Дэвид Муди - Strangers

Michelle laughed into her wine glass. ‘That’s Scott for you. Impulsive. Selfish.’

‘And is there a plan, or did he just feel like putting the wall through?’

‘Oh, there’s a plan okay. It’s his plan, though. All on his terms, his timescales. He decides he’s putting the wall through, so he puts the bloody wall through.’

Michelle drank more wine and wiped her eyes. Jackie continued to watch her, wondering if she was just making matters worse by being here. Should she just butt out and bugger off back to Dez and the kids? ‘Look, love, do you know what they’re saying?’

‘What who’re saying?’

‘Folks out there?’

‘I couldn’t care less.’

‘I think you should. You and your girls need to be ready, I think.’

Michelle finished her glass and poured another. ‘I can imagine the kind of stuff. They’re saying Scott killed that Graham bloke.’

She looked at Jackie. Jackie looked away. ‘It’s worse than that. Way worse.’

‘Worse. How can it be worse?’

‘They’re saying he killed all of them, Chelle. Thing is, all this only started when you moved to Thussock. Folks are putting two and two together and are coming up with all kinds of answers.’

Michelle laughed. Not a quiet, nervous laugh, this was a full-on belly laugh which filled the house. The girls even heard her over the TV. ‘That’s fucking hilarious,’ she said.

‘I thought you needed to know. I think you and your girls need to be aware. People think your husband’s the killer.’

‘Let them think what they like, Jack. We’re all in the dark here. I don’t have a bloody clue what Scott’s capable of anymore.’

‘You can always come and stay at ours if things get bad here, love.’

‘Things already are bad, Jack. Though to be fair, they were bad before we got here. I thought this move would help, but it’s just made things worse. It must be something to do with me…’

‘It’s not you, Mum, and you know it,’ Tammy said. Neither of them had noticed her in the doorway. ‘We should pack our stuff tonight and get out of here. Go back home. Granddad’s always saying we can stay with him.’

‘That’s not the answer, Tam, and you know it.’

‘Then what is, Mum? Stay here with him until there’s nothing left of any of us? You should have seen him with that bloke last night. Scott was like a maniac. For what it’s worth, I don’t know if he had anything to do with all the other deaths, but I’m worried. I’m worried if he carries on like this it’ll be one of us next. He’s made threats to you before, Mum, and he’s right on the edge. I think we should cut our losses and get out of here.’

Jackie stayed for hours. Michelle put George to bed then she, Jackie and the girls sat in the living room together and talked about nothing all evening, deliberately avoiding any difficult topics of conversation. It was relaxing. It was liberating . There was no mention of Scott, other than when Tammy remarked on how different the house felt when he wasn’t there. ‘It feels normal, Mum, don’t you think? No one’s shouting. We’re not treading on eggshells. I’ve got satellite TV, we’ve finally got the Internet, and you’re half drunk. If things could be like this all the time, I might even feel like staying in Thussock.’

A little over twenty-four hours after driving him away, the same police car returned and dumped Scott back outside his front door. Michelle hadn’t been home long from taking the girls to school, figuring the sooner they got back into routine, the better. She rushed outside to greet him, her legs weak with nerves, not sure how she felt. ‘You’re back. You okay, love? What’s going on?’

Scott didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. He walked straight past her and went into the house, sitting down at the kitchen table without uttering a word. Michelle hesitated and watched him from the doorway, trying to gauge the situation, unsure what to do or say next. Should she just pretend nothing had happened? It would probably be for the best, but she couldn’t do it. As much as he would inevitably need space after what he’d been through, she needed answers. She moved closer, then sat down opposite him. When he didn’t react, she cleared her throat. ‘What happened, Scott?’

He looked straight at her. ‘You know what happened,’ he said, his voice unemotional. ‘The pervert I beat up died. They decided I killed him. Apparently I hadn’t.’

‘Then who…? How did he…?’

‘How the hell am I supposed to know? Why don’t you ask the fucking pigs who dragged me out of here yesterday morning and kept me locked up all fucking night for no fucking reason.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…’

‘It gets better,’ he said, cutting across her. ‘Fuckers tried to pin everything on me. All these killings. Cunts. All fucking circumstantial… just picking on me ’cause we’re new here.’

Michelle held her head in her hands. ‘Are we going to get this wherever we go? When I agreed to come here I thought—’

‘You thought what? Don’t try and turn this around on me. None of this is my fault. I was just trying to look out for your fucking pain-in-the-ass daughter and stop some fucking freak from raping her.’

‘I know. I—’

‘It’s not my fault this place is full of fucking psychos, is it? They’re all out of their fucking minds.’

‘I’m sorry. All I meant was—’

‘I know what you meant,’ he said, his voice suddenly louder. He banged his fist down on the table and Michelle jumped as much as the crockery. ‘I’m doing the best I can, you know. I know you lot don’t see it, but I’m trying really fucking hard here.’

‘I know you are. All I was going to say was—’

‘Maybe I should just stop? Maybe I should give up trying, ’cause the harder I try for this fucking family, the more fucked up things get.’

‘Don’t talk like that…’

‘It’s true though, isn’t it?’

‘No… no it’s not, and I don’t believe you really think that.’ She took a deep breath, trying to block out everything Tammy had said last night and focus instead on keeping Scott calm. ‘We’re going through a tough time, you in particular, but look how far we’ve come. If you’d said to me before the inquest that we’d be living in a house like this, rebuilding our lives and sorting our family out, I’d have been over the moon. We can put things back together here, I’m sure we can.’

‘Are you?’

She watched his face, waiting for any flicker of reaction. ‘Please, love… please don’t be like this. Everything’s going to be okay. You’re out of that place now. I don’t know what happened to that man, but I know you didn’t do it and that’s enough for me, really it is. And I know it wouldn’t have happened if Tammy hadn’t run off. It’s not your fault. Stop beating yourself up. You’ve got to learn to let go of stuff like this.’

He looked up at her. ‘Finished?’

She nodded and swallowed hard with nerves.

Scott was still staring at her. ‘They kept talking about the accident.’

Michelle’s body language changed. She visibly withdrew, the way she always did whenever the subject came up. ‘That’s all over now… you were cleared after the inquest.’

‘They were implying I might have done it on purpose, trying to make me out to be some real heartless fucker.’

‘They were just doing it to wind you up. What happened was an accident. Sue and Roy should have been watching her. It could have been anyone driving…’

‘But it was me .’

Elsewhere in the house, George started to cry. ‘I’ll go and see to him,’ Michelle said, ‘let him know you’re back. He was asking where you were.’ She got up and made for the door.