Watched: When Road Rage Follows You Home (8 page)

‘You want to go
out
?’

‘Why not? It’s a lovely evening.’

Esther finally had a mouthful of soup, slurping it, before adding: ‘I left the washing on the line.’

‘Sorry?’

‘I just remembered I did some washing earlier but didn’t bring it back inside.’ She stood, picking up the nearly full bowl and heading towards the kitchen. ‘Do you want to help?’ she added.

Charlie followed, unsure what to say. When he’d arrived home, Esther had told him about the mix-up with the carpet company but there was little more they could say or do. Was that really the type of thing someone who won awards would bother themselves with?

Esther plucked a basket from the top of the washing machine and opened the side door, stepping bare footed onto the back garden. Even though the grass was overgrown, Charlie found something quite beautiful about the sight of his wife in a long floaty dress and no shoes stepping across the lawn so daintily. He stopped to watch for a few moments as she pressed down the grass with her feet and stretched onto tiptoes to reach the line. She was effortlessly breathtaking: everything he’d ever wanted.

Charlie was about to start unpinning clothes when he realised Esther had stopped moving. She had one hand on the line and was peering along its length.

‘What?’ Charlie asked.

‘She dropped a pair of socks in the basket. ‘Nothing.’

‘Come on, hon, we’ve got to talk about this.’

For a moment she didn’t move, before reaching out towards him unexpectedly, wanting his embrace. Charlie pulled her close, cradling her head into his chest.

‘There are things missing,’ she said softly.

‘From the line?’

‘My underwear’s gone.’

As he peered towards the row of clothes, Charlie could see at least three gaps where there were pegs hanging loose.

‘Do you want me to—?’

‘—No, just leave it. It’s not going to do any good if you go and accuse him of taking things – especially if his brother’s a police officer. Let’s just get everything inside and then we’ll go out.’

He wondered if she was confusing things. It was hard to think past the image of a man from the news article, surrounded by children, smiling having just won £10,000 for the local community. Could it really be him stealing Esther’s underwear? Or even his girlfriend?

They did as she suggested, taking the clothes down and heading into the house. Charlie asked if she was ready to leave but Esther asked for a minute and went upstairs. As he waited in the hall, he could hear her moving from room to room, rattling the window locks and closing the doors. When he thought she was finished, she returned to their bedroom and he could hear the sound of her re-checking everything a second time. He thought about saying something but knew she would be conscious of it anyway, telling herself she’d already checked once.

When she finally came downstairs, she was peering nervously towards the kitchen, even as she put her coat on.

‘Did you lock the back door?’ she asked.

‘Yes.’

‘And did you remember to take the key out of the back door and put it in the drawer again?’

‘Yes.’

Esther continued glancing from Charlie to the kitchen and back again. For a moment, he thought she was going to check but she followed him out of the front door, watching carefully as he closed and locked it behind her. For good measure, he pushed the handle up and down, making certain it was definitely secure.

In the car, Charlie deliberately took a route which meant he didn’t have to pass Dougie’s house. Within minutes, they were on the main road, heading towards the supermarket Charlie passed every day on the way to work.

‘Sorry,’ Esther whispered out of the blue.

‘What for?’

‘Checking everything over and over.’

‘It’s better to be safe than sorry.’

Charlie tried to sound cheerful but it was a stupid cliché and he should have thought of something better. Esther was subdued for much of the journey but did perk up as he parked the car. They held hands on the way to get a trolley and then she started talking about how they should have made a shopping list.

Inside and it was like being their old selves: before the new house or living with her parents. In their old flat, Charlie had always found food shopping with Esther a secret pleasure. On weekday evenings it was relatively quiet and they would wander around a supermarket together, taking their time, and generally walking around in giant circles, trying to remember what they needed and deciding who was to blame for not putting things on the list.

For a while, it was as if they were each in their early twenties again, fresh out of university and counting every penny as they ended up in the alcohol aisle, trying to work out what they could afford. Money wasn’t such a problem now, but with the costs of the move, they were still comparing labels and trying to guess if a three-pound bottle of wine would taste the same as a six-pound one.

