As Darkness Falls

21

They all talked. They talked about people Sara didn’t know and probably didn’t want to know. There was a lot of Mary telling Zoe about someone she was supposed to remember, and Zoe saying that she didn’t, sorry. Sara wasn’t sure if that had an odd undertone, or was just the kind of crap all families did.

Then realised that this wasn’t all families and she should never think of them that way again.

That unsettled her a little.

She sat there listening. They talked oddly, Sara thought. Oddly, awkwardly polite, but it seemed to be working. They were talking, at least, and no-one was upset or hurt or angry, which she assumed was what Zoe wanted. And she had no idea what was normal for a situation like this, anyway.

It didn’t matter, though. It didn’t stay normal for very long.

“When’s he due back?” Zoe said suddenly, and Sara was pretty sure that everyone knew who she meant without needing to ask.

“You’re father’s at the church…”

“He’s not my father,” Zoe said, quite calmly.

She said it, and then bit her sandwich, and sat there chewing while everyone looked at her. They all seemed to decide not to say anything about that, almost at once.

Mary cleared her throat. “I’ll telephone him when you’ve left. He said you should stay as long as you want to.”

Sara couldn’t help herself that time. “He said?”

Everyone looked at her, and seemed a bit surprised, but oddly it was Dean who answered. “It’s his house,” Dean said. “He’s the head of the family.”

Sara stared at Dean again, a little more. She sat there, staring, wondering whether the two in-laws really ought to have a fight across the dinner table in someone else’s house. Then she decided she was pretty much going to unless Zoe stopped her, although she’d give Zoe a chance to before she said anything really awful.

Sara stuck a wedge of cheese into her mouth and chewed it slowly, then she said, “Of course he is.”

“What does that mean?” Dean said.

“It means of course he is.”

“What’s your problem?”

“No problem.”

Dean was getting upset. He wasn’t used dealing with people who didn’t agree with him, Sara thought. It was odd, but a lot of crims were like that. And a lot of other people too, she supposed.

She grinned some more, just to unsettle him, and kept staring. It worked.

“Why are you even here?” Dean said, annoyed.

“Why are you?”

Sara could see Zoe out the corner of her eye. Zoe was sitting, not moving, her expression unchanged. She seemed happy for this to keep going. Even though everyone else was looking slightly shocked, their faces seeming like they wanted it to stop.

Sara decided not to stop. Not until Zoe told her to. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening, what this fight was for and why Zoe seemed to want her to have it, but Zoe had told her to be confrontational, and here was a confrontation, so Sara decided she’d better push a little harder.

“I’m serious, mate,” Sara said. “I’m here because I love Zoe and I’m with her. I’m basically her wife.” Except that it had been seven months and they still weren’t living together, but no-one else needed to know that right now. “You’re just, what, a casual boyfriend?”

“Beth and I are engaged.”

Sara ate another piece of cheese. “Which means what?” she said.

“Even someone like you should know what an engagement is.”

“Someone like me?” Sara said, just as Zoe said, “Hey,” and Beth said, “Dean, stop.”

Sara glanced at Zoe. She was glaring at Dean. The hey must have been for him, not Sara.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Zoe said. “Whoever you are.”

“Leah…” Beth said, and got a glare from Zoe. That time Beth corrected herself. “Zoe...” she said.

“I’m here to see my family,” Zoe said. “With my girlfriend. And I don’t know who he is or why he’s here, but he can’t talk to Sara like that.”

“He’ll be family soon.”

“Which means he isn’t yet. And he still can’t talk to Sara like that.”

Beth was glaring at Dean too. It was Zoe’s glare, Sara noticed. The same glare.

Dean looked at Mary and said, “I’m sorry.”

To Mary, not to anyone else.

“Perhaps we are all getting a little excited,” Mary said. “Perhaps we should talk about something else.”

“I think so,” Zoe said.

Dean looked away. That seemed to be the end of it.

“Well,” Mary said, smiling, being a little too cheerful. “Sara. What do you do? Are you in the police?”

Sara looked at Mary for a while, wondering why she’d asked that. Then she realized. Because of what Sara had said earlier, outside, about arresting Robert. And probably because by now Mary had an instinct for cops like any good crim wife.

“Yeah,” Sara said. “I am.”

“And how is that?”

“Yeah,” Sara said. “Good. Interesting.”

“It’s nice they let people like you do that,” Dean said.

“Hey,” Zoe said, at the same moment as Beth said, “Dean.”

Sara looked at Dean. “People like me how?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I really don’t.”

“Dean…” Beth said.

“He’s okay,” Sara said. “I’m interested. Like me how?”

“You know.”

“Honest to god, I don’t.”

Beth and Mary looked at each other, and Sara realised she’d just sworn. Kind of.

“I don’t have a problem with you,” Dean said. “I have a problem with what you do, but not with you.”

Sara looked at him. “Yeah, you’ve lost me there, mate.”

“Dean,” Beth said. “Stop it.”

Sara kept looking at Dean, but again he looked away, and this time started spreading margarine on a piece of bread. Margarine, Sara thought, rather than butter, but she wasn’t quite sure exactly what that ought to mean.

She decided to stop. She decided this was getting out of hand.

“Where’s the bathroom,” she said, and stood up. She needed to get away from them all for a moment, and calm down.

“I’ll show you,” Zoe said, standing up too. “This way.”