Chapter 59
When I arrived home the morning after Lucy appeared, I told Jack I’d been triggered by Lucy’s experience, that I’d needed to get away.
I’d stayed the night in the Merrion Hotel by myself, I told him.
I had been smart enough to shower and sober up with gallons of coffee and breath mints before I came home that morning.
Jack had been worried sick, and Lucy was distraught because she thought I’d relapsed because of her. I went to her bedside and lied that I believed her. We assured her that she certainly wasn’t going to have to go back to ComStat Holdings while Simon was there. We would call in sick for her.
I stayed home that day, disguising my hangover as distress, although I was distressed. Was my daughter like her mother?
Lucy stayed in bed with the door closed, her tears audible from the corridor outside.
Jack ordered takeaway, but Lucy wouldn’t come out of her room to eat it.
He was angry, furious. He wanted to kill Simon Perry.
I tried to talk him down. If Lucy had been a victim of violence, she wouldn’t want to see any aggression in her home.
‘If?’ he said, looking at me strangely.
‘Please,’ I said, ‘let it be.’
‘You have to tell her,’ he said.
‘Tell her what?’
‘About your own rape.’
‘Absolutely not. We are never telling her that.’
‘But she –’
‘Never, Jack.’
That evening, Jack began his investigations and duly reported back.
There were no cameras outside L’étoile Bleue, but the manager was more than willing to help Jack when he heard that the restaurant might make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
He knew Simon, he was a regular customer, although usually with big groups.
According to the manager, Simon and Lucy both seemed a little drunk on arrival.
Lucy was alert all the way through the meal.
They had ordered dessert and eaten it. This didn’t tally with Lucy’s assertion that she remembered nothing after the main course.
They had ordered a bottle of wine in the beginning and then were given complimentary shots of Sambuca with their bill.
He remembered Lucy had drunk both shots.
Simon paid the bill. When they got up to leave, Lucy had stumbled out of the booth and Simon had helped her up.
She was unsteady on her feet, but still chatty.
They had been offered a taxi, but Simon said he lived nearby and indeed the Zevon Building (‘the most dazzling example of luxury living’ as it was touted at the time of its launch a few years ago) was within walking distance.
Simon wasn’t exactly carrying her, but he had his arm around her.
There was nothing to suggest any bad behaviour on either part.
They had laughed a lot, the manager said.
Jack told me these details reluctantly.
‘Oh God, she lied,’ I said.
He looked at me strangely. ‘She was drunk but that doesn’t mean anything.
It means she doesn’t remember that part of it.
When we were drunk or high back in the day, we both heard about crazy shit we did after the fact.
She liked him, she was planning his divorce before she’d even kissed him.
But she has no reason to lie about the rape.
I think she wanted to sleep with him. But if it was consensual and nothing untoward happened, why would she come home yesterday morning in pieces and bruised all over? ’
I wanted to agree with him, though I had doubts. ‘Maybe she fudged the truth to avoid our judgement of her lifestyle. She’s the daughter of two recovering addicts. We’ve all made bad decisions when we were young and drunk. You and I should know.’
He put his arms around me, and I rested my head on his shoulder. Dearest Jack.
‘Well, what about Simon? We can’t let him get away with it,’ he said.
‘I’ll go see him,’ I said.
‘No chance. I will deal with Mr Perry,’ said Jack. ‘You’re not going anywhere near him.’ Jack wanted to protect me from a rapist.