If he had come round before we got there, we would never have been able to stuff him through the hole. Even with just his dead weight, it was touch and go. Me inside hauling, Becky outside shoving. When he was in, I bent and looked through the opening at her.
“Are you sure you can stand being back in here?”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” she said. “Shift over and let me through.”
We took the tape off his mouth and propped him up on the far away side. We stayed close to the way out. Close together too.
“If he gets free or just if he starts moving too fast,” I said, “you go first and I’m right behind you, okay?”
“Okay,” said Becky. “Ssh-he’s stirring.”
He coughed and groaned, then he quieted as he remembered what had happened, remembered enough to wonder what was coming now.
“Hi, Gav,” said Becky.
I switched on the torch I’d brought.
“Hi Gav,” I said. “I hope your head’s clear, because I’d really like to get a few things straightened out before we leave you here, and the cement we mixed up won’t stay workable for long, so we’ll have to talk fast.”
“You didn’t mix any cement,” said Gavin.
“Okay, you’ve got me,” I said. “I didn’t mix any cement. And I didn’t get Becky out of here either. And I certainly didn’t keep you sweet and then take your children away. It’s all a fantasy.”
“Gus is home, by the way,” Becky said. “So even if Jessie hadn’t sussed you, you still would have failed when he saw this place.”
“Can I ask you what came first, Gav?” I said. “Where did it start? You don’t just one day say, ‘I know: I’ll kill my wife’s friend and pretend it’s her and brick my wife up and find someone to blame when I kill my kids and tell her I’ve done it’.”
“Tell her?” said Gavin. “Fuck that, I was going to put their bodies in here with her. There’s a plate in the roof that lifts off. The mortar’s just skim there. I was going to drop in more supplies and two dead kids to keep her company.”
“Why?” said Becky. Her voice was low, all the bravado gone.
“Because you had no right to leave me and take them away,” he said.
“And why kill Ros?” said Becky. “Why fake my suicide? Why not just say I had left you?”
“Seemed like more fun,” he said. “Nearly went wrong though!”
“Fun?” I said.
“He’s lying,” said Becky. “It wasn’t for fun. He didn’t want anyone to think his wife could leave him.”
“Ros died for that?” I asked.
“Ros deserved it,” said Gavin. “She thought she had the right to stick her nose in and help my wife to leave me. She had it coming. It was her fault how she ended up. Her choice all the way.”
“Did I deserve it?” I asked.
“You humiliated me,” he spat. “You deserved everything you got.”
“When was this?” I said. I honestly didn’t know.
“The cake,” said Becky. “He came home and told me.”
“And that fucking hellish guff in the living room too,” said Gus. He didn’t sound angry. He sounded… aggrieved.
“The smell of the spilled milk?” I said. “You’re not even kidding, are you? And Wojtek. What did he do?”
“Who?” said Gus.
“The Polish guy they found in the river,” I said.
“Who?” said Becky.
“Him!” said Gus. “I didn’t kill him. He nearly did for me, though. It was all going perfectly, a-okay. The car went over, right to the bottom, out of sight. Could have sat there for days. And I got back to the side road where I’d left my car without another soul seeing me. Perfect place it was. Too perfect. Totally deserted road with a motorway junction at the top and an A-road with a bus route along the bottom. Why do you think I picked it? Turns out I wasn’t the only one. Fifty yards from my car-a body! Slit from ear to ear, dumped at the side of the road, just lying there, laughing at me. Just one of those sick things. A total coincidence. So I moved him. Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily-”
I asked a question just to stop him singing before I threw up from the sound of it. Becky was quiet too. It had gone too far for her now. She was drifting again, exhausted, and must be in pain from the place he bit her.
“You tore off one of his bracelets,” I said.
“Oh yeah, he was dripping with that gay-boy shite,” said Gus. “Yeah, I burst one off. Meant to fling it in after him. Didn’t notice I’d forgotten till I was emptying my pockets.”
“You ruined your clothes,” I said. “You went in the water.”
“I had to,” said Gus. “But it was a coincidence. I didn’t kill him.”
“Yeah, you did,” I said. “And you’re wrong about the coincidence. If Ros hadn’t disappeared on Saturday, he’d never had been there to get killed at all. Where was she from Saturday to Tuesday anyway?”
“She was here,” he said. “I had to keep her alive until the drugs were out of her. But it gave her a chance to think too. About how sorry she was she’d poked her nose into my business. Should have heard her snivelling and begging. Should have heard the things she offered to do.”
“I don’t want to hear,” Becky mumbled. “Jessie, please. I’m so tired. I don’t want to hear any more.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Come on.”
“See you in your dreams, girls,” said Gavin. “I know you’ll never forget me!”
We stood. I helped Becky up and helped her through the hole in the wall too.
“You’ll do time for this,” he shouted after us. “Gus’ll shop you. The kids’ll end up in a foster home, Becky. Ruby won’t even be twelve before she learns to give a-”
“Shut up shut up shut up!” Becky screamed.
And after that all we could hear was his laughing, until I had heaped up the bricks and poured the bag of dry cement all over them. Would it hold him? It would have to.
Becky turned and started walking home.
“The kids’ll be back soon,” she said. “I can’t wait to see…” She stopped talking and then she stopped walking and then she sat down like someone in a frock at a picnic but kept sinking, folding over, and dropping until her face was on the grass. I sat down beside her.
I thought about what he’d said. It was rubbish. Becky wouldn’t do time. Ruby would never be near a foster home. I thought about Gus, the real Gus. Would he go along with it once he knew? And at last I thought about Gav. Tied up and in the dark. No matter what he had done. Tied up in the dark and starving. I got my phone out and dialled.
“Yeah. Hello? Hi, yeah,” I said when they had put me through. “Okayyyyy. Jessica Constable. It’s not my address, actually. But I’ll tell you where we are. And I know I asked for you guys, but we might need an ambulance too.”
I lay down beside Becky, looked up at the stars, told the cops the address, told them we were in the field between the cottage and the bay.
“Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?” I said. “Romantic? Sounds too good to be true.”
“Are you all right, love?” asked the dispatcher.
I started to tell her I was fine but stopped myself. “Not really, no,” I said. “Can you stay on the line, please?”
“I’m staying right with you, my darling,” she said. “You stay here with me.”
Postscript
Think Sandsea’s grim in October? Try it in February, when it’s rained every day for three weeks and the beach is covered in seaweed and lumps of sodden driftwood and the odd rotting seal. My stomach lifts and turns.
“It’s dead,” says Dillon. “It might come back, though.” It’s not a bad lesson to learn at two years old; bound to make him turn out optimistic about life in general. Ruby was the one who really bust a fuse.
“You lied!” she screamed. “You told me Mummy was dead! Where’s my daddy? Where is he? Bring him back. Now! Now!”