The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend (46 page)

‘To work?'

She laughed. ‘Hardly.'

‘So how had you been planning on supporting yourself? Or was Tom Harris going to be volunteered for that job, too?' The policeman seemed to have taken the whole thing personally.

She blushed. ‘No, I … I've got some money. And no one lets me pay here. You know how it is, I guess? They help one another. Grace treats everyone to coffee, Andy gives them beer and John lets people borrow tools rather than buying them, if anything needs fixing. Tom helps with all the actual fixing. They're friends. I'll have money left when I go home,' she said.

‘So you don't love him?' the policeman insisted.

She looked at him in surprise.

‘Of course I love him. I love them all, but especially him. I shouldn't have done this, I know that. I
tried
to call it off, for his sake. He should find some nice woman he actually wants to marry, not be forced to live with me just because I … just because I couldn't bear the thought of leaving him.'

‘What is it with this town?' the policeman said to himself once again. He turned back to her. ‘So that means you weren't exactly getting married for residency?'

She looked embarrassed. ‘I told everyone it was for residency,' she added sorrowfully, more to herself than the two men. ‘I wanted to stay so much. I … I knew Tom didn't love me, but I went along with it anyway.'

Even Gavin was tense. He didn't like this part, whatever the others thought. He would rather have spent his time investigating, leave the questioning to others.

‘Go home,' he said eventually.

She shuddered, but seemed to be fighting to hide it. ‘Home?' she said, and then, more quietly: ‘To Sweden, yes?'

‘To Broken Wheel, I meant.' Gavin was annoyed by his failure to be clear. ‘For now,' he added ominously. ‘We'll be in touch.'

Sara got silently to her feet and left with the calm dignity of someone long since defeated.

WHEN SHE STEPPED
out of the office, she had to stop and squint in the bright sunlight. It was as though she was seeing everything in a series of film stills, as though everything had been cut up into small pieces and frozen in the moment for her to take in. She saw the car park, the empty spaces, the white lines marking them out, and the shadow of the lone parked car. The sun on its dusty bonnet. The buildings on the other side of the road, white and newly painted, with such a well-tended lawn in front of them that the whole thing looked like some kind of backdrop.

And then Tom, just the outline of his body, as though that was the only way she could take him in. Against the light, someone who didn't know him might have thought that his posture seemed almost relaxed. But he was unnaturally still, Sara thought, as though the only way to keep everything together was to avoid moving an inch.

The images flickered before her eyes, becoming a confusing mix of past and present, future and fantasy: a dove perched so unmovingly on a street light that it became a part of it; Amy in her youth, sitting next to John on a park bench; Amy surrounded by her books, though Sara didn't know if she was in her bedroom or the bookshop; the bookshop, the way it looked in the mornings, cool and dark; the rocking chair outside Amy's house, the two pairs of rubber boots; empty shelves; and then Tom. George, nervous and confused and chuckling at a book; Miss Annie, nothing but a vague, almost ghostlike outline; and then Tom again. Dozing in the armchair, his face unfeasibly relaxed compared to the real Tom's, who was standing there waiting for her to pull herself together enough to go over and talk to him.

She would just go over and do it. No complaints, no reproaches to an unfair world, no tears. Above all, no tears. She could give him that, at least. She wouldn't be just a problem that he hadn't managed to solve. With a bit of luck, one day, she might even be a funny anecdote to make him smile. That crazy woman and her reading. Do you remember her? From Sweden. Or was it Switzerland?

This wasn't a good train of thought. She had to blink several times before she went over to him. As she walked down the steps and over the wide pavement into the car park, she was desperately trying to work out what she was going to say when she got there. She couldn't come up with anything worth saying.

When he saw her coming, he pulled his hands from his pockets and made a helpless, silent gesture. He held his arms out to her and she took the final step into them as though it was a completely natural thing to do. She breathed in the smell of him, familiar again, and was relieved that she still remembered it after all.

