Fragile Minds Page 0,87

her boys go gently.

‘Doesn’t think, Benjamin. And you’ve been with her now? Emma?’

Ben nodded shyly.

‘So you’re – you know,’ Silver poured his son a glass of juice. ‘You’re being careful?’

‘Dad!’

‘I’m serious.’ Silver wiped the rim of the glass. Anne’s washing-up left something to be desired. ‘Embarrassing or not, you do not want a puking baby at home at the age of seventeen, believe me. Even if you do think Emma’s The One.’

‘I hear you, Dad.’ Ben drained the juice so he didn’t have to look at his father.

‘So you’re taking precautions?’ Silver thought he’d better try and emphasise the point now he’d started.

‘Dad. We’ve done all this at school, all right? In Pshe.’

‘What the hell’s that?’

‘Durr,’ Ben pulled a face. ‘Sex education, Dad. You know, birds and the bees—’

‘All right, wise guy.’ It sounded plausible. ‘It’s just – I’m not ready to be a grandfather yet.’ Christ, what a terrible thought. Silver looked out at the darkening Moors and wondered where on God’s earth his life had slipped away to when he wasn’t paying attention.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Ben muttered. ‘I’m – we’re sensible.’

‘Grand. Now, look. I’ve got a proposition for you.’ Silver opened the door quickly and checked up the hall that Anne wasn’t about to come flouncing in with some new complaint. Then he leant against the worktop and eyed his son. He couldn’t believe Ben was so tall, taller almost than him. How the hell had that happened? It seemed only yesterday that Ben had been the mewling baby on Lana’s lap, muslin cloth firmly tucked around him so he couldn’t ruin her pristine skirt. ‘I’ve got to get back to London, to this case.’

‘The bomb?’ Ben tore into the chicken now.

‘Sort of the bomb,’ Silver agreed. ‘But your gran doesn’t want me to leave the kids.’

‘She’ll go mad if you do, Dad.’ Ben gnawed the meat down to the bone, flecks of chicken falling to the floor.

‘Yep, I know.’ Wincing, Silver shoved some kitchen towel towards his son. ‘Wipe the floor, mate. So I thought, as long as you were all right up here with your Emma, I might just take them with me.’

‘Who?’ Ben was lost.

‘Matthew and Molly.’ Silver took the kitchen towel from his son and shoved it in the bin.

‘Take ’em where?’

Silver concentrated on wiping the bin lid. ‘Down to London with me.’

‘What about school?’

‘What about it?’

‘Dad! Don’t be—’ Ben struggled for the word.

‘Difficult?’

‘Difficult, yeah.’

‘Obtuse?’

‘Dad!’ Ben grinned. ‘Yes, obtuse.’

‘Look.’ Silver took his son by the shoulders and held his gaze. Ben’s hazel eyes were on a level with his now. ‘Matty’s just finished his exams, and Molly breaks up next week. It’s not going to hurt her to miss a day or two. And they could do with it. They’re missing Mum.’

‘Well, when’s Mum coming back?’ Ben looked wary suddenly. His relationship with his mother was tense at the best of times; they had clashed badly since Ben hit puberty; which had coincided with the car crash. Ben had been seated next to his mother, in the passenger seat, directly in front of Jaime who had died almost instantly. And of course Silver had always thanked God, however much guilt he’d felt, that his own kids had been unhurt – but he’d also always worried that Lana’s latent hostility to her eldest son was his fault. Molly was the only girl, and Matty was Lana’s baby boy, but Ben – Ben was very much his father’s son, from his lopsided smile to his single-mindedness. Silver knew too that Ben had never forgiven his mother for that dreadful day. The boy may have walked away pretty much unscathed on the outside, but the inside was a different matter.

‘I don’t know, son.’ Silver heard the bastard Beer whisper quietly in his ear again at the thought of Lana. ‘I wish I could tell you. She’ll be gone till she’s sorted herself out, I guess.’

‘And when will that be?’ Ben’s jaw set rigid and he flung the stripped chicken bone in the bin savagely.

‘Soon, I hope.’ What more could Silver say? He really didn’t know what had got into his wife; whether this disappearing act precipitated some sort of breakdown, or whether it was just a bid for freedom. Only time would reveal the answer.

‘How long you planning to go for, Dad?’ Ben eyed him suspiciously. ‘Really just a day or two? All the way down there?’

‘OK, a week or two, maybe. It’ll be good for them. See the sights, broaden their horizons. Realise there’s a