Bet Your Life (26 page)

“You two went to the fireworks,” Lily said, surprised. “What alley?”

“After I saw Seb being scraped up and taken away, I bumped into this pair playing Halloween pranks.” I frowned. “You weren’t supposed to double back, were you? No one thought you’d be there when Seb was dumped, but you knew the plan and you knew the timings and you made sure you were nearby. What did you want to do? Get an apology from him? Make fun of him once he’d been humiliated?”

“Did you hurt him? Afterward?” Lily looked from Claudia to Immy, her eyes wide. “Did you think I’d be blamed, or Ruth, or Amanda? Or poor Guy?”

“We didn’t do anything,” Claudia snapped. “We’d made ourselves obvious at the disco. We sneaked off while everyone was watching the fireworks and went to see him. We were too late. The cops were already there.”

“You said you didn’t go back. I
asked
you.” Lily still looked outraged.

“We didn’t go back properly. Like she said, we didn’t speak to him.” Immy looked sulky. “Anyway, we weren’t the only ones.”

“What do you mean?” Lily and I asked in unison.

“We saw Ruth when we left the fireworks,” Claudia explained. “She was running up the street, away from St. Laurence Square. She didn’t speak to us. She didn’t even really look at us.”

“In shock,” Immy said. “She’d probably just whacked him on the head. She probably thought she’d killed him.”

“Ruth is five foot nothing. How would she hit him hard enough to fracture his skull?” I demanded.

“You’ll have to ask her.” Claudia looked at Lily, who was staring at the table, her forehead furrowed. “Didn’t she say anything about being there? Or about us?”

“No.”

Claudia shook her head sadly. “Who can you trust these days?”

“Not either of you two,” I said tartly. “Why didn’t you say anything about it before?”

“None of our business.” Claudia sniffed. “You could take a lesson from us, Jess. We know when to keep our noses out of trouble.”

“I don’t think I’m the one in trouble here.”

Claudia smiled, and not pleasantly. “Then you need to think again, because
we
didn’t try to kill Seb but someone did, and they’re not going to be pleased to have Jess Tennant, Super Sleuth, on the case. They’re going to be angry as hell when they find out you’re asking questions—if they don’t know already.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“Brave. But they’re prepared to let Guy go to prison instead of owning up. They were prepared to hit Seb hard enough to fracture his skull. I don’t think they’re going to be too impressed if you run across them.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Warning you. I told you, I don’t know who did it.” Her voice was colorless. I couldn’t tell if she was lying or just really hung over.

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Any time.”

“Speaking of tips, I’d better get back to work.” Lily stood up again, and this time Claudia let her out of the booth.

The two other girls sat there for a moment. Then Claudia sighed. “I never thought I’d say this, but I like you. I don’t want you to come to harm.”

“I thought being friendly with me was all an act.”

“What can I say? You’ve grown on me.”

“Like a fungus,” Immy said. She seemed unmoved by my potential plight.

“Thanks, Claudia. I appreciate it.” I meant it too. “I just want to clear Guy’s name and find out what really happened.”

“Just don’t get us in trouble. I’ll deny everything,” Immy said.

“Me too,” Claudia said quickly. “It’s one thing saying it here. I’m not going to admit anything to the police.”

“I didn’t say you had to. All I’m doing is following the trail back to the person who is actually responsible. That’s the only one I’m interested in.”

They stood up, preparing to leave. Before that blissful event happened, though, Claudia looked down at me.

“Really, Jess, be careful. I think whoever did this is prepared to do whatever it takes to get away with it. You don’t know who you’re looking for, but they probably know all about you.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that.”

Claudia nodded. “Just keep your wits about you. And don’t walk into any traps.”

My heart was racing. I didn’t want to be scared, but I couldn’t deny that Claudia had a point. I watched her walk out with Immy. I looked around at the people sitting at the other tables, trying to see if anyone was watching me. Paranoia kicked in and I felt as if everyone was. The café didn’t feel like a safe place any more.

Actually, nowhere did.

And the only thing I could do was try and find Seb’s attacker before they found me.

