Chapter 20
The convention, in circumstances such as these, is to make you wait a little longer before revealing that, although Corinne Sullivan lied about the message she received, she did not, in fact, betray Champ or Mum.
I’m not going to delay in reassuring you, though, because Corinne was with the Lamberts all the way and would never have dreamed of going over to the Gaveys’ side.
You have to be loyal to your people, or else what does anything matter?
Corinne knows this. I know it. That’s why I feel worse and worse, the further into the story I get, about the important thing I’m not telling you, and the name I’m desperate to mention but can’t.
If you recall, it’s the name of someone who means the world to me, someone who’s cared for me when I’ve been ill (once I even vomited on her and she didn’t mind) and loved me with all her heart from the first day we met.
And I have always reciprocated every ounce and inch of that love.
That’s why I’ve decided to give you a clue, as a tribute to the special person whose name I can’t yet say.
The clue is: SIBLING.
Perhaps, now I’ve said all that, you’ll understand why the thing I abhor most about the Gaveys is not the way they’ve treated us Lamberts but that they aren’t even kind and loyal to other Gaveys.
(Remember the screaming Corinne asked about over breakfast, before Dad changed the subject?) And there are only three of them, so it shouldn’t be too hard for them to be nice to each other; it’s not as if there are thousands of Gaveys stretching as far as the eye can see, which might overextend anyone’s magnanimity.
I wish I’d spoken up and said this (a point I’ve heard no one else make so far) on the way to the boarding kennels in Weybourne, Norfolk, later that day.
It would have been the perfect opportunity, since Mum and Corinne spent most of the journey listing everything they could think of that was wrong with the Gaveys, and Lesley in particular.
Dad kept trying to interrupt. After hearing Corinne’s explanation of why there was a message from the enemy on her phone, we were all satisfied that Corinne wasn’t a traitor, but Dad still wanted her to explain her longer-term plan for Champ and justify her short-term one for all of us.
Everyone shouted him down. Even Toby couldn’t wait to hear about Lesley Gavey and the swimming pool timetable, once Corinne, in a voice laced with scandal, had trailed it as a gossip agenda item.
Mum hadn’t heard the story and was keen to be filled in, so, as she drove us along the A685 through Kirkby Stephen, Corinne launched in:
The nearest swimming pool to Swaffham Tilney, nearer even than Quy Mill Hotel where Mum works, is the Field View Health Club and Spa.
About two months ago, a new manager took over there and introduced a new system of swimming-timetable slots in an attempt to make sure the facilities never became unpleasantly overcrowded.
Prior to this, there had been no restrictions.
Any club member could swim whenever they wanted to and stay as long as they pleased.
One day Lesley Gavey had arrived for a swim at 1:58 p.m., only to be told about the new regime and informed that, yes, she was of course allowed to swim but that she would need to get out at 2:20 p.m., in order to be dressed and out of the building by 2:30 p.m., which was when the next timetable slot was scheduled to start.
Assuming she’d be able to get her own way, Lesley smiled and said, “Oh, don’t worry. I’m here for a nice long session today, so I’ll just stay in the pool for the next slot too.”
The girl behind the desk told her that wasn’t allowed.
No member was allowed to stay for two consecutive slots.
No, not even if the next session only had two people turn up for it, or nobody.
The rules were the rules and couldn’t be deviated from under any circumstances.
The manager had made that very clear. “You’re very welcome to come back for a second session later on today if you’d like to—just not the session that follows straight after this one,” the girl said, naively imagining this would be received as a glad tiding.
“Not one to be thwarted, Lesley flew into a hideous temper and started shrieking. But that’s not the mind-boggling part.” Corinne chuckled. “That’s just what you’d expect, right? Wait till you hear what happened next. Around a week later, Alastair Gavey fancied a swim.”
“So they’re not poor at all, then, if they can afford to be members at Field View,” said Mum.