She tried a laugh, but it came out more like a sniff. He hugged her more tightly.

‘It'll all work out,' he said, presumably because he couldn't think of anything else to say. ‘You can come back again.'

She wouldn't be allowed to do that.

He seemed to know that too. ‘We'll come and visit you,' he said instead. ‘I'll bring everyone. George can drive, Jen can make the newsletter into a travel guide, and Caroline can organise a collection.'

She laughed and he breathed a sigh of relief. A small, treasonous tear rolled down her cheek, and she tried to turn away from him. He touched her chin gently and wiped the tear away with his thumb.

‘This whole mess is my fault,' he said.

‘I shouldn't have let it get this far,' she said.

‘Do you think,' he said hesitantly, ‘if we'd thrown ourselves into a relationship right from the beginning … would it have been any different? They wouldn't be able to say we were getting married for a residency permit, at least.'

‘I hardly think you would've proposed to me after just a couple of weeks,' said Sara. ‘I'm not very good at any of this, at relationships. Definitely not good enough to make someone want to marry me so soon. The others would've still had to take charge.'

She looked at him uncertainly.

‘Would you have wanted something to happen at the start?' she asked.

‘I think I've loved you since the first time you explained that you preferred books to me.' He paused for thought. ‘Or maybe it was when you offered to do the dishes for beer.'

‘It was a reasonable offer!' she protested, and then he kissed her, as though to prove his point.

Neither Gavin nor the policeman saw the kiss, and it's entirely possible that it wouldn't have changed a thing if they had.

But one lone man was still standing outside the building and he saw the whole thing. The kiss had definitely changed something in him.

Grace bumped into John as soon as he got back to Broken Wheel. Something in his confused appearance made her pause. She even forgot to immediately light a new cigarette.

‘I don't know what Amy would've wanted any more,' he said. He seemed to be talking as much to himself as to Grace. ‘She wanted Sara to come, obviously. I've always known that, long before she dared to say the thought out loud to herself. But
now
? What does she want now?'

Faced with what threatened to be a long speech, Grace felt prompted to light a new cigarette. Her only words were: ‘Right now, she doesn't want anything,' but John didn't seem to hear.

‘I didn't believe any of it before, but now I'm wondering whether she somehow, unconsciously, in some strange way, knew that we needed Sara as much as she did. And that Sara needed us. But that's not at all the same as forcing Robert's son into a loveless marriage. She would never accept
that
. But
is
it loveless? That's what I'm wondering.'

‘Jesus, man, people die. You must've been alive for long enough to have worked that out. If you ask me, you think too much. Also, it's not so hard to work out. She would've wanted Sara to stay, of course she would. And she would've made sure that bureaucrat wished he had never come to town.'

John still didn't seem entirely convinced. Grace shrugged. ‘You'll have to ring Caroline.'

GAVIN JONES WAS
used to being visited by people in varying degrees of excitability. And when it came to Broken Wheel, there was very little which could surprise him.

But Caroline Rohde seemed worryingly calm for an agitated citizen. He couldn't help but think of her younger lover, and was annoyed with himself when he blushed. She, on the other hand, seemed completely unperturbed.

He showed her into one of the meeting rooms. His own office was nothing more than a booth comprised of thin, short walls, and when it came to this particular case, there was plenty he had no desire to discuss with his colleagues. He sat down at the table and, calmly and without being asked, she did the same opposite him.

‘So, what can I help you with?'

His tone of voice suggested – he hoped – that he didn't think he could help her with anything.

But she simply smiled and said nothing.

‘This case has caused me plenty of headaches, I have to say.' She didn't seem too impressed. ‘The collective element … it's an interesting case.'

She took off her gloves, folded them up and placed them on her lap. ‘You don't understand,' she said calmly. ‘They love one another.'

Gavin smiled drily. ‘So I understand, yes.'

‘So … what's the problem then?'

