Ann Purser - Threats At Three

It was a shame, she thought, as she put down the application on her desk, that there were earthy smudges on the paper. Still, perhaps that was a good sign! At least he could have no qualms about getting his hands dirty, unlike one young man who’d expected to be supplied with gardening gloves at her expense.

Paula, busy cleaning silver in the kitchen, looked at the clock. A quarter past ten. She just had time to finish her favourite job before making coffee. Mrs. T-J had said she was expecting a possible new gardener, and would have her coffee early. “I don’t wish to offer him refreshment,” she had said firmly. “You never know with these out of work people. They’ll trump up any kind of a story to get a job.”

Paula thought to herself that if Mrs. T-J was desperate for money and work, she too might tell a few white lies. But she just nodded, and said she would bring in coffee at half past ten.

At eleven o’clock exactly, there was a knock at the kitchen door. “Damn!” Paula said. She supposed it was the gardener man, and she was on the point of collecting Mrs. T-J’s coffee cup. Still, at least he had not rapped loudly on the front door, opened it and yelled, “Anyone there?” which had scuppered another applicant’s chances.

She walked over to the door and opened it. A man stood there, and he was very familiar. She saw first that he was very thin, with dark hollows beneath his eyes. For a gardener out in the open air, he looked very unhealthy. Then he smiled and spoke to her.

“Morning, Paula,” said her husband. “I have an appointment to see Mrs. Tollervey-Jones.”

AN HOUR LATER, GRAN USHERED A WHITE-FACED PAULA HICKSON into Lois’s office. Lois could almost see a “Told you so” think bubble form above Gran’s head, and said at once that they’d be really grateful for a couple of cups of strong coffee. Gran shrugged, and left the room.

“Sit down, Paula,” Lois said, “before you fall down. You look terrible.”

“I feel terrible,” Paula said in a small voice.

Lois could see she was fighting to keep control. “No hurry. Take some deep breaths, and then we’ll have a coffee before you tell me what has happened. I’ll just finish these schedules, so you can sit quietly.”

After hot strong coffee and encouraging smiles from Lois, Paula began to speak. She described the shock of seeing her husband at the back door, and the superhuman effort needed to take him through to the den and announce him to Mrs. T-J. As they had walked through the long corridor, Jack had whispered to her that there was no need to say who he really was. His name was Jack Stevens now. He relied on her to keep her mouth shut, he said, and there was menace in his voice.

“He was so changed, Mrs. M!” Paula said. “Thin as a rake, but cleaned up.” Her lip wobbled. “He used to be such a tough chap, big and strong,” she said.

Lois came straight to the point. “Did he get the job?” she said.

Paula nodded. “He was always a good talker,” she said. “Could charm the angel Gabriel if it were necessary.”

Lois raised her eyebrows. “Mrs. T-J is far from that,” she said. “Now, we have to make a plan, Paula. The first thing is to decide how you’re going to tell Jack Jr.”

“Oh, I can’t tell him yet!” Paula said. “He’s so difficult to handle at the moment. This’ll tip him over the edge, I reckon. The headmaster wants to see me next week, to have a serious talk about Jack Jr., he said.”

“So are you going to the police? Tell them that your husband has been violent towards you, and has now come to work just up the road? Are you going to say you’re scared stiff of what he might do, and ask them to take action? Because,” Lois added, before Paula could answer, “if you do, they’re certain to take up the matter. Domestic violence is common enough, but they still have to take action if a case is reported to them.”

Paula frowned. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do, Mrs. M, and that’s the truth,” she said sadly. “I thought it would be all right now, living in Farnden with the children, and working for you. I was just beginning to feel safe, and now this happens.”

“Does there have to be secrecy?” Lois said. “Why can’t he use his real name, let Mrs. T-J know he’s your husband, but tell her you’re separated, and intend to live apart?”

“I expect that’s what he’d like to do, but he’s got these charges hanging over him.”

“What charges?” Lois said. “What else has he done, apart from beating up his wife?”

“It was at his job. There was a man there who’d come to work there long after Jack started, but he was kept on and Jack got sacked. He was a nasty piece of work, but had a friend in the management. He crowed over Jack in front of his mates. Jack went for him. Knocked him to the ground and left him with a broken tooth. Jack’s mates stood up for him, told the bosses it was all the other bloke’s fault for taunting Jack, and Jack was warned. O’ course, they’d already given him his notice, so they couldn’t use dismissal as a punishment. Anyway, up to then Jack had always been a good worker, so they decided not to take it any further. But if the police do get a whiff of what happened, Jack will be in for it.”

Lois was quiet for a minute or two, debating whether to tell Paula about her encounter with the man in the ruined cottage. She didn’t know for certain that he was Jack Sr. All she had was a suspicion based on a likeness to young Jack and his reaction when she used his name. No, for the moment she would keep quiet. This new crisis was more important.

“So what would you advise, Mrs. M?” Paula said.

Lois realised that Paula had nobody else to ask. She had been an only child, and apparently her parents were killed in a motorway pileup. She appeared to have no friends left from her working days at the building company in Tresham, and had not been in Farnden long enough to find a best friend. Reluctantly, Lois said that bearing in mind all the circumstances, Paula should break it to Jack Jr. that his father was working at the hall. It was bound to upset him, but it was entirely possible that the boy might meet him accidentally and that would be much worse.

“Has he been approached by his father, since you split?” Lois said.

Paula shook her head. “Not that I know,” she said. “Jackie hardly says a word to me from one week’s end to another. It’s not good for him, I know, but I’m so busy with the others I just hope it’s a phase and will pass.”

Stalemate, thought Lois. She tried to imagine what Cowgill’s reaction would be if she told him. After all, what was there to worry about? The Hickson family’s problems were their own, nothing to do with anybody else. The father needed a job desperately, that was clear. He had wanted Paula to keep quiet, and if he meant to stay clear of her and his family, then it was up to him and Paula to work it out, wasn’t it?

But there was Jack Jr., a young kid already seriously disturbed.

Paula’s next request was what Lois had been anticipating. “Mrs. M,” she said slowly, “I don’t suppose you could be around when I tell Jackie? You’re right. He must be told. But if it’s just me, he’ll be out of the door and gone before I get started. Please?”

TONY DIBSON HAD COOKED TEA FOR HIMSELF AND HIS WIFE, Irene, and now quietly whistled to himself in the kitchen as he washed up their crocks.

“You sound happy!” Irene shouted to him from the living room. “I thought you said these meetings-SOS did you call it?-were a waste of time, and you’d thought of not going tonight?”