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Chapter 7.
I looked suitably puzzled in the hope of encouraging Jennifer to tell me more about her visit from the police. She became quite animated.
"If I drive five miles an hour over the speed limit, there will be some keen officer with a speed trap to fine me more than I can afford but, if I give them something really evil to deal with, they haven't a clue." He voice was angry and contemptuous.
"What sort of thing?"
"Anything that takes time and necessitates them spending money. Everything has to be cost justified and they won't move unless there's obvious evidence somebody is breaking the law."
"Is the problem an ex-boyfriend," I asked as gently as I could.
She shot a shrewd glance.
"You've been quizzing Tommy, haven't you? That was a rotten thing to do. He wouldn't talk about it unless he was prompted"
I nodded, uneasily.
"Sorry," I said, uncomfortably, but I was aware she wouldn't know how much Tommy had told me. "I didn't mean to pry."
She looked sad.
"I suppose it's a natural question to ask about any normal family."
She wasn't looking at me now but instead, with her elbows on the grass and her chin cradled in the palm of her hand, she gazed wistfully across at the trees at the other end of the park.
"I love trees," she said. "They are so permanent."
"Unlike relationships."
"True. Often, I just dream about getting away from it all and escaping into the countryside to live a simpler life. But if Tommy and I did that, it would only be easier for him to find us."
"And what if he finds you?"
"Then I get all the old rubbish again. How I'm perfect for him and how he wants to do everything for us as a family."
"Is that so bad?"
"It's like being in a prison but with no right of release. He's totally obsessive. He wants me to stop being a person and become his pawn to be moved from one pleasure scenario to whatever other situation he dictated."
"Some people might like that."
"It was worse that jealousy. He wouldn't even let me talk to the milkman without thinking I was having an affair."
Pinpoints of anger pricked her cheeks. She smoothed back her hair from her face, agitated.
"He sounds like a nutcase to me," I commented carefully. "Couldn't he be committed?"
"He hasn't done anything against the law. Unless he breaks the law, they say they can't do anything to force him to leave me alone."
"I thought there was stalker legislation for this sort of thing."
"You still have to prove the facts and he knows the law and is very clever not to go over the line. He's never been violent although it always seems to be just under the surface. I told him I never wanted to hear from him or see him again. We've moved about lots to make it harder for him to find us. But a few weeks ago I got a letter and then he started coming round. We've haven't been living there for very long but we were comfortable and now we're back on the razors edge. I thought we were safe from him."
"What will you do?"
"I don't really know ... I have been working on a plan but it's a bit desperate!"
She rolled over on the grass to face me. Her body was doing all sorts of things to my breathing.
"I've got to go. If you're looking for a relationship, I'm really not ready for one at the moment. It's just not convenient."
"Like I said, we could just be friends and anyway maybe your new plan will work?" I was fishing wondering what was her plan but she clammed up.
"We're not good enough friends for you to know about that ... yet."
Then she was up and herding Tommy with his football out of the park.
I also left shortly after. A cloud had gone in front of the sun and it felt too cold to stay lying alone on the grass.
Although I now knew why she'd been visited by the police officer, it didn't help. My speculation just moved on. I now wanted to know what her plan was and what were the dangers it held for her.
As I walked down Queensway Avenue, I daydreamed about what her plan could be. There seemed to be even more possibilities than before. But when I passed an employment agency, I was not too engrossed to miss the sign on their notice board.
'Web Site Design - Programmers and Analysts wanted for good rates of pay.'
I wondered how it would feel to be back in the hi-tech world. I also wondered what it was about Jennifer and her son that made me contemplate going back. The relationships in her life seemed fraught, difficult and probably dangerous. I had never considered myself brave or reckless - yet I was inexorably being drawn in by forces I found impossible to resist.
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