Page 83 of A Simple Mistake
“What happened?”
“She wanted money.That’s all I was ever good for.Money.Oh, she’d send a card for Lawrence’s birthday each year.She’d sometimes even remember mine as if that was a tricky thing to do.After he died, all that stopped, of course.When she wrote, she wanted something.That night, she was in a bad way when she turned up.Shivering and with red spots in her cheeks.I wanted to call a doctor, and she argued, said she didn’t need one.She kept rubbing at her arm, as if it hurt.”
Heart trouble, Jack’s mind supplied.It fit with the autopsy report.He wanted to ask why she hadn’t called an ambulance anyway, but he stood still, kept his eye on Nico, and let her talk.
“We argued.We were always arguing.And then she clutched her throat, gasped dramatically and… that was it.”
“What were you arguing about?”
“I really couldn’t tell you.She was spouting all sorts of nonsense about how I had everything, and she always got the dregs, which is patent rubbish if you ask me.Lawrence had some money, that’s true, but we worked hard, all our lives together.”She smiled a little mistily.“We were a right pair of workaholics.It’s how we met, at three in the morning in an empty cafeteria, scrounging for cream and sugar.We worked for our scholarships, then for research grants and corporate sponsorship.Long hours and endless proposals, all on top of our real jobs, of course.Val never saw that.She only saw the awards, the publications, the accolades.She thought it was easy for us, when it wasn’t.We took our first holiday for our tenth anniversary.It was fine.We didn’t mind.But Val never saw.She always assumed.”
“So you argued.”
“Yes.She’d just told me our mother was in a care home.”She waved her hand around the small room, indicating the pale walls with their standard prints, the two potted plants and the TV on its stand.“She’s been here for three years.Three years!And Val never saw fit to even tell me.She doled out information like a dog trainer would dole out treats.I resented that.So, yes, we argued.Until… I suppose she had a heart attack.”
“She did.She wasn’t in good shape.”
“She didn’t look after herself.She smoked, she drank, she gambled.She certainly didn’t exercise.”
“What made you think of switching identities with her?”
“I wanted to see my mother.I was hoping if I came to her as Val, she’d see me.Talk to me.”She smiled a little sadly and lifted the hand she held by an inch.“Trust Val to keep this a secret, too.The nurses say she hasn’t recognised anyone in over six months.She wakes up at times, but even then, she’s not here.In the end, Val took even that from me.The chance to say a proper goodbye.One that would be heard.”
Jack kept close to Nico’s side while they watched Jim Gold lead Mrs McTavish out of the room.She’d answered all his questions calmly and politely, only displaying regret when her eyes landed on Nico.
“I’m sorry you had to see this,” she said to him as she left.“I wish you hadn’t had to learn that parents can be selfish and cruel.”
Nico had learnedthatlesson when he met Daniel, but Jack would shoot himself rather than remind him.Not when Nico stood ramrod straight and fought to hold back tears.
Jack wrapped an arm around his shoulders.“It will be okay,” he promised, mentally composing a—most likely unnecessary—appeal to Aidan.
“Will she go to prison?”
“I doubt it.Stealing someone else’s identity is wrong, but she didn’t hurt anyone by doing it.”
“Only herself.”
“Yes, and nobody gets punished for that.Not by the law, at least.I’m sure her family will be glad to have her back, and one of Aidan’s associates will have a high old time straightening out the bureaucratic mess she’s caused.”
Privately, Jack thought Margot McTavish wouldn’t outlive her sister and mother by much.By her own admission, gaining the approval of a selfish parent had driven many of her choices.Now she knew that approval would never come, what did she have to live for?
“Will I always feel like this?”Nico asked suddenly.
Jack opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again.He’d been about to project his own emotions into Nico’s question, which wasn’t the safest choice.“How do you feel?”he asked instead.
“Sad,” Nico said, unpicking his feelings one by one.“Confused.Regretful.Guilty.Not happy, but… pleased?”
“Then you’re as normal as the rest of us,” Jack said.“Come on.I know a cafe that serves the most exquisite cream horns.A great place for our postmortem.”
Nico gaped, and Jack hugged him closer.“Strange as it sounds, untangling a mystery often leaves you with tangled feelings.Very few cases are so black and white that all you want is to celebrate and shout for joy, you know?But each solved mystery needs—”
“Cake?”The tiny smile lifting the corners of Nico’s mouth said he’d heard and understood.And Jack would take that for now.
No One Makes Us
Jackwipedhisstreamingeyes while he hunted for the box of tissues.He could state with confidence that he was awake.And he’d have to be, because next he’d have to hunt up a mop.His favourite mug lay in shards on the floor tiles while coffee dripped from worktop and cabinet doors.
And Jack was still spluttering.
