the television, from what Gary says. He knows Sean quite well. And then she gets smashed and Sean puts her to bed. He’s great with the kids, though.’
Oh goodness, poor Sean, thought Leo. It wasn’t appropriate to ask more, and the two women were silent for a moment.
‘Awful news about the accident, wasn’t it,’ Penny said, changing the subject. ‘My girls knew about it. One of their friends has a sister in Abbie’s class, and she says they all went out for an end of term celebration last night to the burger place in town. Abbie was with them - but nobody knows what happened after that. The worst of it is that she was knocked down on the back road. Other than people from the village, nobody else uses it. It might well be somebody we know. Imagine how awful that would be.’
‘It must be difficult having daughters of your own when you hear stories like that. A fourteen year old being out that late and in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know how you sleep!’
‘Hah - that’s easy an easy one to answer. Badly! I have a prescription for sleeping tablets, but I don’t always take them. It depends whether Gary’s home or not.’
The conversation was interrupted by a worried looking Max.
‘Have you seen Ellie, Leo?’ he asked. ‘I wanted to check that she’s okay.’
Seeing Penny’s confused expression, Max gave a weak explanation.
‘Sorry, Penny. Mimi said something that I think Ellie may have taken to heart, and Pat’s given her hell for it. She’s stormed off somewhere saying that he’s never on her side. Now it seems everybody’s disappeared, so I think I’ll go and look for Ellie.’
For some reason, Leo had the feeling that this wouldn’t be a great idea.
‘She said she needed a couple of minutes, Max. She’s probably feeling stressed about that poor kid she’s been looking after at the hospital, and the talk about the accident tonight just reminded her. I think that if any of us tries to speak to her, she might crumble. I’m sure she’ll be back in a few minutes to finish off the dessert, when she’s got herself together.’
* * *
Ellie knew she was behaving badly. But she felt wretched. The phone calls, the rose, the constant, nagging doubts about Max. How she was going to survive the rest of the evening she didn’t know. She felt as if a scream were building up inside her chest, just waiting to be released.
She walked around the back of the house, away from the kitchen, away from people. She was glad of the dark now. All she could hear were her own footsteps on the gravel path and the occasional rustle of leaves as a light breeze brushed them. After all she’d learned tonight, she needed time to think.
She had known about Abbie’s accident of course, but she hadn’t been given any of the specifics and she’d had no idea where the accident had happened.
The back road. What if…
No. She mustn’t think like that. She had to be wrong.
Tom said the police were going to want to know who was out and where they were going. How was she going to keep this to herself? She hadn’t been through the village or on any of the main roads, so her car was unlikely to have been picked up on camera. She had kept to the lanes all the way. But it wasn’t only her car that she had to worry about. What about his?
She should have refused to meet him last night, but somehow he had known that Leo was there - of course he had. He was always there, watching. So the children were no excuse for her to stay home. Besides, she had sincerely hoped it would be a chance to put an end to it all. It hadn’t worked. Each day it seemed as if he wanted more from her.
If his car had been spotted, he would have to say where he’d been – and possibly who with. She had no idea of how far she might have to go to prevent Max from discovering the truth. How would she ever be able to explain it to him?
She should go to the police and admit that she was out. She knew that. But she hadn’t seen anything, and the impact on her family if the reason were made public would be catastrophic. If it hadn’t been for the accident, none of this would have had to come