Chapter 25
They washed the cups from Nigel and Chantal’s visit between them, the kitchen suddenly silent after two hours of constant chatter. It didn’t take Alex long to bring up the subject of Lennon’s black eye.
‘There’s no way that guy walked into a tree,’ he said.
Zoe sighed. He was going to find out sooner or later, and it was bad enough she’d kept things from him for this long. ‘He didn’t. At least, unless there’s been more than one incident, in which case, he’s bloody unlucky.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘He got into a fight with Heath in the village. Outside the shop, of all places. I can’t even imagine what Magnus and Geoff made of it. Or Flo for that matter. Actually, scrap that. I know exactly what Flo made of it because she was the cause of it.’
‘Is Heath all right?’ It was telling that Alex’s first thoughts went to Heath, and that he assumed Ottilie’s fiancé had come out worst.
‘He had to go to the accident unit to get his lip sewn up, but apart from that and a dollop of bruised pride, I think he’s OK.’
‘How did it start? You said Flo was the cause…’
‘I think, from what they said when they came into the surgery with Heath after it happened, that Flo had pissed Lennon off, so he – according to Flo – gave her the old I know where you live routine. She told Heath, because it’s Flo and of course she did, and things escalated from there.’
‘Heath’s a reasonable guy…’ Alex shook his head as he dried a mug. ‘Always seems it to me. Lennon, on the other hand… well, I wouldn’t want to run into him in a dark alley, let’s put it that way. Whatever happened, it must have made Heath properly angry.’
‘Flo makes a meal of things, though. Everyone says that about her. She probably made it into some big drama and whipped Heath into a temper. Ottilie’s always saying, when it comes to Heath, Flo knows exactly which buttons to press.’
‘Still, it’s no reason to take a swing at the guy.’
‘We don’t know who swung first; we weren’t there.’
Alex shot her a look of disbelief. ‘Don’t we? I’d give good odds on it being that prat from across the way. When did this happen?’
‘Yesterday.’
Alex was silent for a moment. ‘If you knew about this yesterday, how come you didn’t say anything to me? Does your dad know that’s what happened? He didn’t seem to – at least, he seemed to believe that tree nonsense. How about Chantal?’
‘She knows,’ Zoe said. ‘I went over to see her.’
Alex’s eyes widened. ‘When did this happen?’
‘Yesterday, after work. I thought I’d handle it without having to drag you or anyone else into it…’ she shrugged. ‘That went well in the end, didn’t it?’
He was silent again as he put a bunch of mugs back into the cupboard. And when he turned back to face Zoe, there was real purpose in his expression.
‘Someone needs to do something about him. First the thing with Grizzle, then Victor’s mate’s sheep, now this with Heath. What’s next? You can’t just skid up to a village like this and let loose. This is not Manchester – actions here have bigger consequences.’
‘I’m sure they have consequences in Manchester,’ Zoe said.
‘They’re felt more here. Come on, Zoe, you know what I mean.’
‘He’s not going to be here forever.’
‘We don’t know that. If your dad isn’t even asking him to pay his way and he can swan about doing whatever he likes, what incentive does he have to leave? And your dad would never ask him, not unless he has a good reason. We need to give him a reason.’
‘Chantal might have something to say about that,’ Zoe said darkly.
Alex gave her a sharp look. ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means we had this exact conversation when I saw her, and she point-blank refused to speak to Lennon about leaving, and she has absolutely no intention of telling my dad about any of what’s been going on.’
‘He’s going to find out one way or another.’
‘Yes, but you’ve seen the hold she has over him. One look into those big blue eyes and he’ll do anything for her. If she says Lennon is a poor blameless victim, he’ll buy it.’
‘I don’t understand it,’ Alex said.
‘Me neither. I wish I did.’
‘Regardless, someone’s got to do something. I’ll go and talk to him.’
‘To Dad?’
‘No, to Lennon. There’s no point in going to the monkey, is there, when you can speak to the organ grinder.’
Zoe frowned, and he had the decency to look ashamed at his comment. ‘Sorry, unfortunate turn of phrase, but you know what I mean.’
‘I don’t think you should get involved.’
‘Why not?’
‘Firstly, I don’t think Lennon will listen. Secondly, he might decide to give you a taste of what he gave to Heath, and we have plenty going on here without that to add to the mix. Think about Billie. She’s struggling enough without having to deal with—’
They both spun round at the sound of a creak at the kitchen door to see Billie standing there with Louisa in her arms. ‘I came to get some water,’ she said, eyeing them both with the deepest suspicion.
