Free One Bad Turn by Emma Salisbury Page B

car. Timing everything around feeds and nappy changes. It was easier to stay in, Lynn would say, and she’d ring him when he was on his way home to pick up something for dinner. He didn’t blame her looking back, but he hadn’t been so understanding at the time.
    ‘Must be hard, though, with two,’ he said simply.
    Pete scowled. ‘I told her it was too soon to start thinking about going out. It’s all about going without when they’re little isn’t it? Putting them first…she said it was alright for me, my job takes me away for several days at a time,’ he explained, ‘she didn’t get that it was work.’
    ‘What is your job, Pete?’ Coupland enquired.
    ‘I’m a quality manager for a five star hospitality group. It’s my job to check that standards are maintained throughout our European chain.’
    ‘So you get to go abroad a lot, then?’
    Pete nodded enthusiastically, ‘some months my feet don’t touch the ground,’ he said, ‘that’s why when I’m home I like to chill out, only Maria’s always wanting us to do something. She doesn’t get that all I want to do when I’m home is kick off my shoes, have a takeaway…She’d kept in touch with the girls from her antenatal class, there were a couple of them, like her, whose husbands couldn’t make it every week, and one of the women - I always thought she was a lesbian - well she could be couldn’t she, these days? Anyway she started organising nights out. Maria always looked forward to them.’
    I’m not surprised, Coupland thought sourly, anything to get away from the prick she’d married. ‘Were you not worried when you didn’t hear from Maria? I mean, I normally check in with the missus when I’m away, not that it happens much, I expect you do the same?’
    Pete looked surprised, ‘No…’ he said slowly, ‘I don’t like to disturb the twins. Once they’re settled you do anything you can to keep it that way. I just assumed Maria was doing the same.’
    ‘Can you give me the number for the friend that she was staying with?’ The wheels in Coupland’s mind turned slowly as he tried to work out why Maria’s friend didn’t ring when she hadn’t arrived as planned.
    Pete looked blank. ‘The number will be on Maria’s phone…’
    Coupland nodded, reaching in his jacket pocket for a pad and pen, ‘I’ll find it myself later,’ he said, making himself a note, ‘can you let me have her name?’
    Pete blinked. ‘Helen Dalry, I think,’ he said, ‘or Dalton, I can’t really remember…’ he leaned forward in his chair, pressed his fists into his eye sockets, ‘Oh, God…’ he cried, ‘how the hell did this happen?’
    Coupland sat in silence for a moment; there were times when words really didn’t cut it. A woman could be heard weeping through the closed kitchen door. ‘At least you’re not on your own,’ he said feebly, ‘your mother I take it?’
    Pete reared his head. ‘Mother in law,’ he answered in a way that Coupland felt some sympathy with. After a moment Pete lowered his hands, pressing them together as though in prayer, ‘Tell me everything,’ he said, leaning forward, ‘because until I hear it I can’t quite believe what you’re saying is true.’ Coupland nodded, and while he spoke Ashcroft moved around the room, studying photographs, trying to get a lie of the land. ‘It seems that Maria was fatally injured on her way out to meet with her friend. Her body was found this morning at the bottom of the station footbridge,’ Pete had been staring at Coupland’s face intently, as though trying to read the words he didn’t want to say. ‘Are you saying she jumped? Oh, God, did she hate her life so much?’ He slumped back in his seat slack jawed, his eyes taking on a glassy look, ‘No,’ Coupland said hurriedly, ‘the way she was lying…that doesn’t appear to be the case,’ he let that sink in.
    ‘So someone pushed her over the side?’ there was a lift in his voice, as though it was preferable