‘That’s not the account we have. Mr Houghton, I’m arresting you on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’
‘But I didn’t do anything. I tried to stop him from falling backwards when he slipped on the ice.’
‘We can talk about this at the station.’
The police officer pulls his handcuffs out and cuffs my husband like he’s a criminal. I’m scared to glance at the crowd, but when I do, I see that Ray is already being taken into the ambulance on a stretcher. The police officer leads my husband to the police car.
I leave my shocked older daughter with the pushchair. ‘I’m going with Dad. Take Cora up now.’
‘Mum, don’t leave me alone.’ She’s glancing around at everyone and now all their stares are fixed on her.
Ethan calls to me, just before he’s assisted into the back of the police car. ‘Stay with the kids. I’ll be okay.’
He’s more worried for Morgan than he is for himself. All I can do is powerlessly watch as Ethan is taken away. Soon after, the ambulance follows. I catch sight of the woman with the vacuum closing Quinn’s front door, and I wonder if I know her from the past because she stares at me for way too long. She doesn’t look angry and upset like the others, but she too is holding a piece of paper. Another letter?
Quinn scoops up her bloodstained coat from the ground and walks back over to me.
‘He didn’t do it, Quinn.’
She looks at me like she doesn’t know what to say. After all, she didn’t see what happened. She doesn’t know Ethan like I do. ‘I’m sure the police will sort it out, Gemma.’
I can’t stop my tears from flowing now. Everyone has gone back into their houses. Another police car pulls up and heads down the drive of the first house.
Morgan sniffs and takes Cora from the pushchair. Cora whimpers and all I can think is that I want to whimper with her. We haven’t been here long and already everyone hates us, and my husband has been arrested for ABH, and I’m scared that Ray will die. Will the police then charge Ethan with murder?
I can’t remember walking up the stairs but Quinn has led me back up to the apartment. She’s already put the kettle on and has settled Cora and Morgan in the living room with a drink. Snow falls again outside. I’m hypnotised by the huge flakes and also scared when I see that I have no phone signal. The lights flicker then come back on.
‘It’s okay. It happens a lot around here,’ Quinn says. She opens her bag and puts some battery-operated candles on the worktop. ‘I was going to give these to you, a moving in present. You will definitely need them at some point.’
* * *
An hour or two passes and all I can do is bite the dregs of my nails and think of Ethan. The police officer that came to question me went ages ago. Quinn is still by my side. I had nothing to say except that my husband didn’t hurt Ray.
Morgan has nodded off on the settee, and Cora is asleep on a floor bed that Quinn made for her.
‘Here’s a fresh cup.’ Quinn takes the cup of tea I didn’t drink and gives me yet another.
I think back to when we were kids and we hung out at the den. We’d take cans of cola and see who could burp the loudest. That flash of a nice memory is all but gone when I think of Ethan rotting in some cell in a grey standard issue tracksuit. ‘Thank you for staying with me.’ It’s five in the afternoon and I haven’t heard a thing.
‘I couldn’t leave you like this. I’m sure everything will be okay. Those letters are probably just a silly prank.’
‘But they’re really nasty.’ I wonder if I should dredge the past up and mention finding the article about Jasmine in the hamper, but I don’t. We’re not kids anymore and I don’t know how much Quinn knows. The past has to stay firmly where it is and I need to find out who is sending these letters.
She shrugs. ‘Look at this place.’ She walks over to the window. ‘It’s some small-minded person with nothing going on in their lives, and I’m sure your husband will be let out of the police station soon.’ She frowns.
‘Have things like this happened before?’
Quinn bites her bottom lip and shakes her head. ‘Not that I know of. Nothing ever happens around here.’
Well, that reassured me – not. Also, that’s not true. Something terrible happened around here once upon a time, but neither Quinn nor I want to talk about that. I stand and walk over to her, my warm cup of tea in my hands. We both gaze out of the kitchen window. Car lights reach the road outside my drive.
‘Ethan.’
I leave Quinn with my kids and race downstairs and burst out of the front door with only my slippers on my feet. I run for what feels like an age until I reach the end of the drive only to see Ray stepping out of a taxi. I’m so relieved that he’s okay. Quinn is wrong though. This isn’t the work of a bored busybody. Someone knows about my past. The note in our hamper could have been dismissed but the article about the missing girl, Jasmine, was personal. I swallow my nausea down and put my shaking hands into my pocket.
Ray stands on the path as the taxi driver pulls away. He stares directly at me and points two fingers at his eyes then slowly at me before turning and heading towards his path.
That man has obviously lied to the police because my husband still isn’t home, and he’ll do anything he can to make us leave, just like I did all those years ago with the neighbours I hated in Bristol. I had a reason to do what I did back then, but Ray doesn’t, or does he? I try to think back to my past and what Ray might know. Did I properly meet Ray all those years ago when I visited Aunt Dorette? I don’t think so, but then again, I would have taken zero notice of Ray. The only people I clearly remember are Quinn and her parents.