It was hard to tell how much she’d heard of their conversation, but she had to have heard the last bit.
And for Zoe, perhaps the most damaging. Things were bad enough, and too many secrets had already been kept, so she decided to confront it.
‘Billie… we didn’t mean… we weren’t talking about you just then. I mean, you came up in the conversation, but it was nothing bad about you.’
‘So I’m not struggling then?’
Zoe gave a pained smile. ‘I don’t know about that. We haven’t talked about this properly, but I think we need to.’
‘Can it wait? I’m kinda tired.’
‘That’s just it,’ Alex put in. ‘Whenever we try to talk to you about it, you make an excuse. So what are we meant to think?’
‘Maybe you’re meant to think there’s nothing to talk about, and it’s you two making a big deal out of a problem that doesn’t exist.’
‘That’s not fair—’ Alex began, but Billie cut across him.
‘If you want to talk to me, talk to me. Don’t talk about me when I’m not there.’
‘It wasn’t like that, Billie,’ Zoe pleaded.
She turned the tap with such force that the water splashed all over the sink. Then she filled a glass and went to the door.
‘Billie…’ Zoe called after her as she left them without another word. Then she turned to Alex with a sigh of frustration. ‘Great. Nicely handled. You’d think, after years of working with new mums, I’d have this stuff figured out by now.’
‘You’ve never lived with any of them before,’ Alex said. ‘Don’t beat yourself up over it. We’ll sit her down and talk to her tomorrow.’
‘Doesn’t sound as if she wants to talk.’
‘We’ll insist that she does. The same as we’ll insist Lennon takes notice of what we’ve got to say.’
Zoe had almost hoped Billie’s entrance had caused him to forget about their other immediate problem.
He was right – someone needed to do something about Lennon, and Alex didn’t know the half of it.
She didn’t dare mention what had happened to Stacey in the pub because that would only have convinced him he had to take action, and the truth was, she didn’t want him to because she was scared for him.
It wasn’t that she thought Alex couldn’t look after himself, but seeing what Lennon had done to Heath, and knowing that Heath was no wimp, had convinced her that Alex was simply no match.
Nor would she want him to be – macho muscleheads weren’t her type, and she loved Alex’s quiet strength and reason more than almost anything else about him.
But he’d try and be the hero, and that was the problem.
‘Flo, as far as I know, is pushing to get the police involved over the thing with Heath.’ She decided to go for broke.
‘She usually gets what she wants, and so I would leave it to the police. They’ll go and visit him and give him a warning – even if they don’t charge him with anything, a caution should be enough to calm things down.
He’ll either behave, or he’ll leave, and either will do, won’t it? ’
‘I’d rather he went. I don’t think he knows how to behave.’
‘Then maybe he will. Either way, Chantal and Dad will have to keep a careful eye on him because they won’t want the police there again.’
‘Maybe you’re right.’
He went to sit at the table, and Zoe joined him, placing a hand over his. ‘I know you want to do the right thing, but I think this is the right thing. It makes the most sense to me. In the meantime, if someone really does have to do some confronting, I could go and have a quiet word with Dad.’
‘I thought you said he’d side with Chantal.’
‘I did, and he probably would, but I suppose I could try. You’d think being his only daughter I must have some influence…’
‘If you really think this will be sorted without our interference—’
‘I do.’
‘Then I trust you.’
Zoe gave his hand a squeeze. She’d been desperate to avoid police involvement, but she realised now that if it kept Alex out of the drama, then it was the only way they could let things play out.
The problem was, she didn’t know for sure that Heath would go to the police.
Ottilie had told her they’d discussed it, and that Flo was pushing for it, but they hadn’t decided one way or the other.
If Lennon was walking around with a black eye, Heath must have landed a punch or two, so there was a risk he’d end up getting into trouble with the police along with Lennon.
Perhaps they would decide to forget the incident and get on with their lives rather than invite trouble.
‘Thank you. I promise if anything else happens, we’ll go straight to Dad and sort it out.’
Alex frowned. ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t. If he does something else, I’m going to struggle with the knowledge that we could have prevented it…’
‘It’ll blow over. I’m sure Chantal will speak to him, if she hasn’t already. She doesn’t want him to leave, but she doesn’t want to keep defending him either, right?’
‘Seems like everything’s going a bit sideways, doesn’t it?’
Zoe smiled. ‘You can say that again. Sometimes it seems that way, but then things settle and you can’t imagine what you were so stressed about.’
Alex looked unconvinced, and Zoe didn’t blame him.