The Mysterious Miss Mayhew (38 page)

He licked his vanilla ice cream and looked at the other one.

And out of the door of the magazine office stormed the woman who was going to eat it. He saw Liz hesitate and then come over.

‘What the fuck just happened?’ she said to him.

‘We both got shafted,’ he replied and handed her the ice cream. She stared at it as if unsure what to do.

‘Sit down and eat it,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘Because I think you need to cool down. You’ve stormed out and you’re planning to tell them to shove their job because you won’t work for Victoria.’

Liz sat down but the ice cream remained unlicked.

‘You become a mind-reader?’ she asked.

‘Yes. I’m thinking of doing it professionally now my most recent choice of career has crashed and burned. Come on, eat and listen. You have to go back in there.’

He thought she might shove the ice cream in his face. ‘You’re kidding. Can you imagine?’

‘You have kids and a mortgage and you love what you do, Liz. And I feel responsible for this happening.’

She tentatively licked at the ice cream. ‘It’s coffee. You
got me coffee.’ She took another lick and only stopped to say, ‘Responsible. How?’

‘This isn’t about my competence or conduct. It’s about Fran and you got caught in the crossfire.’

‘I’m not going back, Tom. I’ll end up running everything, but Victoria will get the glory. And the higher wage.’

‘No change from normal, then.’

‘Come off it, Tom. On a good day, you knew what you were doing.’

‘Yeah, so much so that I’m sitting on these steps with the contents of my desk in my bag. And my pocket.’ He patted Hattie to make sure she was still there. ‘If you don’t go back, I’m going to stage an intervention and march you in.’

‘You’re banned, you can’t. God, it’s like being a serf, working for the Mawsons. It makes me so mad. I hope you’re seeing a lawyer? And that Victoria! What a two-faced cow. Did I ever take to her? No.’ Liz seemed to have forgotten her ice cream.

He nudged her arm and the cornet wobbled. ‘If you’re going to go, at least keep working there while you look for something else. But I’d sit it out, I can’t see Victoria lasting. Now, get that ice cream down you.’

He had to buy her another one before she saw sense.

CHAPTER 55

Tom didn’t know what the newly sacked did. His first instinct was to go to Fran, but he needed to think about how to break the news to her first. She’d be distraught knowing that he’d been punished because of her.

It was a novel experience to worry about someone being too caring after spending years working around someone who didn’t care enough.

He decided to deal with one crisis at a time. First he’d get Steph off his back and out of his house and then speak to Fran. And all the other people he’d need to tell. Including the bank – how long would he be able to keep going without a wage? That was another question for after Steph.

As he drove away from Tynebrook, he felt a slew of emotions. Anger at his treatment, sadness that he wouldn’t be working with people like Felix and Liz again, regret that someone else would be stamping their personality on a magazine he’d grown to love.

In the end he went into Newcastle and sat in a coffee shop
with his computer and registered with some recruitment sites. It took him two hours and a couple of cappuccinos. That would have to stop – they were too expensive. Depressed by that thought, he went for a pint, which seemed much better value. And then, when he really didn’t expect it, a moment of sheer happiness hit him as he realised that he and Fran didn’t have to skulk around any more. They could go for a drink just as he was doing now. He could tell people what she meant to him. Here he was, newly sacked, with a daughter who was going to be miserable again very soon, a brother who needed serious support to get through fatherhood and an estranged wife dedicated to causing him grief, but he loved Fran Mayhew and she loved him back.

He took out his phone to ring her, but figured a text would be safer. Fran was too perceptive and would hear something was up in his voice. He sent the text and finished his pint and had a walk around the city. In another spike of happiness he went into one of the department stores and bought some books for Fran and a pair of dungarees with a tool loop for Hattie. Better make the most of it while he still had some money.

When he got home, Steph’s car wasn’t there.

No, you cannot leave without saying goodbye to Hattie
.

He rushed upstairs and found her suitcase still open on the floor.

Enjoying how the house felt without Steph in it, he made a cup of tea and lay down on the sofa and then woke with a start when the back door opened. As he scrambled up, he nearly kicked over his cup of tea, now quite cold.

‘You’re home early,’ his mother said, bustling in, the bag with Hattie’s karate kit under her arm.

‘Yeah, thought I’d make the most of the weather.’

