David Belbin - Bone & Cane

This was not the moment to kiss him, though Sarah wanted to. But it was their most intimate moment since they stopped being lovers.

‘Suppose I’d better drive you back,’ she said.

Nick only spoke again when she was almost at the cab firm.

‘Something I haven’t told you. Something important.’

‘Wait a mo.’ She didn’t want to end the conversation but the road outside Cane Cars was double yellowed and busy. Sarah turned into the cab firm car park, where there was one space, which she took. At least they couldn’t be seen here. Words tumbled out of Nick.

‘The woman I was seeing until recently . . . it wasn’t serious, but you know her. I picked her up in the cab from one of your surgeries.’

Sarah could feel it coming, knew at once who her rival was.

‘It was entirely physical. You can’t imagine what it’s like, not having any for five years. Anyway, it was Polly. Polly Bolton.’

‘You were screwing that ?’ Sarah shook her head in disbelief.

‘That’s not all of it. I went round to see her the other day. I wanted to warn her that Ed’s driving a taxi for my brother. Only, she already knew. Thing is, and this is hard to believe, she’s seeing Ed.’

‘Polly’s got back with Ed? That’s beyond bizarre.’

‘You knew that they were together before?’

‘I only just found out. How close are they, have you any idea?’

‘They’re living together, as far as I can tell. She’s a hard case, Polly. I told her what you’d told me about Ed. She didn’t give a shit. She says he didn’t do it. She says he told her who did.’

‘If he knew that,’ Sarah said, ‘he’d have told me. Or at the very least he’d have told his solicitor.’

‘I’d better go,’ Nick said, awkwardly leaning over and putting an arm around her. ‘Do you want me to ring you later?’

‘Please. I ought to be at the count by ten. Until then, whatever I do is displacement activity.’

He kissed her on the cheek, then got out of the car. Sarah began to back out of her space, distracted. What could a man like Nick see in a woman like Polly? Had prison coarsened Nick so much? No wonder he’d believed it when he heard that Sarah had been with Ed Clark.

A cab was waiting in the narrow driveway. Sarah held up her hand to indicate that she was on her way out and pulled down the sun visor to keep off the glare. The cab pulled alongside Sarah and she manoeuvred carefully around it to make her way out, not once looking at the driver.

‘What was Sarah Bone doing in the car park?’ Ed Clark asked.

‘No idea,’ Nas said, as Nick put down the paper, which was predicting a comfortable Labour win.

‘Thought you’d stopped working here, duck,’ Ed said to Nick.

‘I’m not working,’ Nick said, and Nas didn’t contradict him.

‘You and Sarah. Back together again, are you?’

‘She gave me a lift, that’s all.’

‘I’d have thought she had better things to do on a day like today,’ Ed said. ‘But she has strong needs, Sarah, dun’t she?’

Nick couldn’t stop himself. He hit Ed in the face, hard, sideswiping his nose. The other driver didn’t go down. Without waiting to recover, he lunged at Nick. Before Ed had time to get in a good punch, Nick kneed him in the groin, hard.

‘From what I hear,’ he said, as Ed keeled over, ‘you’re used to being hit there.’

Nas threw Nick the keys to Stuart’s cab. ‘Get out of here before he can stand up.’

29

Best to be straight with her. Sarah couldn’t pretend to be at Polly’s house by accident. Suppose Ed was there? His taxi wasn’t outside but maybe, like Nick, he shared one. Meeting Ed was a risk she would have to take. Sarah knocked on the door, then took deep breaths, inflating the anger she needed before she was able to tackle Polly.

‘You again.’

‘We need to talk. Now. Away from the kids.’

Sarah’s demeanour was stern enough for Polly to step aside and let her in. She yelled into the front room.

‘I’ve got a visitor, so watch the telly quietly. No interruptions.’

She ushered Sarah into the back room, which was messier than on Sarah’s last visit. There was a leather jacket hanging from the cellar door. It was the one Ed had been wearing on the night of his release. Sarah pointed at it.

‘How could you, Polly? You were so convinced he killed your brother, your sister-in-law.’

‘Nick told you, did he? Ed said you used to know him but I found that hard to credit. The MP and the jailbird. We’re not so different, are we? Both go for blokes who’ve been inside.’

‘Nick’s crime was a lot less serious than Ed’s.’

‘Except for one thing,’ Polly said, looking at the stairway. ‘Ed didn’t do it.’

‘You’ve changed your tune. I don’t get it, Polly. How could you let that . . .’ – she was going to say ‘sociopath’ but doubted Polly would know what the word meant – ‘that creep near enough to you to convince you he’s innocent, never mind let him into your bed?’

‘Ed gets what he wants,’ Polly sneered. ‘But then, you’d know that, wouldn’t you?’

‘If you’re saying . . . ’

‘It bothers you, dunnit, that I’ve had the same men you’ve had. Nick, he’s the one who likes it rough. Did he learn to be like that from you? Ed, he’s a gent compared to Nick. Don’t look at me that way. You’re not going to pretend Ed forced you, are you? I know what you told Nick. But I know what you’re like.’

‘You know nothing,’ Sarah said. ‘Ed Clark tried to attack me and if I hadn’t hurt him, he would have raped me. I went out with Nick fourteen years ago and how he could have stooped to sleep with the likes of you, I can’t fathom.’

‘ Stoop ? Sleep ? Fathom ? Listen to her. Your Nick never slept here. He came to fuck me when he felt like it and didn’t give a shit if the kids heard a thing or not. Ed sleeps here. He’s good to those kids. And if he offered you a jump and you turned him down, you missed out.’

‘I think Ed murdered your brother,’ Sarah said.

‘You’re wrong.’

‘How can you be so sure, so suddenly?’

‘I am sure. I know who done it.’

‘Who?’

‘Think I’d tell you, way you’ve treated me?’

‘I treated you with nothing but respect. And I helped get Ed out of prison. You’ve suddenly decided I did the right thing, but I’m not so sure any more.’

‘The evidence against Ed was rubbish. He only got put away because they needed someone for killing a cop. He’d have got out without you.’

‘Convince me,’ Sarah pleaded. ‘Tell me what Ed told you. Who killed Terry and Liv Shanks? Why did they do it?’

The front door opened and closed. Ed charged into the room. His nose was red and there was blood on his shirt.

‘Get out,’ Polly told Sarah. ‘Ed, what happened?’

Sarah stood with her back to the door. Ed glared at her.

‘Who attacked you, Ed?’ Sarah asked, allowing no sympathy in her voice.

‘You know who did.’

‘Nick hit you?’

‘Then ran off, ’sright. But I’ll catch up with him, don’t you worry.’

Sarah felt a warm buzz of affection for Nick.

‘Look how smug she is,’ Polly said, as Ed took off his shirt.

‘How did you do it, Ed?’ Sarah asked. ‘How did you convince Polly you didn’t attack me? The same way you made her believe you didn’t kill her brother?’

‘She dun’t need convincing of ought. Poll knows what happened to Terry, and to Liv. And she knows what’s going to happen to you.’ Ed lowered his voice and reached over Sarah. His sweaty chest crushed her breasts, while his right hand jammed the door closed. ‘There were no witnesses, were there? There’s only me and you know how hard I fucked you, how you told me it were the best shag you’d had your whole life. But this afternoon, Poll’s a witness. What do you say, Poll? A’right wi’ you if I give her seconds?’