Esther giggled at the sight of a couple having a blazing row in the cheese aisle, almost jumped for joy as she reached the bakery counter just as items were being reduced and then helped an elderly woman who had lost control of her trolley and wiped out a display of tinned fruit.

By the time they were sure they’d remembered everything, including some cat food, she was almost her old self: smiling, joking and linking her arm through his as they walked to the tills.

It was only as they reached the edges of the estate, minutes from home, when Charlie noticed the change in her again. Esther wedged her head into the area between the passenger’s seat and the door, pulling her legs up onto the chair and hugging them to her. She went from being talkative to saying almost nothing; from responding cheerfully to giving one-word answers.

Charlie knew there was nothing he could say. ‘It’s going to be all right’ would be a lie they both saw through because he didn’t know that.

He reversed onto the drive, relieved that he was unable to see anything out of place. Esther was watching through the car’s windows, turning from side to side, but said nothing as he parked and they clambered out together. Before they bothered unloading the car, there was something unspoken between them as they headed through the side gate towards the back of the house.

The hedges were still bushy, the fences still rickety, the grass still long and the windows unbroken.

Inside, everything seemed as they’d left it too. They carried in the shopping and put everything away together, with Esther having the final say on what went where.

After that, Charlie went into the living room and, for the first time since moving in, relaxed in front of the television. He began flicking through the channels with the sound on low, listening as Esther moved from room to room upstairs.

Rattle-rattle, shunt-shunt.

After each set of checks, she’d move on to the next room and start again. When she came downstairs, she headed straight for the kitchen, where he heard her unlocking and then relocking the back door, before doing the same with the window. After apparently convincing herself the front door was also secure, Esther finally entered the living room. She’d changed into her pyjamas and curled up next to Charlie without a word. As she pressed back into him, he could smell the fabric conditioner of her clothes, then the faint trace of shampoo from her hair. Charlie wrapped an arm around her, allowing her to pull it tighter until she was almost enveloped into him.

It was after ten o’clock but Charlie still couldn’t find anything to watch. He continued hopping from channel to channel until Esther whispered a delicate ‘stop’. It was only an episode of some American sitcom but they watched in silence, not laughing but not becoming restless either. Perfect for falling asleep to. After a while, Charlie felt his eyelids beginning to go and then, from nowhere, Esther’s lips were on his. He jumped slightly, waking up and feeling instantly alert.

Her bottom lip was pressing almost aggressively onto his top one and suddenly they were in their final year at university again; rolling around on the sofa, hands in each other’s hair, the sizzle of fingertips on skin, giggles as their noses knocked together and buttons wouldn’t come undone.

Dinnnnnnng-donnnnnnng.

Esther froze momentarily before pushing Charlie away. They stared at each other for a few moments before she started re-buttoning her top.

As she drew her knees up to herself, Charlie plucked his trousers from the floor and peered up to the clock – almost half-past-eleven. He really must have fallen asleep. Esther didn’t need to say it because the way she had shrunken into the sofa explained it all: the moment was well and truly lost and it was his job to answer the door.

He peeped through the blinds, squinting into orangey glow of the streetlights.

‘There’s a police car outside.’

Dinnnnnnng-donnnnnnng.

Esther’s face was almost concealed as she slumped lower, hiding behind her knees. Charlie headed into the hall and unlocked the front door. On the other side, a uniformed officer was standing, hat in hand. He had mousy fair hair and faint acne-scarred skin, deliberately angled sideways so Charlie could see the second officer waiting in the car.

‘Are you Mr Pooley?’

‘Yes.’

‘I understand you’ve been having a good time this evening?’

‘Er…sorry?’

‘We’ve had reports of loud music, shouting and arguing.’

‘From who?’

‘I can’t reveal that but there have been complaints about noise emanating from this property. Obviously I can hear that the party has ended, but—’

‘—Party?’

