Still Waters

It was a warm June morning in a leafy South London suburb; the children had left for school and Sarah Walters, forty six years old, but still looking thirty, was preparing for her husband's return from visiting his factory in Manchester. She had been expecting her husband to 'pop in' on his way to work, spending a blissful hour or two with her, to make up for his three nights away. It was kind of a ritual now; she would send the children to school, then shower, dressing in a clean t shirt and jeans, awaiting Joe's return and the inevitable burst of passion that involved. When she heard the bell ring she almost sprinted to the door, it had been a long lonely three days. Opening the door she was surprised to see two uniformed policewomen standing there. They introduced themselves, presenting their warrant cards and asked to come in. Confused and distracted she stood aside and allowed them in. She shut the door and took them into the lounge wondering what was wrong.

Having sat her down, one asked where the kitchen was and if she wanted tea. She was now completely confused and uneasy, but she directed the policewoman to the kitchen. The other officer came and sat with her on the sofa. Taking her hand she explained that there had been an accident involving her husband Joe; it had been fatal. Her brain raced, this couldn't be true. Joe wasn't dead; how could he be dead? No it was not possible; she tried to take that in, surely it was a mistake? The policewoman explained that they had found Joe's wallet and other ID on the body. They had also found his phone and the ICE entry in his diary. There were two numbers, they had traced these back and that's why they were here.

Whose was the other number, she wanted to know. They said it was his mother probably and that officers were on their way to let her know. Sarah explained that Joe's mother had been placed in a care home several years ago and his only other relative was his sister; who she explained, lived in Australia on a sheep farm. The Policewoman was very kind and assured Sarah that it was probably a mistake, perhaps an old entry. Anyway she would stay with Sarah for a while, whilst she tried to rearrange her life following the accident. Sarah said that she would call her mother who lived nearby and she would come round to help her. The other officer reappeared and placed cups of tea for them on the coffee table next to the sofa. She asked to speak to the other officer and they left the room briefly. Returning the officer resumed her seat and took Sarah's hand again. She looked troubled and Sarah was filled with foreboding.

The officer wanted to know what Joe did and did he have premises in Manchester? Sarah said yes, he was the Managing Director of a successful plastics fabricating company and yes they had a plant in Manchester. Joe split his week between here, in Surbiton South London and the plant in Manchester. He stayed in a guesthouse up there with a nice elderly couple and had done so for years. He spent roughly three days a week up north and the other three days here, with the other day lost in traveling. The officer nodded and left things at that. When Sarah's Mum arrived the policewoman left, leaving Sarah with her contact details.

The next week was a blur, with relatives to advise and the funeral to arrange, although there would be an Inquest, which could delay this, but it was expected to be quick and simple. Two days later another officer arrived. She sat Sarah down with her mother beside her and asked more bewildering questions. How long had they been married? Was Joe ever unfaithful to her? Had he had affairs, would she know if he had? Sarah was shocked. She and Joe had been married for seventeen years; he was a rock steady husband and father. They had two children aged fifteen and thirteen. She had never had any cause to be suspicious of him. She would never ever have thought of him straying. Their marriage had been happy and their love life was very much alive and doing well.

The Officer went very quiet and then looking directly at her, told her that there was no nice old couple in Manchester. The number Joe had in his phone was another women, a women who believed she was Mrs. Joe Walters too. They had married ten years ago and she had one child of seven and another one of five, here name was Iris and she was thirty two years old. She thought Joe was traveling down south to visit the offices of his plastics company, which was where he supervised the administrative running of the company. The reason for the split between manufacturing and administration was she believed because originally the whole operation was in South London, but the manufacturing had moved to Manchester to take advantage of lower costs up north. She too thought Joe was staying with a nice old couple who ran a guesthouse that he used for as long as he could remember.

Sarah sat back, tears streaming down her face and gasped for air. Her whole world was collapsing around her. She managed to compose herself enough to ask the officer what would happen now. She said that they could pursue a charge of bigamy against the woman, but that would involve a possible custodial sentence; the children being put in care and probably then being sent to a foster home or even put up for adoption. Sarah shook her head and asked if that was really necessary, since it was clear that the woman had been duped, as she had been by Joe. The officer nodded and said their preliminary enquiries had confirmed that the woman was clearly completely unaware of Sarah's existence.

