Chapter 18
Tuesday 24 October
Dan’s nine o’clock was late. Blane Hibbert was the name – a professor of some sort, and he was certainly living up to the absent-minded stereotype. Dan sat on one of the chairs in the waiting area and slurped the dregs of his Hopper & Bean cappuccino while idly flicking through some news stories on his phone. He glanced up at Jenny. “Everything okay, Jen? You seem pretty quiet this morning.”
“Oh, I’m fine Dan, don’t worry.”
“Is Richard well? And little Noah?”
“All well, thanks.” She frowned. “Well, Richard’s a bit put out because I was late coming home yesterday. Something odd happened here around closing time, just after you left, and it delayed me.”
“Oh yeah, what was that?”
“A young woman came in. Elaine her name was.”
Dan suddenly sat bolt upright in his chair and put his coffee down. Jenny didn’t notice, and continued with her tale .
“Quite a pretty girl, she was, with long, brown hair. You gave her a lesson a few weeks ago, you probably don’t remember… Anyway, she said an ex-boyfriend was stalking her and asked if she could hide out in the shop for a while.”
Dan shivered slightly, as if a new door had unexpectedly opened in a room that had started to feel homely and familiar.
“Of course I said yes. But there was something quite peculiar about the whole thing. I mean she had a bike, so she could have got away from him very easily if she was that worried.”
“Maybe the ex also had a bike,” said Dan.
“Maybe,” said Jenny, though she looked sceptical about this. “There was also something odd about her behaviour. At first, she looked quite shaken up, as you’d expect. But then she smiled and took out these canned cocktails from her bag and suggested we drink them. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing you’d do if you were worried about a stalker outside.”
Dan felt relieved. Actually, that sounded exactly like Elaine. She obviously wasn’t too scared, which meant this guy probably wasn’t too much of a threat.
Jenny blushed slightly. “I regret to say I partook of one of the cans, just to keep her company you understand.”
“You’re a dark horse, aren’t you, Jen? Cocktails at what – half past five?”
“I’m so sorry, it won’t happen again. ”
“Don’t worry about it. You did the right thing taking her in. I’m glad it was you she found. Not everyone has your warm heart.”
“Thanks Dan. I just found the whole thing quite odd. I couldn’t work her out.”
“Some people are like that,” he said. “It’s as if they’re designed differently – like an Alpha Romeo in a world of Ford Fiestas.”
“You know those kinds of analogies will always be lost on me.”
He laughed, and that was when his eye happened to fall on the little photo hanging up behind the reception desk, mostly but not entirely obscured by the enormous vase of sunflowers. It gave him an idea.
“Now you mention it,” he said, “I think I do remember the young lady you’re talking about. Is she the one you told about Jeremy?”
Again Jenny blushed – a much deeper shade this time. She put a hand to her cheek. “Oh heavens! Did she tell you about that?”
“During the lesson, yeah.”
“That means I must have told her. I was sure I hadn’t. I would never normally tell anyone about your family, only she saw that photo, and she does ask very direct questions.”
“I don’t mind Jen, really. It’s fine.” He was relieved – so Elaine had been telling the truth about how she’d discovered Jeremy’s name. Not that he’d ever doubted her, but still.
At that moment, the door swung open and Blane Hibbert came rushing in, panting for breath and full of apologies. He was, he told them, a professor of film studies specialising in French cinema of the 1980s. He’d noted down the driving lesson in his diary, only his handwriting was awful and when he read it back it had looked like Reviving Besson , which he assumed was a lecture he was due to deliver on the filmmaker Luc Besson. He was already halfway to the university when he realised his mistake.
At twelve o’clock, after concluding his second lesson of the day, Dan called Elaine from the car. She sounded surprised, even slightly alarmed, to hear from him.
“You okay? Is this a bad time?” he asked.
“No, it’s fine,” she said, breathing a little more normally. “I’m just at the library. Visiting the library, I mean. Borrowing a, uh, play. That’s right, a play, to prepare for an audition. I’m quite busy with it actually. Can I call you back in half an hour?”
“Sure, no problem.”
