A Fitting Revenge Read online

  I was left with the feeling that there was something he hadn’t told me and picked at my salad without interest as I wrestled with the decision whether to tell him about Sandra and me, or not. I felt no guilt over it, not on Giles’ part, Juliet yes certainly, but not Giles. After all, I hadn’t known who she was, she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, there was nothing to indicate that it was anything other than two people with a healthy need for sex. Whether he would see it that way, I was not sure. I was acutely conscious of my friend’s sorry emotional state. I didn’t want to depress him further by adding to his troubles, and I certainly didn’t want him angry with me. He didn’t deserve that extra burden. On the other hand, if he didn’t care for her any more, the knowledge might well give him ammunition for the inevitable fight ahead, and better to hear it from me directly than have it thrown in his face later in public. ‘I’ve been away a lot,’ I answered him, ‘you and I have met elsewhere, you went away after you were married as you said, and of course I never made your wedding for which I’m eternally sorry. It’s one of those things. There’s more to it than that, though.’

  He misunderstood and assumed I was waiting for him to carry on. ‘Yes, sadly,’ he murmured. He hadn’t touched his soup, but had settled back in his chair and was stirring the bowl slowly and absent-mindedly. He stared up the river for a moment. ‘One day I was talking about things to a chap I know here in London. I can’t remember how it arose, but the conversation drifted around to a friend of his called Alan Parsons and then to his very acrimonious divorce from Sandra! Apparently she had walked away with a fortune. Of course David didn’t realise she was my wife now. Well that was news to me. Why on earth hadn’t she told me? Why withhold that kind of information? After months of this rather unpleasant existence, I began to wonder if she was making a business out of marrying rich men and then divorcing them, and it didn’t take long to convince myself that was the case.’

  ‘She wants a divorce, you said, on what grounds?’

  ‘Anything she can drum up. Try incompatibility, supposed sexual incompetence, although surely she can’t use that as a ground? Physical abuse if she can drive me to it, my infidelity. I don’t know how she knew about that, but I wouldn’t put it past her to have had a private detective on my tail.’

  ‘And she doesn’t sleep around?’ I ventured nervously. I had now determined that I had to tell him. With the marriage disintegrating under Sandra’s orchestration, he needed to know what she was up to, whether he liked it or not.

  ‘I don’t know, Alastair, and I don’t care. She flirts with other men in front of me; she did so with you last night, for heaven’s sake. Flirts in an openly obscene manner with my best friend in front of me, and in the same breath embarrasses me in front of you and her dumb companions.’ He settled back in his chair, then blurted out, ‘I bet she contacts you. I bet she tries to get you into bed to ruin our relationship just to spite me.’

  ‘If she does that, she’ll lose her moral high ground in a divorce,’ I answered, still hesitating in spite of his loosely granted permission.

  ‘No, because she’s clever enough to know that I will never put you in that position. She knows what we mean to each other, and I will not have you standing up in court and admitting that you slept with the wife of your best friend. Juliet would also become involved, of course.’

  Typically, Giles was thinking of me not himself. And, as each of us had always done, I reciprocated, ‘Thank you for the thought, but you can you know, if you have to, you can use me as a witness.’

  ‘We’ll see. Incidentally, she came out with your ‘lovely girlfriend’ at dinner, remember?’

  ‘Yes, what of it?’

  ‘Well, I’m damn certain that I’ve never told her about Juliet. I wouldn’t.’

  An uneasy feeling flittered through me. ‘Strange, how did she know, then?’ I took a deep breath, ‘Giles, it’s too late, I’ve already had that wild night. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. She picked me up in Antonio’s one evening, said she recognised me from a photo, but wouldn’t say where until she pointed it out at your house last night. She was dark haired then and called herself Angela Parsons. I couldn’t believe my eyes when you introduced us.’

  ‘You slept with her? For Christ’s sake Alastair, she may be what she is, but she is my bloody wife!’ His voice was too loud and the nearby couple looked up.

