Exposure Page 11

  She is at home on her own a couple of evenings after her visit to the hospital when the phone rings. She is taken aback and momentarily thrown off guard to hear Ramsey’s voice.

  “Susan? Good. I thought that you might like to know. The press are on to you. They’ve just left. They want my story, Susan. I’m going to give them it.”

  She gathers her thoughts.

  “Don’t be such a bloody fool. They will shred us both.”

  “I’ve nothing to lose, Susan. You have, though.”

  “Oh yes you have, Dave. You have a great deal to lose. You have your career to lose for one. Do you think the church will keep you on, even in a back room job, if this comes out? Well, do you? And do you think Brenda and her parents could stand it if you are smeared across the tabloids? Think about it Dave.”

  There is a long silence, and then the phone goes dead.

  CHAPTER 12

  “It may not be the easiest of evenings, Darling.”

  Linda and Ken are in their bedroom, showering and changing in preparation for an evening with Susan and Bill. Theirs is a larger than average, dignified room which overlooks the front garden through two large windows. A king size bed dominates the room and a sofa sits along the wall opposite, between the window recesses. It is a square room, pale cream in colour and offset by dark mahogany furniture. At one end of the room is the en-suite bathroom and at the other, their walk-in dressing room. The soft furnishings are in cream or white, increasing the sense of space.

  Linda is sitting at their dressing table, which is set to the left of the bed, adjusting her bra strap as she and Ken prepare to go out for the evening.

  “I gather that,” mutters Ken. “I can tell by your mood.”

  “I’m not in a mood,” Linda retorts. “Just a bit anxious, that’s all.”

  Linda has worried as to how the evening will go ever since she accepted the invitation to have dinner with Susan and Bill at Number Twelve – the latest restaurant to catch the attention of discerning food lovers in the city.

  “I don’t suppose you would like to tell me what this is all about?” Ken asks, kissing his wife on the forehead and waiting for a reply.

  “There’s not much to tell,” Linda replies, peering into the mirror at her eye make-up.

  “Come on, Linda, since that night when you got out of bed and disappeared for several hours over to Susan’s you have been behaving quite secretly over your phone calls to her.”

  “I honestly don’t think there’s much to worry about, Ken. That love-struck minister, Dave Ramsey was pestering Susan. The man turns out to be mentally unbalanced. He attempted suicide, he’s still in psychiatric care and he’s now threatening to go to the press.”

  “I see. So, she’s scared of the publicity?”

  “Exactly. She’s also jumpy about Bill not believing her. But he seems to have taken her word for it that it was basically nothing to do with her.”

  “Mm. I thought she wasn’t too wild about poor old Bill?”

  “Well, she’s not besotted but she’s hardly indifferent either. I suppose,” Linda continues, looking now in the mirror at Ken, “It wouldn’t be a bad thing if she settled with Bill, though. She could do a lot worse than make a commitment to him.”

  “Couldn’t agree more. This chap – the minister – sounds pretty ill to me. Obsession, I’d say, not love, that’s for sure.” Ken adjusts his tie. “What kind of state is he in now? What was the suicide method?”

  “Paracetemol – a heavy dose, I gather.” Linda knows her husband understands the attempt was serious. “It was touch and go for a while. Anyway, it could, as I say, be a difficult evening. Let’s get going, shall we? Would you try to have a word with Bill and see what he’s making of it?”

  Ken just looks at her, raises his eyebrows with a mock exasperated sigh and they head downstairs together to give Tina the telephone number of the restaurant and to bid her goodnight. They spend ten minutes with the children and then leave by taxi.

  The restaurant is Italian, smart and with none of the pseudo-Italian paraphernalia of middle bracket restaurants. It is the kind of restaurant you might find in better hotels in the expensive areas of Rome. White tablecloths, dimmed lighting and waiters in evening dress all suggest that the restaurant will be a pleasant experience. When she eats well, Linda likes traditional styles in a restaurant and is not one for the new minimalist restaurants springing up over the city.

