Mo Hayder - Skin

Thom might have been able to ignore his sister, but he didn’t know how to defy his girlfriend. He got into the car and sat, slouched in the seat. Mandy turned to Flea, her arms folded under her huge breasts. ‘What on earth’s going on?’

‘There’s been an accident. Thom’s had… an accident.’

Mandy bent very slowly to look across the driver’s seat at Thom. His face was in his hands again. ‘He doesn’t look as if he’s had an accident.’

‘It wasn’t him who got hurt.’

‘Then who?’

‘It was a woman.’

‘A woman?’ Mandy raised her eyebrows questioningly, as if the idea of Thom having anything to do with a woman was preposterous. Even through an accident.

‘He was driving. The other night. He was drunk and she stepped out in front of him. He didn’t have a chance to stop.’

‘What happened to her?’

Flea shook her head. No way of sugar-coating it. ‘I’m sorry.’

Mandy closed her eyes very slowly. ‘Killed?’ She opened them, looked at Flea, unblinking. ‘You mean he killed her?’

‘Yes.’

‘When?’

‘Last Monday.’

‘The night he came over to you?’

‘Yes.’

‘He can’t have had an accident. He stayed at yours all evening. The car’s fine.’

‘He didn’t stay at mine. He was lying to you. He didn’t want you to know he was going to a business meeting because he didn’t want you thinking he was getting into another cock-up deal, so he came to mine and used my car – he left his outside in case you drove by to check up on him.’

Mandy turned away and gazed distantly at the graves, at the plastic containers under the standpipe, the silk flowers made grey by the car fumes from the road. Seeing them but not absorbing them. ‘I can’t believe this. No one told me anything about it.’

‘Because no one knew. It wasn’t reported.’

‘Not reported ? Then what happened to…’ This new dimension hit home with a bang. She put her elbows on the car roof and dropped her face into her hands. ‘My God. My God. My God.’

‘There’s something we can do.’

‘This will be the end of everything.’

‘Mandy, calm down. Thom and I have talked about it and there is something we can do. We’ve got to get him into hospital. We’ve got to build a case. There isn’t much time.’

‘Build a case? You mean you’re going to lie? Why? Why would you do that?’

‘Because he’s my brother. Because I’m totally fucking furious with him and I’d like to pull his eyes out right now. But he’s still my brother and I love him.’

Mandy rested her finger against her throat as if there was a small lump there. Then she pulled back her sleeve and checked her watch – as if knowing the time would somehow keep everything in place and stop the world tilting. In the distance thunder rolled. A bird – a rook, maybe – took off from the line of pencil cypresses edging the cemetery. ‘We need some time to think about this,’ she said eventually.

‘OK.’

‘Alone, I mean.’

‘I’ll go and sit in the car.’

‘No. Longer than that. We need to go home and think about it. Sleep on it. I’ll call you.’

‘When?’

‘Tomorrow morning. Maybe in the afternoon. I’ve got to work in the morning.’

‘It can’t wait that long. Things are… changing. Things with the body are changing.’

‘Things with the…? Christ.’ Mandy shook her head. ‘Oh, Christ.’

‘Call me first thing in the morning.’

‘Some time in the morning.’

‘If I haven’t heard by midday I’ll be at your front door. And if we don’t start doing something about it then, I’m going to have to-’

‘Going to have to what?’

‘Midday. I’ll see you at midday.’

Four o’clock in the afternoon, and Ruth feels good. A drink in her hand and the music’s on loud. She’d like to open all the windows so the neighbours know she’s here. Because their little trick today – sending that slag to spy on her – hasn’t got to her. Not at all. In fact, it’s made things even clearer. If before she wasn’t sure of the changes she’s decided to make, she’s a thousand per cent now. It’s time to get out of here. Time to go back to where she belongs. To the sun. Her and the cats and maybe Stevie, somewhere better than this shit-hole.

She carries the drink up to her room and rests it on the bedside table. Slops some of it, so she takes off her T-shirt to blot up the mess. When she’s straightening she catches her reflection in the mirror on the big old wardrobe. She gives herself a long, hard look, unbuttons her shorts, slides them off and steps out of them. Now she’s in underwear, her bra and knickers, and her high heels. She stands straight and appraises her reflection.

She’s got good legs. Always has had. Short, a bit muscular, but shaped well with good knees and ankles. Legs that look good in heels. Good knockers, too. She pushes her breasts together and bends towards the mirror. Makes a kissy face. A bit of help with the boobies: East European help. But a nod’s as good as a wink to a blind horse, and she’s always had a way with certain types of men. A little promise, a little excitement. It’s a two way-street. They get what they want… and she gets what she wants. Which, right now, is a ticket out of here. Away from the snoops and the rain and all the people who want to hurt the cats with their poisons and fast cars.

There’s a new shopping centre going up between the hamlet and Trowbridge. It brings all sorts of lonely men down, a project like that – architects, engineers, investors. One or two of them have already started appearing at the pubs in Rode. One bought her a drink the other night, and that’s a move in the right direction. Not that she’s naïve: it’s not going to be bleeding Pierce Brosnan, for the love of God. There’ll be compromises.

She takes a gulp of the rum and Coke. Puts it down and turns back to the mirror. She gathers up the spare flesh that pushes over the top of her knickers. Squishes it together and watches it pucker. Folds of tanned flesh all indented and lumpy. Stevie. He did that. Not that she resents it, but that’s Stevie’s belly right there. She jiggles it around, then flattens it back against her hipbones and turns half in profile. Turns to the other side. Admires the change in her shape with it pulled tight like that.

It’s only a tiny bit of work. A tiny scar. From all the reading she’s done she’ll be able to pass it off as a hysterectomy. A movie star or a jet-setter wouldn’t think twice about it. They’d call it maintenance. They wouldn’t worry like this, or spend time thinking about it. They’d just crap or get off the pot.

Ruth drains her drink. She goes downstairs and stands at the bar in her underwear and high heels, a little unsteady, scoops ice into the glass and fills it. She carries it over to the computer table and begins pulling things out of drawers. There are stacks and stacks of photographs, and she has to rummage through them to find the folders of bank and credit-card statements. She dumps them on the table and sits down, sorting them into piles.

After a while she realizes there’s a problem. She lays them out in date order and starts again, making notes this time, adding things up. It’s not good. Two glasses of rum and Coke go by and she still can’t work out how it got so bad. She pours another and sits, head propped up on one finger, trying to work it out.

She’s got an appointment for the day after tomorrow. Little Sue made it. A good girl, Sue, stays in touch despite the divorce. Weird face, though: pushed in. Like there’s a touch of the manta ray in Lindermilk genes. Basically she’s a good girl, though, and she’s spoken to the clinic about getting a staff discount for Aunty Ruth’s tummy tuck. Twenty-five per cent apparently.