Chapter Forty

A surprisingly good day had turned into a surprisingly good week. Jake was standing in the car park, watching the clouds over west London turn a murky purplish brown as a prelude to sunset, waiting for Mouse and Duncan to finish having a cigarette. Despite all the meetings and shit, they’d finally managed to get interested in the music again. Although they rarely agreed straight off, it was all happening again, and the sense that they didn’t really need him was more a comfort than a worry. They were all working together, and even Jeff seemed to have declared peace and love.

The three of them had been discussing the weekend: Duncan had finally made it to Germany, and had the mother of all rows with Ella, but she still seemed to be expecting him back. Mouse had spent it trying to teach Pete to kick a football, much to the disgust of Catie’s parents, who had been visiting and had struggled to find a time when their only grandson was neither asleep nor covered in mud. Jake had only half been listening, letting the conversation flow over and around him: when Duncan spoke to him he didn’t immediately realise what he had said. He suddenly found a lit Marlboro being waved vigorously in front of his face.

“He’s off again. Where is it this time, dreamboy?”

Jake wasn’t wholly sure how to answer the question, given that he hadn’t been thinking of anything in particular.

“Sorry. Was just enjoying the afternoon, you know.” Looking around at the car park, he realised that it probably sounded ironic, “What’s up?”

“I asked whether you finally did the lawyer, while the rest of us were getting grief.”

Duncan’s tone implied that he was unlikely to give up, which was a shame.

“Haven’t seen her. I had to go back up to Manchester, to see me Mam again. And Si. He’s getting in a state because he reckons that Dad might have used him to get me out of the way the night he took Marty.”

Mouse looked nervously at Duncan, but he didn’t falter.

“Shit. I’m sorry mate. Didn’t you just tell him that you weren’t around that night?”

Jake looked across at a row of neatly parked commuter cars. Most of them seemed to have warning signs about babies stuck on the side or back windows.

“That’s the problem. I was with Simon: it’s the only time I ever stayed with him, until after we split. He reckons it was Dad suggested it.”

“Yes, but he didn’t know, did he? So it’s not his fault, just like it’s not yours.” Duncan couldn’t quite understand why Jake thought that it was all so complicated, “So she didn’t feel like going with you this time?”

Jake licked his bottom lip, before starting to bite it: the fact that Mouse wasn’t asking questions presumably meant that Duncan had already told him something about Sorcha, but he had no idea what.

“Didn’t ask her, mate. She doesn’t need to be any more caught up in this than she already is.”

Duncan was looking at him, trying to figure out what that meant.

“But you like her right? So why not just get on with it?”

Mouse seemed to be interested in the answer to the question too, which made it harder to avoid. He’d also lit another cigarette, which implied he was expecting it to take a while.

“She’s just a mate, and I’m just getting to know her. It’s not like you think.” The fact that Duncan didn’t believe him could have been written on a large neon sign hanging over his head, “Besides, if I tried anything on, I’m afraid that she might give me a good slapping. She can be a bit kind of fierce, you know.”

Mouse was about to say something, but Duncan got in before him.

“What? You’re afraid that some silly little lawyer is going to say no to a superstar like you?” Mouse tried to say something, but Duncan didn’t let him, “What the fuck’s going on?”

“Leave it OK? There’s a lot of other stuff going on at the moment, that makes it hard too.”

“Bollocks! You should still be able to shag who you like.” Jake winced, which made Mouse laugh, “Where have you taken her?”

Jake wished that he could just walk away without it ruining the camaraderie which had recently broken out again, but wasn’t sure he could get away with it.

“Look, it’s really not like that. I’ve been to her place a couple of times, and we’ve had a bit of a chat…”

Duncan interrupted, grinning from ear to ear.

“Then she slept in your bed, naked, then she met your mam.”

Jake dug in, not knowing how best to distract him.

“Then we had a bit more of a chat. See, the problem is if I tried to take her somewhere to impress her, I kind of get the impression she’ll have been there before and I’ll end up feeling like a prat.”

Mouse could see that Jake either couldn’t or wouldn’t give Duncan what he wanted, and that it could all very easily end in tears.

“Then you should impress her with your famous friends. I’m sure we’d both be on our best behaviour.” He put his arm around Duncan’s shoulders, and they both grinned inanely on cue. “It can’t be that hard mate: just ask her out for a drink. Surely she drinks?”

Jake was tempted to say that he thought it was probably safer if she didn’t, but realised that would only mean more questions. Pointing out that she had referred to Duncan as his furry friend and treated him like an idiot five year old was unlikely to help much, either. It was easier just to play along. At least, it was easier until he realised that Mouse had got hold of his phone and was searching back through the call records: he managed to grab it back just as Sorcha answered.