Page 61 of Deep Blue Sea

Rachel hesitated, as if she was taking a moment to construct a lie.

‘Possibly. Like I say, we aren’t entirely sure whether she’s involved yet . . .’

‘This accident happened in Maryland. Is that why you want to go to Washington?’

‘Yes,’ said Rachel finally.

‘Then you must think she’s significant,’ Diana pressed. She felt warm. The paper was trembling in her hand. She didn’t want her sister to say anything further, wanted to rewind the last two minutes and erase everything she had just learnt, and yet as she looked down at the picture on the printout, taking in the girl’s blonde prettiness, she knew that Rachel had made a breakthrough, and she wanted to know exactly what it was.

The words someone Julian knew echoed over and over in her head. Yes, Madison Kopek looked exactly like the sort of girl Julian might have known, she thought, forcing herself to read the story once more.

‘Diana, put it down,’ said Rachel, walking over and snatching the page from her hand.

Diana’s stomach clenched as she absorbed the date of the accident and acknowledged its relevance.

‘But this girl’s dead. She died two days before Julian.’

Rachel just nodded, her mouth pursed, as if she didn’t want to say any more.

‘Who is she, Rachel? What does she have to do with my husband?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ said Rachel, her voice wobbling. ‘There’s a chance she might have been working with Julian.’

Diana had smelled blood and was not going to let this go.

‘Working?’ she repeated. ‘And how closely do you think they were “working” together?’

‘Diana . . .’

‘Tell me what you think!’ she yelled. She was surprised by the level of her own anger. No, it wasn’t just anger, it was fury. Right at that moment she hated this Madison person, she hated her dead husband and she hated her sister and her horrible, sticky web of secrets and lies.

‘Diana, please,’ said Rachel. ‘I’ve only been working on this for three days, you can’t expect me to know everything. These things take time.’

‘Don’t give me that crap,’ said Diana, crumpling the paper in her hand. ‘You think he was having an affair with this girl, don’t you?’

‘Di . . .’

‘DON’T YOU?’

Rachel let out a long breath. ‘It’s a possibility, yes.’

‘That’s rubbish,’ said Diana, stepping towards her sister, holding up the crumpled sheet. ‘Julian was faithful. Ever since that time, he promised me. He said he’d never do it ever again, and I believed him.’

Rachel dropped the carrier bag to the floor with a thud.

‘Di, please. Why did you bring me here if it’s what you hadn’t already suspected? You knew that something was going on in Julian’s life that you didn’t know about, that he didn’t want you to know about.’

‘I didn’t think it would be another woman,’ Diana lied. She began to pace around the Lake House. She felt dizzy, as if her world was turning on its axis and she had nothing to hold on to. ‘Mum’s right. This is a witch-hunt,’ she said almost to herself.

‘Di, come on. I’m doing a job.’

She felt powerless, out of control, and the only thing that made any sense was to turn all the anger, frustration and blame on her sister, because it was wrong to speak ill of the dead, wrong to think such a thing about her husband who was barely cold in the ground.

‘Why did you hate him so much?’ she said, feeling white-hot rage explode in her belly. ‘Hmm? You never liked him, did you? Were you jealous, was that it?’

‘Diana, this isn’t helping . . .’ said Rachel, but Diana could see the concern in her sister’s eyes – the fear. And weirdly, it felt good, it felt powerful. She took another step forward, and even though she was almost four inches shorter than her sister and a much slighter physical presence, she forced Rachel to press back against the window.

‘You hated him, why?’