His mother looked out at the grey clouds, but didn’t comment.

Hattie came in behind her. ‘Mummy’s car isn’t there—’

‘She’s still here. She’s just gone out somewhere.’

Hattie nodded, but after he’d given her a hug, she went upstairs and he heard her go into Steph’s bedroom.

‘Poor little thing,’ his mother said. ‘She still off tomorrow, then?’

When he nodded, she said she wouldn’t stay around to say goodbye and was out of the house with the speed of someone much younger.

When the back door opened again, it was Steph. She’d obviously been to the supermarket.

She looked at him coldly. ‘You’re home early.’

‘I thought as it was your last evening.’

‘Oh, I’m sure. Might have been nice if you’d arranged something special, I’ve had to go out and buy food.’

He ground several layers of enamel off his teeth, not
responding to that. His role tonight was to maintain the peace and try to keep Hattie from getting too upset. He felt the chances of that were nil.

‘Have you told her yet?’ Steph snapped, unpacking some cartons of Chinese food from the bags. ‘About me not moving up here?’

‘No. I couldn’t tell her on the way to school—’

‘
Wouldn’t
, you mean. Such a coward, Tom. Always have been. Howard the Coward.’

He walked out of the kitchen and nearly collided with Hattie running in. ‘Mummy,’ she shouted. She had on a T-shirt and skirt and Tom wanted to march her upstairs and give her the dungarees.

He listened from the other room. ‘There she is, Mummy’s little helper. Shall we get all this yummy food cooked? Have a little party? Oh that’s a lovely hug. OK, enough now. Don’t spoil things by being all droopy. That’s it. Take the lids off those.’

Hattie in clingy mode and Steph as vindictive wife – it was a toxic combination.

He went back into the kitchen and helped Hattie with the lids.

‘Oh, someone rang this morning,’ Steph said with a little slide of her gaze. ‘I told her you were at Fran’s. Hope I didn’t get you into trouble.’

‘Not at all.’ He purposely kept concentrating on the cartons of food.

When he heard a noise, he did look round and she was opening the back door. There was a bottle of wine on the side with the top off. He was going to pour himself a glass when he thought about needing to stay on top of however the evening unfolded.

‘Do you want a drink?’ he asked Hattie and got her some lemonade in her plastic cup and knew as he handed it to her, she’d head for the garden too.

‘I’ll cook the Chinese meal then, shall I?’ he said to the cooker and started to work out the timings. He set the table while keeping an eye on Steph and Hattie in the garden.

In a lull, he remembered the text to Fran and wondered if she’d replied. Quick check. No. He felt a bit disappointed at that. He could have done with some kind of contact, but then the timer went and he was back to dealing with spare ribs and beef in black bean sauce. Outside, Hattie was showing Steph how fast she could climb up to the tree house and back and Steph watched her for a while before she turned towards the window. She drank her wine and smiled. She must have known he was watching and that smile made him uneasy. There was something triumphant about it.

‘OK,’ he shouted, ‘it’s ready.’

Hattie came in holding Steph’s hand and Steph said, ‘Just let me go a minute, will you?’ and topped up her wine glass.

‘I want to sit next to Mummy.’

‘No problem,’ Tom said, ‘sit where you like, love. Right, mind this dish, it’s hot.’

‘Thank you for this, Mummy,’ Hattie said when everything was laid out on the table. It was followed by the sweetest smile to which Steph replied, ‘My pleasure, darling. Enjoy it.’

‘Where will you live when you come back?’ Hattie asked, as she spooned sauce over the beef on her plate.

Steph did a pincer movement on a prawn with her chopsticks. ‘Oh, Daddy wants to talk to you about that, don’t you, Daddy?’ There was a dramatic bite through the prawn.

When Hattie looked to him, he said, ‘Later on. Gosh, I’m hungry! I could eat all this food and then the plates. So … come on, Hats, tell us who you overpowered at karate today.’

Hattie was distracted enough to enable him to give Steph a warning look which she responded to with an exaggerated tilt of her head. Her ‘like I give a damn’ look.

Tom could feel the tension around the table and Hattie must have too because she became extra clingy, thanking
Steph again for the meal, asking her if she could have more of this, the last of that. He could see Steph becoming increasingly irritated. When Hattie dripped some black bean sauce down her T-shirt, Steph lashed out with, ‘Look what you’ve done. That was very expensive.’

