Chapter 45 George
George
‘How dare you?’ George scowls at Faith, his pulse rapidly rising. She’s really starting to grind his gears now. ‘It was Elis who punched me, remember? Not the other way around.’
‘Yeah, after you provoked him. And you were pretty bloody angry afterwards.’
‘I’m sorry. Was I supposed to sing his praises?
Oh, yeah, that Elis, he’s a top fellow. Spiffing chap.
Just gave me a haymaker to the eye. Absolute gentleman.
’ George hears his words land heavily in the silence.
It’s unbecoming. He ceases his sarcastic line of defence, sensing it’s not doing him any favours.
They’re all looking at him with varying degrees of seriousness.
‘Look, just because I was angry doesn’t mean I wanted to kill him. That’s one hell of a leap.’
‘Actually, I think I remember last night you saying you wanted to kill him, or words to that effect.’
He wags a finger at Faith. ‘That is a post hoc fallacy of the worst kind.’ George feels his temperature rising.
He needs to keep a lid on his anger, but it’s not easy when Faith is coming for him like this.
‘We all use that kind of language figuratively, and you’ve twisted it to make a fatuous allegation. It’s nothing short of outrageous.’
Faith laughs humourlessly, then shakes her head.
‘Your fancy words might work on them, mate, but they aren’t going to work on me.
I don’t know what a post hoc fallacy is, and, frankly, I don’t give a damn.
All I know is, I spoke with Elis last night.
’ Her eyes move around, addressing everyone but George.
‘He was anxious. Like he knew something bad was about to happen.’
‘Oh, this is ridiculous.’ Again, George abandons his outburst.
‘He told me he felt uncomfortable here, and that he was going to leave at the first opportunity and fly home. Elis was trying to get away’ – she points at George – ‘from him.’
George’s hands tremble with anger. He balls them up into fists.
He’s not going to put up with this. Faith and Jessie aren’t even meant to be on this trip.
And now, because Miles hasn’t been honest with them, Faith is throwing accusations at George.
‘All right. This has gone on long enough.’ He turns to Miles.
‘I’m sorry, mate. I’ve got to tell them, okay?
It’s not fair that people keep accusing me. ’
‘Oh, my God.’ Faith throws her arms in the air. ‘You can’t be serious. Are you telling me there’s more?’
Miles says nothing, but closes his eyes, and his face assumes a look of weary resignation. George takes it as permission to spill the beans. ‘There is one minor thing left that he hasn’t told you.’
‘Oh, right. Let me guess. He’s a terrorist? A known paedophile? A goddamn serial killer?’
George rolls his eyes. ‘Miles has a stalker.’
Faith slowly shakes her head. ‘Because . . . of course he has.’
‘I wish that was the end of it, but it’s not. This psycho . . . well, we don’t know for sure that he’s a psycho . . . but a man has been following him and sending him threatening emails. And’ – George takes a deep breath – ‘then he turned up in Queenstown.’
‘And now he’s turned up here in this forest,’ Faith says, flatly, staring at the window.
‘We don’t know that,’ Miles says. ‘The whole point of coming here was to get away. We were careful, and we made sure we weren’t followed. There’s no way he could have found us here.’
‘Right,’ George says. ‘But the point I’m making is, there are other, much more rational, explanations for what’s happened to Elis. It’s not fair to point the finger at me just because Elis and I had a row. And it’s not fair to point the finger at Miles, either. He’s done nothing wrong.’
Faith returns to the front seats to comfort Jessie, whose sobbing has entered yet another phase.
Her wailing and hyperventilating have ended, and the sounds she’s producing now are more defeated and laborious.
Her body sporadically twitches, as if her skin is being pinched.
George understands why Jessie is upset – they’re all upset – but this Dying Swan act is a little bit over the top.
Faith places an arm around Jessie, but her eyes remain focused on George and Miles.
‘It’s a bit rich to say he’s done nothing wrong.
You guys have lied about pretty much everything. And now you expect us to believe this?’
‘It’s true,’ Polly says, tilting her head back in a show of exhaustion. ‘Someone has been harassing him.’
‘Thanks for that, Polly. Some friend you’ve turned out to be.
’ Faith glares at Polly, who doesn’t meet her eye.
‘Anyway, this doesn’t change anything. If some psycho has got it in for Miles, why would he kill Elis?
’ She pauses, looking around to see if anyone wants to volunteer an answer.
No one does. ‘Some stalker didn’t kill Elis.
One of you arseholes did. And my money’ – pointing at George – ‘is on him.’