Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
I stare at the photo, willing Leo’s face to morph into someone else’s. I call Declan, and he answers immediately. But I can’t speak.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I should have shown you in person. It’s a lot to take in.
But Mum’s only just gone to bed. I think she suspects I took her phone.
’ He takes a deep breath. ‘I didn’t know what to think when I saw that photo.
And I don’t know what it was doing on my mum’s phone.
She never said anything. I swear to you, Ria – I didn’t know. ’
Finally I regain my composure. ‘So Leo’s the one Kimmy was having an affair with. He just told me everything, Declan. Not that part, but he admitted I wasn’t attacked in my flat. Someone attacked me right here in Silverleaf. And everyone’s been lying – we moved here a year ago! You knew, too.’
He falls silent for a moment. ‘I’m sorry, Ria.
I wanted to tell you, but Leo made us all believe it would traumatise you if you knew you’d been attacked right outside your house.
He said you loved Silverleaf and he didn’t want to ruin that for you.
He’s a doctor – we all believed him. And Giles made us all promise we’d go along with it. ’
I listen to Declan’s words, taking them in, but I can’t find a path to forgive him. ‘You should have told me! After I confided in you about everything. I thought you had my back. I trusted you.’
‘I should have just told you – I see that now. And I wish I’d seen through the lie. I nearly told you loads of times, but Mum insisted it would do more harm than good.’
I think of how young he is, how easy it is to be led when you’re barely into adulthood. Everyone else has let me down, but Declan has been there from the beginning. I need to focus on that. ‘Okay,’ I say, my voice cracking. ‘I’m not happy about it, but I understand.’
He lets out a deep breath. ‘When I found that photo, I knew I had to tell you straight away. You can’t trust Leo, Ria.’
I already know this. And now all I feel is numb.
‘Kimmy is dead,’ I say. ‘It was her I saw, but not the other day. It was a year ago. The same time I was attacked.’
Declan gasps. ‘What?’
‘It’s true. Leo told me.’
‘But . . . how did Leo . . . ? Wait, was it him? Did Leo kill Kimmy? Attack you?’
‘He says he didn’t. He just found us both on the green.
The same person must have attacked both of us.
I don’t want to believe Leo would do that to me.
But now I don’t know what to think. He swears when he turned up she was already dead and I was lying right there.
Someone could have got into Silverleaf, or . . .’
‘It was someone who lives here.’
‘That does seem the most likely.’
Declan falls silent. I’ve dropped a bomb on him; he’s bound to be shocked.
‘This is a head-fuck. I . . . all this time – I didn’t think it was really her.
I was hoping your friend Alicia was wrong.
’ He holds the phone away for a moment and I wonder if he’s crying.
‘She was a good person,’ he says. ‘I really liked her. She wasn’t like everyone else around here.
’ He falls silent again. ‘I don’t get it.
What happened to her body? Leo didn’t call the police, did he? ’
I make a split-second decision not to tell Declan everything. I know the whole truth will come out in the end, but for now I don’t want him focusing on Leo. Not until I’m far away from here. ‘Giles came out and told Leo he’d take care of it.’
‘What the hell? He never called the police, Ria! What did he do with Kimmy’s body?’
‘I don’t know. Look, I know this must be hard. But we need to focus on what we can do to get justice for her. Make sure whoever did this faces the consequences.’
‘Yeah, I’ll help you however I can.’ A door slams in the background. ‘I need to get out of this place anyway. Mum and Dad are having another row.’
‘Meet me now,’ I say. ‘We can meet around the back so no one can see us.’ And it’s where Kimmy is.
Where my husband buried her. Even though I don’t remember her, I’m compelled to go to her, to say goodbye, despite what she and Leo did.
I wonder what conversations the two of them had.
Leo said we hadn’t lived there long when it happened.
How quickly their affair must have started.
Although I know Leo was visiting Silverleaf long before we moved in.
‘Around the back?’ Declan asks.
‘I’ll explain later, but there’s a clearing in the middle of the bushes. You have to scramble to get to it. But there are no cameras. It’s how I got out of Silverleaf before.’
‘I didn’t know that. I’m surprised there aren’t any cameras, but I suppose even Giles has limits. Okay, I’m leaving now.’
When I make it to the clearing, Declan is already there.
‘I wish you’d told me the truth about when Leo and I moved here,’ I say. I hadn’t meant to have a go at him, but I’m fed up with all the lies.
‘I know. I’m sorry.’ He stares into the distance. ‘Anyway, I’m the one who should be asking if you’re okay. That photo. That’s got to be hard to . . . to stomach.’
‘It is, but I’ve become surprisingly immune to Leo’s betrayals.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Declan says. ‘Are you sure he didn’t—’
‘Kill her?’ Despite being adamant that Leo wouldn’t have hurt me, this question burns in my mind, a flame refusing to be extinguished. Even more since Declan sent me that photo.
He nods.
‘I don’t know. But I need to get out of here,’ I say.
‘Where’s Leo now?’ Declan asks.
‘With Giles. I made him go over there to . . .’ I stop when I realise I haven’t told Declan about Leo helping Giles to hide Kimmy’s body.
I can’t bring myself to do it. Not when he seems so upset.
And not when Giles has made sure that her body is buried in a place that implicates us. ‘What were your parents arguing about?’
‘I heard your name again. So I started listening and . . . I heard something about Leo. And Kimmy. Maybe Mum was finally telling Dad about the photo.’
‘None of that matters now,’ I say. ‘I’m going to the police.’
‘And you need to get far away from here,’ Declan says. ‘Can you go back to your flat? Or does Leo have a key?’
‘No, our tenant has Leo’s key. I’ve got the only other one. But I need to get my bag from the house. I left it there.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Declan says. ‘But we need to go now. I don’t trust Giles. If he saw us out here . . .’ He takes my arm and we head through the brambles. They claw at my skin, but I welcome the pain – it’s the only thing I can feel.
As we’re scrambling through the undergrowth, my phone vibrates in my pocket and I stop to pull it out. It’s Johnny, and I fumble to answer as quickly as I can. ‘Hi,’ I say, breathless.
‘Ria, sorry to call so late. But I’ve just heard back from the friend who was tracing where the video came from. And I don’t know if this name is familiar to you, but somewhere along the line, the video was edited by someone called . . . hang on, I wrote it down. Ah, here it is. Declan Murphy.’