3. Chapter 3
3
T he time between Ryan calling her Mel and realising what he had said was probably only a second or two, but for Katie, time stopped. His words reverberated through her, pulsing in her veins in time with her quickening heartbeat. She went stock-still, the blood draining from her face as her breath caught in her throat and held there.
Ryan froze mid-turn to the door.
Katie was oddly aware of herself and her surroundings as if she was having an out-of-body experience and was standing one step away from herself, calmly watching on. She noticed that she was sitting very still on her usual stool at the kitchen island, both hands wrapped around her coffee mug, her mouth slightly open in shock. There was a small pile of unopened post on the counter across from her and a wedding invitation they had yet to respond to. The coffee machine burped and hissed. The ticking of the kitchen clock echoed loudly around the room.
Ryan recovered quickly, if badly. ‘Oh god, sorry!’ He had said, flushing. ‘I’ve got a meeting with Melissa first thing.’ She could feel he was studying her reaction. ‘Must be on my mind, that’s all.’
He had laughed awkwardly, and then gone back for another kiss and another goodbye, as if to erase the first one. She sat impassively as his lips pressed to hers.
‘Bye K,’ he said, grinning now as if they were both in on his mad joke.
His attempts to explain it away were almost worse than calling her by another woman’s name.
Katie had listened to the slam of the front door, the beep of the car unlocking, the engine purring to life and then, moments later, revving as Ryan took off down the street.
An odd stillness had taken hold. A voice in her head whispered, ‘you’re not wrong.’
For several moments she had felt like she couldn’t move. But she had a life to get on with, work to do and deadlines to meet for clients. After a few minutes she had hauled herself off the kitchen stool, legs like ton weights as she dragged herself upstairs to the office, on auto pilot as she switched her computer on. She looked at the list of tasks for the day but the words swam in and out of focus.
You don’t know anything, she told herself, fingers trembling as she typed in her password and logged on. It was a slip of the tongue.
‘What else is slipping?’ came a voice in her head.
At lunchtime Katie messaged Jess. ‘New information. Can I borrow the car tonight please?’
***
The rain continued to lash down and in the distance was the faint rumble of thunder from a summer storm.
Cars edged past where Katie was parked, windscreen wipers swinging furiously, waves of surface water rolling in their wake. A jogger ran past, soaked to the skin, confidently striding through the downpour.
Slowly, lights came on in other houses along the street, TV screens played shifting colours through front windows, but the house with the pink door remained in darkness.
Katie scratched under the wig and shook herself. This was madness. She glanced at the time. If anyone was going to show up here for a rendezvous, they’d surely have been here by now. She was either wrong about the place or… She sighed. Or she was wrong about the entire thing.
She reached for the keys in the ignition, fingers brushing the dangling furry keyring and sliding up to the hilt of the key. But before she could grasp them and turn, a car came along the street from the other direction, indicated and swung into the driveway of the house with the pink door.
Katie’s hand fell away from the keys and she held her breath, her entire body frozen.
The little red sports car was still for a moment, then the headlights went off and the interior lights came on. Katie was too far away to see anything. She dug her finger nails into her palms.
The driver’s door swung open, a hand holding a pink umbrella stuck out, and the brolly sprang open. A long, slender leg swung out, spiked heel hitting the wet tarmac. Katie swallowed and shuffled her feet in her acid-blue trainers. A shapely body clad in a figure-hugging dress unfolded itself from the tiny driver’s seat and stood. The woman reached back into the car, pulled out a handbag, straightened, and nudged the door shut with her hip, turning towards the house.
She was on her own.
Katie started to breathe again and slumped against the inside of the car door. Her armpits were soaked with acrid nervous sweat. It seemed she had been wrong—just her nasty, suspicious mind. She reached up for her wig—no need for subterfuge now, she could head home.
But as her fingers grazed the synthetic fringe, the passenger door of the sports car swung open. The passenger must have called out something that made the tall, lithe blonde woman turn and laugh as she put the keys into the front door.
Melissa, Ryan’s colleague at work.
A dark head and shoulders emerged from the car. Katie strained to see through the summer rain and fading light. The heavy rain was streaked across her windscreen, rivulets turning into rivers, obscuring the view. She instinctively reached for the keys to turn the electrics on to use the wipers.
