Читать книгу Josephine Cox 3-Book Collection 1: Midnight, Blood Brothers, Songbird - Josephine Cox - Страница 23

Chapter Thirteen

SIX WEEKS HAD passed since he and Molly had split up for good. And now, midway through August, Jack was ready to leave Bedfordshire for ever. Tess at Johnson & Everett had found a buyer for his house. Everything had gone smoothly and there was nothing to keep Jack there. It was time to take one last look around.

With bittersweet feelings, he wandered from room to room. It was strange that everything looked the same: the chairs stood where they had always stood, the red patterned rug lay in front of the fireplace, and even the walls were still adorned with framed pictures of vintage cars – though these were about to be taken to storage in Lytham, along with the furniture, until he found a place to buy. For the time being, he was renting a furnished house in Lytham.

He cast his gaze across the sitting-room, content that all of his precious books and photographs were now carefully packed into the large boxes which stood in the centre of the floor. His clothes, his laptop and most of his personal possessions had already been ferried up to Lytham.

He had spent four good years in this house, and there was no denying that he would miss it, just as he would miss his work colleagues in Bletchley. He had no doubt, however, that they would still meet up at various conferences and the like. For now, he had already said his goodbyes to them, and as far as he was concerned, that particular door was shut. It was now time to look forward.

Shrugging off the creeping sense of regret, he went into the hallway and ran up the stairs two at a time. His first stop was the main bedroom – his retreat, overlooking the back garden. He had found much-needed solace here, particularly when his childhood heartache played heavily on his mind.

He had slept here, and when times were good with Molly, they had made love in this very room.

Thinking back on it now, he knew he must shoulder some of the blame for the way things had turned out. He had given in to her until she became selfish and demanding – and he hoped she would not take advantage of Mal, as he was a good and generous man who doted on her. For that very reason, Mal might have to pay a hard price.

Jack had loved Molly, but he was not sorry to have left her behind. They each had a new life, a new beginning. And yet his was not really a beginning; it was more like a going back. After all these years, he was headed home, back to his roots.

Without him consciously trying to recall her, Libby came into his mind. Her name sat well on his lips: ‘My dear friend, Libby.’ He could see her now in his mind’s eye – her small, pretty face and those lovely, honest eyes. And the way her nose wrinkled when she giggled, as she so often did. The thought of Libby was like a ray of sunshine to brighten this lonely day.

Libby had been someone he could talk to. She was thoughtful and generous. A loyal and caring friend, come rain or shine. Even now, with other matters on his mind, Libby was paramount in his thoughts. ‘I expect, after all this time, she’s forgotten all about me,’ he murmured. ‘I expect Libby’s married now with a husband and children.’ He found himself envying that man, whoever he might be.

Molly too had once been caring and loving. Recently though, he had seen a different side to her. When he had stopped dancing to her tune, she had revealed her true nature, and it was not pleasant.

Molly had proven to be a fair-weather friend. Like a child, she stamped her foot if she didn’t get her own way, and that did not bode well for a life together; especially when she knew, more than anyone, how badly the nightmares affected him. Thankfully, for some reason he had not suffered a really bad one of late. Perhaps because there was too much to think about, too much to plan for.

When the loud rat-a-tat came at the front door, it startled him. ‘Hold on!’ Springing up, he ran down the stairs at the double. ‘I’m on my way!’

Flinging open the door, Jack was pleased to see the small removal van at the kerbside. ‘Are you Mr Redmond?’ The man who spoke was of burly build, with a tuft of grey hair sticking out each side of his cap.

‘I am, yes,’ Jack confirmed. He led the man and his skinny mate along the passageway to the front room. ‘A lot of the big stuff has been sold off or given away,’ he explained. ‘I thought I’d make a clean sweep. Everything is packed, apart from half a dozen small boxes.

Taking down the paintngs, the burly fellow carefully began bundling them up in bubble-wrap. ‘Hey, look at that!’ He pointed to the painting of a vintage car. ‘My dad had one o’ them! It was his very first car.’

When the packing and loading were done, and the form duly signed, the two men stopped on the path to light a cigarette. Jack overheard the big fellow going into raptures about the paintings. ‘I can’t believe he’s got a painting of a Hillman Minx! I should’ve asked if he wanted to sell it.’

‘Shouldn’t think he’d sell it,’ came the gruff reply. ‘Class bit of engineering, that car was.’

‘It’s not the some these days though, is it? No quality. Same as today’s music. Oh, but we used to have some great bands.’

The skinny man took a long drag on his roll-up. ‘I always used to like the Beatles as a band,’ he said, picking a shred of tobacco off his top lip. ‘But I never could stand that Paul McCartney. He allus looked like a cocky little bugger to me.’

‘Well, maybe that’s because he’s talented an’ you never will be.’

‘Huh! I’d like to see ’im shift a six-foot bed with iron legs on his own.’

The big man’s laughter echoed down the street. ‘Never mind ’im! I’d like to see you do that on yer own. Even I’d ’ave to struggle. I might be built like a tank, but I’m only human. Yer daft sod! What are yer like? You’d be lost without me!’

