The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) (48 page)

  
‘Nobody rang and he’s not
at ours. Why do you ask, has he gone missing?’

  
Sammy explained what had
happened. ‘I can’t put my finger on it, Jane, but I just have a feeling
something’s going on.’

  
Molly brought the coffees
through then left them to it.

  
Sammy took a sip. ‘I
called him earlier to ask if he fancies going out for a meal later with you and
Ed, but the line was engaged. I just tried again but he didn’t answer. I’m sure
he wasn’t planning to go out before he meets up with Ed later.’

  
‘Try again,’ Jane
suggested. ‘He might have been on the loo, or even in the shower. He probably
didn’t hear the phone ring.’

  
Sammy dialled home again.
-
 
She shook her head and hung up. ‘No
reply.’

  
‘If you’re that bothered,
drive home and see if he’s all right. He’s probably gone back to sleep.’

  
‘I will. I’ve been so
busy these last few weeks, what with the wedding, and planning the summer
fashion show, I haven’t given him much attention. He’s probably feeling a bit
neglected. That’s why a night out, just the four of us, would do him good.’

  
Jane nodded. ‘It’ll do
all of us good. Take the rest of the morning off. Spend it with him. Go on Sam,
Jess will be in later. She can finish shading in that design for you. You
haven’t taken any time off since
Brighton
.’

  
Sammy put on her jacket.
‘Thanks, Jane, I owe you one. Take tomorrow morning off and spend it with Ed.’

  
‘Sounds good to me,’ Jane
said, picking up the phone as it rang out. ‘Go!’ she mouthed at Sammy and
pointed to the door.
  

  
Sammy popped her head
around her mother’s door and waved. ‘I’m nipping home, back later. Bye.’

  
Molly looked up briefly.
‘Bye, love.’

***

Sammy backed out of the car park, drove down the street and pulled
onto the main road. She rummaged in the glove compartment for her
Double
Fantasy
cassette and slid it into the tape slot. As the opening bars of
Starting
Over
filled the car Sammy caught sight of
Roy
’s Lamborghini turning a corner two
streets away.
 

  
At least it looked like
Roy
’s car; the red colour was so
distinctive. She glanced down the street as she passed but couldn’t see
anything. Maybe it wasn’t
Roy
, although she knew that there were few, if any, cars like his in
the area. She frowned and carried on towards home. The car wasn’t on the drive,
so it must have been him.

***

She ran upstairs to their bedroom, puzzling over where he might
have been going. A discarded T-shirt, boxer shorts and a damp towel lay on the
floor. She shook her head, picked them up and threw them into the laundry
basket. Untidy sod! The en-suite was damp and the shower cubicle door open. The
washbasin bore a tidemark of whiskers from a recent shave.

  
The smell of aftershave
lingered in the air and Sammy picked up the open bottle of Van Cleef and Arpels
from the vanity unit and held it to her nose. She’d bought it last month,
loving the evocative, citrus scent on him. She screwed the top on and went back
into the bedroom.

  
Standing by the window
she glanced around. The cream carpet showed every foot print in the deep pile.
She could see where
Roy
had walked from the bathroom to his side of the bed and then
across to the fitted wardrobes. His usual
Levis
were dumped on the chair and she
wondered what he was wearing instead. She opened his side of the wardrobe and
peered in. He wasn’t one for smart dressing, unless they were going out, or he
was attending a music awards ceremony.
                                       

  
His cream Versace jacket
was missing along with his new black trousers. She tried to remember if they
might still be at the dry cleaners, but she could have sworn she collected all the
cleaning last week. So, wherever he was, he’d dressed up to go.

  
She picked up the phone
and called Eddie.
 

  
‘Ed, its Sam. Have you
any idea where
Roy
is?’ She held her breath, her stomach churning and knowing for
certain he was going to say no.

  
‘I haven’t, but he’s coming later. Do you want him to call you?’

  
‘Please. I’ll go back to
work. He can call me there.’

  
‘Okay. Is he not at home this morning?’
 

  
‘No, I’m home myself,’
Sammy replied. She paused for a moment. ‘Ed, he didn’t come home until the
early hours and he slept in the spare room. He told me he went to see the
Grey’s after he left you and lost track of time. Something’s not right; I feel
it in my bones. The phone was engaged earlier when I tried to call him. Now
he’s out, dressed up, driving his Lamborghini, because I saw him coming through
Jackson
’s Heath.’
       

  
‘
Well if he was going towards Pickford he may have popped in to see the
accountant. I’ll get him to call you as soon as he arrives.’

  
‘Thanks, Ed.’ She hung up.
There’d be a simple explanation for
Roy
’s odd behaviour, after all they’d
never kept secrets and as a rule, always told each other where they were going.
She picked up her keys and bag, locked up and drove slowly back to work.
  

***

Eddie replaced the receiver and rubbed his chin. When
Roy
left him at the
Royal Oak
he’d said he was tired and going
straight home. Eddie thought it a bit odd for he and Roy were usually last to
be chucked out at closing time. He sighed as he ran up the stairs. He had a sinking
feeling that he knew exactly where
Roy
was. Livvy’s flat was in
Jackson
’s Heath.

  
In Jon’s bedroom he found
his address book, located her phone number and dialled. It rang for a while
before she answered.

  
‘Livvy, it’s Eddie. Have
you seen
Roy
today?’

