He patted his pockets and realised he’d stupidly left his phone in the car. He wavered for a moment, torn between heading straight to one of the victims to help them and running back to retrieve his phone so he could call for emergency services. Two more cars flew by, neither of them stopping to help. He felt a flash of irritation, although he supposed it was difficult to pull up in time when you were doing 100 kilometres per hour. Especially as it was dark and the crash was right after a bend.

He decided to check on the first car before he did anything else.

Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

Monday 7 December

Mimi

‘What the . . . ?’ Mimi stretched her arm down the side of the seat, her fingers searching for the lever to slide it back. Her breasts were practically squashed against the steering wheel. She remembered why it was so far forward as she finally managed to move the seat back. Jill had driven her car home after lunch on Saturday. She’d had to pull it all the way forward just to be able to reach the accelerator.

Tiny, fierce Jill.

The woman was an enigma. She could swing from being intensely protective of her sons to throwing them under the bus if she thought they weren’t doing the right thing by their wives or partners. When Charlotte broke it off with Darren, she’d been certain that Darren must have done something terrible to cause it. Poor Darren. Mimi thought it was pretty clear that the guy had had his heart broken, that Charlotte’s decision had been a huge shock. But there was Jill, quizzing him on why he’d let her get away. Eventually Pete had stepped in and run interference, patiently explaining that Darren was in no way responsible for Charlotte realising she was gay and suggesting that Jill ease up on the guy.

With the twins, she constantly checked in to make sure Pete was doing his part. Is he helping you in the night? Because you know you have to give him a good hard nudge to wake him up. Once when Darren was a baby I shoved Frank so hard he fell out of bed. He stopped sleeping through the cries after that. Not that he was any help to me with the babies.

Yet other times she was in their corner when it wasn’t always warranted. They’d all heard the story of how she’d jumped the fence at one of Tony’s soccer games when he was fourteen and on the ground, clutching his ankle after a tackle that everyone else said was clean. In fact, Darren swore Tony had taken a dive. But there was Jill, bolting across the field. Everyone thought she was headed for Tony to see if he was okay, next thing she was lunging at the player from the other team, intent on knocking him down.