The Good Neighbour (22 page)

Minette was bewildered. ‘Oh my god, how could she, did she forget about the allergy or something?’

‘I haven’t told you the best bit yet.’ Now he’d started talking, Andy couldn’t seem to stop. ‘I tell Ruby, “Never mind that for now, I’ll give her the epi-pen then we’ll get her to A&E,” but before I can do anything Ruby kind of crumples. Instead of helping me she sits at the table, she says, “Look, we’re all tired, she’ll be OK.” I yell, “She won’t be OK!” I’m properly stressed now, I get the lid off the epi-pen, then Ezzie goes, “But Daddy, I’ve had this kind of milk before.”’

He stopped, out of breath. Minette knew she ought to hang up, she’d been on for ages. If he was tracing her call he could have easily done it by now. But she had to know what happened. ‘Go on.’

‘She’d drunk most of it, the worst symptoms would have showed by now, breathing problems, vomiting. I’d read a lot about allergies, as you can imagine.’

‘So … what on earth?’ Minette stared at Abe, sitting next to her on the bed.

‘Ruby’s got nothing to say, so I take Esmie up and tuck her in, tell her to call me if she feels ill. Then I go down, say, “Well what the hell, Ruby, what’s going on?” She’s the one who got Esmie’s allergies diagnosed at the hospital, she’s the one who’s always been so on top of it. There’s a note on our fridge about it. It’s still there, I didn’t want to take it down in case they … well, anyway. First she says, “Look, she wanted hot chocolate, and you know how she whinges, and I’m knackered, and you’re away all the time.” So now it’s my fault. I say, “But just because a child whinges …” then she says, “Well, actually it’s fine because Esmie’s grown out of her milk allergy.” “What, I say, why didn’t you tell me?” “It only just happened,” she says. But something’s not right, and I ask her lots of questions and finally she bursts into tears, I’d hardly ever seen her cry like that before, proper sobbing, and she says Esmie isn’t allergic to milk. Isn’t allergic now, never has been.’

‘Jesus, Andy.’ Minette remembered Davey and Lola the other night, Davey’s awkward explanation that some milk was fine. Lola had been very giggly, and smelled milky when Minette had hugged her at bedtime. She must have sneaked some of Davey’s hot chocolate, presumably with his agreement.

‘I shout at Ruby, so is Ezzie allergic to any of the other things: nuts, or fish, all the rest of it? And she won’t answer. I never do get an answer to that.’

‘But look,’ Minette said urgently. ‘I was with Ruby only a few weeks ago, when we thought Esmie had eaten peanuts. She was really upset, we rushed to the hospital, it was awful.’

‘And what happened at the hospital?’ His voice was quiet.

‘They did tests, they checked her breathing.’

‘But they didn’t find anything wrong, did they?’

‘Well, no. They said she probably hadn’t eaten the nuts after all.’

‘That’s what they always say. No hospital has ever found anything wrong, all the times we’ve dashed there.’

Minette’s head was spinning. ‘Why then did Ruby …?’

‘Six million dollar question. She wouldn’t tell me. I asked her over and over that night. I’ve been trying to work it out ever since, you can imagine, and I’m none the wiser, Minette. There are mental patients, loonies, I’ve read up on them, who pretend their kids are ill, no one really knows why. For attention, or to get one over on doctors, or something. It’s an illness itself. But why would Ruby be like that? She’s smart, clever, confident, she’s even a nurse.’

‘What happened in the end?’

‘We argued. Well, I did, Ruby kind of sat there, curled up, wouldn’t look at me, wouldn’t give me no explanations. I knew something at work had really got to her. But I started to get angry. I got angry about all the times we stabbed poor Esmie with an epi-pen and maybe didn’t need to, all the crazy dashes to hospital. Even all the times I’ve told Esmie “no” about food she coulda had. I say, “That poor child, I’m going to look after her myself from now on,” meaning I’m going to try and be around more, get a local job. I didn’t mean I was going to take her off Ruby. But Ruby goes berserk, runs at me, starts hitting my head. Screaming, “These are my children, mine, you’ll never get them off me!” We’re both yelling, I’m not proud of it, I called her a monster and other bad things, and she hits me again and again, and finally I hit her back. Just once, round the face, a slap not a punch, to stop her hitting me, but if I could take back one thing in my life I would take that back, that’s not who I am but it’s all you know of me.’

Minette looked at Abe, her eyes wide. He nodded encouragingly. ‘Andy, the other thing Ruby said was, this is hard to ask, she said D—, uh, your boy, I can’t remember his real name, came in during this row and you hit him too.’

