The Split - Sharon Bolton Page 0,50

week with and who don’t even pay you for your time. Are you seeing them tonight?’

‘Mum, how many times—’

Her mug lands on the table a little too fast and tea spills over the edge. ‘I know,’ she snaps. ‘The homeless need help and there’s practically none available from the state. And the mentally ill are far more likely to harm themselves than others. I know all this, Joe. You’ve told me till I’m sick of hearing it. And I’m sure it’s all true. Until they do harm others. Until they harm you.’

‘Nothing happened, Mum.’

‘Somebody broke in here and helped themselves to one of your knives while you were sleeping. I’d call that something. I want to put a camera on the back of the building.’

‘OK.’

Joe sees his mother’s surprise that he has agreed so quickly. She doesn’t know, because he won’t tell her, that his ability to sleep for more than a few fitful hours has abandoned him since the incident.

‘Nice flowers,’ she says, as she picks up her mug again and wrinkles her nose. ‘Powerful scent.’

‘Sorry, Mum, too much on my mind. Thank you, they’re lovely.’

The mug of tea makes its way back down to the table. ‘What are you talking about?’ Delilah says.

Joe nods down at the flowers he’s just learned are called scented stocks. ‘Thank you, for the flowers,’ he repeats. ‘I’m not sure I can make that any clearer.’

Delilah glares at the coffee table as though it has suddenly become a crime scene. In a slow, low-pitched voice she says, ‘What on Earth makes you think they’re from me? When have I ever sent you flowers?’

‘They were waiting by the internal front door when I got home on Monday. You and your lot were here for most of the day. There was no card, so I assumed you’d left them. To cheer me up.’

Delilah’s face is hard as stone. ‘If I thought you needed cheering up, I’d tell you a joke. And I didn’t come here on Monday. I couldn’t get out of a meeting.’

Joe wonders if it is possible to feel any more of a fool.

‘Are you telling me someone came into the house, while my frigging people were here, and left you flowers?’ Delilah gets to her feet. ‘Jesus wept, Joe.’

She leans down, as though to lift the flowers and stops herself. ‘Did they come wrapped?’ she says. ‘Have you still got the cellophane?’

‘Kitchen bin,’ he tells her.

She strides from the room, pulling disposable gloves from her bag. He hears her rummaging around in the kitchen, the sound of the bin lid swinging, then she is back, with the florist’s wrapping.

‘They’re from the flower shop on Chesterton Road.’ She pulls the flowers from the vase. ‘I’ll go round tomorrow myself. And I want a burglar alarm installing in this place.’

‘It’s against the terms of the lease.’

‘Bollocks to that.’

Joe sighs. ‘I’ll talk to the management company.’

‘How did the bugger get in the building?’

‘The other tenants aren’t that hot on security. It’s possible someone in one of the other flats buzzed them in. And if your lot were coming and going most of the day, the front door could have been left open.’

Delilah looks ready to rip the flowers into pieces. ‘I can’t frigging believe this. I don’t know who I’m more livid with, you or the idiots I sent to check the place out.’

‘Mum, they’re only flowers. I’m fine.’

Delilah takes a deep breath. ‘Can you stay away from the homeless for a while?’

‘These people depend on me.’

‘Your kids depend on you.’

Joe is astonished to see tears in her eyes. He had no idea his mother could cry.

‘I depend on you,’ she says.

Joe takes the flowers from his mother and pulls her into his arms. They stand together for some time. He isn’t entirely sure who is comforting whom. He also knows that the entire time he is in the church hall this evening, talking to Dora, and Michael, and whoever else wanders in, his mother will be in her car, outside, watching over him.

37

Felicity

Felicity returns to work after her appointment with Joe. She has several outstanding projects to close if she is to travel to South Georgia before the summer is out, and she is more productive when the office is empty. She works until nearly ten, when it is almost completely dark outside and when she suddenly becomes aware that the lights in her large, open-plan office make her very visible to anyone outside.

You think there’s any place on Earth he won’t find you?

She