She slammed the phone down and closed her eyes, struggling not to scream.
Outside the phone box, a waiting young woman gave her a startled look. Susie pushed the door open.
“Men!”
She brushed past and walked along the river toward the meeting place with Rob. She was early. A few ducks swam hopefully toward her as she took a seat on a bench facing the river. “You’re out of luck,” she said to them. “If it helps, you’re not alone.”
For ten minutes, she watched the world walk by, trying her best to calm down.
But she was angry. Undermined.
Worst of all, she knew they were wrong.
She checked her watch and walked along to The Old Mill Hotel.
Inside the low-ceilinged building, she asked for two teas and found a table outside, overlooking the mill pond.
Rob appeared along the river path from Salisbury.
He looked terrible.
“You OK?” she asked.
He shook his head, looking as if he was about to cry.
“Christ.” She stood up and led him away from the hotel.
“What’s happened?”
“Mary left me.”
“What?”
“We were spotted, you and me. Some busybody from the church. Mary waited up for me last night. I think she’d spent the evening stewing, getting herself all worked up about it, and of course I was out with you.”
“God, I’m sorry, Rob.”
“What do I do?” He stopped walking and faced her. “You can fix this. You can tell her.”
“Haven’t you told her?”
“I said you were helping me, but she didn’t believe me.”
“Then what do you want me to say?
“Can’t you fix it?”
“I’m not a marriage counsellor, Rob.”
His face fell.
“Please talk to her for me.” He sounded pitiful, in actual pain. “I don’t think I can go on Thursday unless she’s back.”
“Thursday?”
“We can’t go tomorrow. Has to be Thursday.”
“Shit.”
“Is that a problem? Maybe we should call it off?”
She studied him. “Let’s sit down.” She walked him over to the bench.
“You’ve changed your tune, Rob. Is this because Mary’s left you, or has something else happened?”
Rob looked across the river in the direction of the cathedral. The ducks fidgeted about in the water, diving for scraps. In the distance, the cathedral clock rang for 6PM.
“It just hit home today. At TFU, it’s just me. Everyone else is just carrying on as normal. Maybe I’m wrong. Is it worth it, Susie? Is it worth my marriage?”
“Rob, you’re the only one left because the others are dead. Or sent to the gulags by Kilton.”
He chewed a nail. Susie noted the dark bags under his eyes. It reminded her of those images of Battle of Britain pilots smoking after a flight; drained of energy and ageing by the minute.
“So many things can go wrong on Thursday, Susie. It could ruin everything and achieve nothing. And where would that leave me with Mary? I could be out of the RAF or worse.” He gave her that forlorn look again. “What if Mary never comes back?”
“And what if you don’t go? You stay and sign off the project and it goes into production with the same flaw that killed Millie. Can you live with that? You know Mark Kilton’s done his sums. He’s not an idiot. He knows people will die while this thing enters service. Even now, he’s probably planning how TFU will be involved in the inquiries, quick to rule out the secret technology and blame the crews. We’ve already seen it with Millie. That crash should have been the end of the project, but if anything, it’s emboldened him. It’s shown him he can get away with the worst case scenario. And you’re right. You’re alone now. Millie’s gone. It’s down to you.” She looked up at the sky and sighed. “We all have to make choices in life, Rob. As a matter of fact, I’m in a similar position.”
He gave her a quizzical look.
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but the Service doesn’t want us to go ahead with the flight. In fact, I’ve been recalled.”
“So we can’t go, anyway?”
“I didn’t say that. I was never going on the flight. So that’s still a matter for you.”
“But you wouldn’t be there to help me.”
“I didn’t say that, either. But I’m not staying around if you’re half-hearted about it.”
She let the statement hang in the air for a minute.
The ducks appeared to have lost hope on being fed and paddled off downstream.
“It’s easy for me to walk away,” said Susie. She tapped his shoulders. “But there’s a lot of weight on there. I’m not sure there’s any other way of shifting it.”
She looked at her watch. “Look, do one more thing for me, before you make your final decision.”
She pulled out her notepad and flicked through the pages of shorthand, before settling on a couple of scribbled lines. Tearing off a fresh sheet, she used a ballpoint pen to translate it.
73 Sunrise Avenue
Totton
“What will I find here?” Rob asked.
“A reminder why we’re doing this.”
THE A36 WAS QUIET. Rob pushed down on the accelerator and opened up the Healey, braking heavily as he came to a series of bends on the outskirts of Totton.
It took him several minutes to find Sunrise Avenue.
He crawled along the road, peering out of the passenger window at the odd numbers. 31, 33…
He gently sped up. 57, 59…
He glanced forward and stared at Millie’s car.
Climbing out, he let his hands brush across the distinctive fins on the burgundy Rover.
He recalled the occasions he’d been in the passenger seat. The thing rolled around corners like a boat. Not great with a belly full of beer.
A door opened to his left. Georgina stood in the entrance of a small bungalow with an overgrown front garden. She wore a red pattern dress. Even among the shabbiness of her new home, she looked wonderful.
Tears welled in his eyes as he made his way up the path, stepping over long discarded children’s toys.
“Hello, stranger,” she said. They embraced.
She pulled back. “It’s lovely to see you, dear Robert. But as I’m on the naughty list, I’m guessing this isn’t a sympathy visit.”
“Can we have a chat?”
She led him through to the garden. The interior of the house was in dire need of repairs. Peeling wallpaper and wonky radiators. He glanced into the kitchen as they passed and saw a small, two-ring cooker.
Charlie sat at the kitchen table nursing a mug of something.
The teenager sprang to his feet and beamed.
“Hello, Mr May.”
“Please call me Rob. How are you?”
“Not great, to be frank with you.”
“And that’s OK, Charlie. It’s OK not to be OK.”
Charlie’s eyes were warm as he looked at Rob. “Thank you.”
“Look, when this is all over, why don’t you and I spend some time together? I can tell you a bit about your father at work. Maybe a few stories he’d hope you didn’t hear.”
Charlie smiled. “I’d love that so much. Thank you.”
Rob followed Georgina out into the garden where he was offered a cheap plastic chair. Georgina sat on a wooden stool.
The fence at the back of the garden leaned forward, having been attacked by unkempt undergrowth on the far side.
“It’s not ours,” Georgina said. “It’s my brother-in-law’s. He rented it out, but the last family left it in rather a state. I think he’s hoping Charlie and I will help do it up in return for a little rent-free stay.”
“They just threw you out of the married quarter?”
“They said it was a crime scene. Can you believe that?”
Rob shook his head.