She flicked the ignition. Full beam headlights came on and the radio started blasting Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light at full volume, the car vibrating with the bass. Melissa turned to look at the parked car down the street that had suddenly sprung to life. Katie threw herself across the passenger seat, her wig slipping off completely and falling into the passenger foot well.
‘Fuck,’ she hissed.
Though with Meatloaf screaming around the street, there was no point in keeping her voice down. She reached an arm along her side, behind her, scrabbling for the keys to kill the ignition. The handbrake dug into her left hip as she fumbled around the steering wheel column until her hand brushed something furry—the giant hot-pink fluffy keyring Jess used to make her keys easy to find. She felt her way up to the car key and flicked it off. Meatloaf abruptly shut up, the headlights snapped off, and the wipers froze mid-screen. Katie lay prone across the front seats, feet still in the driver’s footwell, head on the passenger seat. She stared at the pool of brown wig hair, like a dead guinea pig in the passenger footwell.
Leaning back against the passenger seat, her head still low, she tried to peer out of the window and see through the streaks of rain on the windscreen. The door of the house was starting to close, a blurred dark figure in the doorway. One last slice of light from the hallway light, then it was gone.
‘Fuck,’ Katie muttered, bolting upright.
What now?
The plan had been to see if Ryan had come to the house. Someone had been with Melissa, but she wasn’t sure who. She had missed her chance.
‘Fuck’ she said again, banging her palm on the steering wheel.
She sat and watched the house as it slowly came to light and life. A light came on in the living room window, then a few moments later, the glow of a lamp in the front bedroom.
What was there left to do? She could call Ryan, see if he answered. And if he did, what then? Demand to know what house he was showing? Go along to see if he was alone? He’d demand to know why she was interfering with him working and there’d be an almighty row.
Her phone pinged, and she grabbed it from her pocket. It was Jess.
Well? What’s happening? Are you okay?
Katie hesitated. She was sitting in her friend’s car, with a wig, an overcoat, and fake glasses, spying on the house of her boyfriend’s colleague, so it was safe to say she was far from okay. She typed back.
All fine. Couldn’t see properly. Will be back soon x
Katie glanced back up at the house. One last look to try to divine what was happening behind that closed pink door.
A car coming from the other direction pulled up at the kerb and stopped just before the house. The lights flicked off, and the car fell into darkness, not even the interior lights came on. Katie watched, but no one got out.
That’s weird .
Then she reminded herself she had been sitting in this car for over an hour. In disguise.
A bright moving light flared up inside the car, the light of a phone screen. It went off moments later, as if someone had tried to make a phone call but not got through. Still, no one got out of the car. It was dusk now, and the light was too poor to make out anything from this distance.
Time to go home, said the sensible part of her brain.
Sshhhh! Let’s watch, said the other part.
The driver’s door of the car opened, and a male figure got out. The rain was easing to a fine drizzle, and the man didn’t seem to mind. He shut the car door quietly and looked at the house with the pink door. He was tall, Katie could see, and wearing a dark suit. He walked towards the house, across the pavement, onto the drive. He glanced down into the sports car and back up at the house.
Curiosity got the better of her. Katie lunged into the passenger footwell, grabbed the wig, and jammed it on her head, spinning it round until the fringe was in the right place, tucking stray strands of her own red hair out of sight. She jammed the glasses onto her nose and tightened the overcoat around her. She wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but she knew she may not come across as entirely sane, so it was best to press forward in disguise.
She opened the car door and stepped out, trainer-clad feet stepping right into a puddle. She quietly clicked the car door shut behind her, and clicked the key to lock it. The lights flashed as it locked and the man outside the house glanced down the street towards her. She took a breath then and took a confident stride forward only to be brought up short as her overcoat belt was trapped in the car door.
‘For fuck’s…’
She yanked at it but it was jammed. Constant flashing lights of cars locking and unlocking was hardly the behaviour of an undercover sleuth. She untied the belt and left it hanging in the door, holding the coat closed against the drizzle as she took off down the street.
A family car drove past and rolled onto a driveway a few doors down, kids spilling out noisily, lights going on throughout the house. The rain rolled down the synthetic fringe and dripped onto her nose.
As she drew closer, the man looked up and watched her. She was walking on the pavement now, on the same side of the road as the house, approaching the point where the driveway, with the little sporty car, met the road. She had no idea what she was going to do.
She was just a few steps away now, the drips running freely off her fringe and onto her glasses, one hand clutching her grey overcoat closed, trainers splashed with water and mud.
