Page 41 of Deep Blue Sea

She nodded with a wan smile. ‘Greg, you know my sister Rachel,’ she added more brightly.

‘Of course,’ he said, ignoring Rachel’s smile and proffered hand. He reluctantly sat down opposite her, glaring at her.

‘I have to say, this is something of a surprise,’ he began, raising his finger to summon the sommelier. ‘Where have you been? Costa Rica, wasn’t it?’

‘Thailand,’ said Rachel, taking a quick swallow of the water that had already been poured for her.

‘Yes, I knew it was somewhere a long way away. Had to be, didn’t it?’

There was a small embarrassed silence.

‘All right, you two, play nice,’ said Diana, stepping in. ‘I know you have your differences, but we’re all here for the same reason, okay?’

‘Sorry, Di, but some of us have long memories.’

‘Greg, I know Julian’s friends haven’t got a very high opinion of me, but I’m here to help.’

He held up his hands in surrender.

‘Fine.’

He opened the wine menu and pointed out something to the sommelier.

‘Is red okay with the pair of you? I suppose we should try and make this as civil as we can.’

Some years earlier, Diana had tried to fix Greg and Rachel up. They had gone to a villa in Ibiza and it had been all couples, the obvious hope being that the two singles on the trip would get together by the end of it. But they hadn’t connected. Greg was apparently popular with the ladies, but despite his high-flying job in the City, Rachel hadn’t found him remotely attractive, and the feeling had been mutual.

‘Thanks for your note,’ said Diana, softening the atmosphere.

Greg looked at Diana as though she was a wounded little bird. She had always had that effect on the opposite sex. She had obvious beauty, but it was something else as well, perhaps a soft vulnerability that made any red-blooded male want to protect her. Rachel had tried to analyse this response a hundred times over, because it was not one that she herself had ever provoked in a man. Perhaps Diana made even the most beta of males feel more alpha.

‘So,’ he said, shutting the wine list. He turned his gaze to Rachel and she could feel his expression hardening. ‘Help . . .’

‘Rachel has been asking people close to Julian a few questions,’ began Diana diplomatically.

‘Why?’

Diana put her manicured hand on the table. ‘Greg, we went through this on the phone . . .’

He looked as if he didn’t approve of what they were doing. Another one.

‘You were Julian’s close friend. Did you even suspect—’

‘Suspect?’ he said incredulously. ‘Rachel, I have spent the last ten days going over it in my head, cursing myself, wondering why none of us spotted anything. I was there at the party the night he died. We talked about going surfing to Maui, coming to my place in Monaco this weekend . . .’

‘So how long have you known Julian?’

‘I was his best man. Two young blades, knocking around the City. I worked at the Denver Group fresh out of uni. I started the same day as Julian.’ He puffed out his cheeks. A crack in his alpha-male armour. He looked as if he might start to cry, but then the waitress came to take their order and granted him a reprieve.

‘I spoke to Julian’s secretary. She thought he might not have been handling the pressure of being CEO very well.’

Greg thought about the statement for a minute.

‘She’s right that being CEO of the Denver Group is a big, big job. Not many gigs bigger, in fact. I mean, do you know how vast the company has become? We’re talking seven different divisions. Motors, finance, food, agribusiness, hotels, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, steel. With one man at the head of it all. Who wouldn’t feel the pressure when put in charge of all that? But Jules was born for it, literally. He was prepared, and he had a lot of support from the board.’

‘Well I haven’t spoken to any of the executive committee yet.’

‘Good luck with that,’ he said thinly. ‘Your paper’s little story could have cost Julian his job.’