Sarah sat back and took deep breaths, clearing her head so she could allow herself to think clearly. She asked if it would be possible to meet the other woman. The Policewoman asked if that was a good idea. Sarah said she felt she owed it to herself and this woman to meet and somehow piece together this shadow life they each had. She felt no animosity to this person; instead she felt only sadness at the way they had both been treated. The Officer said that she would make enquiries, but she was clearly not in favour of the idea. Sarah thanked her and remained seated as her mother showed the visitor out. Sarah's mother Linda said that she should think very deeply about this idea. It could be that the other woman would see it as Sarah's way of getting close in order to hurt her. After all she said, you will inherit all of Joe's estate and the bigamous wife would have nothing. Sarah thought about that and a plan began to form in her mind.

The Inquest was set for Thursday week and Sarah asked if his Manchester wife would be present. The Officer who arrived to let her know, ahead of the official notice, didn't know but promised to find out. An hour later a phone call confirmed that the woman had asked to attend. Sarah wondered if she could stop her, but thought that would be callous in the extreme. She obviously loved him, she had two children by him, she believed in him. Sarah asked for contact details, so the officer on the phone said he would ask. An hour later he phoned with an address and a phone number. Sarah sat on her bed holding the paper with the information on it. She thought hard, then picking up her mobile she dialed the number.

"Hallo?"

"Hallo, is that Iris?"

"Yes, who's calling please?"

"Iris, this is Sarah."

The silence lingered for ages, Sarah wondered if the phone would suddenly go dead.

"Sarah? Joe's legal wife?" there was a sob and a choking sound at the other end.

"Iris, I want to meet you, before the inquest, I want to meet you to see you and talk to you. I don't want our first meeting to be at the inquest. I have questions, you have questions too I bet."

"I'm not sure I can do this, I'm not sure I'm strong enough for this."

The sobbing became louder and Sarah was not sure if Iris was holding the phone to her ear, but she persisted.

"Iris! Iris? Iris can you hear me? Iris, listen; you are a strong capable woman; listen to me! You can get through this; No! We can get through this. I'm coming up to you. Can you hear me? Iris! Iris please listen to me. I am coming to you. I will travel up tomorrow, I'll bring a bag and I'll find a hotel, but I am coming up to see you. Can you hear me? Iris?"

"I can hear you, Oh Sarah! This is such a mess, such a bloody awful mess. Tomorrow, OK, tomorrow."

"Iris, do you have anyone with you? Your mother, an aunt, a friend, is there anyone there with you now?"

"I have a nice police lady with me; she has been here since they came to tell me about..."

"It's OK Iris, can you put the officer on the phone for me, I'll see you tomorrow Ok, don't worry, we'll sort it out."

"Thank you, thank you, here's Lucy."

"Sergeant Lucy Tyne speaking, who is this please?"

"Sergeant Tyne my name is Sarah Walters; I'm Joe's wife, the first one. Sorry that sounds pretty callous. Look I need to come and see Iris; I want to help if I can. Does she have anyone else to help her when you have to go?"

"I can't really speak to you about this, but suffice to say Iris is on her own, she's always had to make her own way in the world."

"Dear God, what a poor wretch she must feel. I am going to come up; will you try to stop me meeting Iris?"

"If I feel that you pose a threat to her, or would harm her, I would have to intervene and if necessary I will arrest you if you threaten or intimidate her. Is that clear enough?"

"Perfectly, I look forward to meeting you Sergeant; you sound a straight up and down sort to me."

"Manchester born and bred."

"Well that's good enough for me, Joe had a lot of respect for Mancunians, so that's that."

"Call me Lucy please."

"Okay Lucy, well I'll sort out the arrangements and phone this number as I get a cab from the station."

OK, safe journey and go easy on her, she's wounded, badly."

"We both are Lucy, but she has no one else does she?"

"No Sarah, she has no one."

"OK, see you tomorrow, bye."

