Page 65 of Deep Blue Sea

‘You know what? She never even told me she was pregnant.’

Rachel tried not to show her surprise – in any case, Pam Kopek was staring at one of the silent TVs, a tear running down her face.

‘Had to hear it from the hospital, you believe that? I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked. I mean, she was a pretty girl, always had a lot of attention.’

‘Who was the father?’ asked Rachel, scarcely daring to breathe. ‘He must have been pretty devastated.’

‘I don’t know. She had lots of admirers, that was for sure. But I’ll guess we’ll never know who the daddy was.’

Rachel took a moment to steady herself.

‘So Maddie didn’t have a steady boyfriend at the time she died?’

The older woman shook her head, then looked across at Rachel, as if she had just made a connection.

‘Your brother-in-law, was he a good friend of Madison’s?’

‘No, they just worked together,’ said Rachel as smoothly as she could. ‘Besides, he’s married to my sister.’

Pam Kopek let out a laugh. ‘Honey, I don’t know how it works over there in England, but out here? If they’re married or they’re single, it don’t make a whole heap of difference.’

‘You mean Maddie had been out with married men before?’

Pamela looked at her wide-eyed, the effects of the alcohol kicking in.

/> ‘Who knows? But if she took after her mama, she would have done. How do you think I ended up here? Kids’ daddy played away, so did I. Whole thing ended up such a mess.’

She took another slug of bourbon, spilling a few droplets on her shorts, lost to a flood of memories.

‘It’s getting late. We’d better be going,’ said Rachel.

‘Won’t find any fancy hotels around here,’ said Pam, without even looking at them.

‘Maddie’s friends. I don’t suppose you have any contact details for them . . .’

‘Bunch of condolence letters some of them sent over there,’ she said, motioning lifelessly towards one of the televisions.

Ross went over to where she was pointing. While he copied some details into his notebook, Pamela turned and looked at Rachel more directly, as if she suddenly resented the intrusion.

‘Why do you say you came here again? What is it your brother-in-law wanted?’

‘Nothing,’ said Rachel, sad to leave the woman alone like this. ‘We just wanted to say we are so sorry for everything that’s happened.’

It felt like a long way back to Washington, even if they did have a stay in the Four Seasons hotel to look forward to at the other end of it.

Rachel concentrated at the wheel of the hire car, seeing nothing but the blackness of night and the occasional pinpricks of headlights coming towards her.

‘What am I going to tell her?’ she said eventually, as they motored east towards the capital. Despite the conflict between them, Diana was still going to ask questions when they got back to England. After all, she had paid for the flights and hotel reservations, which had both been sorted out overnight, so that Rachel and Ross had been on a plane only hours after telling Diana that they needed to go to America.

‘Why do you have to tell her anything?’ said Ross.

Rachel glanced angrily across to the passenger seat. ‘Ross, Madison Kopek could have been pregnant with Julian’s child. How can I keep that little nugget from my sister? That’s the reason for his suicide right there. He was desperate for a baby. He couldn’t have one with his wife, his mistress gets pregnant, and when she dies in a car accident, that’s going to be enough to put anyone in a tail-spin.’

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ said Ross, putting up a hand. ‘Stop getting emotional and listen to yourself.’

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked irritably.

‘Madison could have been pregnant with Julian’s child,’ said Ross, holding up a finger. ‘We don’t even know if they were in a relationship, and as Pam herself said, Madison had lots of admirers.’