‘He went ballistic, that’s what happened. He acted as though he’d only nipped out for a pint of milk and expected us to be there and waiting for him when he returned, dinner on the table. But Mum and I were talking over a glass of wine each, she was wishing you and me luck for the year, telling me she’d get the train to London and visit or come to wherever else we were. She said she was happy I was spreading my wings even if it wasn’t for ever. She told me she’d never been lucky enough to do the same.’
‘I’m guessing your dad didn’t see it that way?’
‘We’d long ago stopped thinking he’d come back. He must’ve purposely come through the side door we often left open to let the air circulate in the warmer months, and then all of a sudden he was there in the kitchen with us and had heard every word. He accused Mum of being ungrateful – won’t tell you the adjectives he used to describe her – he said I was worse, he asked what kind of man still lived at home when he was a grown adult. I told him perhaps the kind of man who had to protect his mother from her bastard of a husband.’
Melissa’s face fell. She would’ve seen enough of Donnie Luddington to know how that remark would’ve gone down. As a kid she’d kept her distance whenever Donnie was around, they hadn’t hung out much at Tumbleweed House.
‘I was stupid to say it – talk about waving a red flag at him! And, boy, did he charge. He went for me first, Mum was screaming, he punched me in the face, I fought back and pushed him so hard I put him through the glass floor-to-ceiling window.’
She covered her mouth, something he’d forgotten she did. He’d always teased her before, asking whether she thought that by covering her mouth it would stop the worst happening, prevent things from being true. They both looked at the window in question, intact as though it had never been broken at all. It was at the side of the house and at one time his mum had kept a big stone pot on the paving slab outside, filled with seasonal colours. The space was empty these days except for the ivy that had taken over the fence opposite, the tangled weeds along the bottom of the wood.
‘He went to the police,’ said Harvey. ‘I didn’t come with you because how could I possibly leave?’ He watched her expression change as she realised he’d had real reasons, it hadn’t been him losing his nerve or simply changing his mind. He’d been stuck. ‘I couldn’t abandon Mum even though she told me it wasn’t my mess to clear up. I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t come back, and I was terrified the police would press charges, he was cut up pretty bad from the glass. I couldn’t have a criminal record following me around and expect you to be all right with that.’
‘You underestimate me, Harvey.’ The soft voice that had comforted him many a time over the years fell on him like velvet. He’d missed her and he wondered, had he told her the truth at the start, would they be in a completely different place right now?
‘I didn’t want that for you, Melissa. I knew how much you needed to go and so I set you free. A couple of months after dragging us through all the angst and the fear, Dad did the first decent thing in his life and told the police he wasn’t pressing charges, that it was an accident, and he upped and left for the second and final time.’
‘How do you know he won’t come back?’
‘At first I fully expected him to, but then Mum got news from his sister that he’d died suddenly of a ruptured brain aneurysm, it was quick and he didn’t suffer she told us in her letter. I wished he had, I wished he’d been as scared as I’d been some days when he bellowed at me, when he chased after me and Daniel, bullied us, took his belt to each of us if we played up. But he’d gone for good, and the relief I saw on Mum’s face, even though she never expressed it in words, was all I needed to know it was a good thing and I shouldn’t feel guilty.’
‘Why didn’t you come to find me when you knew your dad was out of your life for good?’
‘I did.’ The day he’d gone down to London on the train was the day after his dad was buried. He hadn’t gone to the funeral but they’d been told the date and he and his mum had sat on the step of Tumbleweed House, holding hands together and watching the bumblebees zipping about the elderberry bushes trying to find what they came for. Neither of them shed a tear but she told him to go and find Melissa.
Realisation dawned for Melissa. ‘That was the day you saw me with Jay.’
He nodded.
‘And you thought I’d never given you a second thought.’ When he shrugged she said, ‘And I thoughtyou’dnever once regretted not coming with me.’
He reached a hand across the table and took hers in his. ‘I don’t regret it, because you were doing everything you’d planned to do, you’d gone away and found something to numb your pain. I was just getting sorted with my own, saying goodbye to a childhood that would’ve been a whole lot worse without you and Barney in it. I figured I needed to do what you did, I needed to find myself and that you’d come back one day if that was what you really wanted. As the years went on I assumed that was never going to happen and I did my best to make peace with it.’
Her phone ringing interrupted them. ‘It’s Barney, I’d better get it.’
A sudden panic shot through him that Barney might have needed them and they’d been off gallivanting around the country to play detective and delve into his personal business. It was then he realised he must’ve left his own phone in his pickup.
‘He’s right here,’ Melissa said into the handset. ‘Yes…we’re together.’ Her cheeks flushed a pale pink as she passed the phone over to Harvey.
‘What’s up, Barney? Yes, Melissa is here at the house.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Do you need me?’ He listened to Barney’s explanation and finished up the call. ‘I need to go.’
‘He’s all right though?’ She finished the end of her wine when he did the same.
‘He’s got a leaky roof. It might have been like that for a while but given the rain today, it’s only just become apparent. I’ve got some plastic sheeting in my shed, I’ll take it over, see if that does the trick temporarily.’
‘Be careful,’ she said, ‘it’ll be dark soon.’
Maybe it was the wine or the air that had cleared between them, but he reached out a hand to cup her chin. ‘Don’t you worry about me, Melissa Drew.’
She stayed there looking into his eyes before she seemed to remember he wasn’t her boyfriend anymore. ‘I’d better get back to the inn.’
Moment over, he picked up his keys, fussed Winnie, who opened one eye sleepily at her master, and he locked up behind them before grabbing his phone from his pickup and going over to the shed. He’d have to bundle up the plastic sheeting and walk over with it, he’d had too much wine to drive, and he hoped Barney would be able to hold the ladder for him too.
‘I’ve got another idea about pulling together information about Barney and what happened,’ Melissa announced as she walked next to him down the lane towards The Street. ‘I’m going to write to the newspaper that ran the article about Lois.’
‘Was it a recent article?’ He adjusted the plastic sheeting in his arms, it wasn’t the easiest stuff to carry when it wasn’t folded properly.
‘It was published less than twelve months ago.’