Andy let out a blast of air. ‘No.’

‘That’s what she says.’

‘No, no, no.
She
hit him. Oh, she didn’t mean to. Adam came in all right, he’d heard us fighting. He wheeled himself between us, he was crying, “Stop, stop.” I was trying to get him out of the way, and Ruby was screaming at him, “Your father hit me.” It was such a mess, then she ran at me again and Adam pushed himself in front of her and he got a smack in the head off her that was meant for me. It was an accident and he wasn’t badly hurt. It stopped the row, that’s for sure, which might have been his intention.’

Minette felt like she too had been smacked in the head. ‘This is just so awful. I don’t know what to think.’

‘It’s her word against mine, isn’t it? I can see why you’d believe her. I hit my wife so I’m capable of anything.’ He was crying properly now. ‘I had to go back to work next day. Five day job. When I got home, they were gone.’

‘I’m so, so, sorry. Bringing it all up again.’

‘You haven’t, it’s always there, all the time.’ He moved away from the phone and she heard him blow his nose. ‘Thought I’d done all my crying. I mostly keep it together, for my parents’ sake.’

So there were grandparents on that side. ‘They must really miss the children?’

He laughed. ‘You could say that. They got old overnight. My mum keeps reading up on those cases, you know, where a parent kidnaps a child. No one can believe it happened to me. I didn’t go to the police because Ruby left me a note saying she’d tell them I hit her if I called them. I was in that much of a state, and I didn’t want my mum to find out I’d hit her, that’s not how she brought me up. Private detectives are shit, excuse my language, it’s not like on the telly, and anyway when they caught up with Gina she said she would cut off contact all together with me if I ever tried that again. I’ve had a lot of false leads, and you’re my best hope, but I’m not going to pressure you. I know what Ruby’s like, she’s very convincing, you’ll have to reach your own conclusions.’

‘Are Ruby’s parents in the picture?’

‘Her mum died years ago, before I met her. And she didn’t know her dad. He was some friend of the family, older bloke, who got her mum pregnant when she was only seventeen. Ruby reckoned it was rape but nothing was ever done about it.’ He exhaled. ‘Least, that’s what Ruby told me! Who knows? They’re probably living in a retirement home in Marbella.’

Minette knew she should ask whether he had any suspicions about Davey’s condition, but she really wanted to get off the phone. She felt she couldn’t handle any more right now.

‘You’ve given me a lot to think about, Andy, and I promise I will, really carefully.’

‘Thank you. Can I just ask? Are my children all right?’

‘They’re fine. I saw them very recently. I’m going to have to stop now, I have to see to my own daughter.’

‘How old?’

‘Eleven months on Monday.’

‘Wonderful. A lovely age.’

‘I’ll call you again.’

‘Please do. Hope I haven’t upset you.’

Minette clicked off her phone, and she and Abe gazed at each other. ‘Oh my fucking god,’ Abe said, ‘it’s like a thriller.’

‘It’s not, Abe, it’s horrible.’ Minette started to cry. ‘If it’s true, there are two children living next door with a psychotic, potentially dangerous mother.’

Abe put his arms round her. ‘The Miltons don’t seem so bad now, do they?’

Minette managed to laugh through her tears. ‘I didn’t really manage to keep it brief, did I?’

‘Well, he didn’t let you get a word in edgeways.’

‘What was that illness he mentioned?’

‘I was looking it up while you were talking.’ Abe read from his phone, ‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy. I saw a documentary about it, years ago. It’s where the parent pretends the child has an illness.’

‘She could have that! She clearly pretended about Lola, and she might be pretending about Davey too. Oh my god, it’s all pointing to Cath being the weirdo, but I so don’t want to believe it. We’re friends! Well, I think we’re friends.’

‘Look, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. We only have Andy’s word for the Lola thing, don’t we?’

‘But he did sound genuine, don’t you think?’

‘I don’t know.’ Abe looked thoughtful. ‘His story was pretty pat, wasn’t it?’

‘Do you think?’ Minette wiped her eyes.

‘All that, yes, I hit her but there’s only one good reason, that’s to protect my child. It all sounded a bit, well, rehearsed. It was all told in the right order.’

‘Maybe you’re right.’ Now Minette no longer had Andy’s voice in her ear, but Cath’s, and it was saying, ‘I never thought he was the violent type. Then one night, he walloped me.’ What was the truth? ‘Oh, god, I’m going to have to talk to Cath again.’

‘Yep.’

‘Maybe I should go this evening, with a bottle of wine? Keep it friendly.’

