Page 10 of The Bodies

NINE

The Grind House is more akin to an upmarket opium den than a coffee shop: Moroccan rugs, mosaic-inlaid tables, low sofas crowded with kilim cushions.

Candle flames bob and smoke inside iron lanterns set with tiny stained-glass windows.

Over the hiss and splutter of the espresso machine, an Arctic Monkeys track is playing.

Tilly and Drew are sitting in semi-darkness, at a table furthest from the window.

Unlike most days, Drew’s only make-up this morning is a scarlet slash of lipstick.

Her turquoise hair, feathered to baby blue at the tips, spills through the back of a white baseball cap.

She looks about as uncomfortable as Joseph has ever seen her – cheeks flushed, eyes downcast, her focus on the phone case decorated with turquoise rhinestones beside her coffee cup.

Max, wearing a black T-shirt beneath a hessian barista’s apron, is standing over the table, looking just as awkward.

Clearly, they hadn’t been expecting Tilly – and now, partly thanks to Joseph, they’ve been caught.

Tilly’s gaze moves between her stepbrother and her best friend, her expression difficult to read. Perhaps she’s starting to figure out what’s going on between them.

As Joseph manoeuvres around the other tables, Max glances up and spots him. Something passes between them that Joseph can’t define but worries him even so.

‘Hi, Dad,’ the boy says, looking relieved at the distraction. ‘You want a coffee? Staff discount?’

‘Thanks, no. I just grabbed a Costa.’

‘Oof. Don’t let Sally hear you say that.’

From somewhere Drew finds a smile. ‘Hey, Mr Carver,’ she says, her nose twitching. ‘I am loving the new parfum .’ But when she picks up her coffee cup a moment later, the rim rattles against her teeth.

Max glances at her, then back at his father, eyebrows raised. For a moment, Joseph has the craziest thought that his son is jealous – and that it’s a dangerous kind of jealousy. But Tilly is watching him strangely, too.

Can they read my thoughts? he asks himself . Can they tell that last night I drove a dead man to Saddle Bank, in the boot of my late mother’s car? Do they know that I’ve been researching how quickly a corpse decomposes? How it bloats up and starts to leak fluids?

Abruptly, he realizes they’re probably just wondering why he’s here. ‘I was in Samsons,’ he says. ‘Picking up the meat order. Thought I’d come by and remind you about the party later.’

Max nods. ‘Barbecue, right? We’ll be there.’

‘Wouldn’t miss it,’ Drew says.

‘Great, you’re very welcome,’ he tells her, although he doesn’t really mean it.

He’s always had a lot of time for his stepdaughter’s best friend – a decent girl saddled with an unreliable father and abandoned by an even more unreliable mother – but right now he wants the fewest possible visitors to the house.

‘Drew’s bringing her dad tonight,’ Tilly says.

‘Even better,’ Joseph lies.

He makes his excuses and leaves. Back inside his car, the raw meat smell of the Samsons order is so heavy it makes him retch.

He drives home with the windows down and the aircon on full blast. When he carries his shopping into the house, he finds Erin in the kitchen, cutting into slices what at first he thinks is a human heart – until reality rushes back and he sees it’s simply a beetroot.

‘Good,’ she says, sucking beetroot juice from her thumb. With the point of her knife she indicates the sofa near the bifold doors. ‘You. Sit.’

‘I’ll just put the meat—’

‘Uh-uh.’ She jabs with the blade. ‘Sit. Talk.’

Joseph leaves his purchases on the side and eases himself on to the sofa.

Erin, still holding her knife, perches on the coffee table opposite.

‘Something’s up,’ she says. ‘You’re being weird.’ With her free hand she squeezes his knee. ‘Weirder than usual, I mean.’

He flinches at her touch – as much from surprise as guilt. These last few months, physical contact between them has been rare. Her sudden effort to address it has him spooked. ‘I am?’

