The Back Road

12

The red Porsche pulled up on the cobbled drive outside Max and Ellie’s front door, and Gary turned to his wife.

‘Stop blubbering, Penny. For f*ck’s sake. You’re going to make a complete fool out of me if you don’t shut up. Stop it now, or I’ll really give you something to cry about.’

‘I’m sorry, Gary,’ Penny said through her sobs. ‘It’s been a horrible day, and you seem so angry. I’ve only seen you for five minutes all day.’

‘I am f*cking angry. I don’t just seem it. You whinge all the time about your day, your life. And I can’t cope with you on top of everything else that I have to deal with.’

Gary glanced in the rear view mirror, and saw an unfamiliar figure walking up the long drive.

‘Jesus. Now we’re going to have a bleeding audience.’

Gary leaned across and grabbed Penny by her upper arms and gave her a sharp shake. She gave a small yelp of pain.

‘Christ, woman - I’m not hurting you. Now, for the last time, sort yourself out. Blow your nose, put your sunglasses on, and behave like the lady you’re not. For once in your life.’

Gary threw open his car door, and jumped out, a big smile plastered on his face as the newcomer got closer. Walking round the back of the Porsche, he approached the man with his hand outstretched.

‘Hi. I’m Gary Bateman. I presume you’re here for dinner with Max and Ellie. Good to meet you.’

The two men shook hands.

‘Hello. Tom Douglas, the new neighbour. I only moved in myself recently, and Max was kind enough to come round and invite me tonight so I could meet some other people.’

‘Well, they’re very hospitable, and great neighbours. I should know. They lived next door to us for years before moving here.’

Gary started to fidget as he saw Tom glance towards Penny. When would she get out of the sodding car?

Just then, an old black Discovery swept into the drive, usefully distracting the attention from the passenger in the Porsche.

The familiar form of Sean Summers jumped out.

‘Hey, Gary. What are you doing here, mate? Is something going on?’

Gary laughed with relief. A small diversion to prevent Penny showing him up even more.

‘We’re all here for a party. Max and Ellie are having a bit of a housewarming, which means Ellie’s cooking - a treat not to be missed. This is their new neighbour, Tom. Tom, this is Sean - the guy who remodelled the whole house from the dismal place it used to be. You come to gate-crash, Sean?’

Sean looked uncomfortable for a moment. ‘Oh bugger. It’s a bit embarrassing turning up like this if they’ve got a party on. I’d better go. I brought round a spare set of keys that I’d been hanging on to, since I was passing anyway. Maybe you could give them to Ellie. Just let her know I was here, would you?’

Sean glanced towards the car. ‘What’s up with Penny - is she planning on staying in the car all night? Not that I blame her in that car. Since when did you have a Porsche, Gary? What’s happened to the Beemer?’

Gary’s irritation at Penny was growing by the minute. If she didn’t get out of that car soon, he was going to have to make some excuse to take her home and come back on his own. He’d bloody kill her.

‘I’ve got the car on trial. She’s a beaut, isn’t she? I’ve had her a few days. As for Penny, she had a sneezing fit on the way here. She can’t stop, and apparently it’s ruined her eye makeup, or something daft like that. I’ll go and see how she is.’

Before Gary could move, the front door of the house was flung open, and Max came out to greet them.

‘Good evening, gentlemen! What are you all doing hovering on the drive? Come in, and welcome to Willow Farm - unrecognisable, I think you’ll find.’ Max pointed to Sean. ‘And it’s all thanks to this man. Have you come to join us, Sean? You’d be very welcome. Do you want to go and get Bella?’

‘Sorry Max. I didn’t know you’d got something on tonight. I’ll get off, thanks. Bella’s not so good tonight, so she wouldn’t be able to come anyway.’

Gary was tempted to laugh. Of course Bella wouldn’t be able to come. She be totally wasted and out of it by now, no doubt.

‘Would she worry if you didn’t get back, do you think? Or you could phone her and see if she’s up for it if you like. Anyway, come on in, Sean, for goodness sake. Ellie will be delighted to see you.’

Sean appeared to hesitate, but not for long.

‘If you’re sure - that would be great, thanks. The kids are with my parents this weekend, and Bella will be asleep by now. If you’re positive it’s not going to be a problem?’

Gary was about to lose his cool completely if Penny didn’t get out of the car in the next ten seconds. He glanced over his shoulder to see that the neighbour - Tom, was it? had gone round to the passenger side and had opened the door. He was now crouching down talking to Penny. Jesus, he hoped the silly bitch maintained the sneezing story. What sort of an impression would this guy have of him, with a wife like that?

* * *

The kitchen was a hive of activity. As nobody appeared to want to move from the pre-dinner hubbub, Ellie had told Fiona to keep the men amused and Leo was laying out the canapés and preparing the asparagus and leek tarts to be popped under the grill for the glaze to brown. She hoped she was doing it right, but sincerely doubted it. Max had gone rushing off at the sound of the dull throb of an expensive car, and following the earlier hiccup with Mimi, things seem to have settled down.

Fiona had returned for yet more liquid refreshment when Max made his entry into the kitchen, along with not three, but four guests.

