Day 51 - Revelations

I was up quite early, taking much of my frustration about the John/Cleo situation out on my worktops, when John's mother texted me about the cat food. So much for him dropping them over to her himself, yesterday. The text said that she was 'desperate' so I slipped my trainers on and headed out to the car with a box of bits and pieces that I'd put by for her.

     As always, she came to the back door and I pulled up a deckchair. "You alright June? Bearing up ok?"

     "Just about," she said.

     "Finding it hard?"

     "Well ….. I don't mind telling you, Daisy …… I'm not fully recovered from what happened the other night.  My nerves are still jangling at the thought."

    "What? What on earth happened the other night? "

     "The dreadful business with the man from the church group."

     I pulled my deckchair a little closer. "What business with the man from the church group? Does John know about this? He didn't say."

     "Of course he knows."

     "Well …. what did the man from the church group do? Oh God! Is he the one who's been prowling around here recently?"

     "No. He was just delivering toilet paper. John went mad and pounced on him from the bushes. Rolling around in the garden, they were."

     "Oh my God!"

     "Poor man. I was mortified!" June obviously found my speechlessness concerning (being an extremely rare event). "Are you alright, Daisy?"

     "So ….let me get this straight …. are you telling me, that when John came over last week to bring you toilet paper, he pounced on a charity worker and wrestled him to the ground, June?"

     "Sorry, love. I thought he'd have told you himself. I've been concerned about him for a while. He's wound up like a top.  I don't know how many times I've told him to chill out!"

The short drive between June's house and our house wouldn't provide me with the thinking time that I required. I needed to make a decision about how I was going to play this. I drove the long way round. Once the red mist had cleared, it seemed to me that I had a few options:

•  Go straight in and confront him
•  Drop a few hints to make him uneasy, eventually pushing him to fess up
•  Test just how devious he actually was, by saying nothing and seeing how long it would take him to eventually fess up

Taking the longer route back still didn't provide me with enough time to make a decision on a strategy, so I pulled into the bus stop by the chip shop for some thinking time. I yearned for a time gone by when I could have mulled the situation over in the Starbucks across the road. It took fifteen minutes and a few funny looks from passers by to come to the conclusion that as no one was up when I left, they wouldn't have a clue where I'd been. I'd play it cool, say nothing, keep schtum and see: just how long would it take John to cave and come clean?

     The three kids were sitting in front of the TV in the lounge and there was a toasty aroma coming from the kitchen. Be cool, Daisy.  Keep your head.  Just like you planned.

     John beamed at me as I entered the kitchen.  The two-faced bastard!  "Morning babe!" Babe indeed!!! "Where've you been so early?"

     "I just had to drop something round to Karen's."

     "Yeah? How are Karen and Dave?"

     "Fine."

     "Oh. Ok," he said, clearly noticing my off-hand tone. This was gonna be harder than I thought. "Tea and toast?" The perfect husband. Nice as pie. Offering me toast when underneath he knew full well that …….

     "Seriously? Is that how you're gonna play it? Offering me tea and toast like a perfect husband?"

     "Daisy, what's gotten ……"

     "Do you know where I've been? To your mother's! I know all about what happened last Wednesday night so don't bother denying it."
     "Oh."
     "And to think that you had the audacity to lecture me and Cleo about honesty!"
     "And you don't agree that this family is mental?" Cleo was standing in the doorway behind me, shaking her head in utter dismay.  She brushed past me as she grabbed a slice of toast from the counter and took it with her, obviously heading for the stairs.
     "Great! Just what we need! It took me all day to get her out of her room yesterday. You've lost the plot, John. Totally fucking lost it! What the hell were you thinking?"
     "I thought it was that stalker, you were telling me about."
     "Oh …… so now it's my fault …… for telling you about the stalker?"
     "I'm not saying ….."
     "Save it! You're lucky that the police didn't get involved …… again. Why didn't the bloke call the police on you anyway? Oh God! He's not going to, is he?"
     "No. Being a neighbour, he …."
     "Neighbour?"
     "Yeah …... well, you know that Gordon's not exactly the sort to make a scene."
     "Gordon?  It was Gordon?"
     "Well …. yeah.  I ….. I thought you knew!"
     OMFG!!!!!!😱