No Longer Safe(96)

Mark laughed and trailed a finger slowly across the carpet. ‘Why don’t you ask about my deepest and darkest secret, Alice...?’

Silence sucked the four walls that bit closer together. I shuffled on my backside, aching to get up and walk away. What was he doing?

‘Why would we want to know about that?’ cautioned Karen, giving him a stern stare.

‘Come on, I think we’ve had enough,’ said Jodie, getting up, sensing trouble was brewing. ‘Let’s call it a day.’

Mark was in a dangerous mood. His eyes were bloodshot in the firelight, smouldering with the effects of the dope. He was about to fling a pile of mud and someone was going to get hurt. I just knew it.

‘I had an affair at the end of our third year,’ he announced. ‘I was seeing someone – a tutor – and we had…a kid together – a girl.’

I was half expecting to hear rumbling under the floorboards and the entire place to start crumbling around our ears.

Jodie was stunned into uttering only single syllables. ‘Hold on…a…child? When? Did…who…?’ She didn’t seem to know which question she needed an answer to first.

Mark leant back on both arms, his chest swelling. ‘Siena Trovato was her name – the maths tutor – May 2007,’ he said clinically.

Jodie had her hand to her mouth. ‘But we were…’

‘Yes – we were…’

‘How long?’ Jodie slowly got to her feet, looking down at him with loathing, as though he was gradually transforming into an ugly beast before her eyes.

He shrugged as if it wasn’t important. ‘Two months, three maybe – I can’t remember exactly.’

‘And you got her pregnant?’ Jodie was leaning over him, swaying slightly in her bare feet. He picked at a remnant of breakfast trapped between his teeth.

‘Where do you think I go on Saturdays?’

‘Football…’ said Jodie pathetically.

He laughed. ‘Not always. I admit I’m not the greatest dad, but I get over to see Scarlett now and again – she’s nearly six years old now. I can show you a photo of her, if you like.’

Jodie looked shell-shocked. She stared at the fire as if it was calling to her.

‘So you cheated. You were seeing someone.’ She turned away from Mark and shot a dagger’s stare at me instead. ‘See – I was right. I told you. You little shit. Did you know?’

I got to my feet and perched on the edge of the sofa, shaking my head.

‘You liar. You knew all along. You were supposed to find out. You were supposed to tell me.’ She came at me, raising her hand ready to strike. I threw my head to one side, but half braced myself for the slap. Karen, however, stepped in front of her and grabbed her arm.

‘Leave her alone. This has nothing to do with Alice!’

Karen held both her arms up out of harm’s way as Jodie dissolved into tears. ‘But she was supposed to spy on him – she was supposed to tell me what he did.’ Jodie sank into the chair beside the sofa, snivelling.

Mark laughed. ‘Ha – Alice Flemming –Inspector Morse in disguise!’

‘It’s not Alice’s fault.’

Jodie’s eyes went back to Mark as if suddenly realising who the true culprit was.

‘I can’t believe you did this to me. I thought you loved me.’

‘You might want to hear the rest,’ he said. His eyes were bright with a madness I’d never seen before. ‘It’s confession time.’ He said it with an American accent.

Mark was still sitting on the floor – the only one, now – swinging back and forward on his backside, holding his knees.

‘The rest? There’s more?!’ Jodie put her hands over her ears, but slid them down as soon as he started speaking.

As if what he’d said wasn’t enough, he went on to detonate more sticks of dynamite in an already decimated corner of the room. ‘I’ve been seeing other women all along, right from the start. I even had an affair with madam – over there.’

Karen and Mark? None of us moved as this next shock wave hit home.

Beside me on the sofa Karen let out a little moan; her forehead sunk into her hand and she was gripping her temples. ‘A brief, but enjoyable, fling at the end of our first year,’ he said.

‘Why are you doing this?’ I said. All I could think was: He doesn’t care. He really doesn’t care about Jodie at all.

Jodie looked down and mucus from her nostrils dribbled into her mouth. She wiped it away with the heel of her hand.

‘Mark?’ I pleaded. ‘She’s just lost her mum, for crying out loud.’

Mark acted as if he hadn’t heard. He was good at that. ‘It’s all over,’ he declared. ‘I’ve had enough.’