  ‘Sssh! I said I’m sorry, I had no idea,’ I answered in a raised whisper. ‘I would never betray you. You know that. I think it’s important you know about it now if there’s a divorce in the offing.’

  ‘And what about Juliet?’ He snapped back in hushed, angry tones, ‘How could you do that to her? That girl absolutely adores you. You can be quite a shit at times, Alastair!’

  ‘That’s fine coming from you who’s just admitted a one-nighter, yourself. And look at all the times you’ve done the same thing!’

  ‘That’s different. I don’t love my wife and I had to prove something because of her behaviour. As for earlier times, yes I’ve had a few drinks too many and ended up in bed with girls, but I’ve never done it when I’ve been in even a weak relationship. I’ve never two-timed any girl. I’m really annoyed with you because of Juliet. She deserves better than that from you.’

  ‘I know and if it helps, I feel the shit you say I am.’ Which was the truth.

  ‘Well, you’d better sort it out with her and you’d better pray that she’ll take it as a one-off while under the influence.’

  His flash of anger evaporated as quickly as it came. His shoulders slumped. In silence he contemplated his cold soup, then - ‘It’s all right,’ he said resignedly, ‘It’s unfair to blame you over Sandra. This is her, it’s her scheming. When was this?’

  I looked over to the nearby couple. They were holding hands across the table but not talking, probably trying to hear something else interesting from us.

  ‘Friday.’

  ‘Two days before you came to dinner, and she knew you were coming a month ago. Do you see how she manipulates things? It’s a tactic of hers, keeping a step ahead by doing something unexpected and outrageous to provoke a response.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Thanks for telling me. You’re right, I do need to know these things. Please don’t worry on my account, but it would be wise not to do it again. Sorry I blew up, I’m a bit on edge.

  ‘Alastair, I don’t know the boundaries of hatred, when complete and utter dislike can be called hate, but it must be something close to what I feel about her. If I had the guts and was prepared to take the consequences, I’d kill her.’ He paused, reflecting on what he’d said, ‘I won’t, of course, but it is a satisfying, vengeful thought.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Woods, fields in different shades of green and bright in the sunlight, embankments, sheep, horses and cattle rushed past the train window. I saw them, but they didn’t register in my mind which was clogged with thoughts. A small child in a pink jumpsuit with something yellow round its mouth put its sticky little paw on my clean trousers for support. I gave it an evil glare, and its loving mother quickly whisked it away. She looked at me as if I was about to do it some harm. Two rows behind, a man with a loud voice was conducting his business on the phone for the entire carriage to hear, issuing instructions and not appearing to listen to the other party. He kept it up for twenty minutes, almost as far as Reading, making it difficult to concentrate on the rest of my conversation with Giles.

  ‘Alastair,’ he had moaned, ‘I cannot live with her any longer, I cannot endure the continual arguments she puts me through any more; not to mention last night’s humiliation.... If we divorce, then she will do her utmost to ruin me and move on to some other unsuspecting well heeled sod.’

  ‘Why don’t you divorce her immediately, get it over with?’

  He had sighed, ‘I’ve thought about it, but... I know a detailed history of my ancestors over three hundred years. I know there are a few bastards in the family tree. My great aunt was one of them from her father and a mistress.
I believe several of the ladies in the line had lovers too, but no one got divorced and the children were all cared for. They considered divorce as taboo, just not done. I don’t want to break the tradition, even if almost half our population considers it the norm these days. It’s simply not right. But then I think that it’s got to happen somehow, we cannot continue to live like this. I know I’m being stupid and sticking my head in the sand over it, hoping the problem will go away, but I’d rather she initiated proceedings, not me. Plus, of course, I have no proof she has ever been unpleasant to me, so I have no grounds. I think I’m just waiting for something to happen, hoping she makes a mistake.’