Dan strolled down to Raphi & Flo on Green Lanes and bought himself a vegan chilli cheese sandwich and a bottle of water, which he ate on the bank of the New River. Elaine called just as he was starting back to the office.
“Hi!” she said. “Sorry about earlier. Is everything okay?”
“Fine,” he replied. “Sorry I missed you when you came into the office yesterday. Jen told me some ex-boyfriend was bothering you.”
“Oh that,” she said as if it was no big deal. “He’s just a guy I used to go out with called Stuart. I got quite a shock when I saw him because that wasn’t his usual neck of the woods and I thought he might have followed me there, so I popped into your office to hide out for a bit. Jenny was really sweet. Thank her for me will you, although I think I already did about five times.”
“Sure, no problem. So he wasn’t actually stalking you or anything?”
“Oh no. Is that what Jenny said? I think it was just a coincidence that he was there, but it did give me quite a turn. We didn’t exactly end on a good note.”
“I get it. Did he have a bike?”
“What?”
“Was he on a bike, like you?”
“Oh, I see what you mean… Er, yeah, he was.”
“Right, I thought that must have been the case.” There was a brief, slightly awkward pause. Then he asked: “So how come you were there, in Bramley Hill? It’s not exactly your neck of the woods either.”
Elaine made a laughing sort of hum, and he knew she was smiling a little shamefacedly. It pleased him that he could already marry up her sounds to her facial expressions. “Actually, I was hoping to see you, just to say hi,” she said. “You must have just left.”
“Damn,” he said, smiling now. “It would have been great to see you. I wish you were here with me now.”
“I wish I was there, too,” she breathed, and he relished the hunger in her voice.
“You know,” he said. “This whole Stuart thing – it’s made me realise how little I know about you. We’re basically still strangers. I want to find out all about you next time we meet.”
“You mean like the full history?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“I’m not sure. It might put you off.”
“Why, have you got skeletons in your closet?”
“A whole walk-in wardrobe of them,” she sighed.
“Well, what’s life without a few skeletons? I’d be worried if you didn’t have any.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Any sharks in your lake?”
He chortled. “You remembered that?”
“I remember everything you say,” she said in deliberately a sinister voice.
“Right,” he nodded. “That didn’t sound creepy at all! Well, if you must know, my lake is full of perfectly harmless little fish. Not a shark in sight.”
“Oh yeah?” She said it like a challenge. “I’ll bet there are a few great whites lurking in your deeps.”
“In my deeps?” He laughed at the odd choice of phrase. “Nope. Just a load of boring old carp, perch and pike. Maybe the odd eel.”
“Would that be Lorna then?”
He grimaced, not appreciating the quip .
“I’m sorry!” gasped the clearly mortified Kay when he didn’t respond. “That was totally uncalled for.”
“It’s okay,” he smiled, instantly forgiving her. “It was quite funny actually.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh thank goodness.” After a pause, she added, “Okay, I’ll give you Elaine 101 if you really want it. How about Saturday morning? Can we meet?”
“I’m running a football training session at Winchmore Hill FC, but I can meet you after that. We can grab some lunch if you like.”
“That would be nice. Where do you do your training? I can come and meet you.”
Dan told her, and they made arrangements.
“One more thing,” said Dan. “How do you fancy meeting my brother Jeremy on Saturday night?”
The line fell silent. “Elaine? Are you there?”
“Yeah, sorry, it’s just... Are you sure you want to do this now? I’m not saying I don’t want to meet him, I do – but things have only just started between us. It seems a bit soon.”
“He’s important to me. I guess we’re closer than most brothers because we’ve been through a lot together and he’s all I’ve got in terms of family. If things are going to work between you and me, and I really hope they do… they’re also going to have to work between you and Jerry. I mean you’re going to have to like him.”
“That’s a lot of pressure, Dan. ”
“It’s not meant to be. Jerry’s lovely. You’ll love him – everyone does. It’s not going to be a problem Elaine, I promise.”
“I know,” she said. “But I feel nervous because he means so much to you. I want to make a good impression.”
“And you will.”