  The couple sit over gins in the lounge area and allow themselves five minutes of silently browsing the menu as they wait for their friends to arrive.

  When Susan and Bill enter the restaurant, Linda’s first reaction is that her friend looks stressed and tired behind the makeup and bright smile. Bill, by contrast, looks relaxed and genuinely cheerful. The women hug and then Linda kisses Bill, Susan following suit with Ken. General conversation ensues with enthusiasm for Bill’s suggestion to spend the evening together, updating of their varied day’s work and the usual polite enquiries about the children.

  Susan and Bill order gins and they all give another few minutes over to concentrating on the menu, interspersed with cheerful humour from Ken and the headwaiter’s advice on the specialities of the evening.

  The men both choose mussels to start with, Linda a smoked salmon and cream pasta dish and Susan avocado baked with crab soufflé. For main courses, they select the evening’s special of fillet steaks with Italian tomato and garlic sauce. Bill selects a red wine in consultation with Ken, and Linda watches her friend’s mild irritation at this male preserve being shared by their two partners.

  The evening is pleasant, though. In the company of four they find conducive and intelligent conversation on most of the topics they touch on. They can share a humorous look at politics, despite their different outlooks and they find common entertainment in the current satirical TV coverage of politics.

  No one particularly wants desert and they settle on cheese and coffee, with port for Ken and Bill. The women cry off from having any more to drink at this stage. Over cheese, the conversation turns to Dave Ramsey. Linda, having spoken with Susan in the day, knows that Ramsey is still posing a risk of exposure to her. So her question is carefully timed and phrased. She also knows, although nothing has been said, that Susan is anticipating it.

  “Susan, how is Ramsey doing?”

  “He’s still pretty deranged from what I can gather. Must be dreadful for the wife.”

  Bill comes in as if what he is about to say is already rehearsed.

  “Indeed. It’s not been too good for Susan either.” Now he is looking at Ken. “Susan could do without this sort of thing. There’s nothing worse than false allegations.”

  Ken takes the implicit message that this is to be the perceived truth for the future.

  “Yes. This is a difficult situation for you, Susan. I suppose the problem is that if this comes out it will be hard to refute. Don’t you legal boys say that it’s impossible to prove a negative? You can’t prove that something did not happen.”

  Linda frowns at Ken. He is teasing and mocking Susan and doing it in such a way that is almost indiscernible. But she knows her husband. Fortunately, if Bill knows what Ken is doing, he does not pick up the jibe.

  “Quite. If this gets to the press, people will draw their own conclusions, irrespective of the facts.” Bill offers the cheese board round as he speaks.

  “If any,” laughs Susan, coming in for the first time. Then, serious now, she continues. “Bill has been great, you know – very supportive.”

  By this, Linda decides that Bill obviously believes his partner. The unspoken invitation to Ken is obviously to do the same. Linda says nothing; thereby able to ensure that she does not betray either Ken or Susan. Instead, she asks whether there is anything that Susan can or should do. She chooses her words carefully, not sure how much Bill knows about the call from Ramsey. But Bill seems to be quite conversant. He has suggested a solicitor’s letter and constructed it himself, leaving it for Susan’s own solici
tor to send. Ramsey will receive it tomorrow. Linda is impressed. Here is Susan using the advice of her betrayed partner to deal with the unwanted behaviours of a jilted lover. Only Susan would have thought of that one.

  The conversation moves on as if naturally, Bill closing the topic with an observation of how vulnerable anyone in the public eye can be.

  Later, when Susan rises to go to the ladies, Linda accompanies her, partly to talk to her friend, partly to leave Ken to talk with Bill. Susan updates her in the otherwise deserted rest room – as the sign on the door titles the facility.

  “Jonathon Whitley has been great. After he got the letter from Ramsey, he showed it to me. It’s pretty lurid. He’s doing all he can to suppress it. He says it’s not in the public interest to discredit public personalities with mad ravings of the mentally ill. The boss has held off the City Tribune, as well.”

