EPISODE ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX
Mike sat at the
kitchen table opposite Claire and blew on his black coffee. He could see she
was still seething, trying to contain her anger in front of Andrew, who sat
between them like a demure referee, reminding them they were still a family.
After the long and painful silence, Mike slammed his coffee mug onto the table
and sighed deeply before speaking.
‘I’ll pay for the window. I said I would. But I have a right to be here. As
does Andrew.’
Claire’s lips tightened. ‘Andrew’s welcome here. You’re not, Mike.’
Mike laughed humourlessly. ‘That’s hardly the point, is it? I was talking about
my rights as a fifty per cent owner of this house. You were out of order
changing the locks.’
Claire shrugged. ‘I don’t care. I didn’t want you in the house.’
‘Oh, I get it: this is because I’m now living with another woman.’
Claire glanced towards Andrew, trying to catch his eye to judge his reaction,
but he was staring across the table at nothing in particular.
Mike sat back and waved a hand in his son’s direction. ‘Don’t worry about,
Andy. He’s a grown lad. And if you hadn’t gone off and given you’re money to
that bunch of loonies…’
‘It’s hardly the same thing; you starting an affair with someone else, and me
acknowledging the spiritual side of my nature and finding myself.’
‘Finding yourself?’ Mike laughed sarcastically. He turned to Andrew, and said
with a smirk, ‘Shall I tell you what they believe in? They believe we’re all
descended from some inter-galactic war lord, and the first humans were created
out of some nuclear explosion that blew him to bits.’
Andrew grinned. ‘Oh, cool.’
‘Cool! There’s nothing cool about giving these idiots money. They’re a bunch of
con-artists, who don’t care how they…’
Claire interrupted. ‘They have millions of followers. Influential ones at that.
John Travolta and Tom Cruise just for starters. And they both swear they owe
their success to Scientology.’
‘Success,’ Mike sneered. ‘It’s hardly proof, is it? They’re both talented
actors. Especially Travolta, who can sing and dance. They would probably have
become stars, in any case. The fact that they both happened to become
Scientologists and became famous means nothing. What about all the wannabe film
stars who’ve joined up in the slim hope of becoming famous? If you ask me,
Cruise and Travolta have got a lot to answer for.’
Claire glared at Mike and he could see she was clearly rattled by his argument.
Perhaps, he thought, she was now starting to regret her newfound religion and
was having second thoughts, but found it difficult to admit she was wrong.
There was a tremor in her voice when she spoke. ‘Mike, you haven’t a clue what
you’re talking about.’
He smiled and shook his head, deliberately undermining her weak protest.
To escape the atmospheric tension, Andrew excused himself. ‘I’ve juts got to
use the loo.’
Claire and Mike waited, listening to their son going upstairs. As soon as they
heard him lock the bathroom door, Claire leaned forward across the table
towards Mike, her eyes filled with hate.
‘You bastard!’ she hissed. ‘How long have you and this other woman been an
item?’
‘Since you joined the nutters of East Grinstead. You know that.’
‘Liar! You were carrying on with her long before that. I happen to know you
began an affair with her not long after her husband died. What were you doing?
Comforting the grieving widow?’
A shiver pierced Mike’s composure, and he hoped his face registered nothing as
he locked eyes with his wife’s challenging stare. He thought of asking her how
she knew, and realised it would be an admission of guilt. His only hope was to
thoroughly deny it. He was aware she had some information, possibly through a
friend who had seen him and Maggie together a long time ago. But as long as he
kept denying it, what could she prove?
After what seemed like a long silence, he cleared his throat gently before
speaking. ‘Believe me, Claire, I swear to you there was nothing between me and
Maggie until recently – since you got religion.’
He injected slight sarcasm into the last part of the statement, but not
overdoing it. She stared at him, her eyes hard, as if they could pierce
armour-plating.
‘I saw her a few times after Gary died, but I swear nothing happened. I went round to
cut Gary’s hair, unaware he was dead. And then I bumped into
her in town one day and we went for a coffee. And that was it. I swear. And
then when you started that nonsense, I got annoyed and contacted her. And
that’s the truth. I swear.’
He held her look and they remained that way until they heard the upstairs
toilet flushing.
‘I don’t believe you,’ she said. He opened his mouth to protest but she cut him
short. ‘And I don’t think I care, because you’re not coming back into this
house.’
‘What makes you think I want to?’
She looked towards the broken window. ‘Then why did you break in?’
‘I couldn’t get hold of you. And Andrew needs a place to stay. He’s broke, and
he’s spent all his inheritance.’
‘What! But that was thousands and thousands of pounds. What on earth did he
spend it on?’
‘Perhaps he joined some pseudo religious group and gave them all his money,’
Mike couldn’t resist saying.
*
Mandy looked around her cosy flat which she had recently moved into with Craig.
They were both first time buyers with a foot on the property ladder. It was
exciting. She sighed contentedly as she lay back in her easy chair and picked
up the book she was reading from the coffee table. It was her first night off
for ages, and she was going to relax and enjoy it. The book she was reading was
called Willie the Actor and she settled back and began to read.
Mary’s house had been his sanctuary, a place of warmth and security. Now he’d
be dodging in and out of the shadows once more, constantly looking over his
shoulder. He cursed his stupidity. He should never have tipped Altieri off
about the bank.
He hurried towards the bus stop. His only hope of getting off the island was by
bus across the bridge to New Jersey, than back to Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel. If staff at the hospital had
alerted the police, they’d probably be watching the ferry terminals into Brooklyn and Manhattan.
He caught the bus outside Halloran Hospital. He was the only passenger. The loneliness of the
empty bus heightened his feeling of defenceless isolation. He desperately
needed a crowd in which to lose himself. And the darkness outside, as it
crossed the bridge to New Jersey, accentuated the eerie gloom of his journey, while
the bus rattled and shook, buffeted by the gusting wind.
It stopped on the New Jersey side and three passengers got on, followed by a cop.
Bill quickly closed his eyes and let his head drop onto his shoulder. He could
hear the cop talking to the driver but couldn’t hear what they were saying. Any
moment now he expected the cop to come walking down the aisle to tap him on the
shoulder…
The key rattled in the latch and she looked up from her book. As soon as Craig
entered, his face drawn and tense, she knew it was bad news. She dropped the
book back onto the coffee table.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘It’s that sister of mine. She behaved badly – big time. She was pissed, out of
her skull, and swept a customer’s dinner off the table onto the floor when he
complained about his steak being overcooked. We’ve got to get out of the wine
bar, Mandy. She’ll drive all the customers away.’
Mandy sat up with a worried intake of breath.
‘But, Craig, we’ve just got a joint mortgage on this place. What the hell do we
do for a job?’
Sighing, Craig dropped back onto the sofa. ‘I don’t know, sweetheart. I just
don’t know.’
If any readers would like to purchase a copy Willie the Actor, the
book Mandy was reading, return to the Careless Talk homepage and click
the link on the right of the page which will take you to Amazon.