‘What happened last night? Your chat with Max. What did he say?’

Joseph shrugs. ‘He … got some things off his chest.’

‘Like what?’

Here it is, then , he thinks. The moment of departure. The point where my deception truly begins. Joseph breathes deep, and starts with something that may not be a lie at all. ‘Max is seeing Drew.’

Erin blinks. Her mouth drops open. ‘Max and Drew ? Wow. Of all the things you might have hit me with, Joe Carver, I wasn’t expecting that.’

‘Me neither. I don’t know how Tilly will react. Apparently, they haven’t told her.’

‘Ouch.’

‘What?’

‘I’m just not sure that’ll play well.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because Max has always worshipped her, for a start. And because Tilly’s had him around her little finger for as long as we’ve been together. I don’t think she’ll appreciate her best friend intruding. It might feel a little claustrophobic. Still, at least it won’t last long, this thing with Drew.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘He’s a good-looking boy – and next month he’s going to be hundreds of miles away in St Andrews, surrounded by smart and single young women.’

‘You don’t think Drew’s smart?’

‘I think she’s whip-smart. Ambitious, too. Even with all those hours at the salon, she’s still finding time for that college course. A few years from now she’ll be opening her own place, no doubt.

‘But Drew’s still a homebody at heart. She’ll likely never leave Crompton. Whereas Max just wants to spread his wings. Which means I guarantee this is just a bit of summer fun until they go their separate ways.’

‘Can we avoid telling Tilly, then? I don’t like keeping secrets, but I promised Max I wouldn’t say anything – and I don’t want to mess up these last few weeks before he goes.’

‘I won’t blab. But if Tilly asks me a direct question, I won’t lie.’

‘That’s fair.’

Erin slaps his leg and stands. ‘OK, Carver, you’re released. There’s heaps to do and we’re running out of time.’

Joseph sighs out his breath. He climbs to his feet, trying to mask his discomfort, and crosses the kitchen to the door.

‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ Erin adds, behind him. ‘What happened to Max’s car?’

Joseph turns, meets her gaze. And discovers that his wife is studying him far more closely than he’d expected.

His scalp shrinks on his skull. Has she been deceiving him all along?

Pretending to hoover up his bullshit while saving the tougher questions until he’s off-guard?

Was her earlier physicality a ploy? Does she know something?

He blinks, as if waking from a daydream – and castigates himself for his lack of trust. Bad enough that he’s concealing the truth. Projecting his guilt on to Erin helps no one.

‘Joe?’

He hasn’t prepared for this, needs to shut down her curiosity fast. Only one explanation feels remotely plausible. ‘I drove it over to the bungalow last night, locked it in the garage. Less temptation for Max that way. At least until we get it road legal.’

He replays his words, trying to decipher Erin’s look. For better or worse he’s committed himself, now, to a version of last night’s events.

‘You drove over to Saddle Bank at three o’clock this morning?’

‘I took Max. Harder to escape a lecture when you’re trapped inside a moving vehicle.’

She nods, as if something just clicked inside her head. ‘And then you cycled home, the pair of you.’

‘How’d you know that?’

‘I took the gazebo out of the shed earlier and saw the bikes.’ Erin searches his face. ‘Joe, is everything really OK?’

‘Of course.’

‘You’d tell me if it wasn’t?’

‘Everything’s fine.’

Joseph’s heart is a stone in his chest as he says that.

Because his wife looks like she believes him – and because lying to her was far easier than he’d imagined.

She comes over. After a moment’s hesitation, she loops her arms around his neck, breathes him in.

‘I do love that scent on you. Did you get a new shirt?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Do I get a sneak peek?’

Again, he baulks at her closeness. Because this simply isn’t how things have been. ‘There’s loads to do, remember?’

‘It’s only a barbecue and drinks.’

Joseph disentangles himself, can’t bring himself to look at her. As he leaves the room, he feels Erin’s gaze like two scorch marks on his neck.