‘You must never go into the road suddenly, even to chase after something. You must always stop at the kerb, look both ways and listen, remember?’
‘Okay, Mummy,’ sniffed Maisie, nodding her head.
Jess remembered learning all about road safety when she was at school and wondered if schools still taught that sort of thing. She doubted it, with everything else they were under pressure to fit into the curriculum. She would mention it to Maisie’s teacher, though. Living in a city, Jess was certain it would be something the other parents would welcome.
When Maisie’s teacher had ushered the children into the classroom, Maisie none the worse and chatting to her friend, Jess quickly explained what had happened on the road.
‘So you see, I was wondering whether you ought to do a lesson about road safety, especially with all the cars on the road in a city. Maybe even an assembly for the whole school?’
‘You’re probably right,’ agreed Miss Jenson. ‘And, yes, of course, I will talk about it at carpet time at the end of the day. I’ve seen a few near misses in supermarket car parks myself, with children and moving vehicles.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s definitely something we should talk about. Perhaps an assembly for the whole school is a good idea. Right, I’d better go.’ Miss Jenson smiled as the children’s chatter became louder with their teacher distracted.
‘Of course, yes, and thank you.’
Jess felt better when she made her journey to work and was thankful that Maisie had such a great teacher. Maybe the school that was closer to her had better facilities, but she reminded herself that a good teacher was worth its weight in gold.
On the bus journey Jess allowed herself to think about Declan, and going out on a date with him. She hadn’t felt an attraction towards anyone for a while, she realised as the bus stopped and started, the hiss of the doors opening and closingas it made its way to the city centre. Men had been firmly on the back-burner, and she would never dream of introducing Maisie to a boyfriend unless she thought they had a future together.
She recalled how her heart had beat that little bit faster when she had stood close to Declan, applying the concealer to his face after the attempted mugging. She liked how he kept the truth from Maisie, explaining away the cut above his eye as being from a fall. She liked how he baked his mother a cake, after realising the bakery had closed. It occurred to her that she liked rather a lot about Declan and found herself really looking forward to spending time with him again.
She also wondered what would happen if they no longer lived in the same building. Maybe they would all head off in different directions and lose touch with each other? The thought of it gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach.
After alighting the bus, she found herself staring into the window of an estate agent’s. Maybe in her lunch hour she would pop inside and see if there was anything available to rent.
TWENTY-SIX
MARK
‘You think it was kids?’
Mark scratched his head as he studied his boat. It looked like he had suffered the least, a green streak of paint along the hull of the boat just missing the name, probably the tail end of what looked like a tin of paint being thrown along a row of vessels. The poor bloke three boats along had copped most of it.
‘I’d say so. Wanton vandalism. Either that or someone has a grudge against the club, but why they would target individual boats is beyond me,’ said the caretaker. ‘I would have thought the clubhouse would be more of a target, if that was the case.’
‘Maybe it’s someone who was refused a membership,’ suggested Mark.
‘That rarely happens.’ The caretaker shook his head. ‘Probably just kids with nothing better to do,’ he decided.
Mark set about removing the paint, along with the other boat owners, who were furious. One couple were in tears, the wife asking why you could not have anything these days and it was probably just an act of jealousy.
The security cameras near the entrance would be checked, but there wasn’t much chance of catching anyone, especially ifit was teenagers who all seemed to dress the same and would probably have their faces covered.
Two hours later, having successfully removed the paint from his boat, and given another bloke a hand with his, he was in the clubhouse enjoying a drink, the vandalism the topic of conversation.
‘Maybe we ought to have a couple more CCTV cameras near the boats, and not just at the entrance,’ suggested one of the boat owners, and Mark reminded him that such things would increase the annual fees for the boat owners.
‘Well, we need something,’ the man grumbled, although the cost of a twenty-four-hour security guard would also impact on the site fees.
‘It’s not my day, second bit of bad news this week. I hope nothing else happens, as they do say things come in threes,’ said the guy called Ken, a local business owner. He might consider footing the cost of extra security cameras himself, if it meant the boats stayed intact.
‘What was the second thing?’ asked Mark.
‘My bloody accountant has been fiddling the books,’ Ken, owner of a string of bathroom showrooms and a successful warehouse, told him. ‘He never bloody passed any money my way, and I had nothing to do with it,’ he quickly added.
‘No, I can’t imagine you would,’ said Mark. Despite being rich and successful, Ken Watson was the nicest, straight down the middle guy you could wish to meet.
‘He’s been arrested. I’m not sure I trust anyone in that building now.’ He shook his head.
‘So, you need an accountant, then?’ asked Mark, the cogs in his brain working.
