‘Look, Karen. We’re not worried about Eleanor’s safety, or the safety of her son. It’s an easy mistake to make, and as you say, she panicked – I’m sure I would have done the same.’ Looking at her, Karen thought that probably wasn’t true. ‘We just wanted to make sure she wasn’t going home on her own in a state, to dwell on what’s happened here and make herself feel worse.’
Karen let out a relieved breath. ‘Thank you. I’ll take her home; I’ll look after her.’
‘But …’ Oh Christ, Karen hated that but. ‘I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t inform someone at social services what happened here.’
‘Is that really necessary? You said yourself it was an easy mistake.’
‘Yes, and I do believe that. However, if something were to happen to Eleanor or her son, it’d be my neck on the line. They’re going to want to have a quick chat with her, just to check everything is okay. She needs to be prepared for that.’
‘Fine.’ Karen turned to look back at where Eleanor was sitting, clinging on to Noah as though someone might walk in at any second and take him away from her. ‘Of course you need to do your job. Just let me take her home and prepare her.’
‘That’s exactly why we called you. Support your friend, Karen. I get the feeling she needs that more than anything at the moment.’
‘What did they say?’ Eleanor asked as they walked across the car park to her damaged car. ‘Are they going to take Noah?’
Karen shook her head. ‘They said it was a simple mistake, but they have to let someone at social services know. It’s part of their job.’
Eleanor looked as though she might burst into tears again. ‘I knew it. I knew she hated me, that female one. She looked at me like I was shit on her shoe.’
Karen stopped, and turned to face her full on. ‘She doesn’t hate you, she was worried about you. Why did you park so far away, Els? When you had to leave the car?’
‘I didn’t park there.’ Her voice was low and urgent. ‘I had to pretend I did to get them to stop treating me like I was mad, but I know, Karen, I parked exactly where I always park. Toby will tell you. I could see the car from the school.’
‘But you didn’t see anyone move it?’
‘I was waiting for that bloody secretary to finish her fag. I went into the reception, but I was only gone for a few minutes! Someone did this to make me feel like I was losing my mind. I swear, Karen, you’ve got to believe me.’
‘I do,’ Karen promised, and the look of relief on her friend’s face told her it was the right thing to say. ‘I’ll look after you. I promise.’
34
Eleanor
‘Oh come on, Eleanor, who the hell would want to steal your car to move it fifty bloody yards? It doesn’t make any sense! And how could you be so fucking stupid as to leave Noah unattended? What if the car really had been stolen?’
‘It was stolen, Adam; you’re not listening to me!’ Eleanor tried to keep her voice low to avoid waking Noah, but she could feel panic rising in her chest again. ‘You heard Toby! He told you we’d parked close to the school!’
What he’d actually said, under close questioning from both Eleanor and Karen, and with a shrug of his shoulders, was that he was ‘pretty sure’ they’d parked in their usual spot. But it had been a long day, his friends had all been talking about the police coming to school to arrest his mum and the shine had been taken right off his amazing project. Once again Eleanor was the bad guy, and she could tell he was in no mood to jump to her defence.
‘Toby doesn’t remember what he had for breakfast,’ Adam snorted. ‘Assuming you remembered to give him breakfast.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
His face was bright red from the effort of not yelling, but despite his quiet tone his words tore at her chest. ‘You’ve not exactly been yourself lately, Els. You always seem so frazzled, you lose things on a daily basis, you don’t know if you’re coming or going. And now this …’ He waved his arm. ‘We need to decide what we’re going to say when social services turn up.’