Haven't They Grown(76)
I decide to try a new tactic. ‘Tell me the truth, Lewis. I don’t much care what it is. All I want is to know. People are trying to tell me I didn’t see something I know I saw, and I’ve had enough. At least confirm that it was Flora I saw, even if you won’t tell me anything else.’
A flicker of impatience passes across his face. ‘Beth, I can take you to Flora right now if you like.’
‘She might be in Florida now, but she wasn’t the two times I saw her.’
‘Yes, she was.’ Lewis raises one hand, finger pointed upwards. ‘I’ve thought of a solution.
Can you tell me the exact dates and times of your alleged Flora sightings? There’s rarely a day that she doesn’t see someone – her friends, charity committee ladies, tennis club people. I can probably track down whoever she was with when you claim to have seen her in the UK.’
‘To provide an alibi, you mean?’ An extremely well-paid one, no doubt. ‘I’m sure you could, but why would you? If you’re telling the truth and nothing dodgy’s going on, why would you indulge my irrational obsession?’
‘The very question I’m asking myself at the moment.’ Lewis smiles again. ‘Because you were once a good friend, I guess. As for something dodgy … even if Flora was in the UK, which she wasn’t, how is that dodgy? She has a passport. She’s allowed to travel.’
‘The two children living at 16 Wyddial Lane are called Thomas and Emily.’
Lewis laughs. ‘Yeah, right. Of course they are.’
‘I heard Flora call them by those names. They look identical to …’ I point at the photo on his desk. ‘To they way they looked at the same age. That’s how I know they’re yours.’
‘Wait, wait …’ For the first time since I arrived, he looks as if he doesn’t know exactly what to say next. ‘Beth, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but … do you realise how unwell you sound?’
‘I might sound that way to someone else, who knew nothing, but it’s not how I sound to you. To you, I sound like someone who knows a bit too much. Whereas to me, I sound like someone who knows too little.’
‘This is verging on pathological now,’ he says.
‘We could easily sort it out once and for all.’
‘How?’
‘Take me to see Thomas and Emily. If they tell me Flora lives with you all and hasn’t been in England recently, I might believe them.’
‘You know what?’ He sounds angry. Finally. ‘I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to introduce my kids to someone displaying pathologically obsessive behaviour. Even if she is an old friend.’
‘All right. Never mind. They’d probably lie for you anyway if you paid them enough. If mine are anything to go by, teenagers are generally bribe-able.’
‘Are you listening to yourself? Can you hear how you sound?’
‘Who’s Chimpy?’
‘Chimpy?’ I see a flash of what looks like genuine confusion. ‘I have no idea who Chimpy is. Who is it?’
‘I don’t know. I think you do, though.’ As I say it, I’m aware that it doesn’t feel true.
He doesn’t know. Everything else I’ve said, even if he wasn’t expecting it, he knew it might come up. But not this. Not Chimpy.
‘What’s happened to you, Beth? Hearing you say these things … it makes me ashamed for you. How have you become this? I can withstand any attack you want to launch at me, but it makes me sad for you.’
‘Nothing you say is going to work on me,’ I tell him. ‘Not until you tell me the truth.’
‘All right, well …’ He shrugs. ‘I guess we’re done here.’
‘Are we? You’re not curious about anything I’ve said? If you don’t believe the two children living in your old house are called Thomas and Emily, you could easily check. Ring Huntingdon police and ask for PC Paul Pollard. He’ll tell you.’
‘The police? You went to the police about this?’
I nod. ‘I’m worried about the children. And Flora. She would never have cut off her parents and stopped them from seeing their grandchildren. Not of her own free will.’
‘Ah, I see. You think I’m controlling Flora? Stopping her making her own decisions?’
‘She was always scared of you. I didn’t see it at the time, but now I see it as clearly as I see you standing here in front of me. All those times she mumbled, “Lew-is,” when you were off on one of your rants. I always assumed she was embarrassed, but she wasn’t. She was scared. That was her way of begging you to stop – and even that she could only bring herself to do in the mildest way. That’s why I didn’t recognise it for the fear it was. And I think it must have got worse and worse. The last time you all came round was the worst I’ve ever seen it. Do you remember ordering Flora out of our lounge so that we wouldn’t catch a glimpse of her breasts while she fed Georgina? She obeyed without question. She always obeyed you, but on that day she looked properly scared. I was too wrapped up in my own guilt about that stupid photo to notice at the time, but I remember it vividly. That was fear I saw on her face. Fear of you.’
‘I feel this is where I should say, “Much as I’d like to spend the morning talking about my wife’s breasts …”’ Neither of us laughs. Lewis says, ‘You’re scraping the barrel, Beth. Her breasts? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t remember … No, I’ll go even further. I don’t think anything like that happened the last time we all got together. In fact, I’m sure it didn’t. Flora sunbathes topless on beaches all over the world. You know she does: you’ve been on holiday with us enough times to know. People in every continent have seen her tits and I don’t give a shit. Wow.’ He exhales slowly. ‘That’s something I didn’t expect to be saying this morning.’