‘Hi,’ the man said, watching her as she marched as authoritatively as she could muster along the pavement.
‘Hello,’ she replied and kept walking for a few more paces, passing him. Then she stopped abruptly and pivoted on her heel. It was now or never.
‘Do you live here?’ she asked.
The man turned to face her, ‘Sorry?’
She nodded and cleared her throat. He was tall and, even in the dim light, quite clearly a good-looking man. Katie was suddenly keenly aware of her own appearance.
‘Do you live here?’ she repeated. ‘In the house with the pink door?’
The man considered for a moment. ‘Why are you asking? Are you the Neighbourhood Watch?’
Katie bristled inside her large overcoat. ‘I was just…I don’t think…I…’
Being mistaken for the neighbourhood watch lady was more than she could take.
‘No, I didn’t mean it like that. I…’ God this was going to sound pathetic. ‘I think that maybe… maybe … my boyfriend is having an affair. And I was,’ she sighed. This sounded so much worse when said out loud. ‘I was watching from down the street to see if he went in there with the woman I thought lived here but … some people came back, I think it was two, but I couldn’t see and Meatloaf came on,’ she was rambling now, ‘and so I had to hide and now I don’t know.’
‘What makes you think he’s having an affair?’ the man asked, leaning against the sports car and folding his arms. The rain had faded to a mist. The man’s dark hair was damp and curling in waves on his head.
‘Huh?’ Katie said. ‘Oh, well…’
She let go of the edges of her overcoat and crept a couple of steps closer. She could feel the weight of the water pulling her wig backwards so she tugged it forwards again. The man raised an eyebrow at the gesture.
‘He sent me a weird message a few weeks ago that he couldn’t explain that seemed like it was for someone else, he’s been working late.’ she made air quotes as she said it, ‘a lot recently, but it doesn’t seem like he has anything to show for it and, erm… this morning,’ she shoved her hands into the overcoat pockets and stared at her muddy trainers for a moment before lifting her head and meeting his gaze. ‘This morning he called me Mel.’
She swallowed. The man looked at her.
‘That’s not my name,’ Katie said, by way of explanation. ‘But it is the name of the woman who lives here. Who he works with.’
The man nodded and ran a hand through his hair. ‘And you think he might be in there right now?’
Katie nodded. ‘Maybe.’ She slumped inside the rain coat. ‘Or maybe it’s just my evil imagination. So,’ she laughed awkwardly, ‘that’s why I was asking about the house. What are you doing here?’
‘I’m Melissa’s boyfriend.’
Katie’s hand flew to her mouth.
‘Oh my god! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to… I mean, I’m probably wrong.’
After all . Katie resisted the urge to look him up and down. Only a fool would cheat on you.
The man sighed and looked down at his shoes.
‘Actually,’ he said. ‘I’m here for the same reason as you. I’ve had a feeling for a while that something is off. I thought perhaps she was just getting ready to break things off, but I did wonder if there was something more to it.’
‘Oh god,’ Katie said, her stomach turning over. She leaned forward resting her hands on her knees. ‘So my boyfriend really could be in there with…’
‘With my girlfriend. Yes.’
They stood in a companionable depressing silence for a few moments.
Then Katie felt a fury run through her belly and suddenly her legs were moving and she marched up to the man.
‘Well, don’t you think we need to know?’
She crossed the last few feet of the driveway, stalked past the man and tried to peer in the downstairs window. The venetian blinds were tantalising—not quite fully closed, but the slits between the blinds were too narrow to make out anything other than some distorted shapes.
The man came up behind her. ‘What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like?’ Katie hissed. ‘I’m trying to see who’s in there. But the window is too high and the blinds are closed.’
‘Heaven forbid people should like some privacy in their own homes,’ he muttered, as he stepped gingerly around the muddy, sparsely planted flower bed.
‘Heaven forbid there’s an affair going on behind these blinds!’ Katie said in a stage whisper, jabbing a finger towards the window.
She stepped back and nearly fell over a stunted lavender bush, grabbing onto the window sill to stop herself from falling. Her glasses slid down her nose and fell into the flower bed. She bent and fumbled for them, brushing off the dirt and jamming them into her pocket.
The man was looking at her oddly.
‘What?’ she demanded.
‘Sorry, it’s just that your hair is um, it’s sort of sliding…’
‘Ugh,’ Katie yanked the wig straight. ‘It’s a wig,’ she hissed. ‘I was in disguise so he wouldn’t see me in the car down the street.’
