitting at the table. Lily had gone too.
 
 
She didn’t know what she was going to do or where she was going to go. She wanted to get far away from the Delahayes and everything to do with them. She couldn’t believe that they had all turned against her, that in some way even Lily was blaming her for what had happened. She didn’t know what to say to Kelly. How to work things out. But she knew that they had to leave as soon as possible.
 
 
Emma and Greg were at home. Lugh had gone to bed. The silence between them was as taut as a piano wire.
 
‘It isn’t working, is it?’ asked Emma eventually. ‘Even after all this time. June has a point.’
BOOK: Stand by Me
8.87Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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