Jackie Ingbarton stared at the pile
of greasy crockery in the sink. She knew
she had to confront the girls about it but she hated scenes.
‘Oh,
Vanessa...’ she began, and gestured helplessly at the draining board.
‘That
wasn’t me,’ snapped her daughter, defensively.
Jackie
sighed long-sufferingly. ‘It never is
you. Or Nicky.
It’s so depressing to come home to.
You could at least make the effort.’
Vanessa
ignored her mother and busied herself at the kitchen table, scrolling through
the photographs on the back of her digital camera.
Jackie switched the kettle on and started to
clear a space at the sink, ready to tackle the washing-up herself.
‘How
did it go today?’ she asked.
‘I
did my first project. It was a
photo-journalism assignment.’
‘How
exciting!’
Vanessa
shrugged indifferently. ‘It was
alright.’
‘What
did you choose to do?’
‘I
went down to the Animal Rights protests.
I got a terrific one of Nicky with her banner.
Come and have a look.
You might need your glasses.’
Jackie
peeled off her rubber gloves, fumbled in her handbag for her reading glasses,
then peered over Vanessa’s shoulder. She
tutted disapprovingly.
‘I
didn’t realize Nicky was so heavily involved.
What about her job? If she spends
all this time protesting...’
‘She’s
due some annual leave.’
‘All
the same, I don’t suppose the insurance company would be happy to see one of
their employees protesting in public...’
‘Oh,
Mummy, you’re so spineless.’
Hurt,
Jackie turned away from the table and returned to the sink.
Vanessa, realizing she had been spiteful as
usual, added:
‘Well,
you must admit, you don’t exactly stick up for yourself.
Look at the way Daddy walked all over you.’
‘That’s
because he was a...’Jackie paused.
‘He
was a what? You can’t even say it, can
you?’
‘He
behaved very badly.’
‘Oh,
Mummy!’
Jackie
felt she was being pitied, and this made her suddenly very decisive.
She went and sat opposite her daughter and
said, ‘I was going to wait until Nicky
was here .But as we seem to be ships
that pass in the night, I may as well tell you my news now, while I’ve got the
chance. You know I’ve been seeing
Nigel?’
‘You
never told me where you met him. He just
appeared suddenly and took you out to dinner.’
Jackie
avoided eye contact with her daughter and fiddled thoughtfully with the edge of
a tea towel she was clutching like a comfort blanket.
‘I
suppose,’ continued Vanessa in a haughty, sarcastic tone,
‘he’s one of the leading lights in your
amateur dramatic society.’
‘No,
I met him through a newspaper advertisement.’
Vanessa
snorted. ‘I don’t believe this.
Not a lonely hearts column?’
Jackie
felt her heart sinking like a stone. In
a small voice she said, ‘He’s asked me to marry him.’
‘What?'
From
the incredulous expression on her daughter’s face, Jackie seemed to gain some
strength. It was like being with her
amateur acting society, now she felt the thrill of stepping from the wings to
centre stage.
‘He’s
an extremely nice chap. A real
gentleman .And a regular churchgoer.’
‘So
what’s the catch?’
‘Pardon?’
‘You’ve
known him just over a week and already he’s proposed to you.
What’s wrong with him?’
Jackie’s
voice became strident. ‘Why do you have
to spoil everything? You girls...you
always spoil...everything I do.’
‘Hey
now just a minute! You’re not actually
thinking of marrying this creep, are you?’
‘No,
I’m not thinking about it. I’ve thought
about it. I’m going to say ‘yes’. And
he’s not a creep.’
*
The portable radio vibrated tinnily
on the shelf next to the sauce bottles as Craig dipped a portion of haddock in
the batter, then chucked it sizzling into the fryer.
He hummed tunelessly along as Abba sang
“Thank You for the Music” and didn’t hear his first customer entering.
He started slightly when he looked up..
‘Remember
me?’
Craig
recognized him immediately. It was the
taxi driver; the fellow inmate from the same cell block.
‘Yeah,
course I do. You gimme a lift the other
night.’
‘I
didn’t mean to make you jump. Sounds
like you was miles away.’
‘Yeah,
thousands of miles; lying on a golden beach, underneath a coconut palm, with
several dusky maidens plying me with an exotic and intoxicating beverage.’
The
man shook his head seriously. ‘I used to
have that dream when I was banged up. It
don’t mean a thing.‘ Cos you ain’t ever
gonna get further than dreaming it without any gelt.’
‘Nope,’
agreed Craig. ‘I won’t get far on what I
earn here .‘Bout as far as Uckfield, I
reckon. That’s if I’m lucky.’
The
man reached across the counter and held out a fleshy hand.
‘You’ve probably forgotten.
Tony Rice.’
Craig
shook Rice’s hand, a surprisingly limp handshake for such a big bloke.
‘Craig Thomas.
You hungry?
I can fix you something to eat on the house.’
Rice
declined monosyllabically, walked to the door to check that no customers were
about to enter, and said, ‘The cabbying’s a dead loss.
I just need something to tide me over...just
one quick job...’
‘As
a matter of fact,’ said Craig, ‘I’ve been starting to think along the same
lines. ’He glanced towards the door and
began to speak hurriedly .‘You know the
club where you dropped me off? I know
it’s on my own doorstep but...it’s so easy.
Upstairs, outside the snooker room is the Gents toilet.
And inside the toilet is a trapdoor leading
to a loft. If we help each other up into
the loft during eyes down in bingo...’
‘We
can wait there ‘til after closing and help ourselves,’ Rice finished with a
grin.
‘Exactly.
The trouble is, with my form, the finger of
suspicion’s going to point my way. I’ll
have to get an alibi first.’
Rice
shrugged nonchalantly. ‘I’ll get you an
alibi. No worries.’
‘As
long as it’s not a poker game. No one
believes that old chestnut anymore.’
IN CHAPTER TWELVE ON TUESDAY
Andrew worries his parents by
attempting to borrow from his sister, and Sharon, one of Gary’s
employees, puts him right in it.