  “Have you told him what did happen?”

  “Good God, no! And he has been very careful not to ask. Cleverly done.”

  “I take it you are still denying it to Bill?”

  “Yes. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I think I’m going to let sleeping dogs lie. Anyway, it’s too late now to go back on the line I took.”

  “Was the letter to the boss true – or accurate – whatever the right word is?”

  Susan looks long and hard in the mirror at her friend.

  “Linda, will you keep this to yourself? I need to talk to someone.”

  “Of course – we have been friends and confidantes since London days. We’ve not let each other down yet.”

  Susan hesitates before she speaks. She is slightly the worse for wear from wine and Linda wonders if she should stop whatever divulgence is about to follow. But the moment when she might do that passes.

  “It was pretty wild sex. Anonymous sex. I made him do pretty well whatever I wanted.”

  Linda looks stunned. Then she rallies.

  “You mean, Susan, like you see in the top shelf selection in video shops? Or, I gather, on the Net?” She is laughing, surprised and eyes wide open.

  “Sort of. Linda, it’s like an aberration. It kind of comes over me when I know I’ll get away with it. It’s a bit like a drug. I’ve got to do it.”

  Linda chooses laughter.

  “My God, a nympho! My best friend’s a nympho. Well, well! Who’d have thought it? She is hugging her friend to take the sting out of what she says by doing so. The hug is one of woman-to-woman acceptance.

  Now they both see the funny side and shrieks of laughter must be heard all the way back to the table. They are shrieks of relief from Susan; of semi-embarrassment from Linda.

  “Now I see why you haven’t mentioned this to Bill. Mind you,” Linda chokes, sobering slightly, “This makes you vulnerable.” Now a new thought occurs to her as if a penny drops. “I gather this is not the only time?”

  Susan just raises her eyebrows and shakes her head.

  “No. That’s the problem.”

  “Is money involved?” Linda asks, her eyes widening as a new thought occurs to her.

  “Good God, no,” Susan retorts, as if there ire some vast moral divide between her behaviour and that of any common or garden prostitute.

  “Oh dear, Susan.” Linda gives a more restrained laugh that suggests that this is quite serious. Well,” she says next, thinking as quickly as the wine allows, “I suggest we keep this to ourselves as far as Ken and Bill are concerned. Let’s just hope that Ramsey keeps quiet and that we ride out this little storm.”

  Susan hugs her, obviously wanting to talk more now that she has told this to anyone for the first time but saying instead that they should get back to the men. As they are leaving the rest room, Linda whispers, “Soon, let’s talk some more. I might have a thing or two to tell you myself.”

  Later, as she and Ken are getting ready for bed, she asks how he got on with Bill.

  “I still think he’s one nice bloke,” Ken reflects. “He seems to have taken Susan’s account of this Ramsey business at face value. Seems intent on getting her through it. He still says that he would like them to get together permanently.”

  “I take it you don’t – take Susan at face value, I mean,” Linda said, settling down in her side of the bed, and flying a kite as she does so to see what Ken will say.

  “Of course I do, Darling. Oh, and Darling”, he grins, leaning over. “Are my ears wet, where I washed them, of course?”

  They laugh, put the light out and despite the alcohol, find enough energy for some admittedly non-energetic lovemaking.

  CHAPTER 13

  The end of term for academics at Linda’s level tends to be a very busy time of planning, reviewing and preparing for the following year’s work. Pressure to complete the exam process, to meet external examiners and to review the funding base for the year ahead keep staff working at full pace till the end of term. There are meetings, graduation ceremonies and formal working lunches. All of this ensures that despite the empty lecture halls, the work continues right into early July. To the students sitting on the lawns in the early summer sun, this is an unknown part of academic life.

  It is a long-standing tradition for Linda and Ken to host a garden party in the reasonably extensive grounds of their home. They do this at the end of each of Linda’s academic years, and colleagues from University and the health centre and a few other friends and neighbours are invited.

