Page 31 of The Monday Night Heartbreak Club
‘He’d only break it.’ I sipped at my tea. ‘Dexter doesn’t really care.’
‘I don’t think he’ll be back.’ Flynn still sounded confident. Beyond him, in the wine bar, Margot, Wren and Annie twittered a dubious dawn chorus. Fraser and Eddie were talking about treadmills and comparing weight loss and inches gained.
‘I admire your positivity, sir.’ The police radios crackled and they set off with Dexter in the car, bound for paperwork and frustrating attempts to get him to admit to having done wrong.
‘How are you all here?’ I’d stopped shivering now. In fact, draped in a blanket from upstairs and drinking my third mug of tea, I was slightly too warm. I suspected that Flynn had turned the heating up. I’d given Wren back her jacket too, although there had been something about the slight trace of perfume on the collar that had made me want to keep it. It felt maternal, and that was a first for me. ‘What happened?’
‘Wren has been staying over at my house,’ Margot started.
‘I can’t bear to be in the flat. It reminds me of Jordan,’ Wren said. ‘It’s just so quiet at night, and I was worried I might give in and text her.’
‘So, when you messaged, we went over and picked up Fraser and got here as fast as we could,’ Margot finished.
‘We were later because Eddie had to get the car out,’ Annie said again. Unless Eddie had the car garaged inTierra del Fuego this didn’t really mean anything, but she was obviously desperate for me to understand that her delay wasn’t from lack of intent.
‘And when we got here and saw that man trying to climb the gate, we knew who he must be. Fraser was most impressive, I have to say.’
At the mention of his name, Fraser looked over. ‘He were trying to run,’ he said proudly. ‘I got him.’
‘Most impressive,’ Margot repeated.
I looked around at the club. Margot was wearing what looked like yoga gear: lovely flowing trousers and a zip-up top. Wren was in leggings and a T-shirt with her jacket over both. Fraser’s Bugs Bunny was crumpled as though he’d been asleep, and Annie had a nightie on under a big coat. Tears began to trickle from the corners of my eyes again. They’d come. They’d heard I was in distress, and they’d all come.
‘Thank you.’ I could only get a whisper out again, but this time it was emotion rather than terror stopping the words.
Wren gave me a quick hug. ‘We’re glad we got here when we did,’ she said. ‘He was trying to climb over the gate. He only started to run when we put the headlights on him, and I dread to think what might have happened otherwise.’
‘Hey.’ Flynn, who had been standing silently behind the bar, joined in now. ‘I can fight.’
‘He wasenormous,’ Wren said dubiously. ‘Fraser had to sit on him.’
‘All right, I can’t fight very well, but I could have hit him with a chair or something.’
I looked around the wine bar. Its acres of glass windows looked suddenly vulnerable and I felt very exposed in here. ‘If he’s been on the coke, Dexter doesn’t stop,’ I said sadly. ‘It’s like he’s impervious or something. You could probably shoot him andit would take an hour for the message he was dead to get to his brain.’
‘Ah.’ Flynn gave me a grin. ‘But he’s gone for now, so let’s not go armed for the time being, all right?’
Behind me, Annie yawned, and Eddie put a protective arm around her. ‘I ought to take the little lady home,’ he said. ‘She would come out to make sure everything was all right.’ He gave Annie a fond look. ‘The silly sausage,’ he said.
‘I was worried for Fee,’ Annie said. ‘Margot was certain that something might happen to her.’
I winced at my sore feet, now covered in some suspicious yellow cream that Flynn had found in his bathroom cabinet and smelling slightly of lavender. I’d had to borrow a pair of socks to stop me sliding straight out of the door when I stood up, so I was now resplendent in my own pyjamas, which had inexplicable streaks of blood up both legs, an enormous pair of football socks of Flynn’s and a fluffy blanket with a picture of a kitten on. I looked like a triumphant last-minute goal scorer after a particularly savage match in the Arctic Cats’ Home.
‘Something did happen,’ I said, words still filtered through tears. ‘Dexter.’
‘You’re still in shock,’ Margot asserted. ‘We’ll go now and let you get some sleep. Flynn, you’ll look after her?’
I saw Flynn give a sharp nod as though this matter had never been in doubt.
Margot lowered her voice now, although it wasn’t really necessary; Eddie was guiding Annie carefully out of the bar with Fraser trotting alongside, wittering on about his month’s membership almost being up. ‘Will you be all right for…’ she lowered her voice still further and I had to lean forward to hear her, ‘…the Thursday thing?’ An emphatic jerk of her head towards the door followed her words, as though I might not have graspedher meaning.
‘I’ll be fine.’ I sounded a lot firmer than I felt. ‘But…’
Wren hurtled in. ‘We ought to go, Fee, if you’re sure you’re all right.’
‘Yes, yes, of course.’ Margot jingled her car keys. ‘Well. We look forward to hearing from you during Thursday. And we’ll see you next Monday, of course.’
And they were all gone, leaving Flynn and me still in the bar.
