it. ‘Oh Bill. You’re always so nice. I wish you’d liked me like you liked Ali.’
‘Don’t be silly, I like you both equally.’ His voice was neutral. Karen might have been drunk enough to share all her secrets, but he wasn’t. Not yet, anyway. Instead, he went up to his bed in Benji’s room, and stared at the glowing stars stuck to the ceiling, and thought of Astrid, and also of Ali in the next room, just metres away, and some time later he woke up to all hell breaking loose.
Chapter Six
I ran. When she said Mike, it was Mike, I ran straight out the door and through the grass in my short summer pyjamas and bare feet. I just had to find him, talk to him, and this would all be sorted out. What Karen said was insane. It couldn’t. He wouldn’t. I just had to find him. Afterwards, I’d have stinging welts all over my feet from the tiny sharp plants that lived in the lawn. I couldn’t see Mike at first, it was so dark, the light from the kitchen spilling out but failing against the blackness of the countryside. People were starting to emerge – Jake must have still been in the room over the garage, and he was coming out now, hair sticking up like a grouchy badger, to see why I was shouting. I saw Cassie from the corner of my eye, near the side of the house. She was in her skimpy pyjamas with flip-flops and a long cardigan. I didn’t understand why I was seeing that but I hadn’t time to think because I had to find Mike. There was Bill, in a T-shirt and pyjama bottoms, coming down the stairs into the kitchen, and Jodi was standing on the decking in her pyjamas, still with the cafetière in one hand. Where was Mike? This was crazy. This was a nightmare.
I found him on the swing seat, the one where Cassie and Jake had sat earlier. He was out cold, his hair sticking up, a sloppy drunk expression on his sleeping face. I remember thinking it looked swollen, as if he was allergic to something. ‘Mike.’ It was all I could do not to shake him.
He came awake slowly, his face screwed up as if he was in pain. ‘Oh God. Did I fall asleep?’
‘What the hell’s going on?’
He wiped his hands over his face. ‘Christ, Ali, don’t shout. My head.’
‘Mike! Karen’s saying that you . . . Someone’s attacked Karen!’
And haven’t I asked myself a hundred times since if I saw anything on his face? And I did. I know I did. A flicker of guilt. ‘What?’
‘She . . . she . . .’
‘You bastard!’ Jake was coming at him, across the lawn, and Bill was there, grabbing him by the elbows, murmuring something. ‘What did you do to her? What did you do?’ Jake kept saying it over and over.
Mike was gaping at us all – Jodi, Bill, me, Jake, Cassie lurking near the house still, pale and frozen. I could hear Karen in the kitchen, the high keening sound of her crying.
Bill said, ‘I’ve called the police.’ He was so calm.
I stared at him. I felt for a moment like he’d done it to hurt me, somehow. How could we have the police here? We could sort this out, surely. ‘Why?’ was what I said. ‘No, Bill, this is just – this is ridiculous! It can’t be!’
‘I’m sorry, but she . . . she begged me to.’ He sounded awkward. I saw the way he wasn’t looking at Mike. I felt Bill’s arm round my shoulders. ‘Come on, Ali. We have to let the police sort this out. We just have to keep everyone where they are until the police come.’
The police were so quick, I’d hardly had time to get my head around what was happening. I paced on the decking, in and out of the kitchen door, bewildered and shaking. It couldn’t be true. She’d made a mistake. I’d tried to go to Karen, to help her or soothe or ask her what she meant, because she couldn’t mean what it sounded like, but she’d pushed me away, stumbled from my touch. Her hands were trembling and her face was so white, as if all the blood had rushed out of her. Jake was in the kitchen with her, and Jodi was looking after her, and she’d shooed me away with a brisk, ‘I think it’s best