The game room was empty. The ball had been left in the centre of the table, and one of the little players still faced backwards from their last match.
Leah let Adam come in, then closed the door. Noise from the hall passed through it: feet, a frightened question, someone telling someone else to make room.
“You were not outside with me.”
“I know.”
She had expected him to explain a mistake. He wasn't going to.
“Then why did you say it?”
He looked towards the door.
“Don't look out there. Look at me.”
He did. There was blood on one cuff of the shirt she had held a few hours ago. She wanted him to take the shirt off. The thought came without permission, ordinary care surviving in a place where she didn't want it.
“Mara's frightened,” he said. “She needs to get out of that hall. Everybody looking at her. Finn going at me. I need a few hours.”
“You gave them my name.”
“I shouldn't have.”
“Did you hurt Theo?”
“No.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Adam pulled a chair away from the wall but didn't sit. He gripped its back with both hands.
“I'd gone up for clean bar cloths. He came upstairs after me. Said I'd been sleeping with Mara. I told him I hadn't. He shoved me into the rail.”
Leah looked at the mark on his neck.
“I moved away. I told him to speak to her. Then she came up. They were arguing. He said they were finished.”
“And?”
“She pushed him. He was turning towards the stairs. She put both hands on him, here.” Adam touched his own chest. “He went backwards.”
The words were easy to understand. Leah wished that made them easy to hear.
The music had not started again. From the other side of the door came the scrape of furniture being moved. Leah put her hand flat against the table-football cabinet. She could still feel the handles turning in her wrists.
“Is he going to be all right?”
“I don't know.”
Adam's eyes filled, suddenly, and he blinked hard.
“Why are you covering for her?”
“I'd told him to stop snapping at her before. Then I saw him shove me. When she said he frightened her, I believed her.”
“You can tell people that. You can say you saw him shove you.”
“I know.”
“So why say you were with me?”
He rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand.
“She'd told them he lost his footing. If I was there, they'd ask what I'd seen. She asked me not to contradict her in front of everyone. Said she'd tell it herself tomorrow, once she'd gone somewhere else. Finn had already hit him downstairs. She said it would all come out now, your brother, her, everybody. And he was shouting at me. Finn was. I thought if I could stop him—”
“Finn hit Theo?”
“I saw the end of it from the bar. Theo had hold of his sleeve. Finn punched him. Mara got between them.”
Leah remembered Finn in the doorway rubbing his hand. Her fingers tightened against the table.
“Theo called him a liar. I don't know what they'd been saying,” Adam added. “Then Theo came after me upstairs.”
“Were you ever seeing Mara?”
“No.”
He didn't look away.
“Before me?”
“Never.”
She searched his face. She had not expected that particular doubt to hurt while Theo lay on the stairs, but it did. Mara was her friend. Adam was the man whose toothbrush had begun spending occasional nights beside hers. Until now those two facts had lived comfortably together.
“Did you believe I'd let you say it?” she asked.
He let go of the chair.
“For tonight. I hoped you would.”
There it was. She turned away from him and looked at the paper crown above the fireplace.
“You knew I'd know. And Theo knows. If he can talk, he knows.”
“I didn't think it would last.”
“Then what were you buying?”
“Enough time for her to leave. Before I said what I saw.”
“With my name.”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
The door opened before she could speak again.
Mara stood there. She had put a coat over her dress, but she was holding it closed instead of using the buttons.
“They're here,” she said.
Leah heard new voices in the hall. Adam moved towards the door. Mara caught his sleeve.
“Let them do their job. Stay here a minute.”
“I made the call.”
He stepped past her. She released him with a visible effort.
For a moment Leah was alone with her friend. Mara closed the door halfway. Her eyes were bright, and there was a smear of mascara beneath one of them.
“Come here,” she said, opening her arms.
Leah stayed by the table.
Mara let her hands drop.
“Oh, sweetheart. You're in shock.”
“Adam told me what he saw.”
Mara pressed her lips together.
“Did you push Theo?”
“You didn't see how he was.”
“No. I didn't. Did you push him?”
“He was coming at us. Everything happened so quickly.”
“Adam said he was turning towards the stairs.”
“Adam doesn't understand Theo. Neither do you.” Mara drew the coat closer round herself. “I know how this looks. I just need to go somewhere I can breathe. Please don't make me fight everyone tonight.”
“I'm not saying I was outside with him.”
“I haven't asked you to fight for Adam.”
“That isn't what I said.”
Mara took a step towards her. “Look at me. You know me.”
Leah did look. She saw the woman who had helped carry her first shop display through a sudden downpour, laughing as water ran inside both their coats. The friend who could turn up with a meal and make staying late feel like company instead of rescue. Mara had been part of so many ordinary good days that Leah's body wanted to move towards her even now.
“I know where I was tonight,” she said.
The pleading left Mara's face. She looked tired and impatient.
“All right. Don't say anything you don't want to say. Just don't let Finn start again.”
She went out.
Leah stayed in the game room until she could hear her own breathing. Then she opened the door.
The hall had been cleared. The people caring for Theo were speaking to him, and somebody was finding out which doors opened wide enough. Leah stood against the wall. Nobody needed her in the way.
Finn sat on the lowest step, holding a damp cloth round his right hand. He looked up when she approached.
“Did he tell you?”
“He told me a lot.”
“He's lying.”
“You didn't see Theo fall.”
Finn took the cloth off his hand. “You weren't there.”
“That's right.”
Her brother looked at her, then at Adam farther up the hall.
“So he wasn't with you.”
“No.”
Finn stood at once. She put herself in front of him.
“Don't. They're taking Theo out.”
His jaw worked. Then he backed against the wall and stayed there while the hall filled with careful movement.
Mara stood near the front door. When Theo passed her, she said his name. He kept his eyes closed. Leah didn't know whether he had heard.
People started going home after that. Some asked questions nobody answered. Others found their coats and slipped away, embarrassed by their own wish to leave. Mara borrowed a staff member's phone to call for a car. Finn went outside with her, came back to collect her bag and went out again.
Leah watched him. He had not asked whether she wanted a lift.
Adam approached while she was putting on her coat. He had changed into a dark shirt from the staff cupboard. Seeing him without the blood did not make her feel better.
“I can take you home,” he said.
“I'll drive,” Leah said. “What will you say when somebody asks you properly?”
“What happened. Where I was. All of it.”
“Then do that.”
He reached towards her and stopped before he touched her. Leah put her arm through the second sleeve of her coat.
Mara's car left while she was walking to her own. Finn stayed beside the gate, watching its lights until they disappeared.
Leah got in alone. For several seconds she sat with her key in her hand. Then she put it in the ignition, turned the engine on and went home without either of them.