‘It’s not that easy,’ Michelle said, wiping her eyes furiously, cursing herself.
‘Why not?’
‘You wouldn’t understand.’
‘Try me.’
‘I’ve staked everything on coming here and trying to make things better, Jackie. I need to give it a chance.’
‘Makes sense,’ Jackie said, drawing her legs up and watching Michelle over the rim of her mug. ‘But that just reminds me of sumthin’ Dad used to say.’
‘What was that?’
‘He said things don’t get better, people do.’
Michelle didn’t say anything at first. ‘I could do with a drink,’ she said eventually.
‘Another coffee?’
‘No, a drink drink.’
‘Bit early for that.’
‘Shame.’
‘One night soon, yeah? We’ll have that session we were talking about.’
‘You’re on.’
Another pause. Michelle sensed more questions were coming, but did nothing to encourage them. ‘So is that it then?’ Jackie asked after a while. ‘Your man’s business went tits up? That’s all you’re gonna tell me?’
‘That’s about it.’
‘I heard what you said about housin’, but couldn’t you just have downsized, sumthin’ like that? Why d’you move so far? You got family up this way?’
‘No, none.’
‘What then?’
Michelle paused again, knowing she shouldn’t say anything, but also knowing Jackie was right. This wasn’t her burden, why should she have to carry it? ‘Scott and I had a fight,’ she said, still unsure. ‘Can’t even remember what it was about now. Anyway, he got wound up and left the house in a temper.’
‘And…?’
‘And he had an accident. Kid just walked straight out in front of him and he hit her.’
‘Jeez…’
Michelle was shaking her head. ‘She was only six. They said it was her fault, that she shouldn’t have been out on her own. I mean, Scott was cleared and everything, but I still can’t help thinking…’
‘… that if you two hadn’t been fighting, it might not have happened?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Shit, Chelle, I’m sorry.’
‘Problem is, most folks aren’t so forgiving, especially those who knew Scott and knew what he’s like. They decided he was guilty before he went to court, and even afterwards they still blamed him. We had bricks through the window, graffiti on the garage door… That’s why the business went under, Jackie, and that’s why we’re here.’
Sophia, Jackie’s little girl, waddled over to her mother and handed her a remote control. It was sticky. Jackie wiped it clean on her dressing gown. ‘Beebies,’ Sophia said, and Jackie switched on the TV, thankful of the interruption.
‘Thank Christ for children’s TV, that’s all I can say,’ she said to Michelle.
‘Tell me about it. George watches the same two DVDs over and over. It does my head in, but it’s worth it. I’d never get anything done otherwise. It’s the only time he leaves me alone.’
‘Aye aye,’ Jackie said, pausing as she flicked through the TV channels, fighting off Sophia who tried to get the remote control back so she could put on the channel she’d asked for. ‘Look at this. We’ve made the news.’
Jackie’s television was too big for the room. It dominated one corner and, once it was on, its size demanded it be watched. There was an aerial shot of the train line on screen, pictures taken last night before the track was reopened. The police were out in force again with their garden gazebos and protective suits, unspooling miles more ‘do not cross’ tape. It reminded Michelle of the footage they’d been watching the other night, when they’d found that poor woman in the woods. Maybe Potter had something to do with that too? ‘It’s a terrible thing.’
‘From what Dez says, I don’t think Ken Potter was the type.’
‘Is there a type?’
‘Who knows. You never really know folks though, eh? Just goes to show.’
‘I guess,’ Michelle mumbled, distracted by something she was reading at the bottom of the screen. ‘Another body?’
‘What?’
‘They’re saying there’s more of them, look. Potter, the girl in his back garden, the woman in the woods last weekend, and two more.’
‘Shit, really?’
‘Look. Some guy in a village last week, and another one found between Falrigg and Potter’s house. Jesus, your man’s been busy.’
‘Someone in the shop was sayin’ last night that Ken Potter used to go walking out on Falrigg. I heard the woman there was killed the same way as the girl in his garden. They’re saying he did the same thing to both of them, apparently. Messed with them… mutilated them. Loads of blood, I heard. Nosy old cow in the post office said he sliced them up and left them to bleed out. Said it was sexual…’
‘Careful, Jackie,’ Michelle said, lowering her voice and nodding at the kids. ‘You never know what they’ll pick up on.’
Jackie nodded, but continued anyway. ‘You heard what he did, didn’t you? Threw himself in front of a train, apparently. I tell you, Chelle, it’s properly rattled some folks round here. They don’t know what to do with themselves.’
‘It all feels so close,’ Michelle said. ‘Too close.’ She watched the TV footage of the police operation; helicopter patrols, house to house enquiries, support drafted in from other forces… ‘Back in Redditch everything felt like it had some distance, you know? There was always hundreds of other people around to cushion the blow. Always some space between you and the rest of the world. It’s not like that here.’
‘Beebies!’ Sophia screamed, and Jackie changed channel, the perma-happy presenters and brightly designed sets of children’s TV immediately replacing the grim reality of the Thussock murders. It was a relief, and for the next few hours Jackie and Michelle drank coffee, ate junk food, and alternated between kids’ programmes and banal daytime TV. Michelle revelled in the mediocrity, feeling herself beginning to properly relax for the first time since arriving in town.
10
‘There’s a cinema in Thussock?’ Tammy said, not sure how she’d managed to miss something like that. ‘What’s on?’
‘Don’t know. I heard about it yesterday,’ Michelle explained as Scott parked the car. ‘It’s around here somewhere. Let’s go and have a look.’ Before anyone could say anything else, Michelle was up out of her seat. She ushered Phoebe out onto the pavement then leant inside and plucked George from his booster. She moved with far more conviction than the rest of her family. ‘Come on,’ she said, looking back at them, ‘what’s the matter with you lot?’
‘We’re coming,’ Tammy said. ‘Jesus, what’s the hurry?’
Michelle took the handle of George’s buggy from Scott then lowered her son down and strapped him in. ‘No hurry, I just want us to have a nice day out together, that’s all.’ She was off before any of them had a chance to respond.
They were looking for bright lights and neon, and so walked past the cinema twice before they found it. It was little more than an entrance between two shops, barely signposted and hardly lit. Three white steps up into a small, dark foyer, it looked more like an office than a cinema. Tammy’s heart sank when she saw it. She cursed herself for getting her hopes up. She should have known better by now. ‘This it?’
‘Guess so,’ Scott said as he and Phoebe studied the ‘now showing’ poster.