The Birds and the Bees(65)

‘Can you tell them at work that I'm not violent?' he snuffled. ‘I'll  never work again if they think I'm a sexual predator. I can't stand it  that people are thinking that about me.'

And because Stevie had once been accused of apple scrumping at school  and couldn't bear to see injustice, she said that she would.



When she went back to the cottage, only one light was on and Adam had  gone to bed. She knocked gently on his door, but he was obviously asleep  and didn't answer.

His plan had worked, after all. Jo was free. There was nothing stopping him going to her.

Stevie didn't think she could bear it.



Adam was awake, tracing the sounds of her footsteps up the stairs, her  soft knock on his bedroom door, and he wanted so much to say, ‘I'm here,  come into my room. Come into my bed,' but he didn't answer. So it  looked as if his plan had worked, after all. Matthew was free and with  one click of his fingers, he had managed to get her over the road again.  She had leapt out of Adam's arms to go to him. The sand in his  hourglass had run out. Matthew was free. There was nothing stopping her  going back to him.

Adam didn't think he could bear it.





Chapter 52




Adam had left for the day by the time she had got up the next morning.  He must have crept out, Stevie reasoned, because she hadn't heard a  thing. In a panic she tore into his bedroom and threw open his wardrobe,  but his clothes were still there and she almost wanted to sob with  relief. Then she rang Catherine and asked if Danny had been okay.  Catherine told her that he had trotted off to school with the others as  happy as Larry, and she was going to pick him up as well because Eddie  had promised he could go over to the allotment with Boot and Chico, the  two dogs, and dig his mum out some veg. Stevie was to come for him after  tea at six, and if she even tried to take him away earlier she would be  in big trouble with everyone. Then Stevie told her she was the best  friend in the world, and Catherine said she knew and demanded chocolates  every day of her life, and every single detail of Adam MacLean's willy,  if she ever got them. Stevie laughed aloud for the benefit of her  friend, but inside she felt hollow, because she knew she never would.

She wrote a text to Adam, asking him if he was okay and could she ring  him. Then she deleted it before sending. It was only fair to give him  time to come to terms with Jo being available. Of course, Jo would hurt  him again, but he loved her and she was his for the taking; Stevie knew  that from all the jealous looks Jo had cast her at the barbecue. Adam  needed space; all men did. According to Men are from Mars, anyway.

She went over to Matthew's house at nine-thirty as she said she would.  The sunlight didn't do him or the house any favours. He hadn't slept,  that was obvious. Or shaved, or showered.

‘Who do I need to ask for?' said Stevie, picking up the phone.

‘Colin Seed. He's Head of Personnel. He's been giving me the evil eye. Obviously hates my guts.'

‘What's he like?' said Stevie.

‘Rich, mid-forties, looks seventy, fat, 1982 trousers, eyebrows that  vultures could nest in, jowly, drives a Bentley, lives in a big house.  He'll be the next CEO in a year, if they don't ship him over to New York  now that his mother's carked it,' said Matthew bitterly.

‘Rich, did you say?'

‘Loaded.'

‘And this evil eye – can I make a guess that it's happened quite  recently?' said Stevie, her brain downloading info faster than  high-speed Broadband.

‘Yes. Do you think that's relevant?'                       
       
           



       

‘I think it may be,' said Stevie, and picked up the phone.



An hour and a half later, Stevie had just got out of Matthew's car and  was walking across the forecourt to the entrance of ‘Doyle International  Foods' by the Leeds canal. It was a hip, buzzing, colourful place, full  of vitality and people who looked happy enough to be working there. She  booked herself in at Reception, under the name Ms B. Pollen, her  business with the Head of Personnel being research for her latest book.  She had told Colin's secretary on the phone that she only wanted five  minutes of his time, and the secretary, who was an avid Midnight Moon  fan, had pushed her in a free eleven o'clock slot, on the proviso that  she would autograph her copy of Golden Bride.

