Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
We meet the next morning in Putney library – a place I suggested when Alicia insisted it had to be somewhere there was little chance of anyone we know seeing us talking. She’d kept her explanation vague, but it’s easy to read between the lines: she’s scared of something.
Alicia’s already there when I arrive, sitting at a table in the corner by the window. The smell of old books makes me nostalgic for my childhood, when my parents took me to our local library every Saturday afternoon.
When she spots me, she lifts her hand in a tentative wave.
With her face free of make-up, and dressed in loose blue joggers and a cream sweatshirt that must be making her overheat in this weather, she looks like a different woman to the one I met the other night at dinner.
I glance down at my jeans and T-shirt – there’s every chance Alicia is thinking the same about me.
‘Thanks for coming,’ she says, standing and giving me a hug as if we’re old friends. It feels as if she’s shaking. ‘Sorry you had to drive all this way. I just couldn’t risk coming to Thursley.’
‘What’s going on?’ I ask. ‘Your message didn’t say much.’ I sit opposite her and rest my elbows on the table. It’s quiet in here and, behind the desk, the middle-aged male librarian watches us.
‘I know. Sorry.’ She looks over at the librarian. ‘We’ll have to talk quietly here. He looks the type to tell us to shush.’ She gives a nervous laugh. ‘Anyway, first I need to apologise for not turning up the other day. And not replying when you messaged me.’
‘I understand. It must have felt awkward after you ended things with Xander.’
Alicia leans forward. ‘I didn’t leave him. It was the other way around. He’s the one who left me.’
‘I don’t understand. Why would he tell people that—’
‘Because he didn’t want you talking to me. Asking questions.’
Again, I’m confused. ‘Why, though?’
‘I don’t know. But that’s what got me thinking.
’ She glances around. ‘He kept going on about you claiming to have seen that woman from your window. We talked about it in the cab back to my place. He insisted that you’re unstable and that I shouldn’t go to your house.
He even said I could go over to his the next evening instead.
Said he’d show me Silverleaf Heights. Introduce me to everyone.
That was what I’d been waiting to hear for months.
’ She pauses and smooths her eyebrows. ‘But I realised something in that moment.’ She looks at me and waits, as if I know exactly what she’s talking about.
When I don’t answer, she continues. ‘He was trying everything to stop me seeing you. I know without a doubt that he didn’t want me at his house before that.
He didn’t take our relationship seriously enough for me to be allowed into his precious Silverleaf.
But then he suddenly does a U-turn? That made me not trust him.
We fought, and he broke it off. Then I told him I was definitely going to see you, no matter what.
Xander completely lost it. Told me if I did, he’d make sure my career was over.
No one would ever give me a job.’ She shakes her head.
‘And it worked, Ria. At least for a bit. I was scared. I’m trying to build a career in finance. I need my job.’
‘But you still messaged me to meet,’ I say, my voice sounding hoarse even though I’ve barely spoken. ‘What made you change your mind?’
‘Let’s just say I came to my senses.’
From the reception desk, the librarian looks over again, frowning. Noticing this, Alicia grabs a couple of books and passes one to me. ‘Pretend you’re reading,’ she whispers.
‘What exactly are you trying to tell me, Alicia?’
‘One, that I think Xander lied to me about you. He doesn’t want me around you – but why?
Why is he so worried about me talking to you?
He broke up with me, and when I said I’d still go to yours for coffee, he threatened my career.
Why would he care if I saw you when our relationship is over?
’ She glances at the librarian. ‘So I’m thinking – it has to be about the woman you saw. Nothing else makes sense.’
I process Alicia’s words, trying to piece together how this all fits in with what’s happened. ‘You think Xander knows who the woman is.’
She nods. ‘Bingo. That’s exactly what I’m saying.
’ She leans back. ‘When I was a kid, my parents were convinced I’d become a detective when I was older.
I was obsessed with solving puzzles, finding clues, coming up with all sorts of scenarios whenever something inexplicable happened.
’ She smiles. ‘I guess that’s still in me.
I’m a true-crime buff. Just have that drive to work things out, no matter what. ’
I can’t help being impressed. ‘Okay, so what are you saying?’
‘I couldn’t let this go. I started digging around.
Some might call it stalking, I guess. I needed to find out everything I could about Xander.
And while trawling online, I found out Xander’s ex-wife’s name.
Kimmy Gould. An American woman. I didn’t know anything about her – Xander never talked about her.
But here’s where it gets interesting.’ She raises her eyebrows and pauses dramatically.
‘Can you show me that sketch you drew? I saw it in the Thursley local Facebook group, but I need to see it again.’
I pull out my phone and find the photo, placing it on the table so we can both see it.
‘Now look at this. This is Xander’s wife.’ Alicia puts her phone next to mine and scrolls through her photos.
And I see it straight away. The uncanny resemblance.
The woman I saw on the green was Xander’s wife.
My chest heaves; I’ve been so focused on Eleanor that I hadn’t considered the other neighbours.
And Xander was the one who ran out and checked the green.
He could have easily found evidence and kept it hidden.
Cursing myself for not digging further online, I stare at Alicia.
‘I can tell from your face you think I’m right,’ she says.
‘But Xander wouldn’t have had a chance to hide her body. And I went in his house – there was nothing unusual.’
‘I can’t explain that,’ Alicia responds.
‘But wait till you hear the rest. I started trying to find Kimmy online, but there was no trace of her. It’s like she never existed.
Except for one thing: a wedding photo of the two of them on Xander’s Instagram.
They got married ten years ago. And she supposedly left him around a year ago. ’
‘But I saw her being attacked only a week ago. Where has she been the whole time if she left him a year ago?’