“When they moved into Bussow Court, Lesley made a point of telling me they’d only been able to afford the Stables because they found a bit more than they’d imagined they’d have when she viewed Shukes last year—but now, having moved, that really was it.
They were virtually bankrupt. A bit more!
” Mum snorted. “The Stables was on for seven hundred and fifty grand—that’s a hundred and fifty more than her original budget of six hundred. ”
“So what happened when Alastair Gavey went for his swim?” Tobes asked.
“He’d been briefed by Lesley, so he knew there was a slot starting at two thirty,” said Corinne.
“He made sure to arrive in good time and turned up at about… Well, actually, there was no ‘about’ about it. The Farmer was very precise: Alastair Gavey arrived at the reception desk at two twenty-seven. And guess what? Cash prize for anyone who guesses right.”
This livened Toby up no end. “Um, erm… He was barred for having a rude wife?”
“Nope.” Corinne smiled. “Ree? Can you beat Toby to the win?”
“They made him wait in reception for three minutes instead of letting him in early?”
“Hang on,” said Mum. “The Farmer told you this story?”
“Mm-hmm.” Corinne smiled.
“I’ve heard he ignores all village gossip.”
“Most of the time, yeah. Normally his mind’s on crops and combine harvesters and stuff, but he owns the Field View Health Club, so he’s interested in what happens there.”
“The Farmer owns the Field View Health Club?” Mum squeaked. “I did not know that!”
“Mark?” Corinne addresses the rearview mirror. “Want to try and guess what happened next?”
Dad shook his head and said nothing, to remind everyone that he was waiting to discuss more serious matters. He had the expression of a recently kidnapped person who has just realized his captors are nonviolent but lethally irritating.
“Well, if they didn’t make him wait, they must have let him in three minutes early,” said Toby.
“Correct!”
“I win!” My canny, non-furry brother got straight down to business: “How much is the prize?”
“Nothing yet,” said Corinne. “Yes, the receptionist let Alastair in early, but that’s not the part you have to guess in order to win. What do you think happened after that? Ree? Any hunches?”
“Alastair Gavey swam thirty lengths,” Toby said impatiently. “Not gonna lie, I’ve played more fun games than this one.”
Corinne chuckled. “Yes, but what happened after that?” She was enjoying tormenting us all.
“Oh my God,” said Mum. “I think I’ve guessed. Did Lesley go back and kick up a stink because they let Alastair in early, after telling her the rules couldn’t be—?”
“Yes!” Corinne cried out, startling us all.
Dad muttered something angry-sounding under his breath.
“Yes, she did. They couldn’t have it both ways, she insisted: Either the timetable rules were strictly observed, and no exceptions could be made, or there was flexibility.
The manager agreed. He assured her there would be no flexibility ever again.
That wasn’t good enough for Lesley, though; she wanted someone punished for the original flexibility.
The manager agreed to that too. He gave the young man who’d let Alastair in early a formal warning.
Can you believe it?” Corinne shook her head.
“I can, quite easily,” said Mum.
“The poor guy had to write Lesley a letter of apology,” Corinne went on. “You’d have thought that would be good enough for her, but no. She demanded an apology from the girl who’d dealt with her too.”
“For what?” Mum asked. “That girl was implementing the manager’s rules, wasn’t she?”
“Guess again,” said Corinne. “What would Lesley Gavey’s answer to that be?”
“Shouldn’t we clarify what the cash prize is?” said Tobes. “Or are there two? Is this a new one?”
“Lesley Gavey would say…” Mum thought hard.
“God, this is scary. Why do I feel like I know what twisted crap she’d come out with in every hypothetical situation?
Did she say…that the girl who’d stopped her from swimming as long as she wanted to had lied to her by saying they never made exceptions when that wasn’t true, because the man who let Alastair in did make exceptions? ”
“Bang on.” Corinne laughed. “The manager had lost the will to live, understandably, and caved in completely. Lesley got a second apology letter, and even that wasn’t good enough for her.
