Chapter 14 #2
“Have no idea? Yes. Which leads me to believe it was something bad. I thought originally it was some political intrigue.” He played with the hem of his T-shirt, lifting it slightly and giving me a glimpse of that lovely body underneath.
“I confronted him about it on Saturday night. We’d argued before we came to Honningtons. ”
I perked up. “Did you tell the police?”
He nodded. “Yes, I was honest about it. I told them I … I didn’t think he was completely above board on the campaign. I had …” He looked around the room at basically any direction but me. “I wondered if he had something to do with Guy’s photos being leaked.”
I cocked my head. “How would he know about that? Were he and Guy acquainted?”
“No.” Simon shook his head. “Riz had heard of him, but they’d never met before the campaign. He had a lot of questions when we” – he averted his gaze – “got back together. All of a sudden, he was quite intrigued by him, but I put it down to rubbernecking over Arabella’s death.”
And yet you proposed to him. What taste.
“Okay, so you thought he was up to no good …” A suspicion formed in my mind for a second, but I tried to push it down. It was a terrible idea to bring up. Simon was pacing my living room, all but tearing his hair out with his family worried he was about to hurt himself. I couldn’t.
But he was looking at me now. “What? Have you had an idea?”
Jesus, I’m not fucking Sherlock Holmes. “It’s nothing.” And you’ll kick off if I say it.
“No, say it. No thought too stupid or small.” He offered a slight smile.
Noticing the knees of my jeans were beginning to fray, I played with the material for several seconds and mouthed at the air, trying to think of an excuse to keep my gob shut. But Simon’s big blue eyes were imploring me.
“Have you considered the possibility that maybe he was with someone else, another man?” I asked in a high-pitched voice. “I only say because of the phone calls, all the secrets …” My voice trailed off as I took in the expression on Simon’s face.
“Of course I had,” he said. “It was my first thought. He begins acting weird and taking phone calls at all hours. And not from Marina like he claimed they were from at the beginning. Because I could tell he was getting the calls from a private number, and then that changed to being under Marina’s name.
Except he had Marina in his phone already as Marina with a capital ‘M’.
Then her name changed to being spelt with a lowercase letter.
I don’t think he’d picked up he’d done it, or he’d done it to keep the people separate in his head so he knew who was actually calling and was hoping I wouldn’t notice. ”
“Did you confront him about your suspicions?”
“The cheating? Yes, that was the day I proposed.”
A factoid to pocket for later. “And about the names?”
“Yes, when we came back from Honningtons. That’s why he left. We had a blazing row. Marina almost had to referee. I told him I wasn’t going to let him treat me like a fool. I didn’t know what was happening, but I wasn’t going to be a part of it.”
“So, the police are aware of this?”
“Oh, yes,” he said, sneering. “Neuberger was very interested.”
I felt a headache coming on as I listened. “Okay” – I was pinching the bridge of my nose again – “you were convinced Riz was doing something dodgy? I mean, I don’t want to sound mean, but you were marrying the guy. You’re not painting the prettiest of pictures to me.”
Simon stopped his pacing for a second and looked at me squarely. I thought I’d offended him again, which was something I had a talent for with Mr Anson. Eventually, though, he looked away and sat down in the armchair opposite me.
Kenny rushed to put his head on a thigh and get himself some snout scratches.
He huffed slightly when Simon didn’t instantly comply.
“You need to—” I gestured at the dog to tell Simon so he didn’t get barked at, which was what I could tell Kenny was working up to.
There had been upwards of seven seconds of him not being adored, and he frankly couldn’t take it any longer.
Kenny shot me a look, as if saying But why has he forsaken me?
Teach him, teach him the ways! but I refused to be drawn.
Traitorous mutt was finding out his mistress wasn’t as attentive as the one he had at home.
Simon got the picture and put his hand around Kenny’s mane to scoop him in closer to cuddle against his leg. Instantly, Kenny’s tongue fell out of the corner of his mouth, and he took on a serene expression, all prior ignoring forgiven. The slut.
“He was a difficult man,” Simon said eventually.
“A good man. At least I thought. An interesting man. Like, really interesting. Full of ideas and passions. He wanted to change the world. Had all sorts of plans for ways the country could be run better. Our first date” – Simon grinned to himself as he remembered the event – “we were in this pub, and he had all these beermats he used to build a model. He was trying to explain ideas he had for redoing operating theatres using techniques he’d seen during a junket to the States he’d gone on.
I remember thinking how handsome he was when he was passionate about something. ”
“You were in love with him,” I said quietly. I hoped the envy in my voice didn’t make itself known. Maybe that’s why he hadn’t wanted more than one night with me; my face didn’t light up when I discussed proofreading.
