He shook his head slowly. ‘I can’t do it. She says I put up a wall between her and my job, and she’s right. But that wall is there to protect her, not keep her out.’
‘Have you said that to her?’
He smiled, a brief flash of the old Derwent. ‘I think it would make her even more determined to get me to quit. She’d like me to do a nicer job.’
‘Like what?’
‘You name it, she’s suggested it. Something nine to five.’ He stretched, yawning. ‘I’d only have to be scared of dying from boredom.’
‘I can’t imagine it,’ I said.
‘Me neither.’
Life was so complicated, I thought. Melissa had fallen for Derwent because of what he was: the alpha male in his prime, strong and aggressive, able to defend her and her child. She had trusted him because he was a police officer. She loved what he did and who he was, I was sure of that. And then she ran up against the reality of his job. He wouldn’t be easy company to live with, whether you understood him or not, but she couldn’t understand him the way I did. I saw what he saw. I heard what he heard. She couldn’t begin to guess why he came home snappy and withdrawn, or why he was short with her now and then.
But you couldn’t change him. You’d destroy everything that was good in him if you tried to make him into something docile and peaceful. She’d kill their chance of being happy together unless she accepted him for what he was.
‘Where’s the house?’ Derwent asked, his tone of voice indicating that the conversation was now over.
‘Two hundred metres that way.’
‘Better try and look awake.’ He got out of the car, stretched, and then opened the passenger door so he could sit in the front. ‘Let’s go.’
I drove the short distance in silence and parked in front of the house. It was made of the local honey-coloured stone and came complete with a Range Rover squatting on the drive and a climbing rose over the front door. Too good to be true. I wondered if I would think that if I hadn’t known about Chloe running away.
Derwent squinted up at the house. ‘What does Emery do?’
‘Carpets, apparently. You should ask him about it, since you’re looking for a new career.’ I got out of the car before he could come up with a comeback.
Emery must have been waiting inside the door because he opened it before I even had a chance to knock. He was small with thinning dark hair and a round face. His daughter looked very like him, I thought, but by a lucky quirk of genetics, on her face the features were perfectly proportioned. His version was less successful.
I introduced myself, and Derwent.
‘Come in, come in.’ He held the door open, directing us to a sitting room to the left of the front door. It was more of the same perfect country life: squashy sofas, a wood-burning stove, heart-shaped willow wreaths, a vase full of wildflowers on the windowsill. There would be an Aga in the kitchen, I thought, and a dog or two somewhere about the place.
‘Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee? I was going to have a coffee myself.’ He had a slightly hurried, stuttering delivery that was quite charming.
‘Not for me.’ I took out my notebook and sat on one of the sofas, waiting for Emery to sit too. Derwent stood near the door. This isn’t a social call.
‘So, you’ve come all the way from London to talk to me.’ He perched on the edge of the sofa opposite. ‘Very thorough of you.’
‘We wanted to ask a few questions.’
‘I’ll do anything I can to help.’ His right knee was jiggling. ‘Not that I can really think of much I can tell you about Kate. We got divorced a long time ago and I haven’t been part of her life since then.’
‘When did you split up?’
‘When Chloe was six. Twelve years ago, it would be. God, it doesn’t seem that long.’
‘What happened?’ Derwent asked.
‘It was my fault. We were happy.’ He shrugged. ‘Well, as happy as we could be, given Chloe’s issues. I’d recently been promoted. Money was tight for us up until then, because Kate gave up work once Chloe started having problems at nursery. We didn’t know there was anything wrong until they flagged it up. Kate devoted herself to Chloe from that point on. She was a good mother, I always said that.’
‘But not a good wife?’ Derwent suggested. Emery flinched.
‘No. That’s not true. She was fine. I wasn’t a good husband.’
‘In what way?’
‘I was busy. Working hard. And – well, I met Belinda while we were married. Belinda is my current wife.’ He glanced at me, shamefaced. ‘It was messy. When Kate found out, she asked me for a divorce. I went along with it. There was nothing else I could do.’ He dropped his voice. ‘According to my current wife, Kate took me for a ride. I agreed to pay her the amount she said she needed, but maybe if I’d had a better lawyer he’d have negotiated a more favourable settlement for me. But then again, I didn’t want Chloe to suffer because we couldn’t make our marriage last.’
‘I’ve seen the bank statements,’ I said. ‘You were pretty generous.’
‘Well, I increased it over time. When I was making more money, they got more. It only seemed fair.’
‘Many men wouldn’t have done that,’ Derwent said. ‘Not without a court order.’
‘I wanted to do what I thought was right.’ He pressed his lips together. ‘Having a child like Chloe – it was even more important to give her the best possible start in life.’
‘And in the nicest possible house?’
‘Oh. Kate moved there after we split up.’ Emery shrugged. ‘I never went there. Not until—’ He broke off.
‘Until?’
‘Until about three months ago. She asked me to come and meet her at her house. She wanted to talk to me about Chloe’s future. Her prospects, now that she’s finished school.’
‘Was it a pleasant discussion?’ I asked.
‘It started off that way.’ A nervous smile. ‘She wanted me to give Chloe a large sum of money to set her up for her adult life. Belinda – that’s my wife – thought we should draw a line under funding Chloe after she turned eighteen. I’d agreed to another year initially. Trying to find a compromise. I knew Bel wouldn’t like the idea of handing over a lump sum.’ He looked like a man who spent a lot of time between a rock and a hard place.
‘So you talked.’
‘We did.’ He licked his lips. ‘I asked about the house. About her business. She seemed to be very well off. But she said she was short of money and she couldn’t support Chloe on her own. I mean, we are both her parents. If Kate was paying for Chloe, I felt I should be too. But Belinda didn’t see it that way.’
‘What happened?’ I asked.
‘We argued. Well, that’s not really true. I told her what Belinda thought and she told me Belinda needed to stay out of her life. I mean, it was a bit unreasonable of Kate. It does affect Bel and the boys too. I can see both sides, but no one else seemed to be able to do that. Kate got quite angry with me. She told me to— well, she told me to grow a pair.’
I darted a look at Derwent, who was struggling to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up.
‘How did you leave things?’
‘I said I’d talk to Bel. What else could I do?’