The secretary collected her from Reception and was twitteringly  delighted to meet her in the flesh. After Stevie had autographed the  well-thumbed book, she was shown through to Colin Seed's huge corner  office, overlooking the canal. It was a very neat, modest office; the  office of a man who obviously liked straight lines and things ordered  and above board. Minutes later, when Colin Seed walked in, Stevie caught  an imaginary whiff of mothballs. It was a shame really, because he  wasn't a bad-looking man at all. The love of a good, caring woman could  easily have transformed him.

‘Ms Pollen,' said Colin, with a strong handshake but a surprisingly warm  smile too that knocked a good fifteen years off his age. He gestured to  Stevie to sit down. ‘How can I help you? I'm very intrigued.' He did  not say that his recently deceased mum used to read Midnight Moon books,  and that the last one she had read was by Beatrice Pollen. That alone  had won her court with him today.

‘Mr Seed,' began Stevie, tremulously because Colin had a strong persona  and she felt way out of her depth here. ‘I confess, I'm here under false  pretences. Yes, I am Beatrice Pollen, but I'm not here about any  research. Please forgive my duplicity. I'm here about,' Stevie gulped,  ‘Matthew Finch.'

Stevie watched Colin Seed's welcoming smile elope with the warmth in his  eyes, and his Adam's apple jump up and down like a fairground  test-your-strength machine. However, he surprised her by saying, ‘Go  on.'

‘I'm Matthew's ex-partner. I understand he's been sacked for harassing  an ex-friend of mine,' the name stuck in her craw, ‘Joanna MacLean.'

‘Amongst other things, yes, that is correct,' Colin answered, stiffening before her eyes.

‘I'm here on my own volition, after I heard the news. Matthew is not a  sexual predator. Jo MacLean, however, is an incredibly devious wom-'

‘Thank you, Ms Pollen, but I really do not think this is a matter for  discussion with an outside body.' Colin rose, preparing to show Stevie  out, but Stevie stood her ground, or rather sat it, and continued to  speak. She felt sure now that Colin Seed was personally, as well as  professionally involved with Jo MacLean.

‘Please hear me out, Mr Seed, then I will go quietly, but there is too  much at stake here for me to leave before I have said what I came here  to say. I happen to know Jo MacLean's ex-partner very well too, a  lovely, respectable, gentle man – a Mr Adam MacLean – the local Father  Christmas for the hospital. He first met her in a car park, crying that  she was in a violent relationship … '

‘Ms Pollen … '

‘ … and though not "rich" rich, he's comfortably well off. Then Matthew,  Head of Concessions, high-flyer here caught her eye and she was led, I  think, to believe that he was quite rich. Surprise, surprise, when did  he first start talking to her? In the car park here, crying that she was  in a violent relationship and needed to get away. Funnily enough, that  relationship started to sour round about the time that she discovered he  made church mice look like members of the Getty family. That, for your  information, was very recently.'

Colin looked as if he was going to interrupt again, but stayed silent.

‘Then suddenly, Matthew is accused of being violent and predatory, and  loses his job. Now, I was very hurt when he left me, so much so that I  could have let him rot in this mess, but I can't stand back and watch  someone's life be destroyed by malicious lies. Matthew Finch might be  guilty of many things, but I'd stake my life on it that sexual violence  wouldn't ever be one of them.'

Colin Seed was processing the information. He was using his  professionally trained brain to study body language and voice  inflections, sifting for lies and truths.

‘One more thing, Mr Seed,' said Stevie with an air of innocence. ‘I'd  deduce from Jo MacLean's modus operandi that she has probably found a  new partner. A sitting target with a nice house and plenty of money.  Someone who happens to meet a crying Jo MacLean in a car park with a  heart full of sob stories about her violent ex. She'll probably show  them a supposed boot mark on her left thigh that Matthew did. In the  same way that she showed it to Matthew and told him Adam did it, and in  the same way she showed it to Adam and attributed it to the violence of  the ex before that.'