They stood in the flower bed just underneath the window, drips from the guttering plopping onto Katie’s head and overcoat.
‘We could always just ring the doorbell,’ the man said, and shrugged.
‘No!’ Katie hissed. Her hand shot out and grabbed him by the wrist. ‘No, we can’t do that.’
‘Why not?’ The man glanced down to where Katie’s fingers were digging into his arm through his suit jacket.
‘If he’s in there, I don’t want him to know that I’ve been… that I … that I was spying on him,’ she hissed.
The man frowned. ‘But if he is in there, does it matter if he knows how you found out?’
Katie paused and relaxed her grip on the man’s arm.
‘Oh. No. I suppose not.’ Then in a small voice, she added, ‘But what if he is in there and it’s just a work meeting?’
The man shifted his weight in the flower bed. ‘At nearly 8pm at night?’ he asked softly. ‘In my girlfriend’s house?’
Katie nodded her understanding, feeling her wig slide with every bob of the head.
They stood quietly for a moment, then she looked up at him in the damp, dusky light.
‘What will you do if we’re right?’ she whispered, pulling her overcoat around her.
The man contemplated the flower bed for a time.
‘I’ll just walk away,’ he said. ‘If it turns out she is in there with…’
‘With my boyfriend,’ Katie finished, on a whisper.
‘Yes. And if they are, in fact, um…’
‘Yes. If they are….’
‘Then I’ll just go. What could there possibly be to say?’ He paused. ‘I’ve learned to take more from what people do, than what they say.’
They looked at each other for a few moments, locked into the shared fear of what might lay behind the door.
Tears welled up in Katie’s eyes, a ball of anger rising beneath them.
‘I don’t know,’ she managed. ‘I can think of some things I might say…’
She glanced down at the muddy garden at their feet.
‘I’m desperate to know,’ she whispered, ‘but part of me wants to walk away. If we’re right…’ She swallowed. ‘It will be the beginning of the unravelling of everything in my life. Everything that I know.’
She shuffled her feet in the flower bed and glanced up at the window. ‘We’ve been together for so long, it will be like a whole new world.’
The man nodded. He reached for her hands and took them in his. His hands were warm, his grip firm and reassuring.
‘So,’ he said quietly, gazing down into her face. ‘Do we walk away? Or shall I knock on that door?’
Katie peered up at him from beneath the crooked fringe of the wig, relishing the moment of companionable comfort, then slid her hands from his. In a decisive whisper she said, ‘Knock on the door. At least we’ll know.’
The man nodded. ‘Are you coming?’
Katie shook her head. ‘You go on your own. It’s your girlfriend’s house, so if we’re wrong, you can just… Go in. And I’ll go home. No harm done. After all, how would you explain this?’
She gestured to her outfit, drenched wig and sodden trainers.
The man gave a weak grin and nodded. Then Katie hurried off and hid behind the sports car to watch.
She peered through the rain-streaked windows as the man turned to face the door. She saw his shoulders rise and fall as he took a breath, then in three strides he was under the porch. He raised his hand to the knocker and Katie heard three sharp raps then he stepped to the side, giving her a clear view of the door.
Seconds felt like minutes as she waited. A droplet of water dripped off the back of her wig and ran straight down her spine, making her shiver. Her feet were going numb from her squatting position behind the car. Spying was much less comfortable than she had expected.
She could hear a faint voice. The door swung open and there was Melissa. Wrapped in a pink satin dressing gown, blonde hair tousled, feet bare. Katie felt her breath catch in her throat. When Melissa saw who was at her door, the smile dropped from her face and she pulled the door closer to her, blocking any view into the hallway.
‘Oh, Tom…’ Katie heard her say. ‘I thought…’ She pulled her dressing gown around her. ‘I ordered Chinese… I thought…’
Katie squinted through the rain-splattered windows of the sports car and strained to hear. The man—Tom—hadn’t said anything yet.
‘Are you okay?’ he said, after a moment.
‘Um…yes,’ Melissa replied, her tone shrill. ‘Just…feeling under the weather. Getting to bed early, having a takeaway…so I don’t have to cook…’
There was a shadow of movement in the hallway behind her. Melissa looked stricken.
Then a voice Katie knew all too well, called out, ‘Babes, here’s the cash. Tell the driver to keep the change.’