Page 35 of Echoes on the Wind (Borrowed Time #2)

When we arrived at Nellie’s a few hours later, Lee was already there. Before I could even greet anyone, however, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the dining room, then slid the doors closed that separated it from the living room.

“I’m so glad that you’re alright,” I said, ignoring his odd behaviour and throwing my arms around his shoulders. “Where’s Tish? Is she ok? Is everything alright?”

“Awbrey’s gone nuts,” he said, leaning against the dining table. “He came home and saw me sitting there and totally lost it. I didn’t even open my mouth. He just started ranting and raving about how I’d ruined everything and that he’d make me pay. Tish has had a complete meltdown about it. She’s there now, trying to calm him down, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see her again tonight.”

“I actually need to talk to you about that,” I said, but before I got the chance, Mrs Hopkin popped her head in from the hallway.

“Can one of you give me a hand, please? ”

Lee gave her a nod and walked off before I could tell him what I’d learned, so I slipped back into the sitting room with the others until I could get him alone again.

“Are you alright, Betty?” I asked, noticing her sitting alone, not engaging with anyone else.

“I’m just feeling a little under the weather today. I’ll be fine once I’ve eaten something.”

She smiled faintly, but it lacked much effort, and I gave her hand a squeeze. Seeing her so distant and unwell reminded me of when she first fell ill, and how fragile she still was sometimes. Hopefully a rest would help her feel better.

“Can someone get that?” Nellie shouted as someone knocked at the door.

Another knock came immediately after, and Gwyn rushed off to answer it. Despite it being Gethin’s house, he remained in his chair as though he couldn’t hear it, glancing shiftily at me but looking away every time I looked back.

“Mrs Evans?” a panicked voice called down the hall, and I got up to see who it was. I didn’t recognise him, but he’d obviously come from the mine because he was blackened with soot.

“What is it?” she said, wiping her hands down her apron as she walked from the kitchen.

“There’s been an accident. They sent me to get you. Stephens has gone for the doctor.”

I glared at Gwyn, who must have been thinking the same thing as me because he grabbed the miner's shoulder and turned him so that they were facing each other. “An explosion? ”

The miner shook his head, settling my heart rate a bit. “No. A train came in too fast. Two carts turned over and spilled their load over a group of men. They were digging them out when I left. They’re alive, but they’re pretty beaten up.”

“I’ll get my bag,” Nellie said, pulling her apron off.

She threw it over the bannister as she ran upstairs, and thinking quickly, I raced up behind her.

“Nellie,” I said, following her into her room. “The package Zack gave you. Do you have it?”

She heaved her bag onto the bed and began sorting through it. “Tom, can we do this later?”

“It’s really important. I need it.”

She let out a huff as she grabbed some bottles from her dresser and tossed them into the bag. “Open the wardrobe. The pink hat box on the top shelf. It’s in there.”

I swung the doors open and scanned for the hat box, then grabbed it roughly, sending others tumbling to the floor. I pulled off the lid, then carefully lifted out the hat, finding the small bundle hidden beneath it.

“Is this what Zack brought over?” I asked, and with a cursory glance at the package, she gave me a nod.

“Tom, I have to leave,” she said as she closed her bag and headed for the door. She held it open, waiting for me to leave, then followed me down into the hallway. “Mama, can you finish dinner?” she called out as she rushed for the door. “I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

Without waiting for an answer, she rushed outside with the miner, and I stuffed the package inside my jacket as I entered the living room .

“Lee, Gwyn, shall we go outside for a cigarette?” I asked, eliciting confused looks from both of them, as well as the others, who all knew I didn’t smoke.

I walked off without waiting for a reply and headed out to the back garden. The dim light from the kitchen cast a faint glow over the dark yard, but when they came out a minute later, I pulled them into the shadows, away from the house, so we wouldn’t be overheard.

Lee lit a cigarette as I placed the bundle of evidence down on the garden table, then handed it to Gwyn and lit another for himself.

“What’s that?” he asked, nodding at the package.

I took a seat and put my hand on it, letting out a long breath as I prepared myself to confess everything to him. “I’ve got something I need to tell you,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper. “I think you better sit down.”

Gwyn came to sit beside us, and I spent the next ten minutes telling Lee the truth about what happened with Graham, and how, via Ellis, it had led to his arrest. In that short space of time, he chain-smoked his way through three cigarettes.

“You’re being too quiet,” I said after a few moments of silence, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, leaving his cigarette hanging loosely from his lips.

“I can’t believe you kept all this from me.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wanted to tell you. I just thought if I kept you out of it, there’d be less risk of you getting into trouble.”

“Well that worked out well for you, didn’t it? ”

I shook my head, sighing, and looked to Gwyn for some support. “I’m sorry,” I said again. “You know I never keep anything from you. I was just trying to do what I thought was best. I didn’t account for Ellis being insane.”

“Tom, you’re the one who’s bloody insane,” he snapped, keeping his voice low. “What are you holding onto that man’s things for? What if the police come back? Do you realise how stupid you’ve been? You should have told me. I could have helped you.”

“I know! I’m going to get rid of it. I’ve got a plan. But there’s more I need to tell you first.”

He took a drag of his cigarette and almost choked it back out as I spoke. “More? What more could there possibly be?”

“It’s about Awbrey. Lee, I think you’re in some serious trouble.”

He flicked his cigarette onto the patio and stubbed it out with his foot, then immediately lit up another one and stared at me through the smoke, waiting for the next bombshell. “I’m listening.”

I stared, open-mouthed, trying to find the words, until Gwyn cut in to help me out. “We think Awbrey is going to blow the mine,” he said bluntly. “And we think he’s going to pin it on you.”

