How Laura Lewis Met Richard Brown

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Fox and Hound was hosting a bingo evening, and the warmth and chatter quickly enveloped Richard and Laura as they entered the pub. Several regulars of the establishment looked up from their bingo cards as Richard and Laura passed them by on the way to the bar. Sue from the café couldn’t keep her eyes off them and Richard bristled when he saw that she nudged old Mrs Jones who was sitting next to her and who, up to that point, had seemed to be the only person in the room not to have noticed them.

Richard quickly glanced at Laura who was looking at the bar. He hoped she hadn’t noticed that the entire pub was focused on them.

He forced his gaze towards the bar, too, ignoring the many pairs of eyes now burning holes in his back.

Laura placed her bag on a stool and rummaged for her purse.

Richard wondered how she could find anything in such a large bag that was crammed with so much stuff. There were several paperbacks lurking inside and he spotted a bag of jelly babies.

‘I’ll get these,’ he said quickly. It was Gertie’s fault that they had ended up in the pub. ‘What would you like?’

Laura hesitated for a moment, her hand on her purse which remained in her bag. She withdrew her hand, zipped the bag shut and then replied that she’d just have a coffee.

Richard was about to say that he could stretch to a gin and tonic but thought better of it. This wasn’t a date. He didn’t want to come across as arrogant, as that kind of guy. So he simply nodded and turned to face Bill who was already filling a large mug with filter coffee.

‘Usual for you, Richard?’ Bill asked.

‘I’ll just have half, Bill. Have an early start in the morning.’

‘Righto,’ Bill said and placed a half-pint glass under the optic.

‘Anywhere nice?’ Laura asked.

‘Just a Year Six trip to Liverpool World Museum. But we’re leaving school at eight to get ahead of the traffic. It usually takes us a couple of hours to get there and we need to be there at ten.’

Bill passed Richard his half of bitter. ‘Never been there,’ he said. ‘Heard it’s a good day out and that the people are very friendly, though.’

‘It’s a wonderful museum,’ Laura said, her eyes bright with love and warmth for her home city. ‘The museum has changed a lot since I used to go there as a little girl. The aquarium is fantastic.’

Richard turned his full attention on her. ‘You grew up in Liverpool then?’ he asked, one eyebrow raised. ‘But you haven’t got the accent.’

Laura picked up her bag, hoisted it onto her right shoulder and lifted the huge cup of coffee with both hands. It had two handles. ‘No, I lived over the water,’ she said quietly. ‘Shall we find a table?’

Richard nodded, wondering why she’d wanted to change the subject. But he let it go and led the way over to a free table in the corner by the fire. Everyone else had migrated over to the tables near the makeshift stage where the bingo caller was sitting next to a professional-looking bingo machine. The coloured, numbered balls whirled around inside the giant plastic vortex, the LED lights flashing around the edge of the machine.

‘Here okay?’ Richard asked as he approached the table.

‘Perfect,’ Laura said, followed by a smile.

Richard noticed that it transformed her face. She looked years younger.

‘I love sitting by the fire,’ Laura said, placing her huge coffee cup onto the table and popping her bag by her feet.

‘If I come here with Jack he always hates sitting at this table because he gets too hot,’ Richard said, now settled into the low leather armchair.

Laura nodded. ‘My sister is just like that. She doesn’t feel the cold, even in the depths of winter. When she was little, she would go outside in the snow without a jumper or coat. It used to drive our mum mad.’

Richard chuckled. He picked up his drink and sipped it.

Laura cleared her throat and placed her hands around the warmth of the coffee cup.

Someone shouted that they had all the numbers, and the bingo caller asked them to go to the stage. Everyone started to clap and cheer.

Laura turned around to watch what was going on. Everyone seemed to be happy, sipping drinks and getting ready for the next game. ‘I’ve never played bingo,’ she said, her eyes fixed on the tableau in front of her.

‘Really? You’ve never played bingo?’ Richard asked. ‘I thought that it was compulsory training for all care-home staff?’ His mouth twitched.

‘Well, I’ve watched people play, but never had a go myself,’ Laura said.

Richard nodded his head towards the bingo players. ‘Do you want to have a game?’

Laura shook her head, giving him a wry smile. ‘No, thanks. Anyway, don’t we need to discuss Gertie’s secret plan?’

‘Ah, yes, the secret camera,’ Richard said. He lowered his voice. ‘Are you sure that you’re okay with all of this?’

‘Having the recording equipment in Gertie’s room? Absolutely.’

‘It’s just that, well, I don’t want you to get into trouble, that’s all. This can be down to me and Gertie. You don’t need to have anything to do with it, if you don’t want to.’

Laura jutted out her chin and her eyes took on a determined look. ‘Believe you me, I can take care of myself and I want to catch this person as much as you do. So count me in. I’ll help in any way that I can.’

Richard looked more closely at this woman who had just stumbled into his and his grandmother’s life. She didn’t appear to be afraid of anything or anyone. Was that a good thing?

‘Well, that’s good to know,’ Richard said. He took a refreshing gulp of his bitter. ‘I just know that Gertie can be a little bit overbearing at times. She can be hard to say no to.’

Laura smiled and nodded. ‘Oh, yes, that is most certainly true, but I want to help.’

It was then that Richard knew that what Laura was saying was true. He could read it in her eyes. She really did care for his grandmother and whatever doubts he had about her, about who she was and why she was really here, temporarily faded away. This was about Gertie and keeping her and the other residents of Cedar House safe.

‘Right then.’ Richard fished his phone out of his pocket. He swiped the screen and navigated to the page he had last been on. ‘Here are some of the cameras I’ve found. What do you think?’

