Page 91 of The Perfect Son
Denise calls first thing while I’m wobbling on one of the kitchen chairs, trying to hook up the “happy birthday” bunting across the cupboards.
I jump down and snatch up my mobile.
Jamie’s presents are piled on the table, wrapped in stupidly expensive Star Wars paper. I have a few extra gifts in the car, along with the helium balloon. I’m saving them for later when we have cake.
Before I answer the phone I listen for any sound that Jamie is awake yet, but all I hear are radiators clanging.
“Hi,” I say, pressing the phone to my ear.
“Hi, Tess. I’m so sorry it’s taken me a few days to get back to you.”
“I’ve been phoning you,” I say. “Every day, in fact. What’s going on?” I ask, stepping to the window and staring at the driveway. “What couldn’t you talk about the other night?”
“I’m so sorry about that. It threw me when you called out of theblue. Hearing from you really upset me and brought the crash flooding back. I’ve already had so much time off work. I haven’t been sleeping. I was just starting to feel OK when you called, and I panicked. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I know that’s not fair, and I’m sorry.”
It isn’t fair. Denise’s grief is nothing compared to mine. I want to shout at her for being so selfish, but if I do that then she’ll probably hang up and I’ll never have the answers I need.
“It’s OK,” I lie. “So do you know what Mark was working on? I know he had a secret project but that’s it.”
Denise sighs, her breath rattling in the phone. “Mark and two of the programmers were setting up their own company. They wanted to go it alone. They asked me to come with them and run the office, which is how I know about it.”
“Oh.” Something sinks inside me. I sit on the chair I was balancing on a moment ago. This isn’t what I was expecting to hear. “So why all the secrecy?”
“It has to be secret so the company won’t find out.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll fire us. They’ll think we’re stealing clients, which actually we are.”
“Did you need money to start the business? A hundred grand?” I ask.
“No,” Denise replies. “It is still in the planning stages, but the up-front costs were minimal. Peter Yang and Toby Gordon are the developers. They were planning to work from their homes to start with, and Mark was going to travel to clients. It was just a website they needed and some marketing, and they were planning to put that together themselves.”
“I didn’t know anything about it,” I mumble, feeling embarrassed that you shared this secret with your PA but not with me, your wife.
“He didn’t want you to worry,” Denise says, her words suddenly rushed. “Honestly, Tess, he felt really bad. He told us all how he was planning to tell you after the trip to Frankfurt. He just wanted one more client on board to be sure it was all going to work.”
“Oh. Thank you,” I say, and I mean it too. I hate that you didn’t tell me things, Mark, but I think maybe I get it. You were always trying to look out for me and stop me from worrying. You hated it when I worried, like it was your fault, your personal challenge to stop me. I should’ve told you all along that’s impossible. I’m a worrier; I’ll always worry. Keeping things from me wasn’t the answer.
“Was there anything else?” Denise asks.
“Could Mark have taken on any extra work by himself?” I think of the rasping laugh of the man on the phone and the thing he wants back. “Some kind of programming job or anything like that?”
“I don’t think so,” Denise says. “I mean, it’s possible, but I’m sure he would’ve told us. Peter is the software king. Mark hasn’t been in the development side of things for years. Most of the technology has moved on, so it would’ve been a steep learning curve for Mark to jump back into programming.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t thought of that.
“They’re still calling it CYG Systems. Clarke, Yang, Gordon. We all miss Mark so much.”
“Me too,” I say.
“I should probably go,” Denise says. “There’s a management meeting this—”
“Wait, Denise. There’s something else. You asked me if anyone was calling the house. Why did you ask me that?”
“Oh. Yes, I got a call from a weird guy. He was fishing around, calling the team and asking about Mark and you and Jamie.”
It’s him. The vile man with his threats. It has to be.
