32
Dates
Arsenio was sitting at his desk in his home office with his hands clasped in front of him.
Resting his mouth against them, he stared at the frozen image on his laptop screen.
After stupidly starting to watch the recording in his office yesterday evening, his curiosity had gotten the better of him tonight.
But once the video progressed, he’d immediately stopped it.
His stomach tightened and his blood boiled.
Over his career he’d seen many stomach churning and disturbing images and he had always been matter of fact about most of them.
He wasn’t totally made of stone but he’d become hardened and unemotional over time and generally most things unaffected him.
All of his cases however, were of people whom he didn’t know and had no attachment to.
This though was a completely different scenario.
It was disturbing enough that he knew the people well on the video.
It was devastating that the footage he had in his possession would totally destroy his brother.
Arsenio had scanned through the photos Sam had taken again, showing the lead up to where Liz and Jonathan were out by their private pool.
He then paused the video purposely, avoiding watching the explicit footage.
Undecided if he really needed to see more than the few seconds he’d already seen yesterday evening.
He wasn’t sure he had the stomach for it.
The photos were more than enough evidence.
It showed them kissing and that was what he’d wanted.
You didn’t need to be a genius to know what came next.
The thought alone was enough to make him feel queasy.
Arsenio continued to stare at the frozen image of Liz and Jonathan kissing each other. It was no good, he needed someone else’s opinion. He stopped the video, collected the file of photos and the USB drive and headed out of his house.
“SORRY TO COME AROUND without much notice, but it’s important.”
“That’s okay, you sounded troubled on the phone.”
Arsenio snorted. Troubled? He was feeling positively psychotic.
Cosimo led Arsenio through to the kitchen, where it soon became obvious that Cosimo was expecting a guest. The table was set for two and there was wine chilling in an ice bucket.
There was a delicious aroma of shellfish coming from a pot on the stove.
Arsenio placed the brown file with the photos on the table.
“Oh, you’re expecting company.”
“Yes, um, not until around nine though, so we’ve time and you said it was urgent. Do you want a drink?” Cosimo asked wanting to avoid a cross examination by his brother. He walked over to the fridge and opened it.
“Sure, a glass of wine… anything. It smells good.” Arsenio paced over to the stove and peered inside. “Linguine alle vongole? Jerome’s recipe?”
“Uh-huh. Here.” Cosimo handed him a glass and poured him some white wine he’d retrieved from the fridge. “So what’s up?”
“The investigator brought around the latest photos from Spain. Liz’s modelling job.”
Cosimo nodded and quietly raised his glass and Arsenio reciprocated. Fleetingly Arsenio thought that maybe it wasn’t particularly appropriate to be toasting in the light of what he was about to say, but it was purely an ingrained habit. They both took a sip from their glasses and Arsenio continued.
“The evidence is damning, Cos. They both stayed at the resort, sharing a villa. There are photos of them at the airport and at the resort, and a few shots of them kissing.”
“I see. Is that what’s in the file.” He looked over to the dining table.
“Yes. The thing is the investigator also recorded them.”
Cosimo’s brow furrowed. “At the hotel you mean?”
Arsenio nodded. “In their villa, while they…” Arsenio raised his eyebrows, hoping he didn’t have to spell it out.
Cosimo’s face dropped, understanding what Arsenio implied. He took a drink from his glass and placed it on the polished granite surface.
“I haven’t seen it,” added Arsenio quickly.
“I just couldn’t bring myself to. It felt, well…
oh crap.” He took a drink from his glass and put it next to Cosimo’s.
“It just felt like crossing boundaries.” He spoke in a rush, glad he’d been able to unburden the guilt he was feeling.
This was his brother’s wife they were talking about.
“I think the boundaries have been crossed well before, don’t you?” Cosimo said tightly.
“What’s that supposed to mean? That I shouldn’t have done this? That I should’ve let that, that tart shit all over our brother? Make a fool of him?”
“I’m not pointing fingers Seni, calm down, for goodness sake!
I’m just stating the facts. We crossed the boundaries the minute we let the investigator continue.
I knew once we found out it would be hard.
