‘But how? Who on earth invited you?’
‘Bee did. Bee invited me.’
‘Well – I can’t think why.’
‘I was her friend, Gay.’
‘Really,’ she beamed, her voice laden with innuendo. ‘Well, Clint. I’m sure you were Belinda’s friend, but, and please don’t think me rude to say so, but this is a family affair, as it were, and if you don’t mind …’
Flint had long suffered from an innate compulsion to speak the truth when he felt that others were avoiding it. This trait had got him into trouble on more than a few occasions, but it still didn’t stop him. Flint attributed half the world’s problems to pleasant people pussyfooting around unpleasant people. And looking at Gay now, he saw a woman who’d been spoiled rotten all her life, who’d been refused nothing, who’d been pampered and preened and protected from the truth at all costs. Flint remembered Bee explaining to him why she hadn’t gone to Bill’s funeral – because she was scared she’d speak the truth. Flint had tried to reason with her at the time, but Bee had told him he was wrong, now wasn’t the time – not while her mother was grieving. And meanwhile, Gay had been allowed to spend another year spreading poison, damaging her children and becoming more and more unhappy. He took a deep breath and moved in towards Gay, establishing a firm line of eye contact with her and taking one of her cold bony hands in his own. She looked shocked.
‘Gay,’ he said, in a measured, soothing voice, ‘I knew Beefor fifteen years. That’s longer than I’ve known anyone I’m not related to. And in a way, shewasfamily. So in a way, so is Ana and so are you. And I know there were lots of things that Bee wanted to say to you over the years. But she was too scared to say them. Well – I’m not scared, Gay. So I’m going to say them to you.
‘You drove Bee away from home. You cut her off from Ana. And then you made sure that Bee would never contemplate coming anywhere near you again. You treated Gregor appallingly. You treated Bill appallingly. You manipulate people, and if you can’t manipulate them you destroy them. I understand that you’re not entirely healthy. I know about your agoraphobia and I’m sure life isn’t particularly easy for you. But you can’t expect everyone else to make all the effort. You can’t expect your twenty-five-year-old daughter to give up her life for you. You missed Bee’sfuneral,Gay. Your own daughter. Because you weren’t prepared to work through your problems. Now – the reason that Ana and I are here today is that we’ve learned a lot about Bee’s life over the past few days, and actually it was a very bleak, very lonely life, and we’ve decided to give Bee a proper farewell. We’re organizing a party for her and we want you to come. Even if that means you going through hell to get there. Literally. You don’t even need to go on public transport. I’ve got a limousine outside. You can go straight from your front door and into my car. I can take you now. Or I can come back and get you. But youarecoming. No matter how much it hurts … You owe it to Bee.’
Flint stopped and bumped his eye contact with Gay up a notch. Her eyes bored into his. For a second the silencein the room was overpowering. And then Flint yelled out as he felt a searing, burning pain in the palm of his hand. He snatched his hand away from Gay’s, and she immediately leaped to her feet and strode into the kitchen. Flint looked down at the palm of his hand. ‘Fuck! Fuckingbitch!’ Blood was seeping from four half-moon cuts in his skin. Gay appeared in the doorway, wiping her hands on a sheet of kitchen towel. ‘Get out of my house,’ she said in a dead voice.
‘Mum!’ Ana leapt to her feet.
‘And you,’ she said, turning to look at Ana. ‘Both of you. Get out of my house now.’ She screwed the tissue into a ball and brushed a loose wisp of hair out of her eyes. Her hands were shaking. Ana walked towards her. ‘Mum, listen to him.Please.He’s right. You’re damaging yourself. If you don’t come and say goodbye to Bee you’re just going to get iller and iller. I’ll help you. I will. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll …’
‘Please. I beg of you. Get out of my house now.’ Gay’s voice quavered, but she wasn’t about to cry.
‘No,’ said Ana, ‘I’m not going anywhere. Not until you’ve agreed to at least think about coming to London …’
‘Get out!’Gay screamed, and her face fell apart into a mass of ugly, angry lines. ‘Get out now!’
Flint nodded at Ana and got to his feet. Ana stopped and stared at her mother, whose chest was rising and falling. Then Ana picked up her rucksack and she and Flint left the house, letting the door slam loudly behind them.
42
Saturday 2 September 2000
It was a stunningly beautiful day. No cloud around and just the right temperature. Ana adjusted the straps on her new dress and smoothed a crease out of the hem. She’d been shopping last week. In a moment of guilt she’d phoned Zander last week and told him about the £7,000 that she’d found under Bee’s bed – that was legally his. And try as she might to persuade him to let her give it to him, he’d refused. He’d insisted that she keep it to set herself up in London. So, last week she’d deposited the cash into her bank account and then spent nearly £500 of it on clothes. She’d never spent more than fifty quid a time on clothes before in her life. But Lol had insisted. And she’d had little choice. She had no clothes and now that it was becoming increasingly obvious that she was never going home again, she needed them. Lol had taken her out shopping in Kensington and Notting Hill, whisking her in and out of quirky boutiques down sideroads, where the staff all knew her by name and welcomed her like an old friend. She’d bought new jeans, three pairs of shoes – one with heels – a few funky T-shirts and this dress. £125. For a dress. Lol had almost had to hit her to get her to part with the cash. But it was so pretty and soher.Black silk, straightup and down, a split at the back and sprinkled with black sequins.
That evening she’d gone out with Lol and the famous Keith, who was finally home from his Cornish exile. He was fifty years old. And almost completely bald. With rather a large paunch. And three grown-up daughters. All of which Ana had found quite surprising. When Lol had said he was a Romani, a clichéd image of a head of thick black hair had immediately come to mind. But he was cool and funny and completely besotted with Lol, and Ana had liked him enormously. Flint had arrived at the bar at eleven o’clock to pick her up after a job and Lol’s face had been an absolute picture.
‘No,’ she’d exclaimed, when Flint had gone to the bar to get some drinks, ‘please. Tell me it’s not so.’
‘What?’ Ana said, obtusely.
‘You. And Flint. You haven’t …?’
‘Haven’t what?’
‘Oh. Jesus. You have, haven’t you? You’ve let him have his wicked way with you?’
Ana flushed and Lol screeched.
‘After everything I told you. After all those warnings. And youstillfell for it.’
‘I did not fall for anything,’ Ana defended herself, ‘I just wanted … I just needed … I just … it just happened. And it’s good. It’s really good. He’s lovely.’
Lol rolled her eyes. ‘Yes,’ she hissed, ‘that’s exactly what I told you you’d think.’
‘Look. Flint and me. I really think it’s … different …’
Lol covered her eyes with her hands and wailed. ‘Oh God. Help me. Help me someone. I can’t bear it.’