Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection

Alice pondered on that. ‘It’s usually one or other of the architects, asking for her to go in when she gets back … or the boss sometimes calls down. Why?’

‘I just wondered, that’s all.’ Turning his collar up, he asked her if she needed a lift. ‘You’ll get soaked to the skin in this lot.’ By now the rain was bouncing off the pavements, and leaving puddles in its wake.

Alice graciously declined. ‘Mum and Dad have got friends for dinner, so Ron’s taking me back to his place. I’m cooking us a meal.’ She glanced down the road. ‘He should be here any minute.’

Dougie gave her a playful nudge. ‘Sounds to me like there’s marriage on the cards.’

Blushing all shades of pink, she told him shyly, ‘You sound like my mum!’ She laughingly mimicked her: ‘“You’re coming up to twenty-five, Alice my girl! It’s time you settled down with some nice young man!” Honest to God, she goes on all the time.’

He winked. ‘Well? Is there or isn’t there?’

She shook her head, and he got the idea that the discussion was over.

‘Right then. I’d best make a run for it.’

Taking his life in his hands, he bid her good night and went out into the rain. Looking this way and that, he ran across the street, splashing through puddles and trying to dodge the deluge that rained down on his back. ‘Bloody weather!’ he grumbled, scrambling into his car. ‘Brilliant sunshine one minute and all hell let loose the next! It’s enough to give you pneumonia!’

Fumbling with his keys, he took a minute to open the car, during which he got soaked through to his shirt. ‘Brr!’ Falling into the seat, he let out a long, withering sigh. ‘Straight into a hot bath when I get in –’ he gave a little chuckle – ‘after I’ve had a sizeable tot of brandy to warm me up.’ He began to look forward to it.

As he pulled out, he saw Lilian huddled in a doorway near the bus stop. ‘Hey!’ Winding down the window, he called out to her, ‘Get in the car, I’ll take you home.’

She waved him on. ‘It’s all right, thanks. The bus will be along any minute now.’

He wouldn’t take no for an answer. ‘Come on, get in! I can take you right to your doorstep.’ Flinging open the door, he urged, ‘Hurry up. Make a run for it!’

With the nose of his car jutting out in the road and traffic having to swerve round him, Lilian could hardly carry on arguing the point, so she pulled her coat over her head and ran for it.

Once she was safely inside, she gave him instructions to her house. He pushed the car into gear and was on his way.

‘Sensible woman,’ he said as he drew out onto the road. ‘If you’d waited for me back at the office I could have saved you getting all wet.’

‘I’ll soon dry out, don’t worry.’ She glanced round the interior of the car. ‘This is new, isn’t it?’

He grinned like a boy with a new toy. ‘My new Ford,’ he answered proudly. ‘I thought you’d never notice.’

‘When did you get it?’

‘Picked it up this morning. I reckon I deserved it.’

Lilian’s hitherto bad mood was beginning to mellow. ‘Some of us can’t afford a car at all, never mind a new one.’

‘Huh! You wouldn’t think so. I had a hell of a job trying to park this morning. It wasn’t so long back that I could pick and choose where I parked. Lately it seems to me like every man and his dog is buying a car … and here’s me thinking it was the privilege of the rich and famous.’

‘Oh!’ she teased him back. ‘So you’re rich and famous now, are you?’

‘I can’t complain!’ Like his brother Tom, he had amassed a healthy bank balance since he had returned from the war, though he wouldn’t call himself rich. ‘I dare say me and Tom are well off by most standards,’ he admitted. ‘But it didn’t fall into our laps, far from it! We’ve worked hard for it.’ He lapsed into silence for a time, then added, half to himself, ‘We’ve both paid the price, though … Instead of Tom spending more time with his kids and wife, he was always on the move. I’ve no doubt but that he regrets every second lost with them.’ He shook his head. ‘Jesus Christ! What does money mean when compared to happiness?’

Lilian asked the same question everyone had asked at some time or another since the tragedy. ‘Do you think they’ll ever catch the man who ran them off the road?’

‘Well, they haven’t caught him yet,’ Dougie answered angrily. ‘If you ask me, the trail’s gone cold.’ He wondered about it all. ‘Strange that …’ He finished thoughtfully, ‘… Why would anybody want to kill an entire family?’

Lilian agreed, though she added, ‘Maybe it really was an accident after all – even the police thought that at one point.’

Dougie shook his head. ‘Tom swears he was rammed by that other car, and I for one believe him. Besides, even if it was an accident, they should have been able to trace the other car! Instead they’ve let him get clean away.’

Now, as he felt the anger rising in him, he changed the subject. ‘You never got married, did you?’

Taken by surprise at his abrupt change of direction, Lilian answered warily, ‘I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything.’

He felt the barriers go up and inwardly swore at himself for being so unfeeling. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.’

She took a moment, then said, ‘No, I never did get married.’

He was curious. ‘Any particular reason?’

‘No.’ She felt uncomfortable. ‘I just never met the right man, that’s all. And with the war, and everything – there weren’t that many to choose from …’ Her voice trailed off.

‘Well, take it from me,’ he warned, ‘romance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.’ He sounded bitter about the way things had turned out; Lilian knew there was talk of a broken engagement in his past.

They were near her house now. ‘Turn right here and straight on, then first left, Camden Street. I’m halfway down.’

For the next few minutes they continued to chat about work, and about his latest deal. ‘I’ve been after that shopping-arcade job for months,’ he admitted. ‘It’s my biggest yet.’ He chuckled. ‘I don’t mind telling you, the boss was over the moon.’

‘He would be,’ Lilian remarked. ‘Making money is what makes him smile.’

‘Ah well, if he makes money, so do we,’ Dougie answered. ‘It’s what makes the world go round, or so they say.’

Following her instructions, he drew up outside a terrace of small houses. ‘There you go.’ Lilian lived in the end one. ‘Safely home in one piece.’

Thanking him, Lilian apologised for her behaviour earlier. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t too sociable before.’

He nodded, seeming to understand. ‘It’s Tom, isn’t it?’ He knew how she felt about him. ‘You expected him to be in touch. That’s it, isn’t it?’

She gave a nervous little laugh. ‘You know, don’t you?’

He wasn’t sure how she might take the truth, but he told her anyway. ‘If that means do I know you worship the ground he walks on, the answer is yes.’ He studied her face for a reaction. ‘I knew about three weeks after you started working with him.’

Shocked that he had guessed her secret, Lilian was slow to reply. ‘I suppose you think badly of me, since he was a married man and all.’

‘Not my business,’ he answered carefully.

‘I never told him, though!’ She thought it was important he should know that. ‘I never told anyone!’

‘Best thing,’ he agreed. ‘You know how Tom doted on his wife and kids.’

‘I know. But surely, now … with him being on his own … I mean with his wife and everything …’ Realising she had strayed onto a tricky subject without meaning to, she paused, a little nervous. ‘I’m sorry … I didn’t mean.’ She grew angry with herself for ever having mentioned it, but now it was out in the open she voiced the question, ‘Why didn’t they ever catch the driver who ran them off the road?’

Dougie took a long, noisy breath. ‘God only knows they tried hard enough,’ he answered. ‘The heavy downpour soon after managed to wash away any tyre tracks. There were no witnesses, and all they had was Tom’s account of what happened. He was in no fit state to give too much of a description. The driver was wearing a hat and dark glasses, that was all he could see. The few clues they had didn’t lead anywhere.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t believe their theory that it might have been an accident.’