Page 62 of The Perfect Son
“Thanks for coming,” I say.
Sam jumps into his car. The engine whines for a moment before starting. As he pulls away he makes a phone sign with his fingers as he passes. I nod and wave and start walking.
On the walk into the village I think of the crossword questions and the feeling of the answers being just out of reach. My mind wanders to the notebook I keep beside the bed. The pages are filling up, but the harder I try to understand, the more questions I seem to have.
I can’t keep living in the dark like this; I have to try to find the answers. Starting with the boxes in your study and why Ian was looking through them.
—
I didn’t touch the boxes this afternoon. I had a dozen reasons, a dozen excuses, why tomorrow would be a better day to start. Maybe I was putting it off, or maybe seeing Sam wiped me out. The long walk back from the restaurant didn’t help. I’m not exactly fit at the moment.
After school I let Jamie play on the PlayStation until his eyes went bleary. We picked at the leftover paella and watchedTom and Jerryepisodes that were older than I am. I went to bed straight after reading to Jamie, cocooning myself up in my duvet and letting my eyes pull shut. It was the first night I’ve gone to bed without you that I thought I might actually sleep.
I was wrong.
CHAPTER 37
The phone rings. Right when I’m in that place between wake and sleep and I think it’s a dream. The trilling noise rolling in my unconscious, prodding me, scaring me—another nightmare to add to the rest. But it’s not. I open my eyes and blink in the darkness.
My hand flails on the covers, patting your side of the bed for my phone. When the display lights the room in a green-white glow I see it’s not even nine o’clock.
I tilt my head and listen for a message, expecting and hoping it’s Shelley, but there is only silence. Another hang-up. A slow fear trickles through my body. There is no way I can fall asleep now.
I thought they’d stopped, Mark.
It’ll be a call center, Tessie. Mum complained all the time about them ringing all hours of the day and night, remember?
I guess.
I struggle out of bed and pad down the stairs, flicking lights on as I go. I need water and mindless TV to take my mind off the call and the fear now trickling through me. There must be a predictable action film on one of the three hundred channels we have access to. Or some kind of reality show. Anything with chatter and noise and life.
I’m in the kitchen gulping back a glass of water when the phonerings again. I don’t move. I count the rings all the way to four and let the answerphone pick up. If it’s Shelley, I’ll answer.
“Tess?” His gravelly voice steals my breath. “I know you’re there, Tess. I can see you in the kitchen. Pick up the phone.”
The menace in his tone chills my blood as much as his words. He can see me. He’s outside. I leap to the nook, expecting the side door to fly open. My slippers skid on the tiles, but I reach the door and check the bolt with shaking hands. It’s locked. My heart is hammering hard enough to explode in my chest.
“Don’t worry, Tess. I’m not coming in today,” he says, his gravelly laugh carrying into the kitchen. “I just want to talk. Pick up the phone.”
I move quickly past the window, my eyes scanning the driveway for movement, but all I see is darkness.
“Pick up,” he barks again when I make it to the phone in the dining room.
My whole body is shaking. All I want to do is run up the stairs as fast as my legs can carry me and barricade myself in Jamie’s room. But I can’t. Our baby boy is sleeping in his bed and there’s a man outside our house. There is nowhere to run.
“Who... who is this?” I stammer, pressing the phone to my ear.
“Your husband has something of mine.”
“Who is this?” I ask again in a voice stronger than I feel. I jerk my head to the dining room window. Can he see me? I step into the hallway and sink to the cold floor.
“I need it,” he says.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
There’s another croaky laugh. “I think you do, Tess. Your husband has got himself into a world of trouble and I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. Mark was working on something for me, and you’re going to get it and give it back to me.”
“I... I don’t know what it is. Mark never talked to me about his work. I can’t help you.”
