Page 137 of Marble Hall Murders

‘Tell me what Charles said to you,’ she countered. ‘When we spoke on the phone, you said he’d given you new information.’

‘It was nothing that will help me,’ I said gloomily. ‘He’d spoken to Eliot about the death of his grandmother … that was all.’

‘Poor Eliot! It’s just so horrible. Every day I wake up, I can’t believe he’s dead. With Charles, I’d known him since he was a child.’ She drew a breath. ‘Emma Wardlaw came to see me yesterday.’

I felt a rising sickness in my stomach. I was glad we’d come to the crunch. I needed this to be over. But I was also afraid. My heart was beating so hard that I could feel its rhythm in every part of my body. ‘What did she say?’

‘They’re going to arrest you, Susan. Very soon.’

I nodded, dazed. ‘She told you that?’

‘She said that they’d found fresh evidence in your flat. And they’ve had another witness report of your car being in Trafalgar Square …’

This was the first thing she’d told me that I didn’t know. ‘How did that happen?’

‘A phone call.’

‘Another anonymous tip-off?’

‘I don’t know. I suppose so. You can’t drive from one side of London without being seen.’ She realised what she’d just said. ‘I was there when you arrived, Susan. You can tell me the truth. Did you drive …?’

‘Why are you even asking that, Elaine? Why would I lie to you?’

‘The police are convinced you killed Eliot because he fired you and – I’ve got to tell you this – they’re not going to find it very difficult to prove in front of a jury. If it goes that far.’

‘That’s what DI Blakeney said. He said there wasn’t a jury in the country that wouldn’t convict me.’

‘He’s right. But …’ She hesitated. ‘I could lie for you if you want. I could tell them I saw you coming out of the station.’

I looked at her hopefully. ‘Would you do that for me, Elaine? Would you really perjure yourself in court?’

‘If you wanted me to.’

I shook my head. ‘No. I couldn’t do that …’

‘I’m so frightened for you, Susan. You have no idea what prison is like. You’ve seen what it’s done to Charles. He’s older than you, he’s a man and he was strong when this all began, but I’m not sure you’ll be able to survive it. First the humiliation. The arrest and the trial. The media hounding your family, writing lies about them, never leaving them alone. You must warn Katie and her children. Their lives are going to be torn apart.’

‘You’re scaring me, Elaine.’

‘The system is vile. It’s inhuman. I watched Charles being ripped to pieces and I can’t bear for it to happen to you. I don’t think you’ll be able to survive one week in a women’s prison. Every time I visit Belmarsh, it makes me sick. Charles often says he wishes he’d taken sleeping pills or thrown himself under a train before he was arrested. He says that itwould have been easier for him in the long run. His life was over anyway.’

‘Is that what you’re advising me to do, Elaine?’ I looked around me and noticed a rack of knives on the counter next to the fridge. They were Japanese, made by Gyuto. Damascus steel with maple wood handles. Typical Rob and Steve. They’d told me the blade would cut as easily through meat as through bone and that you wouldn’t feel the difference. ‘Are you saying I should kill myself?’

She reached out and gently laid her hands on mine. ‘I could never do that,’ she said. ‘But as a friend, I must tell you that what’s going to happen to you could be even worse than death. If you’ll take my advice, you’ll go far, far away. Don’t let them put you in prison.’

‘But if I try to run away, it’ll make me look guilty.’

She leaned back. ‘You are guilty, Susan. That’s what they think.’

I stared at her, in shock. ‘I have nowhere to go.’

‘Then maybe you should find … an easy way. Avoid hurting people who are close to you. Don’t put yourself through all this pain.’

I pulled out a tissue and wiped my eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Maybe you’re right.’

‘I only want what’s best for you, Susan.’

‘I know that. But there is one thing I don’t understand.’