Page 15 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)

Kendrick is building a Lego Death Star while Ron lies, flat out, on the sofa.

Jason has made him a cup of tea. He’d offered his dad a beer, and Ron had been tempted, but one thing you truly learn with age is that you have to know your limitations.

Pauline has left for work, seemingly as fresh as a daisy.

Ron checks that Kendrick is out of earshot.

‘What gives? Why’s Kenny here?’

Jason speaks slowly and quietly. ‘Suzi rang, just said Danny’s left her. Done a runner.’

‘Left her?’ says Ron. That’s not unwelcome news.

‘So she says,’ continues Jason. ‘Said she had a few things she needed to arrange, and could I look after Kenny for a day or two? Nothing more than that.’

‘Is he gone for good?’ Ron asks. ‘Danny?’

‘Let’s hope so,’ says Jason.

Ron hears a grunt of frustration from Kendrick at his dining-room table. He calls over, ‘Problem, Kenny?’

‘Not a problem,’ says Kendrick. ‘Just thinking about Darth Vader. Why are people like that? Can I have a glass of water?’

‘Course you can,’ says Ron. ‘I keep it in the tap.’

Kendrick bounces off to the kitchen. Ron turns back to Jason.

‘What about the house, then?’

‘All hers, she reckons,’ says Jason. ‘He’s letting her keep it.’

‘That doesn’t sound like Danny,’ says Ron. Something’s not right here. ‘You’re telling me everything? No big row, anything like that? He just left?’

‘Nothing, Pops,’ says Jason. ‘Marriages fail, don’t they? You remember that.’

Jason’s lying to him, Ron can see that. Lying to protect him probably, but Ron doesn’t need protection. There will have been something – a bust-up, an incident – it’s all too quick otherwise. And if Jason’s going to lie to him, maybe Kendrick won’t. Kendrick comes back in from the kitchen.

‘Day off school, then, Kenny,’ says Ron. ‘Lucky thing.’

‘So lucky,’ agrees Kendrick. ‘I do like school, but sometimes you have to have a break to recharge.’

‘Got that right,’ says Ron. ‘Was there a lot of noise at yours last night? Your mum and dad?’

Kendrick fixes a laser cannon to his model. ‘No noise.’

Ron looks at Jason. Jason’s face gives nothing away.

‘So your dad’s taking a little break too?’

‘Yes,’ says Kendrick. ‘He took a case with him, and we waved from the front door.’

Say what you like about Kendrick, the kid knows how to lie. Ron tries a different approach.

‘Your dad can shout sometimes though, can’t he? Was he shouting last night?’

Ron looks at Jason again. Jason is drinking his beer without a care in the world.

‘Well, sometimes you shout too, Grandad,’ say Kendrick.

‘I don’t shout,’ says Ron.

‘At the television,’ says Kendrick.

‘Oh, at the television, yeah,’ says Ron. ‘You have to shout at the television or they won’t hear you. But no shouting last night? At home?’

Kendrick shakes his head. ‘I didn’t see anything or hear anything.’

Ron nods. The Ritchies are a family who refuse to grass, whatever the problem. And Kendrick is a Ritchie. An unusual Ritchie, sure, but still a Ritchie. Okay, change course again, Ron. ‘You know, when I go into my bank, Kenny –’

‘You have a bank?’ Kendrick asks.

‘Not the whole thing,’ says Ron. ‘Banks are a tool of the state.’

‘Okay,’ says Kendrick, nodding. ‘Like the newspapers and the water company?’

‘Exactly, good lad,’ says Ron. ‘Anyway, when I go into the bank, and I want to take money out for something, they always ask me what it’s for. Pay a builder, something like that.’

Ron sees Jason looking at him, wondering where he’s going with this.

‘So I tell ’em what it’s for, and then they say, “Has anyone told you to lie to us, or coached you into giving that answer?” So they know it’s not a scam, see?’

‘That seems a good idea,’ says Kendrick. ‘I’m glad they do that.’

‘Better safe than sorry,’ agrees Jason.

