Steve didn’t look too impressed at that. ‘I’m a builder, mate,’ he pointed out. ‘I check my equipment regularly, including anything I use at home.’
Sarah knew that to be true. Running his own building company, Steve was always meticulous about health and safety. He’d climbed ladders half his life. She really couldn’t understand how it was he’d come to fall, or why he was up a ladder in the first place. Something to do with bunting coming loose and hanging dangerously, Sherry had told her.
‘The slabs must be uneven or something,’ Steve said, as if reading her mind.
‘Grant tried to steady him,’ Sherry interjected. ‘He saw him wobbling and flew across to him. He was too late to save him, unfortunately.’
‘Grant?’ Joe enquired.
‘My husband. Laura’s stepfather,’ Sherry provided.
Joe nodded. ‘And Laura? Is she okay?’
‘As much as she ever is,’ Sherry said with a despairing sigh. ‘She’s hiding away upstairs, for reasons I’ll never understand.’
‘She’s actually not feeling well, Mrs Caldwell,’ Sarah reminded her. Laura had been trembling like a leaf. Even when she knew Steve wasn’t badly injured, she couldn’t stop shaking. It was Sarah who’d suggested she go up and have a lie-down. Privately, she’d thought she would be far better off away from Sherry; it clearly hadn’t occurred to the woman to leave and allow Steve and Laura some privacy.
‘I can’t say I’m surprised after all the melodramatics,’ Sherry commented unsympathetically. ‘Right, well, I’d better go and see how Grant’s getting on. He’s hosing the patio down. He tries to be helpful wherever he can. He’s a good man,’ she obviously felt compelled to point out. ‘I do wish Laura would leave the past where it belongs and stop all this childishness.’
Sighing again, most definitely melodramatically, she turned to stride off in the direction of the kitchen.
‘And I wish she’d just bloody well go,’ Steve muttered once she was out of earshot. ‘I’d never have had the woman here if I’d known what a cow she is.’
It wasn’t just Sarah who thought that way, then. ‘I’ll go and make some tea and have a recce through the kitchen window,’ she offered. ‘See if Grant’s close to finishing whatever it is he’s doing. Do you want to sit with Daddy, Ollie?’ she asked him. ‘I think we might need to keep an eye on him and make sure he has a little rest.’
She glanced at Steve, who gave her a small nod, clearly getting her drift. With his afternoon nap so spectacularly interrupted, Ollie looked as if he might be about to fall asleep on his feet. ‘Sounds like a plan,’ he said. ‘Fancy coming over here and giving your old man a cuddle, mate?’
Ollie answered with a decisive nod, and Joe hoisted him back up onto the sofa.
Sarah wasn’t sure who looked more exhausted, father or son, as she watched Ollie snuggle contentedly under Steve’s arm. Giving Ollie a reassuring smile, she left them to it, beckoning Joe to follow her to the kitchen.
‘You knew I was here then?’ she asked him, picking up the kettle.
‘I gathered, yes, from the commotion I heard on the phone,’ he said. ‘That’s Grant, presumably?’ He nodded through the window.
‘That’s him,’ Sarah confirmed. Laura’s stepfather was now collecting up the bunting that had come down when Steve had fallen. He’d been nothing but charming, and clearly he was helpful, which made Sarah wonder why Laura had been so insistent that she didn’t want him here. This was more than her blaming her parents for the tragedy they’d all had to endure, she felt sure. Laura had seemed actually terrified. Why? And why had Sherry been trying to subdue her when Steve fell?
‘Laura said Grant pushed him.’ She glanced tentatively at Joe. She felt as if she were betraying Laura, but she needed another perspective on this apart from her own, which Joe hadn’t thought was functioning too well, she reminded herself.
‘Pushed him?’ His expression a mixture of confusion and shock, Joe pulled his attention away from Sherry and Grant, who now appeared to be deep in hushed conversation.
Turning from the window, Sarah walked past him to close the kitchen door. ‘I spoke to Laura once I’d managed to prise her mother away from her,’ she said, keeping her voice low. ‘She didn’t say much. To be honest, she wasn’t making much sense, but I definitely heard her say, “He pushed him.”’
Joe looked at her askance.
‘I have no idea what’s going on here, Joe, but something definitely is. I spoke to Steve briefly before you arrived. He thinks she blames her parents for her brother’s disappearance. I have no idea why. She definitely doesn’t get on with her mother. Remember I told you how her stammer kicked in when she called unannounced that day?’
Joe glanced again at Sherry. ‘She is a bit daunting, isn’t she?’
That was one way of describing her, Sarah thought. ‘She’s horrible to her.’ She followed his gaze to where Sherry was now gesticulating, wagging a finger at Grant, who eyed the skies as if despairing of her. Sarah couldn’t help but wonder why someone who was as good-looking as he was, and clearly good-natured, would stay with someone as obnoxious as Sherry. If she had hidden qualities, they were obviously well hidden. Was it all down to money? Might he be financially embarrassed, she wondered, and therefore dependent on Sherry’s income? It seemed the only possible explanation.
‘This thing with her brother,’ she looked hesitantly back to Joe, ‘I know it’s natural to search for someone to blame when something as tragic as that happens, but it’s more than that. Laura seems terrified. She was almost hysterical when Grant turned up today.’
She paused, waiting for that weary look she’d seen previously in Joe’s eyes, the one that told her he was about to suggest she was reading too much into things.
His expression, though, was troubled. ‘Do you think we could go outside and talk?’ he asked. ‘I owe you an explanation, but aside from that, I have some information that might be important.’
Intrigued, Sarah went with him, poking her head around the lounge door as she did. Ollie was asleep, she noted, his head resting on a pillow on Steve’s lap. Her gaze went to Steve. He was massaging his forehead, still awake, thank goodness. He was probably wondering what to do, worried to death about the situation. Sarah felt awful for him.
Once outside, Joe waited for her to ease the front door to. ‘About Courtney,’ he started.
Sarah stared at him, a hard lump expanding in her chest. She couldn’t quite believe it. Did he really think she would want to hear about his ex-wife amidst all of this?
‘Please hear me out.’ He’d clearly noticed her astonished expression. ‘I need you to know what’s been happening because …’ He paused, glancing awkwardly down. ‘I love you, Sarah,’ he announced, stunning her. ‘I know you won’t believe it unless I tell you what’s been going on. Will you let me explain?’
She scanned his face. His eyes were full of quiet pleading. Also, something else. Fear? ‘Go on,’ she said, apprehension running through her.
Joe nodded, relief flooding his features. ‘I told you about the pregnancy.’