Lee held his cigarette halfway to his mouth as he stared between us, at first with a dubious eyebrow raised, before an incredulous grin spread across his face. “You can’t be serious?”

“I found a letter a little while ago,” I said. “I was snooping, and I didn’t really think anything of it at the time, but it was from you, ordering Pit 5 to reopen. ”

He curled his lip up and shook his head. “That’s bollocks. It’s not reopening, and I haven’t ordered it to. It’s too dangerous. We can’t afford the ventilation equipment to get it sorted.”

“Well I saw it, and it had your name on it. And I found a load of insurance documents as well, all with your signature. I didn’t think anything of it, but when we went to ask Awbrey for help earlier, he had more on his desk, plus orders for explosives, all signed by you, today. When we came out, they were taking the explosives into Pit 5.

“I know I could be way off, but if he does something stupid, then there’s a really long paper trail that leads right back to you. As far as any investigation would go, you signed the pit off as safe, you ordered all the explosives, and you’ve taken out multiple insurances. If anything happens, he’ll get a huge payout and have his hands clean, and you'll be in jail, away from Tish.”

“That’s the bit I don’t understand, though,” Gwyn said. “If there’s any suspicion of it being an inside job, surely the insurance won’t pay out?”

Lee tossed another cigarette to the ground as he began to pace the yard, shaking his head. A silence fell between us all for a second, then he lifted his leg up and angrily smashed his foot against the wall, dislodging the coping stone atop it, which fell into next door's garden.

“Fuck!!” he shouted, repeatedly slapping his hands on the wall. “He’s stitched me right up.”

I looked at Gwyn, confused, then reached out to Lee in an effort to calm him. “Is there something else going on? ”

He fell back against the wall and rubbed his hands down his face, letting out a deep sigh.

“Awbrey came to me a while back with some man. Said he was happy with my work and wanted to offer me some extra responsibilities. I’ve been working my arse off, so I was just pleased he’d noticed, you know? They put a new contract in front of me, saying I’d be taking over operations. Most of it was just legal stuff about liability and whatnot. I barely even read it. I was doing the job anyway, so I just thought I was just making it more official, and I signed it.”

“What difference does the contract make?” I asked, staring between them. “Everyone already knows you work there.”

“It means I’m liable, Tom,” he snapped, waving his hands at me in frustration. “There’s a signed contract that says these decisions are mine to make. When the insurance people come to investigate, which they will, Awbrey will plead ignorance to everything, and I’ll be dragged through the courts. He doesn’t even have to make it look like an insurance job. They’ll see that I wouldn’t benefit financially, say I was negligent, and he’ll get his money. He’ll look like just another victim of my supposed incompetence. He could even sue me himself.”

“Then we need to put a stop to it,” Gwyn said. “If he’s already loading Pit 5 up with explosives, he’s got to be planning on doing it soon.”

“That’s where this comes in,” I said, holding up the package. “We have to plant this in Awbrey’s office, then make an anonymous tipoff to the police. He’ll be so wrapped up in investigations that he won’t have a chance to do anything stupid. Then, while he’s worming his way out of a murder charge, we can get rid of the explosives and anything with your name on.”

They both looked at me like I’d gone mad, and I was second-guessing myself even as I spoke, but I could think of no other way to make sure that Lee and Gwyn got entirely off the hook for Graham’s murder. If we could pull it off, we’d also be saving hundreds of lives.

“I can’t do that,” Lee said, shaking his head at me. “It would kill Tish. He’s still her father.”

“I don’t think we’ve got much choice,” Gwyn added as Lee lit up a fresh cigarette. “If he finds out that we know what he’s up to, he’s going to work harder and faster to pull it off, and if we don’t find some other way to stop him, he’s going to kill half of the men in the town. It doesn’t feel right to frame a man for something he hasn’t done, but if we don’t, then he’s going to do so much worse, and you’re the one who is going to take the blame for it.”

Lee began to pace again, muttering quietly to himself as he walked, and every now and then, he would look up at us, shake his head, and return to pacing.

The back door flung open, bringing Lee to a stop, and Mrs Hopkin leaned out, hanging on to the handle as she stared between us. “If I keep this bird in the oven much longer, we’ll be attending its cremation. Gwynfor, set the table for me please. You two, get washed up.”

She went back inside, followed by Gwyn, and I grabbed Lee by the arm and turned him towards me. “Whatever you decide,” I said, “I’ll be there for you. You know that, don’t you? ”

He gave me a nod and pulled me into a hug. “I know. Just give me ten minutes. I need to think it all over.”

With an understanding nod, I headed inside, leaving him to finish his cigarette.

“Tell Betty to come and wash up,” Mrs Hopkin called out as I headed for the living room.

“Betty, your mother said–”

“It’s alright,” she replied breathily, as she tried to push herself off the chair. “I heard.”

I reached over to give her a hand to her feet, and she let out a long, low groan, as though every movement made her ache.

“Are you alright?” I asked as she straightened herself up.

“I will be,” she replied. “Thank you, Tom.”

The colour seemed to drain from her face as we looked at each other, and her smile quickly faded with it.

“Betty?”

Her grip tightened on my arm, and she clenched her lips together as though she was straining against some pain. As a long, high-pitched moan forced its way out, she lurched forward and pressed her head against my shoulder, clutching onto her belly with her other hand.

“Betty, what’s wrong?” Joseph’s voice came from somewhere behind us, and in an instant, he was at our side, leaning down close to his wife.

“Mama,” she cried out, pushing her head against me again.

As I took a step back, I noticed the tiny puddle on the floor at our feet, barely noticeable if not for the light catching it.

Her waters had broken.