Laura took the phone from him and scrolled down the page.

She handed back the phone.

‘They all look good to me. They’ll all do the job of recording what goes on in the room.’

‘Yep, that’s true,’ Richard said. ‘But I think this one is best.’ He angled the phone so that Laura could see the screen and enlarged the image of a particular model. ‘This one works with Bluetooth and I can watch it in real time. The good news is that you can sync it to more than one phone.’

Laura shot him a look of surprise. ‘You want to link it to my phone as well?’ she asked.

Richard wondered if he had made a mistake. Was he asking too much? ’If you’d rather not, I understand,’ he said.

‘No, no, it makes perfect sense. I can keep tabs on what’s going on when not on shift. But I need to check with Gertie that she’s happy for me to have access to the video feed, because it’s a fine line we’re treading here, and just so you’re fully aware, I could lose my job over this if things go wrong.’

Richard hissed in a sharp breath, rubbed a hand over his neck. ‘Let’s forget all about it. It’s not fair—’

‘No, it’s fine. I want to help.’ She tucked a stray strand of blonde hair which threatened to fall into her coffee behind her ear and jutted out her chin. ‘I’ll take the chance because I want to help.’

‘Thank you,’ Richard said, knowing he needed to say a lot more.

‘We’ll catch them, you know,’ she said.

‘I know.’ He drained his glass.

Laura picked up her coffee cup and let out a small laugh, placing it back down on the table.

It was empty.

‘Want another drink?’ Richard asked, gesturing towards the cup.

‘Why not?’ Laura said. ‘But I’ll get them.’

Richard began to protest, but Laura was already up and out of her seat, on her way to the bar.

* * *

Laura returned with the drinks and sank back down into the comfy leather armchair. She could easily get used to this. A hot drink by a roaring fire in a warm and friendly pub. The company wasn’t bad either.

She’d tried to steer the conversation towards Gertie and so far it was working. Gertie was a safe subject.

Richard picked up his cola. ‘Cheers,’ he said.

Laura clinked her coffee cup against his glass. ‘Cheers.’

‘Will you sleep tonight after drinking all that coffee?’ Richard asked, followed by a wide grin.

Laura thought for a moment. She was now immune to the effects of caffeine. ‘Yes, no problem at all. It’s all my years of nursing and working night shifts on busy wards. You build up an immunity to it.’

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realised her mistake. She clamped her lips together to stop herself from talking. Perhaps Richard wouldn’t pick up on her wording.

‘So, you’re a nurse then?’ he asked. His brow creased, clearly confused.

Laura sipped her coffee to give her a few moments to think about how best to answer the question. She could lie and say that she was using the term nursing in its broadest sense to mean care work, but she had a sneaky feeling that Richard would see through that lie. Or she could tell the truth and hope that he didn’t ask any questions.

She opted for option number two.

‘I was a nurse for many years but needed a break. I wanted to go back to my nursing roots, to basic nursing care, and so the care home was the perfect solution for me.’ Laura forced a smile. She willed Richard not to ask any more questions. Willed him to believe that she would give up a career in nursing to move to a village and work in a care home. This version of the story just didn’t ring true.

He didn’t smile back. His brow furrowed even more.

Laura could tell that he wanted to ask more questions. It was obvious that he didn’t believe her.

‘Well, I’m glad you decided to come and work here,’ he finally said.

She stopped holding her breath. She needed to be more careful. She just found it so incredibly easy to talk to him and that was when those little secrets slipped out.

Richard shuffled back on his chair and cleared his throat. ‘Do you think we should tell Linda about the camera? Involve her in what we’re doing?’

Laura was surprised that he had changed the subject so quickly, but she was glad. She shook her head. ‘No, I think it should just be the two of us. I trust Linda, but it wouldn’t be fair on her.’

‘I agree,’ Richard said. ‘Okay, we’ll leave things as they are and I’ll order a camera once I get in.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I should be making a move really.’

Laura covered her mouth to stifle a yawn. ‘Me too. It’s been a long day.’ She bent down to pick up her bag.

That was the moment when Richard asked his question.

‘What’s the real reason you gave up nursing?’

The question took Laura by surprise. That, and the brisk no-nonsense manner in which he’d asked it. She was unprepared. Of course, he had seen through her lie. She straightened up in her chair, pulling her bag up onto her lap. She hugged it for protection, putting a physical barrier between herself and this man who was far too shrewd.

‘I needed a change. Something happened . . .’ She swallowed and took a breath. ‘Something happened in my life and I needed to take a step back, that’s all.’

Laura stood up.

She couldn’t talk about Mark. She wouldn’t talk about him. This was all getting far too complicated. If she told Richard the real reason for giving up her job and moving to Buttermarsh then she would have to talk about Mark and she wasn’t prepared to do that. Not yet. It was too soon. She didn’t want to see the look of pity in his eyes or what would be even worse, disgust, at the fact that she’d been complicit in her husband’s death. Best to leave the past alone for now. Here, in this remote village, she was Laura the care assistant who lived a single life, and she wanted it to stay that way.

‘I need to go now,’ she said, without looking at Richard. ‘Let me know about the camera and what I can do to help.’

All of this was said while she was slipping her arms into her coat.

Richard stood, grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and started to put it on.

‘See you soon,’ Laura said. She turned and strode towards the door.

All Richard could do was stand and stare as she walked away from him.

* * *

Back at Cedar House, Gertie turned off the bedside light. A slow smile crept across her face. In her mind’s eye she could see the two of them sitting before a roaring fire in the local pub. Her smile grew wider. Perhaps things would work out after all.