‘I feel so awful now’ Helen says, her voice catching. ‘I was downright rude to her’
‘Hey’ Kester holds her by the tops of her arms and dips his head to look her fully in the face. ‘I think you had cause, don’t you?’
‘Yes…but…’
‘But nothing’ he replies, glancing over his shoulder to where Marilyn sits watching anxiously from the car. ‘She hurt and upset you…badly…How else were you expected to react?’
‘But after what Nathan said and seeing her for myself…I should have realised…’
‘It doesn’t matter now…but I need to go help Marilyn look for her…chase down a few of her old friends et cetera. Andy and Beth are doing their bit….but we can cover more ground if we split up and I don’t think Marilyn’s in any fit state to drive’
‘You’re not informing the police?’ Helen questions ‘Surely…if she’s depressed…’
‘I know…It’s like a needle in a haystack but it’s the way Marilyn wants it for now. She doesn’t want to run the risk of alienating Lenny by making a fuss if there’s no need. Not sure what she’s at, there are no clothes missing as far as Marilyn can work out but she has taken her purse and her card wallet. If we get nowhere in the next couple of hours, she’s agreed it would be best to report her as missing’
‘Will you let me know how things are going?’
Kester pats the side pocket of his trousers. ‘Mobile’s on if you hear anything too, okay?’
‘If she comes back here, you mean?’
‘She might…you just never know. Right…best get going. Don’t blame yourself, all right?’ he says, kissing her forehead. ‘None of this is your fault’
Library Car Park
Chapter Fifteen
The Village Library
‘She’ll be okay’ Marie tries to assure Helen. ‘She’s not the sort to do anything daft’
‘But how do we KNOW that?’ Helen covers her face with her hands, rubbing her forehead. ‘This is my fault’
‘Now you’re being stupid’ Marie retorts. Helen looks up sharply. ‘Well, you are. This isn’t Marie your employee, this is Marie your friend talking, and I’m telling you you’re being daft. After all you went through with her, you’ve got nothing to blame yourself for’
‘That’s what Kester said…’ Helen sighs resignedly.
‘Well, listen to the man! He knows what he’s talking about even if you don’t. I wouldn’t have given her the time of day…in fact, I haven’t done since she was so bloody rude to me the day I met Marcus. Really sneery and she was…’ Marie’s voice trails away.
‘Was what?’
‘She was having a pop at you, if you must know and I told her where to get off!’
Helen acknowledges her words with a brief smile and returns to recording the ISBN’s of the books being exchanged with those from the Woodbury branch. ‘She must be very lonely’ she says after a few minutes.
‘Serves her right!’ Marie retorts immediately, looking up from her own computer. ‘She’s only got herself to blame. She didn’t really want to know us lot when she got in with that Simon she was engaged to. We weren’t good enough. Then when that all finished, she still looked down her nose at me and my mates’ she huffs ‘Kester and Nathan would’ve got the same treatment if they hadn’t been better off than her bloke’
‘Much better off, from what Nathan was saying. It was all show and they were up to their ears in debt…something she hadn’t realised…’ Helen colours slightly. ‘Sorry, I mustn’t gossip’
‘Don’t call what I’m doing gossiping, I’m just telling you the way she was…She only put up with me because I was Kester’s friend…’
‘And you’ve been a very good friend to him…I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for that’
Marie laughs. ‘Don’t be daft! What’s to thank? We were mates long before you came on the scene…’
‘Yes…but you’ve seen him through some very black moods’
‘Yeah….I get the moody bugger, all sweat and mud….’ Marie sighs ‘And to think I used to fancy him like mad. Sort of takes the edge off when they pitch up in your kitchen stinking like a pig’ she grins.
‘But you talk to him…he talks to you’ Helen says earnestly. ‘It helps’
‘I listen…not a lot makes sense but I just let him ramble on…get whatever off his chest, give him coffee, send him home’
Marie.,…I hope you don’t mind me asking….but…you freely admit to having an enormous crush on Kester…yet…’
‘I didn’t give you the evil eye when you and him got together?’ Marie cottons on immediately.
‘Exactly…and yet….Leonie’
‘You and him were right for each other. I could see that before you actually got together, the way he talked about you and everything, and I was really pleased he’d found someone he could get serious about…like you do if you’re friends’ Marie pushes back her chair and gets up to cross the room to the printer, ‘Leonie could see it as well’ she says, taking her copy from the print tray and tapping the edges against the desk to align them. ‘But she thought of you as a threat. I think she saw herself in the running and you spoiled it. I was never in the reckoning’ she smiles ruefully as she sits down again.
‘But he thinks an awful lot of you’
‘Yeah…as a friend. We get on okay, me and Kester…always have done. I thought I was so in love with him at one stage…It’s really stupid looking back on it…I must’ve embarrassed the hell out of him’ Marie grimaces and laughs. ‘I practically threw myself at him every time we met!’ She signs the covering letter and slides the whole sheaf from the printer into an envelope, pausing before closing the seal to remark ‘He never once took advantage of that, you know. Not once. He could’ve done. The way I felt then….well….you know what I mean’ she grins ‘Guess he saw something in me that made a better friend than anything else…he sure didn’t fancy me the way I did him’
‘A great shame Leonie couldn’t think as you did’
‘Oh, it hurt for a bit…but he was so nice …still is…Well…you’d know that, wouldn’t you?’
‘I do’
‘Then don’t let this thing with Leonie bother you…he’s right, whatever she at, it’s not your fault’
‘Aren’t you worried at all?’ Helen asks.
‘I suppose I’m concerned…about as much as an ex-friend might be…but no, not really…not worried. She’s got everyone running around…which is probably just what she wanted’
‘Oh, Marie! That’s very uncharitable’
‘And what she did to you and most other people she came in contact with wasn’t?’ Marie raises a cynical eyebrow. ‘Anyway…I’m not falling out over it. I’ll go get us some coffee’