The living room door opened as Esther drifted into the hallway, hugging herself into Charlie’s side.

The officer eyed the pair of them suspiciously, lips pursed, before speaking. ‘…Obviously it’s good that the music has now ended but there are noise pollution laws and—’

Esther cut him off: ‘—We’ve not even been in. We went shopping and then we were watching TV. We’ve only just moved in and don’t even have the stereo set up yet. The speakers are still in boxes upstairs – you can come in and check if you want.’

He shook his head. ‘That won’t be necessary. Just so long as you know that this street has been designated as part of our pilot “quiet zone”. It means no-one under the age of eighteen should be out after ten in the evening and there shouldn’t be unreasonable noise after that time either.’

Esther was almost shouting: ‘We’ve not been making any noise!’

Charlie began stroking the lower part of her back, hoping it would calm her. Her entire body had tensed.

‘I understand what you’re both saying but we have to investigate complaints, else the pilot scheme would be a waste of everyone’s time—’

‘—This
is
a waste of everyone’s time. We haven’t done anything. There’s this man who’s been harassing me, driving up and down with his music on. I think he—’

Charlie pinched Esther ever so gently to stop her talking. If they were going to involve the police, it couldn’t be with half-arsed allegations and tittle-tattle, it had to be with evidence. She stopped mid-sentence, taking the hint and barely missing a beat before concluding: ‘—We haven’t been making any noise.’

The officer looked from Esther to Charlie and back again. He nodded slightly. ‘Obviously it’s a two-way thing. This is a pilot scheme and if you’ve only just moved in then you won’t know about it. There are details on our website but, essentially, it’s about neighbours not causing trouble for each other. With the light evenings, things sometimes get out of hand, especially when drink’s involved.’

Charlie could feel Esther bristling at the implication but he continued rubbing the bottom of her back.

‘Anyway,’ the officer added, ‘like I said, it’s clear that the disturbance is now over with. Just keep it down in future, okay?’

Charlie knew he and Esther were thinking the exact same thing – ‘What noise?’ – but they nodded in acknowledgement as the officer turned on his heels and returned to the car. Around them, the street was well and truly silent.

NINE: ESTHER

Esther peered from the label on the tin down to the food on the plate and then at the cat on the far side of the garden.

‘Come on Patch, it’s Ocean Feast flavour. It’s got tuna, salmon, plaice and cod in it. You’re going to be eating better than us.’ Esther poked the mush with her finger. ‘Well, I’m not so sure about the orangey jelly it’s in but the fish should be all right.’

Patch took a step towards her, legs outstretched, as he stood tall with his back straight.

Esther was sitting cross-legged on the grass, reading from the label. ‘Apparently, it has an irresistible taste that provides one-hundred per cent of your daily needs.’

The cat didn’t seem convinced, advancing one small step at a time. The morning was glorious yet again; a vast blue sky with fluffy white clouds that looked as if they’d been painted by the most perfect of artists. It was barely ten o’clock but the sun was already high, beating a skin-tingling warmth far and wide.

‘This is a delicious meal that looks and smells so meaty, you apparently won’t wait for the bowl to touch the floor.’ Esther put the empty tin down. ‘Well, that’s a lie.’

The cat continued to advance slowly, checking over his shoulder every few steps, ears pricked and alert. Eventually, Patch weaved his way through the prairie-like growth and settled next to Esther. He sniffed the food and then slowly began to eat, pausing after each mouthful to make sure she wasn’t going to try anything untoward. When Esther stretched out a hand towards him, he flinched away slightly, head at an angle, eyes fixed on her, before he bowed a little, allowing her to stroke the back of his neck as he continued eating.

‘Rather you than me, little guy,’ Esther said, as Patch chewed through a particularly squishy jelly-like bit.

Patch alternated between the food and the plate of water, mewing and warming to Esther’s touch. When he finished eating, he nuzzled his head across her knee and curled up next to her. Esther lay back, stretching and feeling the grass underneath her, the heat of the day making her bare arms tingle.