  
She seemed to hesitate
before replying that she hadn’t seen him for several days. He thanked her and
hung up. She was lying.
Roy
was with her, he’d bet his life on it. He pulled on his jacket
and grabbed the Jeep’s keys. He drove across town to Livvy’s flat and parked
round the corner. He walked the rest of the way and there it was,
Roy
’s Lamborghini, parked shamelessly
alongside Livvy’s Mini. Eddie walked back to his Jeep, feeling sick. ‘Now
what?’ he muttered as he sat in the car and lit a cigarette. ‘Shit,
Roy
, what the fuck are you playing
at?’ He finished his cigarette, started up the engine and drove home.

***

 
Jane looked up as Sammy
walked in and flung her bag and keys on her desk. ‘You’re soon back,’ she
said.
              

  
Sammy sat down. ‘He
wasn’t there.’

  
‘You said he was staying
home all morning.’

  
‘That’s what he told me.
But he’d gone by the time I got back, freshly showered, dressed in his best and
the Lamborghini was missing. Does that sound like a mid-week
Roy
to you?’

  
‘No, it doesn’t, and he
never usually goes anywhere without Ed, and
he’s
at home. Well he was
when I left.’

  
‘He still is. I called
him. Ed doesn’t know where he is either. He said he may have gone to see the
accountant. But
I
usually organise
all that sort of stuff. Anyway, Ed said he’d get him to call me later.’ Sammy
picked up a pastel to finish the design she’d abandoned. ‘Thought Jess was
finishing this? Where is she?’

  
‘Showing Ruby the wedding
dress sketches.’

  
Sammy nodded and turned
to her easel and Jane stared thoughtfully at her back.

***

‘What are your plans for later?’ Livvy asked as she and
Roy
drank their coffee, snuggled under
the duvet.

 
‘I’m recording with Ed.
What are
you
doing with the rest of your day?’

  
‘I promised Sean I’d go
in to work,’ she said, putting down her mug. ‘Jon’s taking the afternoon off.
When are you and Ed going to finish that other song for me? You’ve been working
on it for ages.’

  
‘It’s ready. I’ll arrange
for you to come over next Monday and we’ll record it. We’re in
London
sometime soon, probably later this
week, so it won’t be before then. It’s a shame, because I wanted to take the
solo tape to the studios with me. If I can get you a recording contract, I’ll
manage you.’
 

  
Her face lit up. He
stubbed out his cigarette and drained his mug. ‘That old dog you mentioned
earlier, he’s ready to perform tricks again!’
 

  
‘You’re an insatiable
beast,’ she said as he pulled her down beside him.

***

Sitting by the music room window, Eddie watched as
Roy
’s car bumped carefully up the
private lane. He took a deep breath, ran downstairs and threw open the front
door.

  
‘Morning,
Roy
.’
  

  
‘Hi, mate, how’s things?’
Roy
grinned as he strolled into the
house.

  
‘Oh - fine,’ Eddie
replied, scanning
Roy
’s face for signs of guilt, but there were none. ‘Sammy’s been
trying to get hold of you. Where’ve you been?’

  
‘Home in bed. I didn’t
hear the phone.’
Roy
followed Eddie into the kitchen. He pulled a chair from under the
table, turned it round and sat down, straddling his long legs either side of
the seat. He leant his arms over the back.

  
‘Don’t lie to me, Roy.
You and I have been mates forever. You’ve never lied to me before, why start
now?’ Eddie picked up the coffee pot, poured
Roy
a mug, pushed the milk jug towards
him and sat down opposite. ‘And you’d better know this; Sam went home from work
this morning. She rang to see if you were here.’
      

  
Roy
’s eyes opened wide. ‘What did you
tell her?’

  
‘Well, seeing as I wasn’t
sure
where
you were at the time, I
said maybe you’d gone to see the accountant. She knows you’re dressed up,
because she looked in the wardrobe, and she’s curious because you
never
dress up in the day. She also saw
your car near
Jackson
’s Heath.
I
know where
you were. I drove to Livvy’s place and saw your car parked next to hers.’

  
‘Oh!’
Roy
stared at the floor. ‘Well, there
you go then. I nipped in to see Livvy to chat about the new song, that’s all.’

  
‘Yeah, sure!’ Eddie
raised a disbelieving eyebrow. ‘She told me she hadn’t seen you when I called.
I knew she was lying. Why would she do that if your visit were legitimate? Did
you shag her again?’

  
Roy
said nothing and sipped his
coffee.
 

  
‘
Roy
, I know you fancy the arse off
her. Did you screw her?’

  
‘It just kind of
happened,’
Roy
confessed. ‘You know how these things are.’

  
‘
These things
?’ Eddie exploded. ‘In all the years you were with the
group, all the girls you could have had, you never touched them. Of us all I
thought you’d be shagging left right and centre, but you didn’t. You left that
to Phil Jackson. You’ve never been unfaithful to Sam. So what’s so different
about Livvy? Why do you want to risk everything for some twenty-two-year old
bit of skirt?’

  
‘Livvy’s
not
a bit of skirt.’
Roy
’s eyes darkened. ‘I love her, Ed.
You
of all people should know how
that
feels.’

  
‘Oh come on, you can’t
compare my awful marriage to Angie with yours and Sammy’s wonderful marriage.
You’re a fool, Roy. Sammy will go mad. I wouldn’t like to be in
your
shoes when she finds out.’