Читать книгу Blood Loss - Alex Barclay - Страница 17

As Bob and Ren walked with Mark Whaley into the reception area, Cathy Merritt burst through the door from the foyer. She was a round, heavy-set woman with thick black hair that was still dotted with snowflakes. She had a full face and cheeks that were beaming their high color through a thick layer of foundation. She was dressed in a low-cut green velvet dress that had shunted her large breasts down to her waist and left a pale, flat expanse of chest behind. Her legs were plump, and covered in black panty-hose. Her feet were squeezed into a pair of black shiny Mary Janes.

Bob and Ren exchanged ‘nutjob’ glances.

Cathy Merritt lunged for Mark, slapping him hard on the chest and pushing against him. Despite her bulk, he didn’t move.

‘I knew it,’ she screamed. ‘I knew it. What have you done? That judge! What have you done to Laurie? I heard this from a hotel receptionist!’ she said. ‘That’s how I heard my daughter had gone missing. I tried your cell, I tried Laurie’s, I got nothing, I called the hotel, and they told me all hell has broken loose, a child has gone missing. My child! That’s how I hear it! What have you done to her?’

‘What have I done to her?’ said Mark. ‘Are you insane? Nothing! We came back from dinner … she was gone. I had checked on her!’

‘You went for dinner?’ said Cathy. ‘You left her in the room alone?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Mark. ‘She was not alone. Leo was there. And we had a sitter.’

‘Oh, you left her with a three-year-old and a stranger!’ said Cathy. ‘Well, then!’

‘As if you’ve never left her with a sitter,’ said Mark.

‘Sitters I know!’ said Cathy. ‘Not strangers. Who was this person?’

‘She works for the hotel. She’s a high school student …’

‘Why were you even getting a sitter?’ said Cathy. ‘You were taking Laurie away for the first time in years!’

‘I … I … we watched a movie together, she was going to bed in a little while … I didn’t think going to dinner … we’re in Breck, for crying out loud, it’s not like we’re in a war zone. We were going downstairs for a couple of hours. We could just as easily have been doing that at home.’

‘So, strangers can just walk in and out of your house, no problem?’ said Cathy. ‘And was it a couple of hours? Really?’ She pushed him again. ‘You know what? On the drive here, I’m thinking “once a worthless piece of shit, always a worthless piece of shit”. You haven’t changed one bit.’

She turned to Bob and Ren, and stabbed a finger at them, then at her ex-husband. ‘Watch this guy,’ she said. ‘He is a liar, an alcoholic, and …’ she turned to Mark, ‘you’re a loser!’ Her eyes darted back to Bob to Ren. ‘A loser. Save yourself the time it took me to figure that out.’

Erica Whaley appeared from the hallway where the rest rooms were. The female detective alongside her was reaching out to stop her from getting any closer to Cathy Merritt. But Erica shouted from where she stood, ‘Mark is not a liar. You don’t know him! You haven’t known him for years. He has a new life now.’

‘God help you,’ said Cathy. ‘You seem like a good person, Erica. And Laurie adores you, but … how, how can you be with this …’ She looked at Mark with years-long disgust.

‘He is a wonderful husband, and a wonderful father,’ said Erica.

Mark shook his head. ‘Don’t Erica …’

‘No,’ said Erica. ‘I can’t listen to this. I can’t, honey. And I’m not having the FBI, and the Sheriff, and everyone else listening to it either. From the day I met you, you have loved me, cared for me, provided for me and the children, not done one thing to hurt us. Not one thing.’ She turned to Cathy. ‘I’m sorry, Cathy, but he is not the man you married.’

‘Well, you know something?’ said Cathy. ‘I’m not the woman he married! Because he wore me down. Your wonderful husband nearly destroyed me and he nearly destroyed our daughter—’

‘Destroyed?’ said Mark.

‘We were driving around in the middle of the night dragging you out of dives. Laurie was only a baby!’ She turned to Erica. ‘There’s your wonderful husband! The man, hanging over the toilet bowl, after a night of hard drinking? Wetting the bed? There’s your wonderful husband!’

Who’d have thought?

Ren watched, mute, as the conversation unfolded. You nasty, nasty woman. Ren had pressed her elbow against Bob to keep him from intervening.

Wait for those wonderful things that are revealed in anger.

The door had opened behind Cathy Merritt, and Gary Dettling walked in with Robbie, Cliff and Colin. They stopped at ‘wetting the bed’.

Ren gave the briefest acknowledgment of their arrival, but quickly turned back to Cathy Merritt, whose voice was riding high on hysteria.

She was shouting, ‘Oh, puh-lease, the “people change” bullshit. Look where it’s gotten you. Seriously. Look!’ She poked a finger toward Ren and Bob. ‘What happened to my baby? I knew this was going to happen. I knew it.’

Mark snapped. ‘You knew this would happen? Don’t be ridiculous! You knew this would happen? You’re trying to tell me you were so worried about tonight that you – what? Where were you tonight?’

‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ said Cathy.

‘Just answer the question,’ said Mark.

‘We were at dinner, at home, with Jonathan,’ said Cathy. ‘So shoot me.’

‘And what?’ said Mark. ‘You were waiting by the phone the whole time for a call from the cops?’

‘Well, it would have been a damn sight better than hearing this from a desk clerk a hundred miles away …’ said Cathy.

‘Right,’ said Mark. ‘You thought your daughter would disappear, so you …’ he looked at her, ‘“dress up” …?’

‘What the hell?’ said Cathy. ‘I put on a dress and stay home for dinner and that means I wasn’t worried? You bet your ass I was worried. And, clearly, I had every reason to be.’