  I had understood. This was typical Giles: traditional values, always do the right thing, treat others as you would wish to be treated, give generously, good manners make the man and so on. There are many attributes that Giles adhered to that had a greater value in an earlier time, without considering the effect they would have on him in a world that had moved to a less refined and respectable way of life.

  ‘When are you going back to Chile?’

  ‘Tomorrow week,’ I had answered. It was Monday.

  The train shot through a station so quickly it was impossible to read the name. The steady song from the rails was interrupted as the wheels clattered noisily and irregularly over points. Pink sticky fingers was tottering down the aisle in the other direction, but the mother seemed unconcerned, which made me feel an ogre - briefly. I wasn’t interested anyway, my thoughts were wrestling with an alternative and hopefully risk free strategy. I knew Giles better than he knew himself sometimes. Having let off steam by confiding in me, it would not be long before he became fired up and vengeful. He needed to stay calm while we worked out the best solution with the fewest repercussions.

  If Sandra had Giles followed to find out about his single wayward night, then it was possible she had done the same for me, otherwise how did she know I was going to be in Antonio’s on Friday evening? Knowing what I knew now, that meeting was surely not by chance. One thing was for certain, though, communications had to be protected if we were to plan something. I thought mobile phones could easily be hacked - it was all over the press at that time - but I didn’t know how and to what extent. Was my phone how Sandra knew about my ‘lovely girlfriend’ that Giles had not told her about? If so how had she done it? Did they tap into the network or did they use radios to listen in? I had no idea, but I was going to find out, and if my phone was compromised then Giles’ must be too. A landline only rule was one option, but an additional new mobile would be better so we could hold one to one conversations in privacy. Giles would need to be led on this, he wasn’t in the best state of mind, and in any case I was better at planning than he was.

  As soon as I was home, I phoned his office from the call box in the village, hoping to meet again the next day, but he said he was busy, it would have to be on Wednesday. I told him to say nothing until we were face to face, and we had agreed a modus operandi. He was glad to be moving in some direction, any direction, and I know he was comforted by sharing his situation with me. It was not that Giles was a weak or indecisive person, far from it, but he had been driven into an awful choice between, what was to him, two unacceptable situations. Unless we seized the initiative from Sandra, whatever course of action he took he was going to lose financially and emotionally. He was certain to be subject to bruising public humiliation in the divorce court, even the tabloids, she would make sure of that. Brooding on these life wrecking possibilities, he was currently in a bit of a rut, and it needed a fresh mind to see the way clear.

  Before we hung up he said, ‘I know something I’m going to do.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Tell you on Wednesday. Thanks for everything.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  We met on Primrose Hill to the north of Regent’s Park on Wednesday afternoon. The sun was hot on the skin and comfortingly eased its way into cooler bones. As sun-starved people tend to do, those that were not at work, and maybe some that should have been, were taking the opportunity to generate some Vitamin D from the rays. Girls exposed as much skin as they could get away with. They lay on the ground, entwined with lovers, in groups or alone absorbing the warmth. Here and there men had stripped off their shirts, others strolled or kicked a football about on the flatter ground below. It was all unhurried and relaxed. The atmosphere was clear, the sky blue, the grass and trees green, and the prominent buildings of the City were clearly outlined to the South East. Somewhere in there was Giles' office, but it seemed very remote that afternoon. Midweek, there weren’t too many people about, and the scene spelt peace and calm in contrast to his inner turmoil.

  ‘I took the afternoon off,’ he said, ‘told them I wasn’t well which, quite honestly, is not far from the truth.’ It had not rained for days and the ground was dry. We found an unoccupied patch on the grass near the top of the rise and set about devouring our baguettes: pesto, tomato and mozzarella for me and roast beef and mustard for him.

  ‘I pulled myself together and did a bit of poking around after our lunch in Monday,’ Giles announced. ‘Remember I said I spoke to this chap who told me that Sandra had been married before? Well, I checked with David again and he gave me a lead to find her first husband. I still wasn’t sure, you see, and I don’t want to be wrong about Sandra being a serial gold-digger, it could have disastrous consequences. One has to be fair, after all.