‘The law –' Gavin began, but she interrupted him.

‘The law presumably allows American citizens to marry non-American citizens and then live with them because they happen to love them.'

‘Yes,' Gavin admitted. ‘But then there's also the small question of what seems to be a town conspiracy.'

Caroline shrugged. ‘So arrest us then,' she said. ‘Jen, Andy, Carl. Maybe even George.' She was counting on her fingers. ‘Then there's Claire and Lacey, and Jen's husband too.'

‘And you?' He realised that his glaring wasn't achieving a thing, and forced himself to unfurl his brow.

‘And me too, of course.' Caroline looked thoughtful. ‘Jen's kids were at the wedding as well, but are they not a bit too young? Probably,' she continued in her next breath. ‘For jail, at least. Maybe a young offenders institution? The minister, William, he wasn't involved, I should point that out. You can let him off. But everyone else was definitely thinking they should get married purely for residency. We were all prepared to … what was it your colleague said?'

‘He's not my colleague.'

‘Sacrifice Tom – that was it. Not that we outright forced him to do it, but maybe you could charge us with having encouraged a crime?' She smiled. ‘We were definitely encouraging, you see.'

‘And Tom and Sara?' Gavin asked.

‘
They
haven't committed a crime,' Caroline said kindly. ‘They
wanted
to get married.'

‘From the start?'

‘Sure. They told me afterwards.' Caroline chuckled to herself. It was a surprisingly cheerful sound, but it didn't put him in a better mood. ‘So they tricked us! We didn't know a thing about it. It's a shame they weren't more open.' It was obvious she was trying to hold back her laughter, but he could still detect it in her voice and in the irritating, understanding look on her face. ‘So many people entering into a world of crime, all because they thought their feelings were a private matter. A tragedy.'

‘The law,' Gavin said.

‘Of course. There's nothing you can do. We've got to be prosecuted. Your hands are tied.'

‘Tom and Sara confessed,' he said desperately. ‘Everyone else denied it. Both Tom and Sara said they were responsible.'

Caroline seemed to hesitate, but then she said: ‘I guess once they'd seen how many people
thought
they'd committed a crime, they couldn't really do anything but confess.'

‘You don't seem especially worried,' Gavin said. The conversation hadn't gone at all as he had hoped. ‘Considering you're one of the people who committed the crime.'

‘The law …' she said. Gavin suspected she was actually enjoying this. ‘I'm fully prepared to take my punishment. The others might be a bit trickier, but I'm sure
you
won't have any trouble proving things in court. Even if Grace and Jen and … well, even Andy might not be quite as cooperative as I've been … But the law must be allowed to run its course.' She stood up and pulled on her gloves. ‘That much I do know,' she said. ‘No one can be more concerned with lawfulness, order and control than I am. I'm sure we're in agreement
there
.'

With those kind words, she left, reassuring him that she would find her way out and patting him gently on the shoulder. All before he had time to come up with a single good answer.

He hated this town.

For a while, he considered arresting the lot of them. At the very least, the thought of arresting Caroline cheered him up. The thought of having to interview them in front of his colleagues and a possible courtroom made his smile falter, however. He could just imagine his colleagues' incredulity. The judge's desperation.

He needed someone he could talk to about all of this. You had to have been there to understand. He took his doubts back to his booth and picked up the phone.

‘The town's full of love,' was all the policeman said.

Gavin laughed tiredly to himself.

‘What're you going to do with all of this?' There was clear but unhelpful pity in the policeman's voice.

‘I really don't know,' Gavin replied. He hesitated. ‘If they do love each other … On the other hand, I'm pretty sure they set out to trick us right from the beginning, and that Caroline woman is just pulling my leg.'

‘What did she say about the confessions?'

‘Felt responsible, tried to take the blame, blah blah, you know the drill.'

‘She might be right about that,' the policeman said. ‘They did seem mightily determined to take the fall for each other. Quite romantic, when you think about it.'