‘And not so much like the Spanish inquisition? Yes, good plan.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘You know what you need? A day out. Let’s take Tilly to the pier. You can have a sea swim to practise for the triathlon and we can try and put all this out of our heads for a bit.’

‘I do love you, Abe.’ Minette leaned against him. For the first time in months she felt properly supported and cherished. Nothing to bring you together better, she mocked herself, than by sharing the horrors of someone else’s parenting.

‘I love you too, and I’m glad you’re not a psycho mom.’

‘I’m glad you’re not a psycho lorry driver.’

‘I could be, if I wanted. I have an HGV licence.’

‘You do not. You don’t even like Yorkies.’

‘Yorkies aren’t obligatory, you can have Wagon Wheels.’

The relief of surfacing after the intensity of the phone call made Minette giggly. ‘What about having to read the
Sun
?’

‘I could hide the
Guardian
inside it. Right, I’d better check on Tills. She might be watching something unsuitable, like
Peppa Pig
.’

It was Tilly’s first trip to the pier, and she adored the noise and colours. They held her up to a penny falls machine in the arcade, and when a coin they pushed in for her made some other coins come out, her mouth went into a perfectly round circle of surprise. Later, Abe sat on the pebbles and fed Tilly a pot of homemade mush, while Minette ploughed up and down in the sea. Every few minutes she stopped to wave, and Tilly, who had only just learned how to do it, waved enthusiastically back.

‘How was it?’ Abe asked, as Minette came ungracefully up the beach in her wetsuit, hobbling on the stones.

‘I think I’m getting the hang of it. It’s very different from swimming in the pool. I’m having to look up all the time to see where I’m going, and make my stroke longer.’ She peeled off her wetsuit, and sat on the warm stones in her swimming costume, watching Tilly crawling about. ‘You’d think she’d hurt her knees.’

‘She’s made of tough Moncrieff stock.’ Abe passed her half a bag of chips he’d been eating. They weren’t hot, but were nice and salty. ‘Think, soon she’ll be walking.’

‘And talking, and slamming doors and asking for her ears to be pierced. Actually, I can’t wait.’

‘Hey, isn’t that whatsisname?’ Abe pointed down the beach. ‘That annoying pretty bloke?’

‘Who?’ Minette turned to see, and her heart skittered. It was Liam. He was walking hand in hand across the pebbles with Josie. Dimly, she registered what a handsome couple they were; Josie in a short mint-green summer dress, long auburn hair loose, Liam in one of his casually cool outfits, a tight-fitting blue T-shirt and grey chinos.

‘They look like they’re doing a photoshoot for Next,’ Abe said.

Minette hastily pulled on a T-shirt over her baggy old swimsuit, then turned her head away and stared at the sea, in the childlike hope that if she couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see her. But seconds later she heard Abe say, ‘Hi!’

She scrambled to her feet, and tried to look welcoming. She pulled a towel around her waist, but there was no getting away from the fact that she was wearing a naff old Oasis T-shirt and no make-up, her hair wet and scraggly. She looked at Josie, not Liam. ‘Hello! Isn’t it lovely and warm?’

‘Not warm enough for me to go in,’ Josie replied. ‘You
are
good.’

‘You know Abe and, er, Minette, don’t you?’ Liam said to Josie. ‘Two doors down?’

‘Liam has to tell me who everyone is, I’m hopeless.’ Josie had a beautiful smile. ‘I miss all the social occasions.’

‘I suppose you work long hours for Hilton, don’t you?’ Abe said, all puppyish enthusiasm. ‘Must be awesome working there.’

‘It is … awesome,’ she agreed. ‘They’re a good company. With great benefits.’ Unexpectedly she giggled, and for the first time Minette glanced at Liam. He was looking worriedly at Josie.

‘Good perks, huh?’ Abe said. ‘You’re lucky. The only benefit I have is working up the road so I can have lunch at home.’

‘That’s pretty nice, though,’ Josie said. ‘I’d like to give up commuting. It would be lovely to be at home in the day, like Liam.’

‘And Minette,’ Abe said.

‘Where’s Tilly?’ Liam asked, almost cutting across Abe.

‘Right behind you,’ Abe said, ‘doing very important beach work, piling stones into a cup, then emptying it out again.’

‘Oh, she’s gorgeous,’ Josie said.

Minette was conscious that Liam looked super-awkward, that he had failed to reply to eight texts, and that she hadn’t said anything since ‘Isn’t it lovely and warm’. She took a step back, and said, ‘We’d better be going, Abe. Tilly’s nap.’