  This year, they choose a Saturday, late afternoon and evening, just three days after their meal with Susan and Ken. Given the number of children in the party, they organise a bouncy castle and a children’s entertainer. This is duly set up at some remove from the patio and its presence gives the adults a welcome chance to relax without worrying about the noise and behaviour of their offspring. The great, rambling and walled garden lends itself perfectly to this kind of entertainment and the day proves to be warm and sunny, the temperatures hovering in the mid twenties.

  Ken is in charge of the barbecue. The patio doors are open, leading from the garden into a dining room laden with wine and beers, soft drinks and a cold table, which Linda overhears described as ‘to die for’. This she later recounts to Tina who worked into the small hours with Linda to make the buffet a memorable one.

  On this hot and sunny day, the mood is relaxed and happy as friends and acquaintances meet and as conversation flows. Close friends of Linda help to keep the buffet looking attractive and Bill is given the task of keeping the glasses of the guests topped up. Young Kenny is in charge of children’s drinks and manages his responsibility for a solid hour before the attractions of a rough and tumble on the castle win the day.

  In the tradition of successful parties, Linda and Ken’s guests move from group to group, enjoying general social repartee, some exchange of information about the different professional worlds they live in and some talk of the summer to come. There is always something topical to share about city life – this month, the possibility that a new hypermarket on the edge of the by-pass will ease city traffic but threaten small retailers.

  By about eight o’clock, guests with younger children drift off whilst Linda and Ken’s children take over from the entertainer and each hosts the older boys and girls. Somewhere in the house, girls are dressing up and boys are absorbed in some computer game. The adults are mellowed now by wine and good food and sit in quiet circles, talking easily and a bit lazily.

  Not allowing herself wine till now, Linda relaxes at last on the grass watching Ken, chef’s apron still on, who is chatting with Bill and Alistair, his legal partner. Harry, Jane’s brother, is with them. They assembled at the barbecue an hour before and are still deep in conversation. Linda guesses the chat will be about their golfing plans for the summer and the prospect for the city rugby team in the next season.

  She and Susan chatted for a while earlier on, steering clear of the subject of Ramsey. Linda sensed that Susan wanted a day off from that topic and from the anxiety that goes with it. Susan, gregarious at times like these, did the
rounds of Linda’s friends, careful to mix as well with friends of Ken. On these occasions, Susan avoids talk of her personality status, preferring to learn more about other people and their worlds. She did allow herself to get drawn into a conversation with a couple of medics about the representation of hospitals in TV soaps, but otherwise enjoyed discussing with men from the business school their views on the success and further potential of E-commerce. She talked with Terry, a computer expert, sufficiently knowledgeable to make the point that the only expert in computers is the computer itself. She said afterwards to Linda that he was a bright young man and not the anorak one normally associates with the world of information technology. She asked who he was and Linda explained that he came along with Jane and her brother Harry.

  Watching her, Linda realizes that Susan veers automatically to male company and is the centre of attention to the men in any group. Not exactly flirting, she seems none the less to hold centre court with the men. Linda wonders if she would have noticed this prior to their conversation in the rest room at the Italian restaurant. She thinks not.

  Jane comes over to join Linda for the first time since she arrived after a few pleasantries with Ken and her two male escorts for the evening. She sits down now beside her hostess and they talk easily together for twenty minutes or so about their respective plans for the time leading up to the dig in the Hebrides. Jane is going out to Turkey, partly to rest and read in the sun, partly to visit ancient sites for her own interest. And she hopes to have a few days with friends in the city. She has a couple of evenings planned with her women friends.

  As they chat, Linda watches Jane’s eyes, sparkling with life and enthusiasm and holding contact with Linda’s. Jane’s attention to her feels warm and she enjoys these moments. For her part, she tells Jane, she will spend the first part of the summer at home with the kids until they go abroad and she then joins Jane at the dig. After the dig, she will be flying to Santiago di Compostela from where she will drive over the mountains to join Ken at the family home.