Late of the Payroll

‘Why can’t I speak to the Inspector,’ asked Isobel, now playing the petulant child.

  ‘You know why,’ answered Sergeant Smith. ‘Now I really need you to tell me about your relationship with Anthony.’

  ‘And he’s already blurted out our secret?’

  ‘So I’ve been told.’

  ‘Okay,’ began Isobel, with what seemed to Cori deliberate haste, as if the quicker she spoke the quicker it would all be over. ‘I first found out who my father was when I came home from school one day, and told my parents I was going to be doing my work experience at the Aubrey’s office. I was fifteen and getting into trouble, and thought it was the first thing I’d have to tell them for a while that might make them proud...

  ‘I was so upset at their reaction, I didn’t know what I had done. It took a whole night of shouting at them to find out why they were so set against it – I could guess it was nothing to do with school. It didn’t help, when they did tell me, that they were both so embarrassed about it. It’s still a thing I don’t like to talk about.’

  ‘So what happened next?’

  ‘They blocked the work experience; which got me into more trouble with the teachers, but I didn’t care by then. But they did arrange a meeting, they knew I had to see him. Whether they expected us to be such good friends I don’t know, but that made things even more difficult.’

  ‘More?’

  ‘I got into trouble earlier today with your Inspector; he told me off for saying my parents didn’t love me. Of course I knew they did, but they were just so... hard to fathom. Dad – I still call Doug dad – he was always proud of me, but I would catch him sometimes looking so sad, and when I’d ask him why he would just shake it off. And as for mum, she would have died for me, I know that. When we argued, about me – it was always about me – she was deadly serious, because what I did with my life was the most important thing in hers. But she couldn’t show me that she loved me, she always held back.’

  ‘So how were things with Anthony?’

  ‘He was lovely, right from the start. I don’t think we had any father-daughter relationship, we weren’t even very similar. But we got on really well. He told me how much he had wanted to know me all these years, and at last I got some answers about what had happened back then. I’m not saying it all made sense right away, but he could talk to me in a way my parent couldn’t. I think I really, really loved him. He was my best friend.’

  ‘But still you left?’

  Isobel drew back at Cori’s question, perhaps facing further things she didn’t like to talk about,

  ‘I was always going to leave home as soon as possible, I knew that even before I learnt all this about Anthony. I hated school by then, and nothing in town made me want to stay.’

  ‘And there was Carman?’

  ‘I couldn’t believe when I met Stephen, that this boring little place could hold someone so exciting; or so I thought then. Of course I’d just found Anthony, but this was different. I was star struck, Sergeant, head over heels. And of course Stephen wanted to leave too, but he had plans and a route laid out; and I hoped that if I loved him enough then he would take me with him.’

  ‘And it didn’t bother you that he was into drugs?’

  ‘I’d done a little bit myself,’ she said sheepishly, ‘and when you’re young it’s a thrill to be doing what people tell you not to, to be jeering at the police. Sorry.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ Cori almost laughed.

  ‘He was lawless and I loved it. I was just so glad I’d caught him in time. Anthony hated him though, and couldn’t understand why I’d want to leave when he and I had only got to know each other. And there was also...’

  Cori took Isobel’s hand, and urged her to continue.

  ‘Well, the thing is that Anthony was still a secret. I couldn’t tell anyone he was my dad, not even my best mate, Connie. There were times we went for meals, just Anthony and I, and I was worried what people would think of us, that they would jump to conclusions. In the end we met mostly at his house, which was bad as he spent too long there anyway and needed bringing out.’

  ‘It must have been confusing?’

  ‘But in the end you grow up, and you want your own space.’

  ‘So you left both sides of your family behind?’

  ‘I had to, I had no choice. Can you understand?’