The Silent Ones: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller(50)

‘Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get hold of you.’ I rush over to him and then take in his expression. ‘What’s wrong?’

He looks at each of us in turn, as if he’s assessing the situation.

‘Have you got a moment, Juliet?’

Chloe sort of half gets up out of her chair as if she’s about to say something, and then changes her mind and sits back down again.

I walk out with Tom without saying another word to the others and close the door behind us.

‘Jeez, what’s the mood like in there? The atmosphere’s toxic.’

‘You don’t want to know,’ I murmur. ‘Just another dose of Voce family back-stabbing.’

In the brighter light of the corridor, I see that Tom’s face is grey. It’s scaring me, the way his mouth is turned downwards, his eyes bloodshot and troubled.

‘There’s been an incident, Juliet.’ He grasps at my arm as if I might run away. ‘A fire at the clothing unit.’

‘What? Is there much damage?’ An icy finger traces up the length of my spine and pincers the back of my neck.

‘Everything in there has been destroyed. All your existing stock, equipment, everything… It’s just a shell.’

I slump against the wall of the corridor. If the stock has gone, it means we can’t fulfil our existing orders.

‘The fire brigade are still there, but the fire is out now,’ Tom adds. ‘They’ve started investigating.’

‘But what happened? Was it a faulty cable or something?’ My mouth is dry, my mind racing through what we must have lost.

Tom looks down at the floor and shakes his head. ‘I’m sorry, Jules, they think… it might be arson.’

‘What?’ I whisper.

The poisonous graffiti on the garage door, the dog mess posted through the letter box, everything that’s being said online… I should’ve recognised the danger. Considered that it might escalate.

‘They don’t know for certain yet,’ Tom adds. ‘But the senior fire officer said there were possible signs of accelerant use. I’m so sorry. You’ve worked so hard at the business.’

Shit, shit, shit. And we just signed the massive new contract with Van Dyke’s. Thank goodness their clothes order hasn’t arrived yet though. It could have been worse.

My thoughts and words won’t seem to link up.

‘I don’t think Chloe will cope, Tom. She’s putting on a brave face, but there’s something wrong. She’s been acting weird for weeks now.’

He’s struggling himself, I can tell. His face darkens and I can’t bear to look at him. I feel so tired and have so many worries in my head, I just can’t seem to think straight.

He touches my cheek.

‘We’ll get through this, Jules, we will. But we can’t support Maddy and help the rest of the family if we fall apart.’ His tone is kind, but the words are spiked with the unthinkable. ‘Our needs take priority, remember that. We have to keep strong through everything that comes our way. Chloe will have to find a way of coping.’

My phone pings with a text from Beth.

Just heard about the fire. I’m worried about you. Tell me what I can do to help, pls call asap. B xx

When we signed the contract with Van Dyke, we put in a twelve-week order for all the stock to be made to our specifications. We paid a fifty per cent deposit via a temporary overdraft agreed with the bank on the strength of the contract.

Fulfilling orders with our other suppliers was going to go a long way to funding the remaining balance that’s outstanding… but now we have nothing left to sell because our existing stock has been destroyed.

‘We’re talking thousands of pounds, Tom. This could bankrupt us.’

I feel like I could cry for a week. Cry for my beautiful daughter, caught up in this terrible nightmare that won’t go away. Cry for the eighteen months of seventy-hour weeks I have put into the business to secure the future of my family.

I call Beth.

‘Anything I can do, just tell me, Juliet,’ she says urgently.

‘Can you meet me outside the juvenile centre in Mansfield?’ I ask. ‘I can get Tom to pick up the paperwork I have at home, and my memory stick. We may have lost everything else in the fire.’

‘Just let me have what you can, including your insurance company details, and I’ll start to piece things together. I’ll make a list of anything I need to ask you. The main thing is to fulfil that order according to the contract you signed. If we can do that, there might just be a way forward. I’ll be in touch later.’

‘Is Josh OK?’ I ask.

‘He’s absolutely fine. Glued to the TV I’m afraid, but I figure it won’t do him any harm, keeping his mind off stuff. He’s staying away from the Internet as people are saying some pretty rotten stuff.’

At home we’ve always strictly limited his television time, but Beth is right. It’s an effective diversionary measure right now.

When she rings off, I just stand there, looking at Tom.

If we lose the business, we lose everything we own.





Thirty-Six





2003





The ambulance didn’t take long to arrive, but each minute seemed like an hour to Juliet, all sorts of awful scenarios running through her head as she waited.