No Way to Say Goodbye - Anna McPartlin [67]
Penny sneaked off to skinny-dip with Steven and Barry. She listened to the live band lying on her back in the water while the men, drunker than they’d been in a long time, frolicked, each pushing the other under water and taking turns to give chase.
Sam danced with Flory, who was possibly the most insistent woman he’d ever met. He had been polite all night as she clearly had issues with men. She had cried three times and every time he’d attempted to escape she’d grabbed his hand and wouldn’t let go. When he’d caught Mary’s eye she’d merely smiled and looked away. Everyone was having a good time but he was at a parallel party, listening to the problems of a disturbed woman.
Mary was sitting with her uncle, who was caressing the hair of his sleeping grandchild while he complained that his wife wouldn’t feed him properly. “Who in the name of God in heaven eats whole grains?” he asked.
Séamus was dancing on his own with his shoes off and his trousers turned up. “God help him,” his father said.
Mary looked at her cousin, then at her uncle.
“Twins will do that to a man,” he said, nodding.
She looked past him towards the band, met Denis’s eye and went past him to where Sam was kissing Flory. She got up, deciding she needed a drink. She met her dad at the bar. “A good night,” he said, pouring her a drink.
“Yeah.”
“You’re OK?”
“I’m great.”
“Right so.” He left her to it.
Mary put her drink down. She had decided to go home.
15. A kiss is just a kiss
The pounding rain woke Sam some time after five the next morning. He needed the loo. After he’d emptied an alarmingly distended bladder he made his way downstairs, opened the fridge and took out a bottle. He was pouring water into a glass when he noticed that Mary’s french windows were open. He looked over the wall and saw the rain pooling on her kitchen floor and drenching the curtains. It was a marvel to him how, in just a few hours, the weather had changed from a glorious spring night to a winter deluge.
The lights were out and he was sure she wasn’t awake. He had seen her leave Ivan’s party just after he had prised the insane blonde off him. He hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye – she had been gone before he could speak to her. He wondered if she had seen the kiss. They were just friends, of course, but he didn’t want her to know that he had kissed another woman. It would have been fine if that was what he had done, but it wasn’t. Suddenly he realized it was very unlike Mary to leave her doors wide open and, considering the hour and that her wooden floor would suffer if he did nothing, he made his way towards her garden.
“Mary?” he said, but there was no answer. “Mary!” he said again, a little louder. Still nothing. He was getting soaked. The moss-ridden rock wall separating the two houses was slippery, not to mention sharp. Concerned for his back, he decided against trying to leap over. Instead he brought a chair out of the kitchen and stood on it, then manoeuvred himself carefully over the wall and dropped down on the other side. For some reason he felt like a criminal – his heart was beating way too fast to be good for him.
He took a deep breath and went into the kitchen gingerly. A heavy vase had fallen onto the floor and cracked. As he ventured further in he noticed that the place was a mess – in fact, the closer he looked the more apparent it became that he might be interrupting a burglary. A book of menus that had obviously been laid out on the table was now spilled across the floor along with CDs out of their cases. She never leaves CDs out of their cases. He listened carefully. He picked up a heavy wrought-iron poker from beside the fire and heard a thud upstairs. He grasped his weapon tightly and ran to the stairs.
It was after five when Mary emerged from the bathroom and made her way into her bedroom. Just as she was closing the door she heard a noise downstairs. She listened intently, interrupted only by Mr Monkels’s thud when