As always, the foreman had the last word.

Jack took one last look around, then he left the house and went to sit on the front doorstep.

‘You’re leaving then, young man?’ It was Miss Parrot from two doors down. Nobody knew her real name, but they nicknamed her Miss Parrot, because she had a habit of repeating everything anyone said to her.

‘Yes.’ Jack came to the gate. ‘I’m off to pastures new.’

‘Oh, “Off to pastures new,” eh?’

‘That’s right. And I’d best be on my way.’ He stood up. ‘Bye, then. Take care of yourself.’

She gave a nod of her silvery head. ‘Goodbye, then, and good luck.’

Somehow, the sight of her ambling off down the street made him feel sad. Now, with his worldly possessions gone and the house empty, he thought it best to get away, as fast and as far as he could. Putting his suitcase into the boot, he drove to the estate agency, where he handed in his keys.

‘I’m sorry, but Tess has just left for an early lunch. Can I help? I’m up to speed with your case.’ This was Tina Argent, the young woman who had tittle-tattled about him selling his house through this agency, instead of taking it to Molly’s. Jack knew she had leaked the information. He gave her a searching look. ‘I’ve sent everything else to the solicitor. Here are the keys.’ He singled out each one. ‘They all have a label. Back door. Front door. Then these others are for the little green shed out back, and the side gate.’ He signed the necessary form, then turned to leave. At the door he was stopped by her quiet remark: ‘Did you know that Molly and Mal got engaged?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, I’m aware of that.’ ‘Ah! But did you know after they got engaged, they had a shocking bust-up and Mal threatened to call off the wedding?’

Jack was saddened by that, but not altogether surprised, knowing Molly. He was also angry that the information should be bandied about like this. ‘I don’t believe that’s any of my business – or yours.’ he told her coolly. ‘And no, I would not have known if you hadn’t told me.’

Leaning over the desk, he gave her a warning. ‘But did you know that spreading idle gossip concerning other people’s private lives, can get you into a whole heap of trouble?’ He paused to let that snippet of information sink in. ‘You could even lose your job. Is that what you want?’

Blushing bright pink with embarrassment, she said, ‘I didn’t mean anything by it – only I thought you should know, as you and Molly had planned to get married.’ She saw his expression and stuttered, ‘Sorry.’

‘So you should be. So now let that be an end to it, eh?’

Her attitude became instantly sharp and professional. ‘Er, thank you, Mr Redmond. I’ll make sure these keys get to the new owner.’ Swinging about in her swivel-chair, she pretended to be busy.

When she looked up, Jack was gone, and the door firmly closed behind him. Feeling humiliated, and grabbing up the bunch of keys, she threw them over to Tess’s desk with such force that they caught the pen-jar, which flew off the desk and sent the pens flying in all directions. Scrabbling about on her knees to collect them before the boss returned, Tina made the air turn blue with her cursing.

Jack was not looking forward to the long drive, though he had already travelled the same journey several times these past weeks to keep an eye on his house and gradually take more stuff up. He had been very busy in his new job, sitting in on staff interviews and overseeing the first delivery of new vehicles, and most importantly, keeping abreast of and also approving the security precautions at the new showrooms.

It was only now that he realised the true extent of the responsibility he had taken on. But he would shoulder it with pride, and would repay the company with the same trust and loyalty they had shown him. The sad thing was, he had no one to share his new life with. No one to come home to of an evening and tell them how his day had gone. No one to ask about their day, or their achievements. No one to spoil, or to laugh with. And most of all, no one to fill the huge void that had arisen in his life.

Now, as he passed through the pretty village of Aspley Guise in central Bedfordshire, he planned to keep going northward on the motorway to the Keele turn-off. There was a café there, where he’d stop for a coffee and a bite to eat. From then on, it was only a matter of three-quarters of an hour and he would be off the motorway and on the main road into Blackburn.

The thought of one day actually buying a property in his hometown was both unsettling and a source of great excitement. Whoever would have thought when he was a boy, lonely and unloved, that one day he would be coming home, having done so well for himself?

Thinking back, he recalled his father’s tragic end. Even now, after all these years, it didn’t seem real. But then, tragedies rarely do. As for his mother, Jack doubted if she would even have cared about his success one way or another. He wondered fleetingly where she might be at this given moment in time. Was she still Mrs John J. Towner, with three stepchildren? And how did she physically look, after all these years, at the age of fifty? Would he recognise her if he saw her in the street? And would she be all over him if she knew he was earning a tidy salary, and planning to buy a house back in the town she had deserted, along with her son? Unsettled, he thrust her from his mind.

Two hours later, after a good run through thin traffic, he came off the motorway at the Keele stop, as he had intended. Having filled his petrol tank, he went to pay at the desk.

‘Come off the motorway, ’ave yer?’ The man behind the desk was round as a barrel. ‘I avoid that motorway whenever I can,’ he grumbled. ‘The buggers can’t wait to kill themselves. Damned fools – driving like lunatics!’

