Page 28 of Kiss Heaven Goodbye

Miles turned around and swept an armful of toiletries off the top of a chest of drawers. ‘Fuck,’ he growled. He looked away, his top row of teeth biting into his bottom lip.

‘Miles, someone needed to know,’ said Alex angrily.

‘You cretin,’ he snapped. ‘I thought we had a pact! Let someone else find the body.’

‘The more we lie, the more trouble we might get in to.’

‘What the fuck do you know about troubleshooting?’ replied Miles, his eyes dark in the low light. ‘Did you say we all saw the body?’

‘We didn’t mean to.’

‘We? You and Grace, I assume. Thanks for fucking nothing,’ he sneered.

Alex had seen Miles in this mood before and it frightened him. He held up his hands, trying to calm the situation.

‘Look. Just hold on. When we went down to the beach with Nelson, there was no sign of him.’

‘No sign of the boat boy?’ asked Miles, narrowing his eyes.

‘The beach was empty. Bradley was gone. He must have been all right; fallen down and knocked himself out or passed out pissed, but he’d got up and left by the time we got back there.’

Alex saw a look cross Miles’ face: confusion? Disbelief perhaps? Or was it guilt? Was Miles feeling the same sense of self-loathing he was?

‘He’s all right?’ said Miles, almost to himself. ‘But he was dead, I was sure I ...’

‘We still shouldn’t have left him there, mate,’ said Alex. ‘He’s still probably badly hurt.’

‘Don’t go getting all pious on me now,’ sneered Miles. ‘You were just as happy as the rest of us to leave him for dead, Alex. You wanted to save your own skin.’

‘What? No!’ protested Alex.

Miles shook his head with disgust and turned towards the door. ‘Well, don’t start celebrating just yet,’ he said over his shoulder.

There was a soft knock at the door. Alex opened it and saw Nelson standing there, his face expressionless.

‘Mr Ashford wants to see you in his study. Have you seen Miss Sasha?’

‘We’ll be there in a minute.’

They found Sasha sitting on a sunlounger by the pool. Her hair was wet and she was wrapped in a bathrobe, her arms clasped protectively around her knees. She had sunglasses on and seemed to be staring blankly across the water.

Alex hung back and watched the interchange between his friend and his lover.

‘My father wants to see us,’ said Miles flatly.

‘Let me change.’ Sasha’s voice was vague, despondent.

‘Just come.’

She pulled off her shades and looked at them both. A trail of black eye make-up was smeared down her cheek. In the two years he had known her, Alex had never seen Sasha look anything but supremely self-confident and in control. But her open anguish spoke for all of them.

‘How does he know about it?’ she asked.

‘Thank Alex.’

‘What are we going to say to him?’ she whispered urgently.

‘The truth,’ replied Alex.