‘Same thing. Only she’d already switched her mobile off so he couldn’t call her. Anyway, Kat called the police, and they sent a car over to Marcie’s and she went with them to the house, woke the father up and he told them where Simon was. And as you saw, the parents decided that this was a good time to start screaming at each other all over again. Kat said they were at it hammer and tongs in the police car.’
‘Poor Simon. He’s a good kid, but Marcie was saying he’s been a bit naughty lately. Now I see why.’
‘Yeah.’ Matt pulled his office keys from his pocket and opened the door. ‘The mother was in floods of tears, telling me it was all her husband’s fault and that he was having an affair but he wouldn’t admit it. Tomorrow she’ll probably be telling all her friends what a terrible time she had when her son nearly poisoned himself.’ Matt shook his head, catching his jacket up from the back of his chair. ‘It tries my patience.’
‘Well, I’m glad I got Simon. I probably would have punched her. I don’t know them all that well, but she and her husband always seemed so nice.’
Matt shrugged. ‘Well, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors. Plenty of people are just playing at happy families.’ There was a flat tone to his voice. ‘Anyway, you got Simon to talk.’
‘
Yes. Kat told you?’
‘Yeah. You know what worries me the most about it all?’ Matt’s face suddenly became drawn.
‘That they looked the yew tree up on the internet, and read that it was okay to eat the berries?’ Beth wrapped James’s duffel coat around herself, before Matt had a chance to offer her his own jacket.
‘Exactly. It’s true enough, but it’s misleading. And kids take things on face value. They don’t necessarily think that the seeds are poisonous and they’re inside the berries.’
Beth knew what he must be thinking. ‘The statistics are in Jack’s favour, you know. Despite all their efforts to the contrary, most healthy six-year-olds survive until they’re old enough to know better.’
Matt’s face broke into a broad grin. ‘Yeah, I’m hoping to survive until I’m old enough to know better, too. All the same, I might just take a hammer to the internet box with the twinkly lights when I get home, though.’
‘It’s called a router, Matt. And he’ll only go round to a friend’s house and get onto the internet there.’
‘I suppose so.’ Matt scraped his hand across his head. ‘Come on, let’s get you and Kat home.’
They drove almost in silence, exchanging sleepy good-nights with Kat as they drew up outside her flat and then out of the city towards Beth’s cottage. Her head was spinning. The party, Josh, Simon, Marcie and James. Matt. The kiss that they’d both decided meant nothing and they would forget about. What would have happened if they hadn’t been interrupted?
The car drew up outside her cottage, and before Matt had time to switch off the ignition, she had gathered up the bag containing her things, was out of her seat belt and had the passenger door open. ‘Well, thanks for the lift. I’ll see you…’ There was no arrangement to see him again. No reason to. Josh was out of danger, and Marcie and James were both tucked up and hopefully getting some sleep.
‘Tomorrow. I’ll call for you at twelve.’ He twisted his body across the passenger seat that she had recently vacated. ‘If you’d like to pop in to the hospital with me, and see how Josh is doing.’
Beth hesitated. Of course she would like to visit Josh. The wisdom of doing so with Matt was questionable, but she was too tired to argue.
‘It’s a date, then.’ Matt gave her no time to answer and she couldn’t think of a suitable excuse anyway. ‘Sleep well.’
He watched her walk up her front path, and flashed his headlights as she turned in the open doorway, waiting for her to switch on the light and close her front door before he drove away. Beth rested her forehead gently against the cool surface of the glazed front door, watching his taillights disappear up the lane, and then closed her eyes. So much for thinking that she had a bit more sense than Josh. Even he knew that if you played with fire, you were going to get burned.
Matt’s car drew up outside her cottage at almost dead on twelve. Not irritatingly early, or fashionably late. It was as if he had been waiting around the corner for the hands of the clock to close at the top of the dial.
Beth had been waiting for him. She’d put her coat on, then taken it off again, thinking that it would look just a bit eager if she met him at the door with it on. Then, in the spirit of compromise, she’d put on a warm jacket, leaving the buttons open, to indicate that she might have just pulled it on when the doorbell rang.
In the end he didn’t seem to notice what she was wearing. He was standing halfway down the front path, looking intently up at the front of the cottage, and he hardly acknowledged her as she pulled the front door closed and locked it.
‘What’s so interesting?’
‘Up there, can you see?’ She turned and felt him close the gap between them, his chest against her back as he stood behind her, his arm extended over her shoulder so she could follow its line of sight to a point just above the guttering. ‘You have a couple of slates missing right there. I didn’t notice it when I was up in your loft the other week, because the hole is located so low down, but it may be why the pipes froze. If there are tiles missing and the wind is in the wrong direction then it could well have been catching the pipes.’
Beth squinted upwards, shading her eyes against the low sun. ‘I see them. Thanks, I’ll get them looked at.’
He turned abruptly and led the way to his car. ‘Did you sleep last night?’
‘Yes—and this morning. I woke up early, got up and then fell asleep again on the sofa while I ate my breakfast.’
‘Me, too. Only my breakfast was a cup of coffee in bed, so I just rolled over and went back to sleep.’
That was too much information for a start. She could almost see Matt in his bed, hair tousled, eyes heavy with sleep. She wondered whether he slept naked or not and decided that it probably wasn’t a good thing to think about that right at the moment, with him so close at hand. ‘Well, let’s go see how Josh is doing.’