Hattie tried to rub at it with her finger and he got in before Steph could say anything else. ‘It’s OK, just nip upstairs and take it off. Bring it back down and I’ll soak it. No harm done.’

He waited until she was out of earshot and turned on Steph. ‘Just stop it. She’s trying her best to please you and she’s sad because you’re going. Can’t you just put her first for
one
fucking evening?’

‘Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t lecture—’

‘If you go on like this, I’ll take her to Mum’s and we won’t come back till you’ve gone.’

‘No you won’t, it would upset Hattie too much.’ Steph looked so sure she’d got him where she wanted him.

‘Use your brain, Steph. She’s going to be upset anyway very soon and at least at Mum’s she’d be free of you and your drip, drip of torture. So, ball’s in your court. Hey, hey, here she comes. Good girl, hand me that T-shirt.’

For the rest of the meal, Steph behaved – even trying half-heartedly to teach Hattie how to use chopsticks.

‘Everyone finished?’ Tom asked and set about clearing
the table, wondering when he should ruin Hattie’s good mood. Was it best to do it tonight? Before Steph went? Or tomorrow, early? He wouldn’t be going anywhere after all. He could take his time and if she was upset she didn’t need to go to school. He could have a whole day of delivering bad news to people.

‘Would you like a drink, darling?’ Steph asked, picking up Hattie’s empty cup.

‘Yes please, Mummy.’

Steph opened the fridge and reached for the orange-juice carton.

‘She’s not over-keen on—’

‘You can’t let me do one thing, can you?’ Steph snapped and seeing Hattie’s worried face at her mother’s tone, Tom just said, ‘Sorry. Good point. You go ahead.’

He pulled down the front of the dishwasher and started to load it. Then he heard a text come through on his phone. It was Fran.

Call me
.

He closed the dishwasher again. ‘I’ll finish that in a minute.’

In the garden, he rang her while looking back into the kitchen. Hattie was putting the serving dishes on the draining board. Steph was drinking some more wine. Great. That was going to help.

‘Hello, gorgeous,’ he said when he heard Fran’s voice. ‘Get my text?’

‘Yes.’

One word and he knew immediately that something was wrong. ‘Have you got a minute?’ she asked in the way people do when it’s an order and not a question.

He instinctively turned his back on the house to get some privacy. ‘Fran … are you all right?’

‘Well, it depends what you mean by all right,’ she said. ‘If all right means, “Are you happy?”, then no. If it means, “Do you feel as if someone has treated you like an idiot?” then the answer is yes.’

Tom was trying to get a foothold on the conversation and so her harsh, ‘Aren’t you going to ask what’s wrong, Tom?’ came back before he could speak. ‘Or perhaps,’ she said, ‘you’ve already guessed what I’m talking about?’

‘No, no, I haven’t,’ he stuttered out.

‘Well, I’ve had another uninvited visitor, Tom. A woman who told me that the man I love and trust had sex with her the night before. And that she is moving back up here to be with him. Can you guess who that was?’

Steph’s smile made sense now. She’d drawn blood. He spun round and looked back into the kitchen. Steph was standing at the sink actually doing some washing up and
talking to Hattie who was going for the tea towel. He turned away again.

‘Listen, Fran,’ he said, his heart racing, ‘you cannot believe anything that comes out of Steph’s—’

‘I don’t believe it, Tom. Not a word of it.’

‘You don’t! Oh!’ He took a deep breath. ‘Thank God for that.’ He turned and gave Steph the finger, even though she wasn’t looking in his direction. ‘Fran, she’s just a piece of—’

‘I don’t want to discuss her. I want to ask you some questions.’ Tom’s heart didn’t start racing again, but he sensed it might have cause to in a moment.

‘When Steph said you had sex with each other, is this just something she plucked out of the air?’

‘Uh, well … Look, Fran—’

‘Tom, if you don’t answer the question, I’ll ring off.’

There was a noise behind him and a poke to his thigh.

‘Mummy says, do you want the leftovers thrown away?’

‘You tell bloody Mummy she can take them and—’ He stopped, but only because he saw the shock on Hattie’s face. ‘Sorry, look. I don’t mind what she does with them, Hats. This is an important phone call. Can you just leave me for a couple of minutes?’