David Belbin - Bone & Cane

‘We’re old friends, that’s all,’ Sarah said, not wanting to stir up any latent jealousy.

‘That’s why he went home with you t’other night, is it? Rodney told Ed and Ed told me. You won, I hear.’

‘Yeah, I won. Nick saw me home.’

‘And you’ll be taking him to London with you.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Sarah said. ‘I hear you’re off to the Caribbean with Ed.’

‘Do you see any bags packed?’

Sarah looked around. The place was the usual mess. A copy of Hello lay open on the ironing board. Dirty mugs and sweet-wrappers were strewn around the carpet. But there were no summer clothes waiting to be ironed, no suitcases.

‘He’s not taking you?’

‘If it’d been just me, he might have done. Sex on tap for three weeks. I’d have had to get a passport first, mind. But me and four kids? Ed’s far too selfish.’

‘You said he got on well with the kids.’

‘I lied. I’m good at lying. Maybe I should be in your job.’

‘Is he coming back?’ Sarah asked.

‘Tonight? Doubt it. He’s got an early flight. From holiday? Your guess is as good as mine. Why are you here, anyhow? To show off that you’ve got Nick back and I’m on my tod again?’

‘No, I . . .’ Sarah tried to remember the argument. ‘Since I’m going back to Parliament, I needed to know about your case. I’ve spent three years trying to get Ed out, get the case reopened. Do you want me to carry on, to push the police to find the real killer or killers?’

‘I don’t know what I want.’

‘You told me that Ed convinced you he didn’t do it. But if Ed didn’t kill them, somebody else did. Have you any idea who?’

‘I’m not going to do the police’s job for them, or yours,’ Polly said. ‘I just want this to go away. I want Ed to stay away too.’

‘If he went back to prison . . .’

‘Oh, fuck off, will you!’ Polly raised her voice for the first time. ‘You and me, we’re both frightened of Ed. We’ve both done things we shouldn’t have done, ’cos of him. I hope he never comes back. I’ve got nothing. You’ve got Nick. You’ve got your job back. You’ve got it all.’

‘I want to help.’

‘ Help ? You’re the one got Ed out of prison.’

‘The appeal court did that. The evidence against him wasn’t safe. Look, Polly, if you know who did it, then you owe it to your brother to see them prosecuted. Don’t you?’

‘You want to know who was really responsible for Terry’s death?’ Polly spat. ‘It was his own fault.’

‘His?’

‘If it weren’t for Terry, nothing would’ve happened.’

‘What do you . . .?’

‘Just fuck off, will you?’

When Sarah got in, Nick told her that the phone had been ringing.

‘Your mobile too. I let the machine take it, like you asked. How did you find her?’

‘Different.’ Sarah summed up the conversation, including the thing Polly said about her brother.

‘You think she’s split up with Ed?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know if she knows. The way she talked, Ed might not be coming back. What got to me, though, was the way she talked about Terry being responsible for the murders. I mean, if she thought that before, why did she protest so hard about Ed’s release?’

‘Ed must have told her something that convinced her.’

‘Anyway, that’s it. Over. We’ll never know what really happened.’

‘That doesn’t sound like you,’ Nick told her.

‘Call it realpolitik . How’s dinner coming along?’

‘I can put the steak on whenever you want. Then it’ll be ten minutes or so.’

‘Make it soon. I’m starving.’

While Nick cooked, she went to the machine. She had eleven messages waiting, but before she could check them, the phone rang.

‘Sarah, I find you in at last.’ It was the Chief Whip.

‘Sorry, I was out on constituency business, case work.’

‘That’s what local councillors are for. You’d better find some tame, reliable ones quickly, you’ll be needing them. I’m calling on behalf of the Prime Minister. He wants to offer you a job.’

Sarah was to be a Junior Minister. That was a huge deal. As soon as she’d put down the phone, and told him, Nick knew their chances of being together were over.

He congratulated her. ‘That’s an incredibly responsible job. You were made to do it.’

‘There were hints I’d get something, but I was so sure that I’d lose my seat, I didn’t let myself think about them.’ She told him how the job fitted with the areas she’d concentrated on in the Commons. She felt vindicated for campaigning to stop the spread of HIV in prisons. ‘I guess even the Ed Clark thing helped.’

‘I suppose.’ He had to say something, so chose his words carefully. ‘That’s it for us, isn’t it? I’m too big a risk. The quicker I go, the better.’

She squeezed his hand. ‘At least nothing really happened between us,’ she said. ‘It wouldn’t have worked, Nick. You can’t go back. We were kidding ourselves.’

‘Sure.’ He smiled ruefully and she went back to talking about her new job. Soon afterwards, he left. It was the dignified way to behave. The future was out of their hands. He couldn’t blame himself for the thing with Sarah going wrong. At least nothing really happened between us , she’d said, forgetting the kisses, the promises made prior to her passing out on election night. The absence of sex made it easier for Sarah to move on. Women were like that. For men, it was the other way round. If he’d made love to her one last time, it would be easier to put this behind him. The more time he’d spent with Sarah this last fortnight, the more he’d wanted her in bed. One night could, at the very least, have satisfied some of his curiosity about how it would be between them. As it was, he knew he would obsess about her for months.

36

When Nick got home on Sunday evening, he rang the Cane Cars office.

‘Has Ed Clark booked a cab to take him to the airport tomorrow?’

‘Yeah. Four-thirty a.m. pick-up to get him to Birmingham. Why?’

‘I need to do the job.’

‘Didn’t you get stopped by the police for driving without a permit?’ Nas asked.

‘I won’t charge him,’ Nick said. ‘I’ll use my sister-in-law’s car, rather than a cab. Just don’t give anyone else the job.’

‘What’s your game? You going to stop Ed having a holiday?’

‘I need a chat with him, that’s all. What’s the address?’

He cycled over to Joe’s, made an excuse and collected Caroline’s car. Then he went to bed and set the alarm. Impossible to sleep, but he mustn’t drink any more. He needed to be sharp when he picked up Ed.

Ed wasn’t leaving from Polly’s place. The address he’d given Nas was a road on the Bestwood Estate, where it was notoriously easy to get lost. Ed’s secret base turned out to be in one of the nicer parts of the estate, near the country park that sat incongruously at its edge. The semi had net curtains and a neat front garden. As Ed came out, with his bags, a sixtyish woman appeared at the door next to him. She kissed him on the lips and Ed hugged her. Only then did Ed turn and call out to Nick.

‘You going to help me wi’ these, then?’

It was dark and the streetlights were sparse. Ed didn’t recognise Nick until he got out of the car and opened the boot. Nick had been worried about this moment, but the presence of Ed’s mother removed all risk of violence.

‘Nice of you to get up early for me, Nicholas,’ Ed said, as he placed the first huge suitcase in the car. ‘T’other one’s too big for this boot. Reckon we’ll put it on the back seat.’

He joined Nick in the front of the car. Ed’s mother, in her dressing gown, waved the two men goodbye. Nick negotiated his way out of the estate. Ed grinned when they drove past Oxclose Lane police station.