Page 25 of The Temp

‘It looked aggressive to me. Zelda looked up at me, went a bit red.’

‘What happened next?’ I urge.

‘I asked if everything was okay. They both said they were fine. Frank handed her phone back, then he started rubbing his head with his fingers like this.’ Daisy puts her mug down on the table and begins to massage her temples in a circular motion. ‘Complaining of a migraine. Zelda said she’d ask you for painkillers.’ She didn’t. I wonder why. ‘And then she wrapped her arms around his neck and they started snogging. I didn’t know where to look. It was all so bizarre.’ Daisy picks up her mug and shakes her head, baffled.

‘Hmm…that is very odd.’ I take a sip. I wonder why Zelda didn’t ask me for ibuprofen if he was in pain. Unless he stopped her. Unless it was a bogus headache to throw Daisy off because she’d caught him being mean to my sister? I open my mouth to question her some more when my phone starts ringing and vibrating in my pocket. It’s Zelda. I glance at the clock – it’s a quarter to one in the morning. Did she forget something here? My eyes skirt around the kitchen searching for any of her belongings.

‘Hey Zelda. Daisy and – ’ I shoot to my feet, Daisy looks at me, concerned. ‘I can’t understand what you’re saying.’ Zelda is talking gibberish. I cover the mouthpiece and mime, I think she’s drunk, and Daisy nods, goes back to her phone.

‘Bella,’ Zelda blubs, and I realise that she isn’t drunk, she’s crying, hysterically. ‘Help me…I…please. I don’t…’

A shiver races over my skin. Something bad has happened to my sister. Frank has hurt her. I will bloody kill him. ‘Zelda, what is it?’ Shoving a hand through my hair, I walk into the hallway and start pacing. ‘Are you hurt?’

‘Yes...I…’ I knew it. ‘Um... no, I’m fine. It’s Frank. He’s…he…’

‘Has something happened to him?’

‘Yes,’ she wails, voice like a wounded animal.

So, it wasn’t a bogus migraine. The pain was real. I walk back into the kitchen and start motioning to Daisy for my car keys.

‘What’s the matter with him.’ I ask frantically as Daisy swoops around the kitchen, looking for my keys. ‘Is he conscious?’ Images of Frank gasping for breath flash in my mind. It wouldn’t be the first time a fit, healthy, twenty-nine-year-old man had a heart attack or stroke. I want Frank gone, but not like this. Despite what I said in anger, I don’t want him dead. I don’t hate him. I don’t hate anyone. I simply hate what he did to me, that’s all. ‘Shall I call an ambulance?’ I suggest. At this, Daisy who is on her knees scrambling around under the table for my keys, looks up at me, wide-eyed.

‘No,’ Zelda screams and I wince. What am I saying? She’s probably called the emergency services already. She needs my help. My support. I’ve got to get round there. Take her to the hospital. They’ve probably taken him to A&E. I gesture to Daisy, mime that I’ve got to go out and to keep an eye on Georgia, and she nods, looking worried, and just then she spots my keys in an ashtray, snatches them up and hands them to me.

Dashing to the open window, I pull the handle, inhaling the ashes of our barbeque still hanging in the air. ‘I’m on my way,’ I say, locking the window. My phone buzzes in my ear. I’ve got a text. I look at it quickly. Linda:

Bells, r u there? Me and Theo had big fight. knows about my ONS with Frank. Heard him boasting to u. He’s gone AWOL. don’t know what to do.

Terror pierces through every fibre of my body. This can’t be happening. I text back with tremulous fingers, saying I’ll call her in a bit, I’m on the phone with Zelda.

‘Bella?’ Zelda’s alarmed tinny voice filters from my handset. ‘Bella? Are you still there?’

‘I’m here.’ I press the phone to my ear. ‘Sorry…I’ll just change and –’

‘No,’ she wails, ‘there’s no time. You need to come over right away.’

‘Okay. Calm down, Zelda.’ I feel my pocket for my keys, even though I know they’re in there, and just then I remember the wine I drank, not to mention the shots I knocked back with Linda before she left, to toast the happy couple, she’d said sardonically. I can’t drive. ‘Scrub that. I’ve had too much alcohol. I’m over the limit. I’ll jump in a cab.’

‘No, please don’t come in a taxi,’ Zelda yells again, louder this time. How am I supposed to get there in the middle of the night then, Zelda, on a bloody broomstick?

‘No cabs. No traces.’

‘Why not?’ My heart feels as if it’s going to rip through my skin. ‘You’re scaring me now.’ Silence, apart from muffled crying. ‘Zelda?’ I exclaim. Daisy is on her feet, arms by her sides, a blur of white in front of me.

‘Oh God, Bella,’ Zelda sobs. ‘I think I’ve killed him.’

Chapter 22

‘Can’t you drive any faster?’ I say to a startled-looking Daisy. I hate myself for involving her in this, but who else could I trust to give me a lift to Zelda’s? Linda, whom I texted and arranged to meet at Zelda’s, downed enough booze to knock out a hippopotamus.

Daisy glances at her rear-view, hands wrapped tightly around the steering wheel, skin tight over her knuckles and sinews. ‘I’m doing thirty. I don’t want to get pulled over by the cops.’ I shake my head, apologise. The last thing we want is the police on our tail.

‘Did she say how it happened?’ Daisy asks nervously. ‘The accident?’

How much should I tell her? Surely, the less she knows the better. ‘They had a fight and it got out of hand, and he…he hit her. Slapped her and she fell over, hurt her elbow. She’ll be fine. I’ll look after her.’

‘I knew something wasn’t right.’ Daisy shakes her head, letting out a long sigh through her nose. ‘They both had a lot to drink. My ma got violent when she got drunk.’

---