18

Life being what it is, I walked out of the café and straight into the path of the other person I really didn’t want to see.

“Jessica!” Dad sounded pleased. I couldn’t manage the same.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Is this the place your mother was talking about?” He looked up at the Mario’s sign. “God, it’s like time travel. Please tell me there’s a Starbuck’s somewhere in this hole in the ground.”

“The locals voted against it. They don’t want chain coffee shops. They felt that would ruin Port Sentinel’s unique identity.”

“Oh, please.”

“The coffee in Mario’s is good. But I’ve just had some,” I added quickly.

“I can manage without it.” Dad put his arm around my shoulder. “Where are you off to?”

“Just wandering about.”

“That’s a good use of your time.”

“I’m on holiday,” I protested.

“You should make the most of having your freedom. Do something exciting.” Dad shook his head. “You’ve got no drive. No get-up-and-go.”

“Thanks very much.” I felt defensive immediately, and hurt. Top parenting. “Was there something you wanted, Dad?”

“I wanted to talk to you.” He steered me toward the seafront. “Come for a walk.”

“Do I have any choice about this?”

“None.”

“I don’t want to talk about you and Mum,” I said. “It’s none of my business.”

“It is, because you’re part of the family.”

“We’re not really a family any more, Dad. We’re an ex-family. A broken home.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is. There’s me and Mum, and you and me, but me, you and Mum aren’t a group now. And we never will be again.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.” He sounded incredibly pleased with himself.

I stopped walking. “What have you done?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“Have you spoken to Mum this morning?”

“No. I promise. She’s still locked away, considering her options.”

“You are not one of them. It would be a disaster. For both of you.”

“So wise and yet so young.” Dad patted my head. Being patronized had never sat well with me.

“You are toxic, Dad. You should have
Warning: Harmful to Health
written on your forehead. Mum suffered the whole time you were married and then you threw her away. Now you’re trying to get her back because you’ve decided she’d be useful. It makes me sick.” I ducked out from under his arm. “And I told you, I don’t want to talk to you about her.”

“And
I
told
you
I didn’t want to talk to you about her.” He was holding onto his temper with some difficulty, I thought. “That’s not what this conversation was supposed to be about.”

“OK.”
Give him a chance
. “What did you want to say?”

“The Henderson boy.”

My stomach flipped as if I’d just walked over the edge of a giant pit and hadn’t hit the bottom yet. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Too bad. I do. I want you to stay away from him.”

“You too? That makes everyone, I think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Will’s parents aren’t keen on me, either.”

“Idiots,” Dad said crisply. “They should be glad you’ve shown an interest in their son. You’re far too good for him.”

“Dad, you don’t know him.”

“I know enough, and I’m telling you it’s a bad idea for the two of you to be together.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you, but we’re not together. We had a bit of a thing in the summer and it ended.”

“I saw the way he was looking at you last night.”

“He wasn’t.”

“Exactly.” Dad looked smug. “I know the signs.”

“Well, you’ve had plenty of girlfriends, I suppose. You would be an expert.”

“Ouch.”

“Why is everyone so worried about whether the two of us are together or not?” I felt like crying. “Not that it even matters when we aren’t. But I don’t get it.”

“Jessica, you’re too involved to be able to see what we can see.”

“Which is?”

“It would be a disaster. It would be history repeating itself.”

“Not necessarily.”

“I can see the appeal. It’s romantic to think of giving the Romeo and Juliet story a happy ending. You’re Molly, and Will is Dan, and you’re playing the same parts in the same old film. But your mother’s feelings for Dan blighted our marriage.”

“You did that all by yourself.”

“No. I didn’t. I meant what I said last night. Your mother was never in love with me. She was in love with Dan. And the sad thing is that it wasn’t really him she loved—it was her idea of him. You’ve met him. You know what he’s like. She thought he was perfect and she hated me for not being as good as him.” He sounded sad. “I couldn’t live up to the idea she had of him.”

“She’s never said anything like that to me.”

“She’s in denial. But she has never been happy since she left Port Sentinel. She never allowed herself to be happy with me. She drove me away.”