She discontinued her and Alastair’s membership and said the Gaveys would only rejoin if both those staff members were fired and the swimming slots system was completely abandoned.
So now she has nowhere to swim, which she complains about bitterly to anyone who will listen. ”
“Why doesn’t she join Quy Mill?” asked Toby.
“Because I work there.” Mum knew she was right about that one.
“Yup,” said Corinne. “You won’t catch Lesley Gavey giving a penny of her hard-earned money to a company that employs Sally Lambert, who once callously threw her out onto the street when she was at her lowest ebb.
Though she’s happy to live opposite you, which makes no sense,” Corinne concluded with a shrug.
“There’s nothing happy about her,” said Toby. “No one who’s happy screams the way she does.”
“I didn’t throw her out,” Mum protested. “I told her I had a Zoom meeting that was about to start. There’s a difference.”
“Yes, I meant to ask,” said Corinne. “Tell me about Lesley screaming at her family, Toby.”
“It happens at least once a week,” he told her.
“It’s the most insane thing you’ve ever heard.
All I need to do is open my bedroom window and I can hear every word, and then Tess screaming back or Alastair mumbling sorry and crying in the background.
I’ve recorded a couple of the most mental episodes.
I’ll… Oh, I can’t. They’re on my phone at home.
You can only ever hear Lesley when you play them back.
She sounds like she’s about to kill someone. ”
“What kind of thing does she say?” Corinne asked.
“There are a few recurring topics, aren’t there, Tobes?” said Dad. “Tidiness, money—”
Toby nodded. “Yeah, it’s either, like, ‘I break my fucking back trying to keep this house clean and tidy and then you both fucking leave your fucking shoes here instead of where shoes are meant to go in the fucking shoe cupboard, you fucking bastards—’”
“Tobes, stop swearing,” Mum said.
“I’m not swearing, Mum. I’m acting.”
“No, you’re reporting,” Corinne corrected him. “You’re being a citizen journalist.”
“Sometimes it’s ‘No, you can’t have twenty pounds for a taxi, you spoiled, entitled sponger who knows nothing about the value of money having never earned any in your life.
’” Tobes was getting into his performance.
“‘You’re so useless, it doesn’t occur to you to use your brain and build your own steam engine out of twigs to get you back home, and where are you even going when you don’t have any friends and no one likes you?
’ That sort of thing, but with the kind of swearing Mum can’t handle. ”
“He’s not exaggerating,” Mum told Corinne. “I mean, maybe not the steam engine bit, but the rest is pretty much word for word. Until yesterday, I’d have said, ‘Poor Tess,’ but now that she’s lied about Champ and put him in harm’s way…”
Evidently Mum and I ended up drawing different conclusions about who was worse, Lesley or Tess. Our later actions bore that out.
“Do you really think Tess’s bite is just makeup?” Mum asked Corinne, who, under her false Instagram name, had left a comment on Tess’s post saying, “‘Not a real wound, you lying little turd. Clearly eye shadow, lipstick, and mascara all mixed up together.’”
“Nope. The wound’s real,” Corinne said. “If you’re talking about what I said on Insta?
I was engaging in some fairly run-of-the-mill psychological warfare.
And if the Gaveys are willing to lie in one direction, they can’t object to me lying in the other.
Tess must have a bona fide injury that she’ll have needed to show the police in order to swing them into action.
But…not from Champ. Nothing to do with him. ”
“Are we done bitching?” asked Dad. “Any chance we can talk about where we’re going and why, and what the broader plan is?”
He might not have enjoyed waiting to find out, but it was lucky Mum and Corinne had squashed his first attempt to shut them up.
If he’d succeeded in turning the conversation to plans and practicalities any sooner, we’d all have missed a clue we had no idea we would soon need.
At that point in our haphazard road trip, however, none of us knew how game-changing the story of Lesley Gavey versus the Field View Health Club and Spa would turn out to be.