Sarah put the phone down and began to plan what she needed for the next few days. She slept fitfully that night and woke blearily to the alarm's happy chirrup. She slapped her palm over it and stopped the racket. Ten minutes later she was in the shower. Drying and then dressing in a simple black skirt and green blouse she went downstairs to have a coffee; she really couldn't face eating. James, her eldest, came down, also bleary eyed, wearing his t-shirt and shorts; he sat at the table and took the coffee she poured. Scowling she poured another for herself. Sally her youngest appeared, went to the cupboard and took out a bowl, found the cereal packet and poured a large portion into a bowl.

"So you're really going to meet this woman then?"

"Yes James I am. She deserves that at least. Well at least, before this all goes spiraling across the universe. The papers and the Interweb will be all over her like a rash, me too. But she'll be portrayed as a dupe, a silly naive sucker, a bimbo who was taken in by an older man. Me I'll either be the poor deceived wife or the bitch that drove her husband to another woman. I can deal with that, but, just talking to her means I know Iris can't."

"Mum, how long are you going for?"

"Probably only overnight baby, but Nan's going to be here, so you'll be in safe hands."

"I could look after her!"

"James my darling boy, you can't even find your pants in the morning, let alone look after Sally. I'm not being unkind my lovely boy, but you can be a bit absent sometimes."

James grinned and drank his coffee. Sally munched on her cereal and Sarah ruminated on the way life sets you up to knock you down. The doorbell rang and Sarah went to the door. The taxi driver was a pleasant, casually suited Asian man who offered to take her small overnight bag to the car as she said goodbye to her children. The drive to the station was quick and relatively painless, since the traffic had hardly got going. The overground and underground journey across London to Kings Cross, however, was cramped and hot, but she arrived unscathed. The train was ready and she made her way down the platform to her carriage and her designated seat. Shortly after seven am the train left for Manchester Piccadilly station.

Two and a half hours later she was walking across the concourse looking for the taxi rank. Twenty minutes later she stepped out of the cab into a smart residential street in Bramhall, with largish houses set back a short way from the road. She was walking towards the door of number seventeen when it opened and a thirty something woman; slim, long haired, but obviously not feeling her best, stepped out into the short driveway. Sarah dropped her bag and walked quickly to the woman. Sarah hauled her into a bear hug as they both broke down in tears. Another woman appeared picked up Sarah's bag and slowly ushered the two women inside. She placed Sarah's bag by the stairs in the hall and guided the two women, as they clung to each other, into the lounge. Leaving them she went to make a pot of tea.

Finally releasing each other the two women sat side by side on the sofa, both clasping the others hands tightly.

"You're beautiful; I can see what he saw in you, thank you for letting me come to see you."

"I can't believe this, why would he take me on when you are so... elegant, stunning."

"I guess we're both his type. Well, the old bugger certainly screwed both of us over, didn't he?"

Iris nodded, as they both laughed Lucy appeared with the tea things; setting out cups and saucers, pouring tea, offering milk and sugar; then finally passing a plate of biscuits around. Sarah ate one ravenously, realising this was her only nourishment for nearly eighteen hours. Iris laughed and passed the plate back to her, smiling Sarah took two. Lucy grinned and commented that she should have had breakfast before leaving. Sarah agreed, but said then she wouldn't have had a biscuit and realise just how delicious they were. Iris, grinning, said she'd made them yesterday evening especially for today. Sarah said she was astonished and jealous, they were really good. She admitted she was rubbish at what she called fancy cooking; it always went wrong no matter how hard she tried to follow a recipe.

"The way to a man's heart..." said Lucy then blushed.

"Straight through his rib cage!" commented Sarah imitating a knife thrust. They all laughed.

Over the next few hours, lunch included, Sarah and Iris swapped stories. They had much in common obviously, but even outside of Joe, their experiences were very similar. They swapped photos of the children, remarking at the way they physically resembled each other. Lucy was now visibly relaxed and left the two women alone for longer periods. Finally she said she would make a meal for the evening after she picked up the children from school. She left the two alone.

"I'm really glad I came, I think I understand now what's been happening. Iris, you do know the court will say your marriage was bigamous don't you?"

Iris nodded and began to cry gently. Sarah took her hands.

"Iris, I'm not trying to be cruel, or lord it over you, I'm just saying what's likely to happen. What we can do though is sort things out between us so we both benefit from this."