I stared. “You’re seriously saying it was her fault you cheated on her.”

“I have to take some responsibility.”

“Given that it was you who decided to sleep with other women.”

“That kind of thing, yes.” He looked sideways at me. “I know. I made a mess of it. I did things I shouldn’t have done, but I was frustrated.”

“What do you want, Dad?”

“I want to stop you from making Molly’s mistakes out of some misplaced romantic idea.”
“I know. You said. I want to know what you want with Mum.”

He stopped walking. “I want her back.”

“You are out of your mind.”

“I have never stopped loving her. Ever. I hated myself for doing everything I did.”

“Not as much as I hated you, I bet.”

“I was desperate to get her to notice me. Just for once. Just to realize that I wasn’t a second-best loser.” He shook his head. “I got it all wrong with her. Now I want to put it right.”

“Why now?”

“Midlife crisis, probably. I need a new start. New business. New life. I wasn’t happy. I want to be happy.”

“So find someone who makes you happy. Leave Mum alone.”

“She’s the one, Jessica. She’s always been the one. I can’t stand the thought of her being back with Dan.”

“She isn’t,” I said sharply. “Dan’s married.”

“That won’t stop them. When I heard she was staying down here, I knew.”

“I don’t think she would do that.” I was feeling faint.

“I don’t think she could stop herself. But he’ll crush her if he gets his hands on her. You thought I was a bad husband—you were right. But I can change. A lot of the things I do and say are to get her to notice me. If I thought I had persuaded her to care for me, I would be a different person.”

“Is that what you think?”

“You should be on my side, Jessica. Dan’s rotten to the core. The best thing I ever did was take her away from him. You’ve got to help me to stop her from falling for his lies again.”

“I don’t want her and Dan to be together either, but it’s not up to you to decide what she does. Or me. She needs to make her own decisions.”

Dad raised one eyebrow. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”

“Stop putting her down. And stop trying to interfere in my life.”

“I just don’t want you to do what Molly did. I don’t want you to miss out on what’s right in front of you because you want something—or someone—you can’t have.”

“I won’t.” I thought of Ryan, though, and felt unbearably confused. Dad was right. I hadn’t even given him a chance. And he was far nicer than Dad had ever been. I pulled myself together. “OK, I’ve listened to you and I have three things to say. One: Will and I are not together, so that part of the lecture is pretty unnecessary. But I note your concern. Two: you and Mum were terrible together and I’m not going to help you get her back. I don’t want her to get involved with Dan, but you are not the safe option. Just back off. And three: this has been an excellent father–daughter chat but let’s not do it again.”

“Jessica, you do not speak to me that way.” Dad’s jaw was clenched. “I have your best interests at heart.”

“So you say.” I looked past him. “Dad, I’m not being rude, but I’ve got to go.”

“Why? Where?”

“There’s someone over there I need to talk to.” I ran before he could say anything else. I didn’t have time for him to say a long good-bye when Ruth was scurrying along the seafront, moving fast in the opposite direction. And I didn’t have time to think about whether it was a good idea for me to talk to her. Historically, I had difficulties with looking before I leaped, but it had worked out fine before.

Sort of.

Even though I was running and she was walking, she moved fast and it took me a surprisingly long time to overhaul her. When I got close enough, I called out, “Hey. Wait.”

She swung round. “What do you want?”

I was panting. I leaned forward, hands on my knees. “I have got to get fitter.”

“Join a gym.” She turned and walked away, her curls bouncing.

“Wait, please.”

She didn’t stop. I jogged after her. “It’s about Seb.”

The brakes went on. Her expression was just as hostile, but she was listening. “What about him?”

“I spoke to Lily, and Claudia, and Immy, and Amanda. I know everything that happened. More or less,” I added, thinking about it. “I know it was your idea.”

“Did they say that? They’re making this
my
fault?” She actually bared her teeth, looking as friendly and approachable as a feral weasel. “I don’t think so.”

“Look, the one thing I do know is that Guy isn’t to blame. He shouldn’t be in custody. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”