Page 155 of Deep Blue Sea

She watched Rachel colour, ever so slightly.

‘It was just a silly bit of kids’ stuff, jumping into the lake, then we went into Oxford for a drink.’

‘Is there anything going on between you?’ she asked finally. She gripped the edge of her sheets, not wanting to hear the answer, not wanting to look her sister in the eye as she replied.

Rachel hesitated. ‘Don’t be daft, he’s just a friend.’

Diana felt her body relax and reached for her sister’s hand, not wanting to think too hard about whether she believed her or not.

‘Good. I mean, I’m relieved, because I need to tell you something about Adam.’

57

She found Adam in the waiting room, where he was feeding coins into a machine to retrieve a plastic cup of coffee.

He jumped when he saw Rachel coming towards him.

‘How is she?’ he asked, looking genuinely concerned. ‘I was just coming up . . .’

‘You are not going to see her,’ said Rachel, jabbing her finger in his face.

Coffee spilled on to his T-shirt. He looked completely bewildered and put down the cup before he spoke.

‘What the hell is going on, Rachel? Is everything all right?’

‘It will be. But first I want you to tell me everything you know about Julian and Rheladrex.’

‘Bloody hell, Rachel, can’t you just forget about Rheladrex for one evening?’

‘Why do you think Diana is in hospital?’ she asked, glaring at him. She didn’t stop to let him answer the question. ‘She found out about you. She was coming to phone me and she fell down the stairs.’

‘Found what out about me??

? he said, flicking the coffee drops off his T-shirt.

‘Julian’s report on Rheladrex,’ said Rachel simply, watching his reaction carefully. A tiny widening of the eyes, then a rapid recovery of his studied cool. ‘You knew about it, didn’t you? You read the report.’ She could barely speak. She didn’t know which was trembling more, her hand, which was curled into a fist, or her voice.

‘That’s how you knew she was called Maddison. Double D, and I don’t mean her cup size.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Don’t you dare deny it, Adam. You asked Simon Michaels if he had heard of Maddison Kopek. But you knew all about her before Diana and I ever told you anything. Julian had got there first. He told you what was up with Rheladrex, showed you the report, and yet you pretended you knew nothing about the drug, the tests or her death.’ She squeezed her eyes tightly closed, not wanting it to be true.

Adam looked down at a point on the floor, unsmiling, not speaking.

‘Julian showed me the report, yes,’ he replied softly. Rachel hadn’t thought he would admit it so readily. ‘He was confused. He didn’t know who to talk to about it, said he needed someone impartial. Of course, he thought that person might be me. I mean, what do I have to do with the company? What do I care whether it succeeds or fails, right?’ His sarcasm was obvious.

‘And what did you tell him?’

‘I told him to sit tight,’ replied Adam more evenly. ‘Not to do anything rash. Certainly I didn’t want him to pull Rheladrex off the market. It would have been madness. Do you know how much a successful sale of the company would have netted us? I’m family, I loved Julian, but I’m also a shareholder. We can’t have the CEO being so cavalier with the company’s interests.’

‘So what did you do? Kill him?’

‘What?’ said Adam, incredulous. ‘I wouldn’t kill my own brother.’

‘How do we know that?’

‘I knew this would happen,’ he said, looking towards the ceiling. ‘I knew our paranoid family hack would let this run out of control. I knew she would go seeing things where there was nothing to see, cause more trouble within the family . . .’