"What do you mean?"

"The court will declare your marriage void, you and the children will not have any stake in Joe's estate, you'll get nothing and you have no one to turn to. Am I right?"

"Yes, I know that."

"For God's sake Iris, how will you survive? What will you live on? Where will you live? Is this place mortgaged, do you own it, does Joe?"

"I... I don't know, I left all that to Joe."

"Right well we need to sort this out. We need to get in touch with the Land Registry and find a solicitor..."

"I can't afford to do that, I..."

"Iris what's in your bank account?"

"Joe did the money, he set me up with a housekeeping account and he paid money into it regularly."

"Do you know which bank he used?"

"What do you mean? All I know is I have an account with the local branch of Barclays."

"Right do you have on-line banking."

"No, I just use the card or draw cash from a machine."

"Right tomorrow we'll go to your branch and get a lead on where your money comes from. Then we'll find Joe's bank and see if we can get information from them. If not I'll try through the company. How much do you think is in your account at the moment and how much cash have you got?"

"I have about fifteen hundred in the account and about fifty quid cash."

"Perfect, I drew a thousand in case you were short, but I'll just use some of that to pay the hotel..."

"Stay here, we have room, the children are sharing at the moment and you can sleep in the spare room, or stay with me." Iris bit her lip.

"Where's Lucy staying?"

"She has the small box room, at the front."

"OK, I'll share with you, you don't snore do you?"

They giggled and pushed each other gently. They were still giggling as Lucy returned with Henry and Mark; they rushed into the lounge and enveloped their mother. Sarah sat with moistening eyes. At last the children became aware of her; Sarah smiled at them gently.

"Hallo, my name's Sarah, how are you?"

"My name's Harry and I'm seven, how do you do?"

"I am very well thank you Harry." Sarah held her hand out and Harry solemnly shook it.

"My name's Mark I am five and my Daddy's dead," announced the other. Sarah gulped reached for him and cuddled him to her. Harry went back to his mother and Iris gathered him on to her lap. Tears fell from her eyes as she held Harry tightly to her.

"Well," said Sarah at last, "I can't bring your Daddy back, but I am going to help Mummy to make sure you are both looked after and cared for like Daddy would have wanted," she managed before her voice began to break. She breathed deeply and tried to halt the pain in her chest. Iris looked at her with tear filled eyes and mouthed "thank you". Sarah shook her head and held Mark tight.

"Are you my aunty then?" Mark asked twisting round to look at her.

"I suppose I am in a way, yes I am your Aunty Sarah." She smiled and saw Iris smiling too.

Lucy returned and called the children to her, taking them into the kitchen for a drink and a biscuit. Sarah moved beside Iris again and they fell into each other's arms, hugging tightly. Later Sarah helped Lucy and Iris to bath, bed and read stories to the boys. This brought back memories of bathing and reading to Jenny and James and she left the bedroom briefly to dry her eyes and compose herself again. The boys quickly snuggled down under their duvets and were soon asleep. Lucy then excused herself and went to her room. Sarah and Iris sat in companionable silence, just holding hands. Later upstairs they nervously changed for bed and slipped in beside each other. As if by some form of osmosis they gradually wrapped themselves together and slept soundly. They were wakened by Mark and Harry jumping on the bed and bouncing over and on them. Lucy broke up the pillow fight with promises of breakfast, leaving Sarah and Iris flattened in a tangle of battered pillows and the rumpled duvet.

After showering and dressing they went downstairs had breakfast and prepared to take the boys to school. Sarah found Harry's hand and Iris walked with Mark. They dropped them at school and then Iris suggested they went to the Bank, as it was quite near the school. The Bank didn't open until ten, and so they headed for Starbucks and a large coffee. At ten they went into the bank and Iris explained that she needed to know from which bank the credit to her account came from.

The assistant looked at her quizzically, and explained that the credit originated from this branch. Iris explained the situation, introducing Sarah, who had been sitting quietly at the side of Iris. The Assistant said that Data Protection prevented him from revealing anything about the account, but repeated that it was also held at this branch. He reluctantly confirmed it was in Joe's name, but that was all.