The door swung open.
I ran down the pathway and along the street and didn’t look back. Not as the evil white eyes of the batik wall hanging were burning into the back of my head. Not as an upstairs window slammed shut in protest at my escape. And not when the vague memory of a yellow piece of paper fluttering to the floor of my sewing room as I tossed my diary at my bag flashed across my mind and then disappeared.
Chapter 24
‘Good night?’ Brian peers at me through bleary eyes as the alarm clock beep-beep-beeps 6 a.m. on the table beside him.
‘Lovely, thank you.’
He yawns and stretches his arms above his head. ‘What time did you get in?’
I consider lying but have no idea what time he fell asleep so can’t pretend I slipped in next to him. ‘It was after two.’
He raises an eyebrow. ‘You weren’t drinking, were you? I don’t think you’re allowed to take alcohol with the tablets you’re on.’
‘Of course not. There was a lovely late-night coffee shop just around the corner from the theatre so Jane and I had a catch up. We just lost track of time, that’s all.’
Brian shifts in the bed, to get a better look at me. My stomach churns and I look away, praying he won’t cross examine me.
‘Just as long as you had a good night, darling.’ I feel his lips on my cheeks and then a blast of cold air as he throws back the duvet and sits up. The mattress squeaks as he stands, a floorboard creaks as he crosses the room and then there is silence.
I pull his pillow to my chest and hug it tightly. I’m getting closer to discovering what happened to Charlotte but I’m so very tired. I want to roll over, to sleep for a million years and wake up when this is all over but I can’t. I can’t do anything as the coma robs Charlotte of her health, her mental faculties and possibly her life.
But what can I do but wait? The path ran as far as Steve Torrance and there’s nothing I can do until he calls.
I throw back the duvet and sit up.
Yes, there is.
‘Sue?’ Danny peers out at me from behind the front door. His face is crumpled and sleep-lined, his eyes bleary and unfocussed. ‘It’s eight o’clock on a Sunday morning.’
‘I know.’
I don’t want to be here either. I want to be in the hospital with my daughter – and I will be once we’ve spoken – but I have to find out what he’s hiding first.
‘How did you get my address?’ He runs a hand through his tousled blonde hair and his white towelling dressing gown slips open.
‘I rang Oli.’ He wasn’t delighted to be woken up early either.
‘Right.’ Danny yawns and glances back into the apartment. ‘So what can I do you for, Sue?’
‘I’d like to come in if I may.’
‘Um,’ he pulls his dressing gown closed. ‘It’s not really convenient right now.’
‘Keisha in, is she? It’s okay, I can say what I need to say in front of her.’
Danny shifts from one foot to the other. ‘She’s not here.’
‘Oh.’ There’s a pair of vertiginous black high heels scattered across the hallway. Danny turns to see what I’m looking at.
‘It’s not what …’ He shakes his head. ‘What’s so important anyway?’
‘You lied,’ I say, ‘about going to Greys nightclub with Charlotte and Ella. I know you were there.’
‘Sue, I swear,’ He holds out his palms like an innocent man surrendering, ‘I wasn’t there. There are a lot of malicious people in Brighton and if someone’s been spreading rumours that—’
‘Danny.’
‘Yes?’
He’s smiling, his eyebrows raised cordially, his thumbs hooked into his dressing gown pockets. Like James, he’s a consummate professional when it comes to lying. I wonder what he’s told the woman lying in his bed – that his relationship with Keisha is over, that they’re just casual, that they have an open relationship? And what of Keisha? What lies has he told her so she doesn’t suspect that he’s sleeping around?
‘No one told me anything, Danny. The police accessed the CCTV footage that Greys have of that night. I saw you enter the club.’
‘The police …’ He searches my face but I maintain my composure. Two can play at this game.
‘Just tell me what happened, Danny.’
He steps back into the hall. ‘You’d better come in.’
Fifteen minutes later and I’m back on the doorstep, this time saying goodbye.
‘It wasn’t my fault,’ Danny says again. ‘Ella overheard me and Keish talking about going to Greys and she and Charlotte turned up on the same train as us on Saturday night. I tried telling them to go back to Brighton but Ella said—’
‘That she’d report you for letting underage girls drink in Breeze.’ He’s already told me this. Several times.
‘Exactly.’ He crosses his arms, tucking his hands under his armpits.
‘But why Greys? Why follow you there?’
‘Because it’s glamorous?’ He shrugs. ‘Because you see pics of celebs falling out of it in all the papers? Because Ella’s got a crush on me?’
‘A crush?’
‘Yeah, Charlotte told Keisha about it. I think that was part of the reason they all fell out – because Ella heard me talking to a mate about going to Greys and she got the impression that Keisha wasn’t coming and thought that if she turned up in a miniscule dress and a load of slap,’ he smirks, ‘that she could pull me.’
I look again at the pair of high heels in the hallway. How old is the woman in his bed? ‘And did you?’
‘Shag Ella? Are you fucking kidding me?’
‘You let her into your club.’
‘Look Sue,’ he holds his hands wide. ‘I let the girls into Breeze because of Charlotte. She’s my best mate’s little sister and she’s as good as family.’