The Back Road

14

The mood around the table was strange. To Leo it seemed as if everyone was acting a part that was different from any version of themselves she had ever seen. As an observer of this intriguing phenomenon she had the best seat in the house, between a slightly manic Max who appeared determined to be jolly, and a very subdued Pat. She was opposite the new neighbour, who appeared remarkably sane in comparison to everybody else, and looked casually trendy tonight in a white linen short-sleeved shirt over dark blue chinos. She was keen to learn his story, but now perhaps wasn’t the right time.

Mimi was like a limpet around Pat - whom she insisted on calling Patrick because apparently Pat was a girl’s name. Max, being Max, had tried to oblige for about two minutes, but had quickly forgotten and reverted to the name he had been using since they met at university nearly eighteen years ago. Pat, on the other hand, seemed almost uncomfortable. There was no evidence of his occasional moments of dry humour tonight.

She felt a bit sorry for Ellie and Max’s builder. He had been seated between Mimi and Gary, and was definitely ill at ease. Mind you, that wasn’t surprising as Mimi wouldn’t speak to him in case she missed something that Pat was saying, and Gary, as usual, was only interested in talking about himself and in an even louder voice than normal. Leo hadn’t seen Gary for some time, and had forgotten what an idiot he could be - especially in the way he spoke to his wife. Penny had hair the colour of butter shortbread, and she’d grown it long so that when she leaned forward a shiny curtain of pale gold hid her face from view. With a sixties style fringe, there wasn’t much of her left to see. She had barely lifted her head all evening, apparently intent on focusing on the food, but on the occasions that she did look up, Leo noticed that the skin under her eyes was tinged with purple, as if she wasn’t getting enough sleep. Penny had been a kind and thoughtful neighbour for Ellie, especially after the twins were born, and Leo was sure that Max only put up with Gary because he was Penny’s husband.

Gary had the sort of haircut that required constant brushing back with the fingers, or even - God help us - the occasional flick of the head like a shy girl on her first date. There was no doubt that he was technically a handsome guy, with piercing blue eyes, a broad forehead and sensuous lips, which opened to reveal the brightest teeth that Leo had ever seen. Somebody had been a little excessive with the whitening treatments, it would seem. But he wore the look of a person who believes himself to be superior, as if he were looking down his nose at everybody around him. Leo couldn’t help enjoying the fact that she could see the back of Gary’s head in the mirror on the wall behind him, and there was undoubtedly a sign of thinning there. He wasn’t going to like that one little bit.

As Mimi was whispering in Pat’s ear, Leo took the opportunity to lean across them and talk to Sean.

‘You’ve made a wonderful job of renovating the house, Sean. It’s superb.’

Tom chipped in too, obviously realising that Leo was trying to bring Sean into the conversation.

‘Yes, it’s beautiful. I’ve recently done my own place. Not a patch on this, of course. Are you working on any more projects?’ Tom asked.

‘I’ve got something on the go, but it’s still a bit hush-hush. We’re hoping to get everything signed in the next week or so,’ Sean answered. ‘And then we need to get the plans approved, which my friend on my right here tells me shouldn’t be a problem.’

He nudged Gary as he spoke.

‘What do you do then, Gary?’ Tom asked

‘I’m head of planning for the council,’ Gary answered. ‘Crap job, but somebody’s got to do it!’

Leo knew all about Gary’s thwarted ambitions. His favourite line was that he was originally going to be an architect, but Penny buggered all that up for him by falling pregnant. She wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to bore everybody with that line again, so Leo turned to Ellie.

‘The food is amazing, Ellie. As always.’

‘Thanks Leo.’ Ellie turned to the rest of the guests. ‘I had to go into work today, so I didn’t have as long as I’d wanted to prepare. I hope everything’s all right?’

Leo looked at her in disbelief, as everybody passed on the congratulations. How could she think it was anything other than okay? Ellie was a wonderful cook, and after the oriental sea bass, they had feasted on a tender fillet of beef in a soy honey glaze. In fact, half the table still hadn’t finished and were taking it slowly.

‘I seem to remember you saying that you’re a nurse, Ellie - is that right?’ Tom asked.

‘Yes. At the Royal, in the ICU. I only work three shifts a week, and not usually on a Saturday. But we’re a bit short-staffed with the holidays, and we got a serious head injury in during the night. We can’t leave them unattended.’

Pat put his knife and fork down and leaned towards Ellie across the table.

‘It wasn’t Abbie Campbell, was it by any chance Ellie?’ Pat asked quietly.

‘Abbie Campbell? Why, what’s happened to her, for God’s sake?’ Max said. His habitual smile had disappeared in an instant. The whole table fell silent as Max’s tone penetrated the buzz of conversation.

‘The Head had a call from the police in the middle of the night to say that a young girl had been rushed to hospital, but nobody had been reported missing, and they didn’t know who she was. They wanted him to go and see if he could identify her.’

‘The Head?’ Max raised his eyes to the glass ceiling. ‘I don’t think he’d recognise more than about five per cent of the kids. What did he do?’

‘He called Alannah at about four thirty this morning, apparently. She knows all the girls, of course.’