‘So can I ask you that question, Kenny? When you said, “I didn’t see anything or hear anything,” has someone, maybe in this room, told you to lie to me or coached you into giving that answer?’

‘No, Grandad,’ says Kendrick.

‘Even to protect me?’ asks Ron. ‘Uncle Jason didn’t tell you to say that?’

‘If Uncle Jason had told me to say it, it would have been “I didn’t see nothing or hear nothing.”’

Jason laughs and raises his bottle of beer at his nephew.

Ron is now being lied to by both of them. Which makes him think three things.

Firstly, something very bad has happened. Danny Lloyd isn’t a man to leave silently in the night, neat little case packed, thanks for fifteen years of marriage, here’s a handshake and I’ll see you around. Was there a row? How bad was it? Physical?

Secondly, he feels loved. He is being lied to for his own good, because Jason and Suzi, and now it seems even Kendrick, don’t want him to be hurt.

But mainly it makes him feel old. Ron used to be the one doing the protecting. His job was to protect Suzi and Jason, and now their job is to protect him. When did that happen? And now even his grandson is in on the game. When had Ron turned from a lion back into a cub?

Ron doesn’t know what happened last night, and what might happen next, but he knows one thing.

He feels weak. Is this how it is from here on?

Should he just accept it? To the family he looked after for so many years – as provider, protector, barbecue chef, turkey carver and chief rabble rouser – he’s now the old man on the comfy chair in the corner? That’s where they are?

He looks at Jason and Kendrick, and he thinks about Suzi. Why is she not here? What is she having to ‘arrange’? Why is Kenny not at school?

Danny Lloyd is a very dangerous man, always has been, and Suzi was a fool to marry him.

But Suzi’s mum was a fool to marry Ron, so no one was in a position to judge.

Ron already knows this story isn’t over, and they haven’t heard the last of Danny Lloyd.

But whatever fight there is to come, Ron is scared that he might not have the heart for it.

‘You want to stay here for a couple of days, Kenny?’ Ron asks.

‘Can I?’

‘It’s your home too,’ says Ron. ‘You stay here as long as you want.’

‘That might be nice, Dad,’ says Jason. ‘Just over the weekend.’

Ron nods at his son. ‘Whatever you need. You’re a good kid, Jason, don’t think I don’t know it.’

‘Learned from the best,’ says Jason.

‘And I might still have a few tricks up my sleeve,’ says Ron. ‘If you need me.’

Jason nods. ‘Another cuppa?’

‘I’d kill for one,’ says Ron, and lays his head back down. Does he really still have tricks up his sleeve? He supposes he’ll find out soon enough.

Ron’s phone buzzes. A message from Joyce. Probably just waking up, the poor thing, needs someone to bring her round soup and painkillers.

Ron, it’s Joyce, but you know that, because my name will have come up, I find this thing so fiddly, don’t you?

Elizabeth and I have been in Fairhaven this morning and we just broke into an office and, anyway, someone might be dead.

Nick Silver? The vomiter? Also Bogdan has had a haircut.

I can tell you all this when I see you. Why does texting take so long?

Can you come and meet us on Hampton Road in Fairhaven? You know, the one with all the houses.

Okay, so she hasn’t just woken up. And the best man might be dead? And Elizabeth’s been into Fairhaven? Jason comes back in with the tea.

‘Can I get you anything else, Dad? Soup? Painkillers?’

Ron pushes himself up from the sofa. ‘Things to do, Jase, can’t just lie on my arse all day. You boys can stay here if you like? Go see the llamas?’

‘Grandad, you’re the best,’ says Kendrick, springing up.

Ron smiles to himself. His head is splitting, his knees are aching, his constitution is clearly weaker than Pauline’s and Joyce’s, but he’s still alive. He’s alive, he’s loved, and there may be trouble ahead on Hampton Road. Bring it on.

‘The Death Star will still be here when you get back,’ says Kendrick.

‘The Death Star’s always here,’ says Ron. ‘The trick is learning to live with it.’

‘Where you off to, Dad?’ says Jason.

‘As always these days,’ says Ron, standing tall and proud, ‘exactly where I’m told.’