‘Means nothing to us,’ says Kevin. ‘Sorry.’
My sense is that they’re telling the truth – but only about not knowing who Chimpy is. About everything else, they’re lying. Watching them now, the way they’re rearranging themselves, getting into position for the next rehearsed lie, I feel as if we’re back in the charade after a small interlude of honesty.
‘I hope we were able to help?’ says Jeanette.
‘Hugely,’ says Dom.
‘I’m not sure your wife agrees.’ Kevin stares at me.
‘Oh, I do,’ I say, adjusting my tone carefully. ‘I’m very glad we came. It’s been extremely useful.’
‘I don’t want to find you outside my house or in my wife’s car again, Mrs Leeson.’
‘I know you don’t, Kevin. I wouldn’t want that either, if I were you.’
I’m sitting in my room in the dark when Zannah comes in and switches on the light. ‘Are you hiding?’ she says. ‘Dad said he couldn’t find you.’
‘He didn’t look very hard, then. What time is it?’
‘Twenty past ten.’
I’m about to say ‘at night?’ but stop myself in time. The curtains are open and it’s dark outside. ‘Ben’s not still playing Fortnite, is he?’ I ask.
‘No, he’s in bed – teeth brushed, clean pyjamas, room tidied.’ She smiles proudly. ‘I am going to makesucha great parent one day.’
‘Dad should have sorted Ben out,’ I say, and it feels like a monumental effort to push out each word.
‘Yeah, or you should, as you’re his mother,’ Zannah quips. ‘Dad’s snoring in front of the world’s most boring documentary. Mum, what’s going on? Dad said you’ve barely said a word since you left the Caters’ house. Are you pissed at him? Was he, like, really annoying?’
I smile. ‘Not really. He did and said what almost anyone in his situation would do and say.’
‘So you’re all good, you and him?’
‘I’m not annoyed with him, if that’s what you mean.’
‘He also said you threatened Kevin Cater.’
‘Not in so many words.’
‘But you kind of threatened him?’
‘Kind of. Non-specifically. I just let him know that I think he and his wife are creepy liars.’
‘Mum, you should be careful. At this rate Ben’s going to have to get some of his baddest roadman mates to back you on ends.’
‘Back me on what?’
‘Ugh, you’re so old. Never mind. But that’s why you shouldn’t go round starting trouble.’
‘Because I’m too old? I’m really not that old, Zannah.’
She flops down on the bed next to where I’m sitting. ‘So what happened then?’
‘Didn’t Dad tell you?’
‘He said the kids living in that house aren’t Thomas and Emily Braid, and don’t look anything like how Thomas and Emily used to look when they were little.’
‘We were shown a photo of two young children who looked nothing like Thomas and Emily Braid. That’s true.’
