I wanted to cheer as he carried on. ‘“The way he’s been brought up”? Don’t you dare even start to have an opinion about his mother. I don’t know what weird notion you have in your head, but she was a fantastic mum, who knew how to teach her son right from wrong. But more than that she was one of the biggest-hearted, kindest women I’ve ever met.’ Patrick was stumbling over his words with the ferocity of feeling. ‘Not that I need to justify what she was like to you.’
Andrea kept trying to interrupt, while Rod was pulling at her arm and saying – though no one was taking any notice – ‘We don’t have to listen to this.’ But Patrick was talking over them both in his determination to have his say.
‘You have no idea who got hold of the drugs. You haven’t even asked yourself if Helaina might have surprised you all and bought some weed herself. No, you’ve defaulted to “the boy’s black. Must be him.” Literally, fuck off and consider yourself lucky that your daughter doesn’t have the deaths of three young people on her conscience. And when you’re ready, we’ll be very happy to hear your apology. It wasn’t any of our kids who got behind a wheel stoned out of their heads.’
Leaving Andrea and Rod standing with their mouths open, Patrick started to steer us all towards the car.
Faye was trying to hurry Georgia to their Range Rover, but she’d ground to a halt, crying, ‘It wasn’t Victor. He didn’t get the drugs. You can’t blame him.’
Lee wasn’t having any of it. He grabbed Patrick’s sleeve. ‘You’re being a bit out of order. We haven’t made a big deal of it because the lad’s had a rough ride and obviously we’re friends, but it’s a mighty coincidence that your lad arrives and, voyla, suddenly the kids are turning into right potheads.’
I didn’t think it was an appropriate moment to point out, ‘It’s not voyla, it’s voilà.’
Faye directed Georgia to the car and then came to stand with Lee. She patted Patrick’s arm and he all but batted her off.
He flicked his hands up in resignation. ‘You two can believe what you want to. I think you’re wrong about where the drugs came from, but I can’t prove it, so we’ll have to agree to disagree.’
And with that, he told Phoebe and Victor to get into the car before we had a whole bunch of curious onlookers crowding round us. I scuttled after them, mumbling a goodbye to Faye, who wiggled her fingers in my direction, though whether it was a dismissal or a wave, I wasn’t sure.
Victor was the first to speak. ‘I’m really sorry. I’ve let you down. I didn’t realise how stoned Helaina was.’
Patrick, the man whose attitude to my endless whittling was always, ‘Jo, don’t sweat the small stuff,’ could barely squeeze a word out. ‘Let’s talk about this tomorrow when we’re all calm again.’
But I couldn’t hold my anger in. ‘Honestly, you’re both a disgrace. People have loads of opinions on our family as it is without getting on the wrong side of Miss Philosophy at Cambridge! Where did the drugs come from?’
A silence stretched throughout the car as we headed home. Phoebe was no doubt working out what story to spin, what yarn to peddle to us. I felt my stupid heart clutch at the possibility that this time she might actually wake up to the fact that if she carried on like this she’d either blow her chances of getting any qualifications by getting expelled or end up shunned by everyone as too much of a liability.
I barely recognised my own voice. ‘Where did the drugs come from, Phoebe?’
There was no answer.
Patrick sighed. ‘Let’s deal with it in the morning.’
My whole body felt on fire, as though I might break something if I didn’t get an answer. ‘No. I’m not having you sit there and brush things over as this being something that “teenagers do”. Phoebe is going to answer us for once.’
Phoebe was uncharacteristically quiet. Eventually Victor said, ‘We all agreed to do it. It wasn’t Phoebe’s fault.’
I tried to soften my tone. ‘That still doesn’t answer my question about where the drugs came from.’
Patrick turned into our drive in a silence that enveloped us all in a blanket of distrust.
I climbed out, suddenly weary right down to my bones. ‘I will get an answer. Neither of you are going out again, ever, until I