Chapter 4

The next weeks were so busy Mike and Claire hardly had time to think. Though Claire was supposed to be keeping house, in reality they were sharing the work. She had to pass her exams and her driving test. There were weeks when Mike found it difficult to fit in visits to his friends at the Home.

Claire went to see Gary again and told Mike she'd given him her mobile phone number. She also said that he was by turns angry and desolate, and that she was worried about his state of mind, but she did not go and see him after that.

However, Mike suspected that she was phoning him and he felt jealous, and worried that Gary would persuade her to go back to him. Mike did tentatively broach the subject but she was not talking. He did not pursue it; he knew better.

Apart from that, Mike and Claire were a team. He was the children's stepfather in all but name and they treated him as such. They tried to play Claire and him off against each other but in this they failed: Claire and Mike talked a lot, mostly after the children were in bed. They backed each other up.

Claire's characteristic pertinacity led to her passing her driving test in late February. There was an immediate easing of the frenetic life they had been leading.

However, it revealed a rather unsettling aspect of her previous relationship with Gary. Her sessions at college were twice a week, Tuesday afternoons and Thursday evenings. When she attended the college on Thursdays, Mike would babysit the family. Now she had use of the second car she would leave about 6.30pm and be back shortly after 9pm.

It was the third Thursday night in March, and Mike had put the children to bed, chatted with Siobhán and sympathised with the amount of homework she had, and then settled into the study to catch up on some work. At 11.30pm he heard the car and heard her hurrying into the house. He could hear her running round the house and eventually she burst into the study.

"Mike I'm so sorry!" she cried, extremely agitated. "Please forgive me, I didn't mean to stay out late. It was an accident. I got talking, it was a woman friend on the course! There were no men. We just lost track of time. Honestly!" She actually looked frightened.

"What's the problem?" Mike asked. "You've a right to a bit of fun you know. You're an adult; you make your own choices. Did you go for a drink?"

"Well..."

"That's OK."

"I only had coke, no alcohol!"

She was still very agitated.

"For goodness' sake, Claire," he said. "What's the matter? I said it's all right. Why shouldn't you go for a drink after lectures, you work hard enough! Look, if you want to have a proper drink you can bus there and I'll bring you back. Julie next door would baby-sit while I collected you. You've not had any fun for ages."

She looked puzzled. "You don't mind?"

"Why should I mind? The children are safe; I'm here. I don't follow what you mean."

"Gary never let me out by myself, especially at night," she said thoughtfully. "If I was late he always thought I'd been seeing another man."

"Claire, you can see and talk to anyone you like. You're a free woman. Enjoy it!"

At last she relaxed. "Thanks."

"For what?" he asked and got back to work. She left the room, closing the door.

So Gary was possessive, jealous and violent, thought Mike. Claire had been a virtual prisoner. Mike recalled Gary's restrictions on her money and his prohibition of her getting a job. The poor woman needed this freedom. He went to find her. She was making them some drinking chocolate in the kitchen.

"Claire," he said, and she jumped. "How about making Thursdays your night off? You get the bus to college as you used to before you got your test, and I'll get Julie in while I collect you when you phone me. Have some fun. I mean you can go out with men as well as women, you know. Go for it!"

She looked mystified. "You mean it? Anyone?"

"Of course."

"You trust me?"

"What's trust go to do with it? You keep telling me to keep out of your life. I keep telling you you're free to live your own life. I'll say it again: enjoy it."

"It's just that..." she stopped, looking a little discomfited.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," and that was the end of it.

On Saturday, Claire sat down opposite him in the kitchen after the children had gone to bed. He knew something was coming. Was she getting set to leave? The thought of the house without her and the children was unbearable. He must have looked very worried, because she smiled warmly at him.

"I've something to tell you," she began. "You've been so good over these past weeks; I don't mean taking on a lot of the jobs I should be doing as housekeeper either. I mean not asking me about my phone calls to Gary."

Mike looked surprised though he tried to hide it.

"Oh, come on Mike," she smiled. "I know you've suspected I've been phoning him and you've never asked me or warned me about him. You did know didn't you?"

"I suspected it. I could hear you talking after you went to bed."

"Don't worry. I'm not going back to him. Quite the reverse. Early this week I got Victor to petition for divorce. I told Gary last Wednesday."

Oh, the relief! It showed in Mike's face.

She howled with laughter. "Surely you didn't think I was going back to him? Oh you did! Oh, Mike, you fool!"

He reddened for he was so embarrassed at her perceptiveness.

"I'm glad," he finally said. "I just had this vision that you had all left and the house was empty again. Ugh!" he shivered at the thought.

She got up, went round the table, and hugged him from behind as he sat on his chair, her breasts pressing into his back.

"I'll never leave you, as long as you want me to be here," she whispered, then after a minimal pause she qualified it, "to work for you." Then she kissed the top of his head.

That was as far as the conversation went, but Mike's mind was working. At that moment he knew he'd fallen for the woman. He wanted her. He wanted her family, and even though he thought her words were ambiguous, he wondered if she might be open to some development in their relationship. However, he would wait a little longer for he was afraid of ruining everything, because as he continually told himself, their relationship was not that of equals.

It struck him that while he'd been out for drinks with friends he'd refused invitations to pair off with women. He no longer felt the need. Mind you, he was sexually frustrated, but when he was masturbating, most nights and some mornings, it was Claire about whom he fantasised.