‘I’m amazed that she was sober enough to identify anybody,’ Ellie said in a slightly acid tone.

‘Oh, she wasn’t drinking last night. She was driving, wasn’t she Max?’ Pat asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued. ‘Anyway, she identified Abbie. I was going to tell you, but I decided to wait until later so as not to spoil the evening.’

‘Christ. What happened to the poor kid?’ Max asked.

‘She was knocked over last night on the back road. A hit and run. Left for dead, I’m afraid.’

‘God almighty. What sort of a bastard would do that?’

Max looked stunned for a moment, then glanced around the table realising that his guests were a bit excluded from this conversation.

‘Sorry, everybody. But this is dreadful news. Abbie’s a pupil at our school. She’s only fourteen and she’s a nice kid, if a bit quiet. I don’t have much to do with her personally, being the boys’ PE teacher, but Pat’s a deputy head, and he knows her quite well. Do you know how she’s doing, Ellie?’

Nobody was eating, and everybody’s cutlery had been gently laid down as the shock that something like this could happen in their village permeated the room. Turning towards Ellie, Leo couldn’t help noticing her sister’s expression. She looked close to tears.

‘I’m afraid she’s in a critical condition. I’m sorry to say that it’s not looking very hopeful,’ Ellie said.

For once, even Fiona had the sense to be quiet. Tom Douglas broke the silence, looking around the room as he did so. Ever the policeman, Leo thought.

‘I heard about the accident, actually. A friend of mine is on the investigation team. Apparently she was found in the early hours of this morning. I don’t know much more than that, though.’ Leo had to wonder how honest Tom was being. She didn’t doubt for a moment that – one policeman to another - his friend would have shared some of the finer details, but Tom wasn’t about to reveal more than the basics.

‘The early hours? And she wasn’t reported missing?’ Max said. ‘That doesn’t sound right to me. She comes from a good family - there’s no way they wouldn’t know where she was. I can’t believe she would have snuck out in the dark on her own. She’s not that kind of kid at all.’

Nobody appeared to have any suggestions to explain this, and the table remained quiet. There was a stillness in the room which Leo found hard to place, as if more than one person was holding his or her breath. She was being fanciful.

Max broke the silence.

‘Did you see anything on your way home from the barbecue, Pat? I never worked out what time you left the rugby club. One minute you were there, the next you weren’t.’

‘I didn’t go home that way,’ Pat said quietly.

‘What do you mean? There isn’t another…’

‘Can I top anybody’s wine up?’ Ellie said in a loud voice, giving Max a glare that only he and Leo could see.

* * *

Tom was watching reactions round the table. He’d been asked to see what gossip he could pick up, so maybe this would be as good a place as any to start.

‘How well did you know this girl, Pat?’ Tom asked. Pat had been pretty quiet all evening, and had seemed a bit bland in comparison to the others. If he’d been interviewing him though, Tom would have said that Pat was a man with something to hide.

‘I know her quite well. I look after the pastoral care side of things at school, and Abbie has a few issues. She’s a quiet, well-behaved girl, but she does have problems making friends.’

‘Obviously not as quiet as you think, darling,’ Mimi said. ‘What sort of fourteen year old is out on the streets at that time of night?’

Tom saw a brief spark of anger in Leo’s eyes. She spoke sharply, her cheeks flushed.

‘We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, do we? We don’t know what her home life was like, and we shouldn’t condemn the girl out of hand.’

‘Her parents are good people,’ Pat said. ‘I doubt she was running away.’

‘I’m with Mimi on this,’ Gary added, twirling the stem of his wine glass in his fingers and studying the contents of his glass. ‘There’s no way that my kids will be out at that time of night when they’re that age. Bloody ridiculous.’

Pat’s lips had tightened.

‘I think it’s probably best to reserve judgement until we know a bit more, don’t you?’ he said.

Sean leaned forward so that he could speak to Tom across Gary and Penny. ‘I’ve got a fourteen year old stepdaughter myself. The parents must be going through hell. What are the chances of catching the person that did this, in your experience?’

Sean’s face was a picture of concern. He’d not had much to say up to now, and Tom had noticed a few times that he seemed a bit fidgety.

‘It depends,’ Tom answered. ‘There could be all sorts of forensic evidence; tyre tracks, paint or glass fragments, that kind of thing.’ Tom knew perfectly well that there was no evidence found at the scene, but he wasn’t about to say so. He expected every word he said would get round the village, and he sincerely hoped that somebody would soon be feeling very guilty, and very scared. ‘In this case, it seems that the girl was moved to the side of the road, so that could very well be a source of evidence, and of course there’s CCTV and ANPR.’

He noticed a few puzzled frowns.

‘I know what that is,’ Charles said, looking pleased with himself. ‘Automatic number plate recognition. Fancy cameras that can read the characters and store them. That might just catch the scoundrel who did this.’ He looked around the table from face to face, his eyes not settling for long on any one person.