  ‘It wasn’t that difficult to find him, actually; a few discreet questions in the city and that was it. After work yesterday, we had a drink and continued to get ourselves silly ‘til the wee hours, even though we have nothing in common except to cry about our misfortunes together. Apparently, he’d met her when he was withdrawing a box from safe keeping. She was a manager at the facility. She took over from the assistant that was helping him and attended to him personally. By sheer coincidence her name was also Parsons, so they never had a discussion about changing it when she married him, unlike she did with me. He was instantly smitten and pursued her with a vengeance. In retrospect, he thought she had seen his Bentley and made him a target. He’d been conned out of a great deal of money, and that was going to be my fate if I didn’t do something about it. He was very willing to help, not for me particularly, but because he wanted to ruin her ambitions. A little revenge for the viciousness she had displayed in bringing him down.

  ‘He told me some interesting stuff about Sandra. She had obviously been much more open with him than with me. Maybe she learned a different tactic from her first experience of male destruction. He said she was a misandrist, which might have stemmed from her stepfather’s abuse and violence to her and her younger half brother. Apparently, when she was about twelve, she tried to protect the boy from his father’s frequent beatings. This creature would take sick pleasure from removing her knickers and smacking her bare bottom before taking her to the bedroom, while her brother would cry outside the door and her mother denied anything ever happened.’

  ‘That explains a lot,’ I replied, ‘I can understand why she hates men after that upbringing. At that age, her little brother would not have understood what was happening to her, but he would know that it was painful and wrong and probably thought it was his own fault. No matter what their past, though, everyone knows right from wrong, and everyone’s responsible for their own actions. She has no justification for what she does, in my view. It also explains her flat. You must have seen how sparse it is, as if she wants no reminders of the past. Then there’s The Scream hanging over the bed. She must still be traumatised by that childhood.’

  ‘Yes, the flat’s entirely hers. I haven’t been there since we were married, but when I did, it wasn’t a comfortable place to be. She sometimes stays there, but won’t tell me why except that she’s too tired to drive home or some other weak excuse.’

  ‘Anyway Giles, I was thinking about your dinner. Something strange was going on. The other two, Mandy and Tony Wiggins did not seem surprised at the events. I didn’t think about it at t
he time, but they gave very little reaction, they didn’t seem embarrassed or shocked. In fact, he thought it was funny, and she acted as if it was theatre she’d paid to see, fully expected.’

  ‘Well, those two women are as thick as thieves, it wouldn’t surprise me if Mandy knew in advance, and it supports my view that this is a deliberate plot to bring me down.’

  ‘Mmmh! This pesto is good. We’re going to devise a plan to get you out of this hole,’ I muttered after swallowing, ‘We have to switch this around so that she comes out as the guilty party. We’re aiming for no serious repercussions, something that will not cost you your fortune and, last but not least, she will be defeated and will hopefully walk away bruised and battered, figuratively speaking, of course. A little revenge is permissible isn’t it?’ Giles was watching me intently as he slowly bit into his sandwich.

  ‘Sandra is going to divorce you on certain grounds,’ I continued, ‘and she will undoubtedly seek legal help with that, but I’ve been doing some research on the grounds that are acceptable. There are a five main headings, but only two are relevant in your case.

  ‘There’s adultery, of course, and she’s got you on that one, unless.... When did you have your night of debauchery? Or, more importantly, when did she learn of it?’

  He thought for a moment, chewing, ‘It was around the end of April, and she confronted me soon afterwards.’

  ‘Any chance of being more specific? You see she can’t give adultery as a reason if she continued to stay in your house for six months after she found out about it. It would lend a lie to her claiming that she can’t bear to live with you, which it’s necessary to do. It’s now the beginning of September so we’re getting close to the six months.’