I caught her, remember? I know what it feels like to know something that will devastate someone you care about. ”
Cosimo took a deep breath and rubbed his face. Arsenio physically relaxed a little and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“The problem we’re faced with now is what do we do with the information?” Cosimo mulled.
“We can’t keep it to ourselves, is that even an option? She’s fucking some asshole and spending days away with him and we’re going to sit on it?” Arsenio’s voice rose with frustration.
“I didn’t say that. Just calm down, Seni.
You need to get your game head on and try not to get emotional.
We need to look at the bigger picture.” Arsenio went to interrupt him but stopped short when Cosimo lifted his hand, halting him.
“Here, take another drink and let’s look at this as rationally and as calmly as we can.
” Arsenio accepted his wine glass for Cosimo and took a gulp.
“So, we know the most important things for Jerome are the kids and his businesses. The businesses are safe. We’ve been through it legally and she can’t get her hands on anything. The kids though are another matter. She can bargain them for more maintenance, correct?”
Arsenio nodded.
“To get full custody for Jerome, she needs to be seen as unfit. Screwing around won’t cut it. She’s not the first or the last. Or, we can try and cut her a deal; a hefty lump sum for her to relinquish custody to Jerome.”
“She’ll never go for it. She needs an open tap kept running to keep her happy. A lump sum will run out in no time. She might go for it if her career starts up. She’ll need to be travelling a lot more. The kids will be in her way.”
“That’s a bit like praying for a Christmas miracle Seni,” Cosimo replied dryly.
“Then what do we do? Say nothing?” Arsenio shot back.
“For now, yes. Look it’s a week until Christmas. I really don’t think we should confront Jerome with this right now. It’s the busiest time of the year for him, it’ll force him to make a final decision about her, and the kids will be turned upside down, not to mention Mama.”
“Christ, talk about bad timing. The cheating bitch is going to get away with it because of a religious holiday. I’m sure there’s some irony in there somewhere.” Arsenio shook his head, exasperated.
“Seni, we can’t hit him with it. It’ll destroy him.
We need a week, ten days tops. If she hasn’t slipped up somehow, we might need to push him into seeing it for himself.
We have enough information on her movements.
Of the trainer’s movements, we can set him up to see it for himself.
Believe me Seni, you don’t want to be the one to tell him, or be the one to show him the photos and the video. ”
“I suppose you’re right. But it just feels as if we’re covering for her.”
“It’s a waiting game, Seni. If we charge in, we’ll not get the result we need, what Jerome needs. That’s what you focus on, full custody and her out of his life. Telling him now won’t get him that.”
They stood in Cosimo’s designer kitchen in silence contemplating what they were doing.
Neither of them happy but equally understanding it was their only choice.
Arsenio knew Cosimo was right but he just wanted to nail the bitch.
This was the first time he’d ever lost his cool and he knew it was purely because Liz was hurting one of his own, his brother, his family.
“I just hope she slips up, I don’t want to be the one to show him the video.”
“Jeez, it’s that bad?”
“I’ve no clue, I just watched about twenty seconds and stopped it… I didn’t need to see that. I didn’t want those images in my head. I’d seen enough and knew what direction it was going in.”
“It stays between us.”
“Agreed.”
“What about Scott, and the investigator in Spain?”
“There are no copies. They’ll say nothing, it’s more than their reputations worth.”
“What do the pictures show?”
“Have a look.” Arsenio gestured to the dining room table.
Within a few minutes Arsenio had the photos spread out across the light oak dining table.
He’d put them in sequence and included the shots taken previous to Liz’s shoot in Spain.
Arsenio pointed out the day he presumed furniture had been delivered, the sudden double backing of Jonathan after Liz encountered with the couple she knew at the airport.
They scrutinised every photo up until the last one taken in Spain of the two of them kissing by their pool.
They were so engrossed that they didn’t hear the front door open.
“Hello-o-o-o?”
Cosimo stiffened as he heard the familiar voice from the hallway. His eyes flitted to the clock, it was almost nine. Crap, he hadn’t realised the time and now he was faced with the awkward situation of introducing Arsenio to James.