A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [89]
‘I don’t believe what I’m hearing,’ she said coldly, pushing his hand away. ‘You’re not the only bricklayer they’ve got.’
Dan sighed and rubbed his eyes. He looked as if he hadn’t slept for days, not just two disturbed nights. ‘No, I’m not the only bricklayer, but I’m the only one who’s already been off for two weeks, and was lucky I wasn’t permanently replaced. If I go in now, with luck when I tell them what’s happened they might send me home. If I don’t show, the boss will be pissed off with me.’
‘It doesn’t matter that I’m pissed off then?’
‘I have to go, sweetheart,’ he said pleadingly, reaching for his shirt. ‘Please don’t make it harder for me.’
‘You just don’t care about me and my feelings,’ Fifi said indignantly, and lay back down with a thump.
‘You know perfectly well that isn’t true,’ he said wearily. ‘The building trade isn’t like the Civil Service, there’s no such thing as sick pay or compassionate leave cos your wife is upset about something. I can’t make anything better for you by just being here, all it means is there will be less money coming in, and I might get fired.’
‘But something might happen, and I’ve got to go and make a statement,’ she argued.
‘Yvette’s over the road, Frank’s downstairs if you need help. Even if I was to stay home and go with you to the police station, they wouldn’t let me sit in with you while you make the statement. You could be in there for hours. What sense is there in me sitting there twiddling my thumbs when I could just be finishing the job everyone’s expecting me to do today?’
‘Oh, go to work,’ Fifi said irritably. ‘Stay and do overtime too! You wouldn’t be any good to me anyway, you haven’t a clue how I feel.’
‘Haven’t I?’ he said, arching one eyebrow. ‘Just because I’m not a bloody psychiatrist doesn’t mean I’m stupid. It’s just a few hours, for goodness’ sake! Go back to sleep now, then go and make your statement. I’ll be back as early as possible.’
Fifi turned her face into the pillow. She could hear him getting dressed, and then he made a cup of tea. She ignored him when he put her cup on the bedside table, and stiffened when he tried to kiss her goodbye.
‘I love you, Fifi,’ she heard him say from the doorway. ‘I’m not doing this because I want to, but because I must.’
It was his slow, heavy step on the stairs that pricked her conscience. He usually bounded down them two at a time, and so it was clear he was troubled at leaving her. One of the reasons she fell in love with him was because he was so uncompromisingly masculine. He saw his role as that of sole provider and protector and he wouldn’t take a day off work even if he had a raging temperature. But although she admired his strength and sense of duty, she still thought that in this case he ought to have put her needs first.
She must have fallen asleep again soon, for the next time she looked at the clock it was after nine. It was another hot day, and it seemed almost obscene that the sun should still be shining when something so awful had happened, but she found she wasn’t cross with Dan any more. He couldn’t make anything better by staying home with her; with or without him the pictures in her head were going to be the same, and perhaps it was wise to keep his boss sweet.
She had a quick bath, put on a plain blue dress and fixed her hair up in a ponytail. She was very pale, and her eyes looked awful, piggy, with dark circles beneath them; they still felt kind of tender from so much crying. But she supposed she’d be crying again once she had to tell everything again at the police station, so there was no point in putting on any mascara.
The interview room at the police station was small, hot and airless, painted a hideous mustard colour, and it stank of stale cigarettes. Detective Inspector Roper had a young policewoman with him to take down her statement, and without any preamble he asked Fifi to start right at the beginning