Faith - Lesley Pearse [102]
Two weeks ago none of these things would have seemed suspicious. She would have thought the necklace was a surprise gift for her. When he first suggested her going to Madeira, she said she wanted him and Barney to go with her, but he’d pointed out that Barney couldn’t go because he wasn’t on her passport, so it was possible that he thought he’d rectify this in case she wanted to take Barney away another time. As for the money, he could well have a valid reason for keeping such a large amount of cash at home.
But in the light of finding that Barney wasn’t at his mother’s it all looked very different. She was absolutely certain Greg had bought the necklace for this new woman, and he’d left the receipt lying around because he hadn’t expected his wife back so soon. And he was intending to put Barney on his passport to take him out of the country. As for the cash, she guessed Greg was in the process of stashing money away so that when they finally ended up in the divorce courts it would look as if he had very little.
As a precaution she dug out Barney’s birth certificate and hid it away in an old toiletries bag. That at least would prevent him from making a passport application.
In the early afternoon Laura got into her own car, the yellow Beetle, and drove it back to Acton. But this time, after checking Greg’s car was still there, she waited further down the street where she could watch him come out. At three-thirty the silver Mercedes nosed out of the car park, and she followed him from a distance out on to the Uxbridge Road. When he turned west towards Ealing her suspicions were confirmed, for that was the wrong direction to go to his parents.
She knew that her Beetle was far too conspicuous to be tailing anyone, so she had to hold back and let several cars get in between them. She thought she’d lost him altogether when she turned a corner she’d seen him take, then found his car had disappeared. But after driving further along the road she discovered that most of the turn-offs were into cul-de-sacs where she would have been able to see his car if he’d parked in one of them. She turned around and drove back, taking the first road she’d passed which led to a quiet, tree-lined crescent of smart, semi-detached houses. Outside one of them was Greg’s car.
It was almost dark now, and she sat in her car seething with impotence. She wanted to go storming over to the house, but she couldn’t, for there was a chance she might be mistaken, and if Barney was in there he’d be frightened if she went in shouting and bawling. So she just sat and waited, taking in everything about the house to try to get a fix on what the owner was like. But she could see little in the gloom, just coach lamps either side of the oak front door, a red Mini parked in front of the garage, and two leafless trees in the front garden.
She had been waiting for three-quarters of an hour when Greg finally came out, carrying a large bag. A woman followed him with Barney in her arms. Laura’s blood began to boil at the sight of another woman holding her child as though he were her own. A street lamp outside the house illuminated the woman enough for Laura to see she was slim, and fair-haired, dressed in a maxi-skirt and some kind of cardigan or jacket. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, a few years younger than Greg.
Greg put the bag into the boot of his car, then opened the back door and taking Barney from the woman’s arms, placed him on the back seat and shut the door. Then he turned to the woman and kissed her lingeringly.
Laura started up her car and drove off. She wasn’t going to tail him home – she wanted to be there first. She knew she was driving like a maniac, but she didn’t care. It didn’t matter to her so much that Greg had a mistress, but the way he’d taken her son to stay in her house and let her wash, change and