Page 40

He raised a pierced eyebrow. ‘There’s no age of consent for hanging out.’

In a different world she would have killed him with her bare hands and fuck the consequences, but she was living in this one.

For now.

‘I didn’t bring up consent,’ she said. She took a step towards him, and was gratified to see him move away. ‘I’m a bit concerned you did. Why is that, Dylan?’

He shrugged. ‘No reason.’

‘There’d better not be.’ She folded her arms. ‘I will have no hesitation, Dylan, in ruining whatever there is of your life – and I mean ruining – if I find out there is any more to this relationship than hanging out.’

‘Of course.’ He held up his hands. ‘We were just hanging out, Mary’ – he caught her eye and looked away – ‘Mrs Jordan.’

‘Alone in a bedroom?’

‘Yeah. But that don’t mean anything.’

‘It does to me. Did you stay the night here?’

He shook his head. ‘Just got here, like, an hour ago. And I ain’t lying.’

She nodded slowly, her gaze fixed on his. ‘You’d better be telling the truth,’ she said. ‘For your own sake.’

At the bottom of the stairs Katie was waiting for her.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, her words running into each other in a tangled panic. ‘I know Sally’s not supposed to see him but this morning he just showed up and I didn’t know what to do.’

‘That’s OK, Katie,’ Mary said. There was no point torturing her. It would merely deplete Mary’s energy for what was to come with Sally. ‘Where are your parents?’

‘Mom’s at the gym and Dad’s gone to see his brother in Freeport.’

‘Were they here last night?’

‘Of course!’ She was telling the truth; Katie was way past the point where she could lie convincingly. ‘They went out this morning.’

There were footsteps on the landing, then descending the stairs. Mary turned to see Dylan slouching into the kitchen, his sang-froid recovered.

He flicked his fingers into the peace sign. ‘Later,’ he said, and headed for the door. Mary watched him walk past her car; he waved to Sally, then turned into the street and was gone.

She turned to Katie. ‘Let your parents know I’ll be in touch, would you?’

‘You’re going to talk to them?’ Katie was pale, her speech close to gibbering.

Mary nodded. ‘I am. Have a nice day, Katie.’

She left the house and walked across the driveway to her car. Sally was in the passenger seat, tapping on her phone. Mary climbed in and looked at her daughter.

‘We need to talk.’

Sally studiously ignored her, continuing to write the message – which was clearly very important – as though Mary had not said a word.

‘That’s fine,’ Mary said. ‘It can wait until we get home.’

She started the car and pulled into the street. They were barely out of sight of Katie’s house when Sally turned and stared at her, her lips pressed thin and her face white with fury.

‘I can’t believe you did that,’ she said, spitting out every word. ‘You humiliated me.’

‘You should not be alone in a room with a seventeen-year-old,’ she said. ‘And especially not Dylan. And especially not since – as we have discussed – you are not supposed to be seeing him at all.’