For Your Own Protection(55)

All three of them eyed one another.

‘Please, Beth,’ Matt said. ‘Please believe me. Something is going on. Something that has put Charlie under threat. And it is linked to UGT, I just know it.’

James got to his feet. ‘I’ve heard enough of this. Beth, I’ll be upstairs. Let me know once he’s gone, and we can finish our meal that was so rudely interrupted.’

He left the room without a goodbye and tramped up the stairs.

‘Beth,’ Matt tried again, ‘you have to listen to me.’

Beth pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked tormented. ‘I’m sorry, Matt, I think you’d better go.’





CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT


‘You really have no idea what Matt was talking about?’

Beth had suppressed her suspicions until the morning, satisfied to let things settle before raising the subject with James. But the moment he returned from the shower, she could resist no longer.

There was something about the way he had reacted to what Matt was saying. Some kind of tell, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

James stopped towel-drying his hair, his expression one of exasperation. ‘Beth, please don’t tell me you believe anything he said.’

‘I . . . Of course not. But why would that woman say those things to him?’

‘I don’t know.’ He began rubbing his head hard with the towel again, and Beth just watched, still troubled that her gut instincts were telling her something wasn’t quite right here.

She heard Charlie giggle from downstairs as he watched Peppa Pig and her concerns crystallised. ‘Nothing means more to me than Charlie’s safety.’

And there it is again. Something in his face.

The phone saved him from further questioning. ‘I’d better get this. Might be the office.’ Before Beth could argue, he swiped up his mobile and retreated into the back room. Beth moved to the door, straining to listen as James spoke in hushed tones. She couldn’t make out what he was saying.

‘I need to leave now,’ he said, passing her on the landing, heading for the stairs.

‘What is it?’

‘Trouble at work.’

She pursued him downstairs as he grabbed his jacket and bag en route.

‘Aren’t you going to say goodbye to Charlie?’ she asked, watching him fumble to unlock the front door.

He seemed oddly distracted. ‘Oh, yes. Bye, Charlie. See you later!’ he shouted down the corridor. Beth doubted Charlie had heard. ‘See you, Beth.’ James went to kiss her, but she pulled away.

‘What’s going on, James?’

‘Work trouble,’ he said, not looking at her. ‘I just need to nip things in the bud, before the situation gets out of hand.’

Before she could reply he was off and heading down the street with purpose.

He didn’t look back.



Beth unbuckled Charlie from his booster seat and gazed up at the house. James had been out of contact all day, with calls to his mobile ringing through to voicemail. She’d wondered on the way home from school whether he’d left his phone at home by mistake, such was his rush to leave this morning. She could have called his desk number, but UGT management had recently sent around a memo to staff warning about taking personal calls on work phones.

‘Mummy, can I watch Fireman Sam?’

Charlie ran off towards the living room, and Beth turned on the television and settled him down with some orange squash and a banana.

‘Mummy’s just going to do some housework.’

‘Boring!’

Beth searched around the ground floor for signs of James’s mobile. It wasn’t anywhere obvious.

‘Charlie,’ Beth called out from the base of the stairs. ‘Mummy will just be upstairs for a few minutes. Are you okay?’

‘Yes, Mummy!’ he shouted back. ‘Fireman Sam has just rescued a pelican.’

She knew something was wrong even before she entered the master bedroom.

The wardrobe was open, and half of James’s clothes were gone.

She crossed the landing and went into the back bedroom, driven on by a sudden, irrepressible thought.

He’s gone to Australia without me.

Heading straight for the drawer where they kept the various bits and pieces relating to their move, her suspicions appeared to be confirmed.

James’s passport was gone.



Beth busied herself in the kitchen, preparing tea. It seemed crazy, but she made it for three.

Maybe there’s another explanation for all this.

And yet she didn’t really believe that.

Had Matt had been right? And if he was, what did that mean for Charlie’s safety?

Suddenly Charlie burst into the room. ‘Mummy, I need the toilet!’

Beth caught her breath, shocked by his entrance in the midst of her thoughts. ‘Can’t you go yourself, darling?’

Charlie danced on the spot. ‘No, you come! I’m frightened of the naughty man.’

‘What naughty man? On television?’

‘No. The naughty man at the top of the stairs.’





CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE


‘Matt.’

It was Beth. She didn’t sound right. Even just with that one word, Matt could sense the difference in her voice. ‘Beth. Are you okay?’