Page 155 of Don't Believe A Word

‘We’ve been discussing doing another pod,’ Connor continued, gesturing for David to sit down, ‘but we can’t use the phone call at this stage. Probably at any stage if it ends up being needed in court – and it obviously will be given everything’s going to swing on it. Jody’s upstairs with the baby, down any minute.’

‘Sounds like Dad’s got himself in another fuck-up,’ Aiden commented, glancing up from his homework to give David a wave of welcome. ‘Good to see you.’

‘You too,’ David responded.

Connor said, ‘Doesn’t feel right, leaving everything hanging like this, but unless there’s an arrest, better still a charge, we’ve got nowhere to go, nothing new to say. Series over. I don’t suppose Anna’s spoken to Sadie, by any chance?’

David shook his head. ‘She stopped taking Anna’s calls on Wednesday, and since Anna heard Mia’s message – I hope you don’t mind me sharing, I think we can trust her – she’s given up trying. I left another message with my contact at police HQ on the way here, but he either doesn’t know what’s going on, or he’s not in a position to tell me anything yet.’

‘You know what we keep wondering,’ Aiden piped up, ‘is whether or not Gabe and Lukas still believe Sadie’s story. You know, that Mia jumped.’

‘It’s a good question,’ David remarked. ‘I guess they do if they haven’t heard the phone call yet. If they have … Well, it’ll be very hard for them to take, that’s for sure.’ He looked at Cristy as sheended her call and closed her eyes in despair. ‘What is it?’ he asked carefully.

‘You’re never going to believe this,’ she groaned. ‘Matthew can’t take the baby out of LA. Something to do with when he was arrested after the birth … There has to be some sort of hearing before it can happen, and Marley has to be there, but she’s already in Santa Fe and is saying she can’t leave. So, wait for this, he wants me to fly over there so I can bring the baby out.’

David’s eyes widened.

‘Don’t worry, I told him I have no intention of being arrested for attempted kidnap, or anything like it, and there’s no guarantee that won’t happen, especially if he, Matthew, is with me. He’s suggesting we take different flights, but I’ve told him that he has to take a reality check and sort this out for himself, becauseIam going to Amanjena next week.’

‘Where?’ Aiden asked, all ears.

‘Morocco,’ David answered, still looking at Cristy. ‘That soon, huh?’

She shrugged. ‘Why not? If the police want to question me I’ll be just as contactable over there. Presuming we want to be, and maybe we don’t?’

‘Hang on,’ Aiden interrupted, ‘does this leave me going to LA to bail out Dad? I wouldn’t mind, I mean LA’s great, but I’m kind of busy right now with mocks and everything.’

‘Dad’s a grown-up,’ Cristy reminded him, ‘or he sometimes pretends to be, and so, as I said just now, he has to sort this out for himself.’

‘Cool. So who’s going to take care of me if you’re off to Morocco?’

Cristy regarded him askance. ‘You’re sixteen years oldandyou can cook.’

‘You’re also very welcome to stay here,’ Jodi told him, coming into the room. ‘So what have I missed?’

‘Dad’s up shit creek again,’ Aiden told her, ‘and Mum and David are planning some sort of romantic … Ah, here’s Dad now. Just knew he’d call me as soon as Mum knocked him back.’ He clicked to answer the phone. ‘Hey, my man, how’s it hanging with the Bear?’

As the others laughed, Cristy rolled her eyes and said to Connor, ‘Are you OK with me going away next week, presuming we can get into the Aman resort?’ she added to David.

‘We’ll try,’ he told her.

‘That’s fine,’ Connor replied, ‘you just leave all the police enquiries to me, not to mention working the press with Iz … She’ll probably want to hold my hand through every interview.’

Cristy grimaced. ‘You’re right, I shouldn’t just take off—’

‘He’s winding you up,’ Jodi broke in. ‘And anyway, isn’t it about time Clove and Jacks got some public recognition for all they do? So why not rope them in for some of the media gigs?’

‘We’re seeing Iz tomorrow,’ Cristy said, ‘so we can discuss it with her then. In principle I think it’s a great idea, although I think Clove might be more up for it than Jacks.’

‘Out of interest,’ Jodi said, curling into an armchair with a soda, ‘how much is Sadie likely to inherit if things happen to go her way?’

‘They can’t go her way,’ Connor objected. ‘It’s just not possible now – unless some clever bastard lawyer is managing to pull something out of the hat even as we speak and that’s why nothing seems to be happening.’

‘We can’t rule it out,’ David responded. ‘In fact, it’s highly likely.’ To Jodi, he said, ‘I don’t have any details, but it could be somewhere in the region of forty, even fifty million.’

‘Wow,’ Aiden gasped, as Jodi choked on her drink.

Cristy said, ‘Well, even if there is some clever bastard lawyer on the case who manages to get her out of a murder charge, at least the “Did she jump, or was she pushed?” isn’t going away any time soon. She’ll always have to live with that. Not that I’m vengeful, you understand, in fact I can’t make up my mind from one minute to the next how I feel about it all.’