Page 135 of Deep Blue Sea

Elizabeth snorted out loud. ‘Run another of your sordid little stories in the newspapers? Reveal me as some sort of evil Svengali? How do you think that’s going to go down with Diana? Do you think she wants her husband’s infidelities raked up again?’

Rachel refused to be intimidated. ‘The trouble with people like you, Elizabeth, is that you’re so used to getting your own way, you think everyone can be bought off. But there’s one type of person you can’t threaten – someone who has nothing to lose.’

She let that sink in for a moment.

‘I have no career any more, no credibility with anyone. What exactly are you going to threaten me with?’

Elizabeth shifted in her seat, but her discomfort was only momentary. She was used to getting her own way. There was always a deal to be struck.

‘What is it you want?’ she said finally. ‘You must want something, otherwise why engineer this ridiculous cloak-and-dagger meeting?’

‘I want the truth!’ cried Rachel, her loathing for this woman finally getting the better of her. ‘I want to hear you admit what you have done!’

Elizabeth glared at her. ‘I thought that was obvious. I want to be the head of my family’s company, as I always should have been. Just because I had the misfortune to be born a girl, somehow that meant I wasn’t worthy of being in charge of Denver. It didn’t matter how good I was, how hard I worked, Julian was the golden boy. Everything was always handed to him on a platter.’

‘So you set him up.’

‘Oh grow up!’ shouted Elizabeth. ‘This is big business, Rachel. Do you really think people in power – politicians, CEOs, all those billionaires – do you think they never tread on a few toes? Do you think your precious Julian never did any of those things? No, he did whatever was necessary too. He would outmanoeuvre, he’d stab his friends in the back, foul means to achieve a fair result.’ She curled her lip into a sneer. ‘And you, Rachel – you too. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. The phone-tapping, the long lenses, the illegal hacking of emails, all in the name of the story. You call it public interest; others call it a gross invasion of privacy.’

‘Don’t turn this back on to me,’ said Rachel. ‘We’re talking about you, Elizabeth.’

‘Really? And I suppose you think we’re so very, very different, don’t you?’

Rachel shook her head in impatience. She was sick of being played with.

‘Yes, we are different, Elizabeth,’ she said. ‘I would never go to the lengths you did. Never in a million years.’

Elizabeth’s smooth forehead crinkled into a frown. ‘What do you mean?’

Rachel sat forward. ‘Did you kill your brother?’

Elizabeth’s eyes fluttered wide open. ‘What? What the hell are you talking about?’

‘Answer the question.’

‘No, I did not,’ she spluttered with horror.

If she had been on the jury in a murder trial, she would certainly have been convinced by that performance. Still, she couldn’t let Elizabeth deflect her.

‘I know about Rheladrex,’ she said. ‘I know that Julian wanted to withdraw it from the market.’

‘Rheladrex. The diet drug? Being withdrawn?’ Elizabeth shook her head. ‘Why, when it’s doing so well?’

‘Either he told you about it or you found out. You knew what the implications would be for the company’s share price and the sale price of Denver Chemicals.’

Elizabeth held up a hand. ‘Stop this nonsense, Rachel. I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. There is certainly nothing wrong with our share price; in fact Denver is in better shape than ever. And the sale of Denver Chemicals is going ahead . . .’

She looked down at the ground, as if she were trying to make sense of it all, then swung her gaze back to Rachel’s face.

‘You really think I killed Julian?’ she said incredulously.

Rachel nodded slowly.

‘I did not kill my brother,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘How could you even think that? Just because I’m ambitious?’

‘How could I think it?’ said Rachel. ‘You set Julian up in a sting that almost ruined his whole life. You use people like they’re just pawns to be sacrificed to your ambition. And you want me to believe you wouldn’t simply dispose of someone if they got in your way?’

Elizabeth rubbed her hand across her mouth. Her nostrils were trembling and her cheeks had turned scarlet.