‘You don’t have to say anything.’ His hand brushed mine for a moment before resting back on the worktop, the fingers splayed.
‘Magnus’ lot were coming down for a weekend party at his place. Huge great Range Rover with five of them in speeding along these tiny roads. A couple of people outside the pub saw them tearing by, music blaring, shouting and laughing, and the car was weaving across the road.’
He turned and rested against the sink, his gaze on a point on the horizon but I could only guess what his mind’s eye was actually seeing. I doubted it was the bucolic scene outside the window in front of him.
‘Alice never stood a chance in her little Fiat. I’d suggested she take the pick-up but she always said it was too big and she loved that car. She’d been so proud when we’d picked it up. Baby blue with a white interior. I swear she was happier the day we picked up that stupid car than she was on our wedding day.’ He let out a laugh but it was one without even the thinnest layer of humour masking heartbreak. ‘Not that it would have made much of a difference. At least, that’s what the report said.’ He swallowed hard. ‘The Range Rover came up behind her and started beeping and flashing its lights for her to get out of the way, apparently. They denied all that, of course. But Jason was working in the field that backs onto the lane. He’s got this ridiculously big tractor. We all took the piss out of him for it, but it turned out the joke was on us because it meant he saw the whole thing.’ He dipped his head and rubbed Ned’s head. The dog leant against his master’s leg, apparently sensing something was wrong. ‘Not that I would wish that on anyone,’ he finished quietly before turning and sliding down the cabinet door to sit on the floor so that his dog could get closer. Jesse fussed him as he continued.
‘It’s a one-lane road so where the hell they thought Alice was supposed to go, God knows. And she never drove particularly slow so what speed they were doing… Jason reckoned a good eighty.’ His teeth were gritted, his jaw tense and set. I wanted to tell him he didn’t need to tell me, that I hated seeing him so upset, but I also wanted to know. I wanted to know everything about him.
‘Anyway, when they got to a passing place, the moron driving went for it. Of course, it was never going to end well. Had it been any of the other places, she’d have probably just gone into a ditch. Not ideal, obviously, but, you know…’
I met his eyes as the stormy gaze briefly lifted. I knew.
‘But the place he tried to pass her was more open. At least at the edge. As he went into the passing place to overtake, he quickly ran out of space and immediately came back onto the road again right alongside Alice. The force sent her car flying, literally. It landed on the driver’s side and rolled three times before it hit a tree.’ He cleared his throat. ‘The coroner said she was most likely killed at the first impact when it landed, which is something, I guess. I can’t imagine how terrified she was in those moments and the sooner that ended was for the best.’
‘Oh, Jesse, I’m so sorry.’
It sounded so impotent.Sorry. The same word you use when you step on a toe, or accidentally nudge someone’s elbow. Society can invent ridiculous words like ‘chillax’ and give the credit of ‘word of the year’ to a laughing emoji but when the worst thing in the world happens to someone you care about, the only words you have in your arsenal are ‘I’m sorry’.
‘I know.’ He made the reply without looking up, which I was glad for. His focus was on the loyal dog so he didn’t see my eyes washed with tears for a woman I’d never met and her broken-hearted husband.
‘They actually tried to drive off, would you believe?’
‘What?’ Shock and disgust wrapped themselves around the word.
He looked up now. ‘I know. Unbelievable. By this time, Jason had called the police and motored down there in his tractor and blocked the road so they weren’t going anywhere. When Jason got out, he could smell the alcohol on the driver, well, all of them really, but they said they’d just taken a swig now because they were all in shock.’ His teeth were gritted again now. ‘Cowards. Lying bastard cowards.’
I got up from the chair and sat down on the floor near him. I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. He was talking about his wife, a wife he had loved very much. But when I did, he reached an arm around me and scooted me closer on the floor next to him.
‘Are you sure you want to hear all this?’
‘If you’re sure you want to tell me.’
‘Yeah. I do.’
I stroked Ned’s head, now lying in Jesse’s lap as his owner’s hand rested on the dog’s back.
‘By the time the police turned up, Magnus’ parents had arrived as well and, of course, Magnus and his father tried to get it all swept under the carpet. A few years prior, it probably would have worked too. It’s amazing what money can do.’ He flicked his gaze to me. ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to imply that you or your family would have…’
‘Carry on.’
‘It went to court. There was no way on God’s green earth that I was letting that bastard walk. He killed Alice just as if he’d put his hands around her throat. The difficulty was proving it. Once they’d swigged the drink, it was harder to prove and the driver refused the breathalyser. They were all guilty as far as I was concerned but they played the victims.’
‘The victims? How on earth could they do that?’
‘Claimed that they were being victimised by the locals, that it had been Alice’s fault, that Jason hadn’t seen anything and had made it all up then threatened them. Although the last bit is true. He did threaten them but he’d just come back from what was left of Alice’s car and saw them trying to drive away.’
‘What did he say?’
‘That if they tried, he’d drive over their car with his tractor with them in it. And at that moment in time, he probably would have. He and Alice went to school together and were good friends.’
‘It must have been traumatic for him.’
‘Yeah. Horrible. It took some work but a few of us talked him into going to therapy and that seemed to help, thank God.’
‘They didn’t get away with it?’
‘No. Blood samples were taken at the police station and, despite the amount of money all their families, plus Magnus and his father, threw at the case, it ended up pretty clear cut. The driver was eventually found to have been three times over the limit plus high. It’s likely they all were but the rest of them wriggled out of any charges. Basically threw the driver under the bus.’