‘I don’t know. But it’s creepy, right? Think about it – Xander didn’t want me going to his house right from when we started dating, and that was three months ago. Maybe he was keeping her there? What if he told everyone she’d left him but he was keeping her locked in the house?’
Alicia’s words chill me. Even though it sounds unbelievable, I’ve felt from the beginning that something was off about Silverleaf Heights. Xander had seemed okay to me – even though he did warn me not to persist in saying that I saw a woman being murdered.
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘It seems—’
‘Far-fetched? I know. But does anything else makes sense? Check the photo of Kimmy again.’ She picks up her phone and holds it out to me. ‘Is that the woman you saw?’
Staring at the smiling blonde-haired woman, her eyes shining with happiness, I feel with intensity that Kimmy is the woman I saw.
It’s nothing I can pinpoint, just a strong sense that it was her.
The whole scene plays out again in my head while I sit in this library with Alicia, and this time it’s more vivid.
This time her eyes don’t show only fear, but resignation too.
‘I need to go to the police,’ I say. ‘But there’s no evidence of any crime.’
‘Yet,’ Alicia says. ‘But we know. We just need to prove it.’
Her words lift my spirits. She said we. It was difficult when lots of the teachers I’d considered friends distanced themselves from me.
Then, after my attack, I lost contact with others in my life, too.
My closest friend moved to Dubai with her husband and Johnny was still away travelling.
It didn’t help that I was an only child and both my parents died when I was in my late twenties, so friends had become the only family I had.
I’d always assumed that in times of tragedy all the people in one’s life rally around and show support.
I hadn’t expected people I’d considered friends to keep their distance.
Leo helped me see that the ones who truly cared would always be there, and no one else mattered.
‘I got a message from someone not long after I witnessed the attack,’ I say, flicking through my phone. ‘Someone who called themselves Alex Vale. It was a fake account, but look at this.’
I’d taken a screenshot of the message, the one saying the sender knows who the woman is but can’t get involved.
‘I knew it!’ she says, banging her fist on the table.
The librarian stares at us and tuts.
‘I bet he’s itching to march over here and tell us off,’ Alicia says, rolling her eyes. ‘Anyway, ignore him. So what do we do next? This is as far as I’ve got. But you live there. Have you seen anything . . . unusual?’
I fill Alicia in on everything that’s happened since Leo and I moved to Silverleaf, and she gasps when I get to the part about Willow.
‘It wasn’t me,’ I assure her. ‘I’d never do that.’
She glances around. ‘It’s terrifying that someone’s been getting into your house.
And your car. You must be sick with worry.
’ Alicia pauses, her eyes narrowing. ‘Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, and I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but Xander told me about the attack . . . your head injury . . .’
‘It hasn’t changed my personality! I’d never harm an animal.’ My voice is too loud and echoes around the library, garnering a scowl from the librarian.
‘I’m not saying that, but is there a chance you forgot you had the antifreeze?’ Alicia says.
‘No. I’m sure there wasn’t any in the house,’ I say firmly.
‘Okay, I believe you.’ And, amazingly, I trust that she does. ‘So we think someone poisoned the dog to warn you? Or to make you look crazy?’
‘Both. I got a threatening text after it happened saying I’d be next if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, and now everybody’s keeping their distance from me,’ I say.
‘Even my husband can barely look me in the eye.’ Adrenalin surges through me; whatever the cost, I will fight for my marriage.
I will make Leo see that we need to get out of Silverleaf.
‘A death threat!’ Alicia exclaims. ‘Let me help.’
‘Why are you doing this? You can walk away from it all. What if Xander finds out you’re helping me? Couldn’t he get you fired?’
Alicia folds her arms and leans back. ‘He’ll never need to know. I can help from a distance. And you can do the digging around in Silverleaf.’
‘You did hear what I said about all the neighbours hating me? They’re not exactly queuing up to socialise.’
‘I didn’t say it would be easy.’ She rubs her hands together. ‘I really should have joined the police. I might have made detective by now.’
I can’t help but laugh. There’s something refreshing about Alicia, something far removed from everyone in Silverleaf Heights.
‘Declan seems okay,’ I say. ‘But he’s just a kid, really. He’s only twenty-one. Plus, he doesn’t seem to have much to do with what goes on. I think he feels the same way I do about the place. The other day he said we were both on the fringes.’
Alicia nods. ‘Kid or not, he’s definitely someone we need onside.’
‘And there’s Rufus, who I’m blatantly blackmailing. Keeping his secret if he’ll find proof that Eleanor’s been in my house and done any of those things.’ I fill her in on how I found him hiding out in a pub while everyone thought he was at work.
‘Hmm,’ Alicia says. ‘Not sure I’d trust a man who can lie to his wife like that.’
‘I told him about Eleanor’s affair. Rufus is in denial but, maybe, with a bit of time to think it over, he’ll come around to the idea of helping me out. Anyway, he has no choice if he wants me to keep his secret.’
‘Just be careful it doesn’t backfire.’ Alicia checks her watch and grabs her bag. ‘I’d better go. I said I’d take my mum shopping this morning, and she’ll moan if I’m late.’
‘I need to try to get access to Xander’s house,’ I say. ‘But that won’t be easy when he’s avoiding me like the rest of them.’
‘You’ll think of something,’ Alicia says. ‘You strike me as resourceful. Let’s keep in touch.’
Once she’s left, I stay in the library for a few more minutes, browsing through the book on ancient Rome that Alicia grabbed for me. The librarian scowls when I leave, so I force a bright smile. And, with that gesture, I know exactly what it will take to get into Xander’s house.