‘Charles is right,’ Tom said. ‘I don’t know what the coverage is like around here, but I’m sure they’ll be checking to find out who was out and about at that time of night, using every resource possible. There’ll probably be some cameras on the main trunk roads and in the village - at the petrol station for example. Anybody who passed through might be questioned. I gather that the back road is mainly used by people from the village, so that might narrow things down a bit. And of course, they’ll be hoping that people who were driving in the area at the time will make themselves known to the police and make their job easier. Most people don’t realise how often they’re caught on camera, so let’s hope this bastard is one of them.’

The whole table was hanging onto Tom’s every word, as if absorbing the implications. Gary broke the silence.

‘Didn’t you say it was your end of term party last night, Max?’ he said. ‘I would have thought the back road would have been unusually busy. It’s the most direct route to the village after all. And I bet half of your mates were bladdered. You should tell your policeman pal that he should start there, Tom. At the school.’

Max sensibly declined to comment but he did look as if he would like to punch Gary in the teeth for suggesting such a thing about his friends. Even Charles gave Gary a dark look, his bushy eyebrows meeting as he frowned. Tom looked at Gary’s jutting chin, raised as if he were superior to everybody in the room, with lips curled upwards, although without a hint of a smile in his eyes. Gary hadn’t finished.

‘And what about all you girls, home alone while the boys were out enjoying themselves. What were you lot up to last night, then? Out on the razz, I bet.’

Ellie was sitting directly opposite Gary, and she appeared to be getting the full benefit of his sly grin. Before anybody could comment, support came from an unexpected source.

‘Stop being a tosser, Gaz,’ Sean said. ‘The poor kid might die, and you’re teasing the girls? Bad taste, mate.’

‘It was a f*cking joke, Sean. Lighten up.’ Gary ran his fingers through his slicked back hair and raised his eyes to heaven, as if Sean were the one behaving like a prat. There was an embarrassed pause as Gary looked round, obviously hoping - and failing - to get smiles of support from the other guests.

Sean’s weathered face looked slightly flushed as he turned to Tom.

‘I’ve never noticed any cameras on the back road,’ Sean said. ‘So if they don’t find any forensic evidence, it sounds like it might be a tough nut to crack.’

‘Well, I bet there’s one person who hopes this child doesn’t recover,’ said Charles, filling his wine glass from the expensive bottle that Tom had brought.

‘Charles, even by your standards that’s a pretty crass statement,’ Fiona said. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

Charles shrugged, casting another glance around the room at those seated at the table.

‘If the girl wakes up, she might well remember what type of car hit her. That’s all I’m saying. I presume he or she won’t want to go to prison.’

Fiona gave her husband a disparaging look.

‘Shall we change the subject? This is a bit too depressing for a party, don’t you think?’ she asked.

Tom couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t half as depressing as having a daughter on the critical list in hospital.

Max appeared to drag himself back from thoughts of Abbie and the previous night, as if realising belatedly that he was the host. He jumped to his feet.

‘Listen, everybody. It’s difficult to forget about Abbie - particularly for those of us who know her, or are in some way connected to her. But I was intending to propose a toast to the new house. Let’s have a toast first to Abbie, wishing her a safe recovery, and then move on. There’s nothing we can do to help at the moment, other than to wish her well.’

After the round of toasts, conversation returned to normal if slightly more subdued levels.

Tom was sitting next to Penny, who had been very quiet all evening despite his attempts to make conversation. So he was surprised when she turned towards him and spoke in a quiet voice.

‘I know we’re not supposed to be talking about this, Tom - but what happens next? Will the police want to speak to everybody who was out last night?’

Tom felt, rather than saw, Gary’s arm go round Penny. At last he’s showing her some affection, he thought. He wasn’t sure what had been going on when this couple had arrived, but he had been around long enough to know that although a fit of sneezing could make your eyes stream, it rarely made your chin wobble. And he was well aware that Gary had barely spoken two words to his wife all night, although he’d been the life and soul of the party in all other ways.

He sensed that a few people round the room had picked up on Penny’s question and were waiting to hear his response, and he certainly had Leo’s full attention. Penny’s arm suddenly jerked slightly, splashing red wine on the tablecloth. She grabbed her napkin and furiously started to dab at the stain, as Gary tutted and removed his arm.

Without waiting to hear Tom’s answer to Penny’s question, Leo smiled across the table.

‘Don’t worry about that, Penny,’ she said. ‘It’s only a drop. We’ll get it out later. And we’ve not had chance for a catch up tonight, so do you fancy helping me to clear the table to give Ellie a bit of a break?’

Leo jumped up and started busying herself with the plates, but not before Tom had intercepted the look she cast at Gary.

‘I tell you what,’ Max said. ‘Why don’t you all go and have a look round the house? After all, it’s what you came to see. Or wander in the garden - let’s have a break from Ellie’s scrumptious food and stretch our legs for ten minutes. Is that okay with you Ellie?’

Ellie’s attention seemed to be dragged back from a million miles away. She gave a brave attempt at a beaming smile and nodded as if entirely in agreement.

‘Well, I for one can’t move,’ Mimi said. ‘I sometimes think it’s a good thing that I only cook simple food, although I do envy people who just eat what they like and don’t give a damn about their waistlines.’

Tom didn’t miss the way Ellie’s mouth tightened. Without a word she picked up the remainder of the serving dishes and made her way out of the dining room.