it that he'd already been through three other girls?" She knew that she sounded what she was: bitter. But it seemed to her in that moment that nothing in her life had ever been secure from depredation.
Her father said, -Kerra, people go their own way. There's nothing you can do about it."
-Do you actually believe that? Is that how you defend her? Defend him?"
-I'm not - "
-You are. You always have done, at least when it comes to her. She's made a fool of you for my entire life and I'll put money down on the bet she's made a fool of you since the day you met her."
If Ben was offended by Kerra's remark, he didn't say so. Rather he said, -It's not your mother I'm talking about, love, and it's not Santo. It's this Stuart lad, whoever he was. It's Madlyn Angarrack." He paused before finishing with, -It's Alan, Kerra. It's everyone. People will go their own way. You're best off to let them."
-Like you did, you mean?"
-I can't explain things further."
-Because it's a secret?" she asked, and she did not care that the question sounded like a taunt.
-Like everything else in your life? Like the surfing?"
-We don't choose where to love. We don't choose who to love."
-I don't believe that for a moment," she said. -Tell me why you didn't like Santo surfing."
-Because I believed no good would come of it."
-Is that what happened to you?"
He said nothing. For a moment, Kerra thought he would not reply. But at last he said what she knew he would say. -Yes. Not a single good came of it for me. So I lay down the board and got on with my life."
-With her," Kerra noted.
-Yes. With your mother."
Chapter Eleven
DI BEA HANNAFORD ARRIVED AT THE POLICE STATION LATE, in a foul mood and with Ray's parting words still gnawing at her. She didn't want anything Ray had to say taking up residence in her consciousness, but he had a way of transmuting good-bye from an innocuous social moment into the bolt from a crossbow, and one had to be quick to avoid getting hit. She was fast on her verbal feet when there was nothing else on her mind. But that was impossible in the middle of a murder enquiry.
She'd had to cave in on the issue of Pete, another reason she was late to the station. Given the absence of MCIT officers to work the case, given only the loan of a TAG team - and who the bloody hell knew when they were going to be withdrawn? - she would be putting in long hours, and someone had to look after Pete. Not so much because Pete couldn't look after himself, since he'd been cooking for years and he'd mastered the art of laundry the first time his mother had turned a beloved Arsenal T-shirt purple, but because he had to be ferried about from school to football coaching to this or that appointment and his time on the Internet had to be watched and his homework had to be monitored or he wouldn't bother to do it. He was, in short, an average fourteen-year-old boy who needed regular parenting. Bea knew she ought to be grateful that her former husband was willing to step up to the challenge.
Except...She was convinced that Ray had orchestrated the entire situation just for that reason: to obtain unimpeded access to Pete. He wanted a more definite inroad with their son, and he'd seen this as an opportunity to make one. Pete's new enthusiasm at having to stay at his father's house suggested Ray was having some success in this area as well, which caused Bea to question exactly what constituted Ray's approach to fatherhood: from the meals he served Pete to the freedom he gave him.
So she'd grilled her former husband as Pete had trotted off to the spare room - his room, as he had referred to it - to stow his belongings, and Ray had tunneled his way through her questions to their root, in his typical fashion. -He's happy to be here because he loves me," was his reply.
-Just as he's happy to be with you because he loves you. He has two parents, not one, Beatrice.
All things in the balance, this is good, you know."
She wanted to say, -Two parents? Oh, right. That's brilliant, Ray," but instead she said, -I don't want him exposed to any - "
-Naked twenty-five-year-old women running about the house?" he