“Not really.” He shook his head.
“What?”
“The whole thing was a charade. Marina dreamt it up.”
“Wait—”
“We were together, yes. And we got back together – but the engagement? Pure theatre. I was never going to marry him. The more I saw him twisting himself into this awful person who wanted to win no matter what, the more I wanted to be out of there as soon as possible.”
He paused for a second and puffed out his cheeks as if he’d had to breathe hard to say that.
He held Kenny close, and I kept still, trying not to interrupt.
“He … he wasn’t close to anyone. His parents – he hadn’t spoken to them in months.
I thought it was because they were old-fashioned, you know, they were disapproving of him being gay, but the longer I knew him …
He distanced himself from his parents, not the other way around.
I’d only met them once before yesterday.
But they seemed … not scared of him, but wary. ”
I couldn’t think of anything to say, so was glad when Simon’s phone started buzzing. He took it out of his pocket and rolled his eyes. “It’s mum. She will not be put off. I best go.” He stood up.
His abruptness took me by surprise, but I saw a flicker of doubt on his face, and he wasn’t meeting my eye. “I’m glad you told me those things,” I said eventually. Perhaps his doubt was from revealing his emotions. I know how he felt.
He came over to me, and I found myself holding him, ever so lightly and briefly. But as we pulled away, he clung to the back of my arms, gripping on to the tender flesh there.
“We can do this, right?” He looked at me intently. His bright eyes were glassy with unshed tears.
I lied. “Yes.”
He hesitated for a second and then gave me a bro-y backslap. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully, we can make some progress.”
I tried to disagree, but before I knew it, he was gone.
The house echoed around its newfound silence. Kennedy was giving me mournful looks and seemed to be already missing his new friend.
I paced around the house for half an hour, full of nervous energy, while I contemplated everything that he’d just told me.
It all made sense, but none of it pointed to a reason for Riz being killed.
The only logical option did look to be what the police – and, gulp, whoever the hell in the intelligence services that Simon worked for exactly – were saying.
That Riz was killed in some sort of bizarre mugging gone wrong.
But those phone calls. They were the only thing that stood out. If I did go through with this ridiculous idea, then maybe our first port of call should be Marina Holt.
I shook my head. This was absurd. I was no detective.
It was blind luck I’d found out anything about Tarquin.
Instead, I grabbed Kennedy’s lead, and we went for a long walk across the hills.
We passed the Parkinsons in a field, and I waved enthusiastically but ignored Rita’s beckoning hail in return and pretended not to hear her calling my name as she invited me for lunch.
The last thing I needed was to be ‘on’ for more people.
We returned home, one of us more fatigued than the other.
I ate another muffin and slumped on the sofa at lunchtime.
I had put off the inevitable long enough.
My phone was in my hand. I grimaced and switched it on.
As soon as it was loaded up, it vibrated for what seemed like an eternity as messages came through.
Gritting my teeth, I opened them after they’d all been received.
Several were from Simon, as he had said. A couple of texts from yesterday and later a voicemail, and then this morning a curt message asking if I was dead.
A voicemail from Nigella with an update on Jed, asking me to call her back.
Ollie had rung late in the evening yesterday and then sent me a text telling me he had found a lawyer for me and to ring him back.
There were several messages from Verity. I didn’t have the energy or the patience to listen to or read any of them.
Instead, I grabbed Kennedy’s lead and headed outside. As we reached the door, a familiar tiny pink car pulled up in my driveway, and Sonia stepped out.
She took off her sunglasses and looked up at me. “Have you got a minute?”
“I was just off to call on Nigella.” I looked down at her from my doorstep. “Is everything okay?”
Her normally immaculate hair was a bit skew-whiff. She scrunched her face up and fiddled with the strap of her designer (knock-off) handbag. “Um, not really.”
I felt a frown form on my face. It must be bad for sunny Sonia to be feeling it.
“Can you get over grass in those? Let’s walk and talk,” I said and took her elbow, giving a brief glimpse at her shoes.
As usual, they were heels, five inches high and precarious.
Sonia basically wore heels to bed, so she was not about to let a dirt track tell her that her life choices weren’t compatible.
She scurried along beside me and gamely climbed the stile. “So, what’s up?” I said and held her handbag while she righted her skirt.
“It’s …” She paused. “It’s hard to explain, Arden, but I thought you’d know more than I would. You know, cos you’re all wise.”
Am I?
“It’s, well, it’s Trev and Dhaps. I think they’re stealing from the company.”