Physically with her, he kept his distance; he kept maintaining the mantra that he was her employer and would not use that position and her obvious gratitude to seduce her. In any case she was still married. He was her friend and that seemed to be as far as she wanted to go.

On Wednesday 2nd April the phone calls she had been getting from Gary changed. Gary had got the petition. From that Wednesday they became frequent and at early hours in the evening. It caused problems for her, as she was putting the children to bed or helping them in various ways.

That night she blew into Mike's study in a temper.

"Him again!" she stormed. "How could I do that to him after all the years he'd given me! How much he loved me. He asked how could I do this to the children, and after what he did to Siobhán! He got the divorce petition today. Crying over the phone. I told him to grow up."

The next day in she came again.

"He's said he won't answer the petition, and he'll contest the divorce. Said I couldn't afford to fight him. Said I must be living in a hostel and he'd see to it that he took the children off me."

"He won't you know, and you can afford to fight him."

"I know."

Friday Mike was waiting in the study. He'd given up starting work until she'd been.

"Mike."

"Gary again?"

"Yes," She was holding back tears. "It was horrible! He sounded defeated, depressed. Talking suicide. Said he couldn't go on living without me."

"What did you say?"

"I told him to find someone else, he was still young enough, and he's very good looking. At school all the girls would have laid down for him, he had that magnetism and a great body. I know he's still able to pick up any woman who's looking for fun. He was good in bed you know."

"You told him that?"

"Yes. He said he loves only me. Didn't stop him fucking anyone who'd put out for the last four years. I told him that as well. He didn't like it – denied it of course."

She told Mike that Victor had called her to say that there had been no response to the petition, which Gary should have answered within seven days. So the petition would have to be served again, this time by a bailiff. He would organise it.

That weekend and the following week, the calls came on a daily basis, by turns upset and suicidal, then resentful or belligerent. It was on the Friday that the problem went up a notch. Claire came into the study ashen faced.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"He ... he ... threatened us."

"He what?"

"We were talking about the divorce. He said he had been served another petition, this time by a bailiff. I told him if he didn't respond the divorce would go ahead in his absence. He said that couldn't happen. I knew it could because Victor told me so.

"So he said he would answer it but he would dispute the divorce. I told him it would be so expensive it would bankrupt him. So he went back on the tack that I hadn't enough cash to fight him, and I got tired of it and told him I now had a well-paid job and I could afford to take him to the cleaners. He blew up. He said he'd find me and the children and kill us all. If he couldn't have us no one would. Then he'd kill himself. I'm frightened Mike; I think he really means it."

She sank into the armchair, shaking.

"You've got to start recording these phone calls," Mike told her. "You need evidence of his state of mind and of his threats. I think he's bluffing and I also think you're safe here; no one knows where you live. If necessary you could get an injunction to stop him coming near you or the children, and stopping anyone knowing your whereabouts. You know tomorrow he'll be on a different tack again."

"I suppose you're right," she said, but Mike could tell she was not convinced.

He gave her a recorder with a microphone to hook onto the earpiece of her mobile, and she promised to use it.

Saturday lunchtime there came another call. Mike could hear Claire's voice, by turns patient, angry and resigned. Then she came to see him.

"I recorded what he said," she said, "I got him to repeat what he said yesterday. He was much less agitated but he said quite calmly that he was going to kill us if I went ahead with the divorce."

This woman is quite cunning, Mike thought. Fancy getting him to repeat the threat. That would be very useful.

"OK," he said. "We go to Victor on Monday and get an injunction." She nodded. So they did.

"I need to apply for an injunction 'without notice' to keep him away from you Claire and the children. Claire, you'll have to come to court tomorrow," Victor said as they sat in his office on Monday morning,

He sat for a moment. Then he spoke again and this time he looked solemn.

"Look Claire," he said. "Most men make these threats without any intention of carrying them out, but some carry them out and your man has a history of violence. Is there someone in your family whom you can name as next-of-kin? Someone to take care of the children?"

Claire looked scared. "No," she said. Then she looked at Mike, pleading with her eyes.

"Could I act as next-of-kin?" he asked.

"Yes," Victor replied. "Especially since Gary has threatened harm to the children and to Claire. I have a card you can carry, Claire. You can name Mike as next-of-kin."

"I'd like that," she said, smiling gratefully at Mike.

Next Victor dropped another bombshell.

"Since you have no relatives, at least none you want to trust with the children, have you thought what would happen if you were to die? Who would take care of the children?"

Claire looked hopeless. "I don't know."

"I would." Mike said. He didn't have to think about it, it just came out.

"How do you feel about that, Claire?" asked Victor.

"He's the only person I could trust. They love him." She said, her face showing her relief.

Victor got to work, and then they went to court.

The affidavits and the injuries Claire had suffered were enough to merit the temporary injunction, though the court couldn't understand why it had taken her so long to bring them to their attention. She explained that she had petitioned for divorce and he had made threats to kill her and the children. The tape was played.

The court granted the temporary injunction which prevented him from coming near her or the children, and that included phone calls. Further a general injunction against anyone revealing her whereabouts was granted. Claire would have to attend a full hearing in a few weeks, but the injunction would stay in operation until that hearing.

Claire told Mike she was impressed with the relaxed attitude of everyone in the court. She had been expecting something like a high court, or a magistrates' court that she had seen on the TV, but as she explained, they all sat round tables and 'chatted' as she put it.