He took an interest in Jack. ‘Yer a southerner, aren’t yer?’ He didn’t wait for Jack to reply. ‘I can tell from yer accent. Looking for lodgings, are yer? I reckon I could help yer there.’

‘No, but thanks anyway.’

With the transaction complete, the man returned Jack’s credit card. ‘There you go then, mate.’

Jack thanked him again, then headed for the café across the courtyard, where he had a bite to eat and the best cup of coffee he’d enjoyed for a long time. Forty minutes later, he arrived at his destination.

Looking up at the monstrous glass-and-steel building that was Curtis Warren Motors, for a moment Jack felt tiny and insignificant. Even now, he found it hard to believe that the company had put such trust and belief in him. Here he was, Manager, and him only just past thirty. Jack was well aware that there were many other men, older and more experienced, who would have jumped at the chance to take on this responsibility.

‘Mr Redmond!’ A small, wiry fellow came rushing out of the main door. ‘I saw you pull up. I know you’ve only just arrived, but if you can spare a minute, there are a few things I need to go through with you.’

Jack had already met the caretaker-cum-maintenance-man, and found him to be well disciplined, proud of his work, and with a pleasant character into the bargain.

‘Hello, Steve, how are you?’ They shook hands and entered the building together. ‘How’s it all going?’

‘Everything is just fine. Except we did have a problem with the alarms.’

Everything’s sorted now. Only last night I had to camp in one of the offices, as I couldn’t get hold of the security people until this morning. Fortunately they sent a man round first thing, and he had it all up and running in no time at all.’

Apparently, he found spiders in two of the sensors, but he cleaned and secured them.

Jack was surprised. ‘I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t come out earlier. As far as I know, they are on a twenty-four-hour call-out.’

‘I’ve no idea, guv. I tried several times to contact them – right through the night, in fact – but there was no one answering . . . except for some posh answerphone voice giving me the office hours.’

‘That’s odd. I understood they had issued an emergency number, should they be needed at any time of day or night. Did you try the other number I gave you?’

For a moment, the little man looked at him as though he had no idea what Jack was talking about. When light dawned, he began frantically scratching at his ear. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Mr Redmond – I forgot all about that other number! Oh, dearie me! Oh, I’m sorry. Of course, I have the all-hours emergency number in my drawer – I completely forgot about it.’

He was distraught. ‘That’s an unforgivable mistake.’ His voice fell to little more than a whisper. ‘That’s me down the pan, isn’t it? I’ve lost my job, haven’t I?’

Jack felt for him, but his first loyalty was to the company. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t use that emergency number,’ he told him sternly. ‘There must be well over a million pounds’ worth of vehicles at risk here, let alone the value of office equipment, garage machinery and everything else. Not to mention the crucial fact that if intruders had entered the premises, your own safety was at risk!’

Steve was acutely aware of his serious lapse of duty. He had no doubt that it was a sacking offence. ‘I’m sorry I let you down,’ he told Jack solemnly. ‘I’ve no excuse, except that there’s been so much to do these past weeks, it’s been manic. But I made a serious mistake, and I understand the consequences.’ He gave a little nod. ‘I’ll collect my things.’

As he turned away, Jack called him back. For a long, tense moment, Jack battled with his conscience. His head told him he was right to consider letting Steve go, because he well deserved it. But his heart saw the look of despair in the other man’s eyes and something struck home. He knew himself what it was like to make a mistake. He also knew what it was like to let someone down; to be turned away when all you wanted to do was prove yourself. He recalled the days when he was just starting out, when no one believed in him.

He also knew he would not be standing here, on the threshold of his greatest achievement, if someone had not taken a chance on him; if they had not trusted their instinct that he was a good and loyal employee, in spite of earlier mistakes.

‘It was a bad mistake, Steve,’ he said firmly, ‘and yes, it is a sackable offence. You put yourself at great risk, and left the premises unsecured, because you did not fall back on a simple emergency procedure as instructed. Even calling the police for assistance would have been better than nothing.’

Feverishly scratching his ear, Steve looked up, expecting and deserving the worst.

‘If I didn’t sack you,’ Jack went on, ‘and it got out, or anything like this happened again because you did not follow proper procedure, then of course, I myself would be held responsible.’ He sighed.

‘Look, Steve, I believe you’ve learned a valuable lesson. You were hired as someone we could rely on to keep this place up and running, and safe at all times. You must always have back up on security. Never leave anything to chance.’

‘Yes, I know that, Mr Redmond, and I’ll make sure I don’t neglect my duties again.’ The little man was visibly nervous, constantly shifting from one foot to the other.

‘There’ll be no sacking today,’ Jack concluded decisively. ‘You made a mistake, but I do believe you’ll be on top of things from now on.’

Greatly relieved, Steve nodded. ‘You don’t need to worry about me,’ he assured Jack, ‘I won’t let you down.’

Jack patted him on the back. ‘Good! Now let’s put it to the back of our minds, because we have an important event coming up, and it’ll be all hands to the pump.’

Both men went away smiling.