Dying Fall

Cindy’s House of Pain,’ says Nelson. ‘Remember Madame Cindy?’
    They reminisce for a few minutes and Nelson starts to wonder if, incredibly enough, Sandy has actually asked him here for a
chat
, when his old friend leans back in his chair and says, ‘She’s a lovely woman, your Michelle.’
    Nelson looks up in surprise. What’s all this about? Are they actually going to talk about their
wives
? And in all the time he’s known him he’s never heard Sandy offer such an enthusiastic tribute to anyone. Of course, Michelle
is
a lovely woman but Sandy can’t have seen her for years. He agrees that Michelle is far too good for him and asks politely after Bev. Sandy ignores this overture. More pint-staring and then Sandy says, ‘Can I ask you a question, Harry?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Is there anything going on between you and the archaeologist girl?’
    ‘Ruth? Why do you ask?’
    ‘So there is then.’
    Nelson curses himself for falling into the oldest policeman’s trap in the book. He says, carefully, ‘There was something a few years ago. We’re just friends now.’
    ‘And the wee lassie. Is she yours?’
    Nelson remembers that when Sandy lapses into the idiom of his Scottish mother, it’s always a sign of deep emotion.
    ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘It’s all a right mess.’
    He thinks that Sandy will leave it there, go back to talking about the past or discussing Blackpool’s prospects in the Premier League. Instead, his friend leans forwardand says, almost urgently, ‘Be careful, Harry. What you’ve got with Michelle, that’s worth keeping. I’ve seen the way that Ruth looks at you. She’s in love with you. Just don’t do anything stupid. I know what you’re like when you think you’re doing the right thing.’
    Nelson can think of nothing to say to this. His pie arrives but he doesn’t feel hungry somehow.

CHAPTER 28
    Caz delivers Ruth and Kate back to Beach Row, happy and exhausted. It has been a brilliant day, thinks Ruth, as she dumps wet towels in the washing machine and starts to prepare supper. The Water Park had been heaven. Kate had adored playing on the desert island and the pirate ship, splashing in the Blue Lagoon paddling pool and negotiating Ratty’s Rapids. Caz’s children, when not flinging themselves down death-defying slides, had played sweetly with Kate, leaving Ruth free to enjoy some actual swimming (though it was hard to do lengths in a trapezoid-shaped pool crammed with over-excited toddlers).
    Cathbad was wrong to say that it was naff and over-priced, decides Ruth. Well, not entirely wrong, but sometimes, with children, naff is good. It had been expensive, though. Ruth shudders at the memory of the cappuccinos drunk at the ‘poolside reef’. But Cathbad has no right to be so judgemental. He keeps going on about how much Kate had loved playing on the beach with him. ‘Just the sand and the sea. No commercial rubbish. Justgood natural energies.’ Well
of course
Kate had liked playing on the beach. She’s two, for God’s sake. That doesn’t mean that she can only enjoy herself in Cathbad’s wholesome company. He should try looking after her on a rainy afternoon when she’s got toothache and the DVD player’s broken. That would test his powers as a godfather.
    Where is Cathbad anyway? She had expected him to be back when she got home. He is probably wandering somewhere in the Pendle Forest, Thing at his side. Well, she doesn’t begrudge him that, exactly. He’s had a tough few days – a tough year – and she knows that he finds walking therapeutic. Still, she hopes he’s back before dark. She doesn’t want to be alone with Kate in the cottage. She is so pleased that they are going home tomorrow. Even in the water park, surrounded by grinning plastic dolphins and mermaid friezes, she kept thinking about that figure on the riverbank. The hooded man, the monster without a face. So many stories involve the appearance of an unknown ‘other’, the stranger whom nobody recognises. Who is the third who walks beside you? Christ on the road to Emmaus. Poor Tom on the blasted heath. Countless fairy tales about the mysterious traveller who arrives by night. Guess my name or I will take your soul.
    After a desultory supper, Ruth takes Kate upstairs for her bath. One of the best things about spending the day at a vile commercial theme park is that, by half past six, Kate is so tired that she can hardly keep her eyes open. Ruth is barely two pages into Dora the