‘Ellie - one extra guest for dinner! Look who I found lurking on the doorstep bearing gifts.’ Max jangled a set of keys in the air, and placed them on the worktop.

As everyone turned to look at the new arrivals, Leo heard a sharp intake of air from somebody behind her. She turned her head quickly, but had no idea where it came from. Someone had received an unwelcome surprise, it would seem. This was getting more interesting by the minute.

Two faces Leo recognised were those of Gary and Penny Bateman, who handed Ellie a beautiful bunch of summer flowers. Penny seemed unable to meet Ellie’s eyes, but Gary was grinning with rather excessive heartiness, while unashamedly looking Mimi up and down, no doubt trying to understand what kind of woman could have enticed Pat away from Georgia.

But any discomfort was dispelled by the new neighbour, Tom. He had brought Ellie a Hotel Chocolat summer basket, which looked too good to eat. Almost. He gave Ellie a peck on the cheek and thanked her for her kind invitation, and then passed a bottle of wine to Max.

Unwrapping it slowly, Leo could see Max’s eyes open wide as he saw the bottle it contained.

‘Tom, this is amazing. We’re used to plonk, though, so anything would have done for us.’

‘My brother was a collector of fine wines. I inherited them along with everything else of his. So I now have a shed full of bottles like this. Please, just enjoy it.’

Tom gave a modest smile, clearly not wanting Max to make too much of his gift.

‘Well all I can say is, I hope your shed has a good lock on it then!’ Max responded. Leo was glad that he’d had the tact not to query the word ‘inherited’. There had been enough of that already for one night.

‘I’m a policeman. What do you think?’ Tom said with a laugh.

Now here was a man who seemed comfortable in his own skin, Leo thought. He appeared confident without being cocky, and she liked his casual style and easy laugh. His blue eyes turned to look around the room without any sign of self-consciousness. Not a pretty man - his nose was too big for that, and his jaw a bit too wide - but there was something reassuringly normal about him.

Introductions were made all round, and gradually Max managed to move most people out into the garden. Fiona had been reluctant to go, until Max told her to take her bloody shoes off and feel the grass between her toes. She appeared to think that was very funny, and had gone along with the idea, her usual aloofness giving way to an uncharacteristic giddiness. Mimi had become even quieter since the rest of the guests had arrived, and had retreated further into her shell, clinging to Patrick as if her life depended on it with her eyes downcast. It was almost as if she wanted everybody to forget that she was there. Leo could only assume that it was the champagne that was making everybody slightly unhinged.

She had stayed in the kitchen to help Ellie, who was gathering together extra cutlery and glasses, banging each item down on the worktop as she collected what she needed from the various cupboards.

‘I’m going to have to move everybody round a bit, to make space for one extra person. Can you put the last of the canapés onto plates when the oven pings and take them outside, please? It’s a good job I made a couple of extra tarts in case one fell apart. I’ll bloody kill Max. Why didn’t he just take the keys that Sean brought round and let him go home?’ Ellie stomped out of the room.

Leo frowned. Ellie had always been delighted to feed anybody at the drop of a hat. She hoped that having this smart new house wasn’t going to change her kind and generous sister into a Fiona clone.

As she waited for the oven to do its work, she walked over to the window to look out into the garden where Ellie’s guests were gathered. She could see that the builder guy looked a bit uncomfortable, but Max was doing his best to make him feel at home and Fiona was all over him like a rash.

Sean had what Leo would describe as a crumpled face, as if he was always either laughing or screwing his eyes up to look into the sun, and he had the strong physique of somebody used to carrying heavy weights, emphasised by his white T-shirt and black jeans. With his longish mid-brown hair and designer stubble, she could see that he might appeal to a lot of women.

Mimi was still clinging to Pat’s arm, but in spite of that Leo couldn’t help noticing that she seemed to be surreptitiously watching Gary’s every move. Totally unaware of her scrutiny, Gary had wandered away from the crowd to examine with great interest Ellie’s flower beds, but Mimi’s eyes barely left him. What was that all about? Gary was one of those people who might have the right arrangement of features, but somehow he failed to be in any way attractive in Leo’s view.

The oven timer sounded, forcing Leo to leave her contemplation of the strange behaviour of Ellie’s guests to do as she had been asked with the canapés. She was in the process of transferring them to plates when she sensed somebody behind her. Turning round, she saw Gary appear in the doorway, standing watching her, apparently holding something behind his back.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I thought Ellie would be here.’

‘She’s in the dining room - she’ll be back in a minute. Do you want me to go and find her?’

‘No, it’s okay. I’ll go. I know where it is,’ he said, with a slightly arrogant laugh. ‘I should do. I approved the bloody plans.’

Leo hoped Gary wasn’t going to start griping about his ill-fated career in the planning department, as usual. At least the canapés provided her with an excuse to escape.

‘Okay. Tell Ellie to give me a shout if there’s anything else I can do, would you?’

Gary sidled around Leo, keeping his hands behind his back. Odder and odder, she thought as she picked up the tray of food and made her way to the door.