Page 17 of The Bodies

‘You saw her contact details?’

‘I didn’t have time.’

‘You must have seen her name.’

‘It …’

Gabriel waits.

‘Barbie Girl.’

‘Barbie Girl?’

‘I think it was an alias.’

‘Teri,’ Gabriel says. ‘I think you’re probably right about that.

’ He watches her frantic breathing for a while.

Then he folds his hands in his lap. ‘You know what we’re going to do now?

We’re going to rewind. Much earlier than the arrival of this new young thing who’s caused you all this misery.

We’re going to talk about everything that’s been happening in Angus’s life – and yours – these past six months, every little detail.

You’re going to tell me about his work, how he’s been spending his free time and where he’s been meeting these other women. Are you with me, Teri?’

She nods her head so furiously that in any other circumstances it might be amusing. But Gabriel senses that something serious has befallen his twin, and if that’s true there’ll be no room for laughter in this world. Only pain.

Teri talks. Gabriel listens. After an hour, they break for coffee. While Teri, in the kitchen, presses buttons on a chrome-plated monstrosity that looks like it should run on aviation fuel, Gabriel checks the front of the house and sees that the Snow White Cleaning and Gardening van has gone.

Now, it’s just the two of them, in this enormous private space.

Returning to the kitchen, watching Teri froth milk in an aluminium jug, he observes how girlishly she’s started to behave.

It manifests in her body language, her diction, even the pitch of her voice.

He’s astute enough to know it’s deliberate.

Clearly, Teri thinks she’s most likely to illicit his sympathy by putting all her vulnerabilities on display, exaggerating them with a little play-acting.

Aware of her ploy, the resulting performance strikes him as coquettish rather than innocent; mildly perverse. Instead of eliciting empathy, it does the opposite.

He starts to question his earlier assumptions, his earlier reassurances: You don’t need to apologize. I’m not holding you accountable. I see you, Teri. I see what Angus has done to you. I know you’re not capable of hurting anyone.

Maybe he was wrong about that. Maybe she’s a far better actor than he first thought. Maybe her bad acting is in itself an act. A cunning double bluff.

The atmosphere in the kitchen changes; the tension between them climbs several notches. When she turns towards him and knocks over one of the cups, spilling coffee across the quartz worktop, she blushes deeply and apologizes.

‘It’s fine,’ he tells her. ‘Just an accident. Now clear it up and start again.’

Back inside the orangery, holding a cup of perfectly brewed Yirgacheffe, he probes Teri further about Angus. She can hardly meet his gaze any more, answering his questions with her eyes locked on her bare knees.

As Gabriel listens, he finds himself imagining the secrets concealed beneath her high-cut jersey shorts and ribbed vest. It creates in him an enmity that she should provoke him so deliberately, that she should attempt to distract him from his task.

‘Where’s Angus’s laptop?’ he asks.

‘In his study.’

‘His mobile phone?’

‘I haven’t seen it.’

‘Any other devices?’

‘There’s his iPad. But he doesn’t use it much.’

‘I’ll be taking the laptop. The iPad, too.’

‘I don’t know the passwords,’ she says. ‘Or how to unlock them.’

‘I do. If something’s there, I’ll find it.’

She swallows. ‘What now?’

‘I think we’re done.’

‘Should we … will you call the police?’

‘The police? Do you think we should?’

‘I … Maybe.’

‘So why didn’t you? You’ve had three days.’

The fear in her eyes is instant. ‘I told you. I assumed he was with that girl.’

‘So what’s changed? Why worry now, if you didn’t worry before?’

Teri opens and closes her mouth several times before she manages to get out any words. ‘Because I didn’t know that story you told – about how he always calls you on your birthday, how this time he didn’t. That changes things, doesn’t it? And I didn’t know .’

Gabriel breathes. In through his nose. Out through his mouth.

He thinks of Huan Yi; of plum blossom falling on slow-moving water; of cotton-white clouds above Mount Huangshan. He imagines the warmth of Teri’s skin; the feel of the firm flesh beneath.

Uncrossing his legs, he stands.

Teri struggles up too, hopping away from him as if he’s contagious. She shifts her weight to one leg again and Gabriel decides it’s high time he left his brother’s house.

‘Teri,’ he says. ‘Do you know where Angus is?’

Wild-eyed, she shakes her head. ‘If I did, I’d say. I promise you, Gabe.’

He nods, fists clenched. ‘Thank you for making the time.’ His voice sounds strange – as if it’s coming from far away. Sweat breaks out across his forehead. It pricks from his armpits and runs down his sides.

Teri turns on her toes. Gabriel follows her through the house to the entrance hall, breathing like a boxer after twelve hard rounds.

She reaches for the iron deadbolt. Her painted nails flash like red teardrops.

His gaze drops to her calves. It climbs to the backs of her thighs disappearing into those high-cut jersey shorts. It settles on her bare shoulder.

He can smell her, now; a scent that calls out to him.

The right-side door swings wide. Gabriel sees the gravel driveway, the grey rain cover protecting Angus’s Morgan.

His face contorted, he closes his hand on Teri’s shoulder.

She gasps, twists around. And then he’s dragging her aside – urgently, not savagely – and striding out into summer sunshine.

He pants for breath, doesn’t look back. Gravel crunches like broken bones beneath his feet.

Behind him, the door to Thornecroft slams shut.

He keeps moving, keeps walking, one foot in front of the other.

He needs to find Angus. But first he has to get away from Teri Platini.

Gabriel hears the crunch of gravel no longer. When he looks down, he sees he’s standing motionless. Another few steps and he’ll have crossed Thornecroft’s boundary. From there it’s only a few hundred yards to his car.

He’s so close.

From the canopy of one of the elm trees comes a crow’s harsh call. Like a weathervane, Gabriel pivots. He stares at his brother’s house, at the place Angus built to hoard and protect his treasures.

Gabriel finds he’s walking again. He climbs Thornecroft’s porch steps and rings the bell. A minute passes before the door reopens. Teri blinks at him from the hall.

They stare at each other for long seconds. When Gabriel speaks, his voice is low. ‘I love my brother,’ he says, ‘but I’m not blind to his flaws. We might be twins but we’re not the same.’

She raises herself on to her toes again, her face waxy with fear.

‘Angus likes to dominate,’ Gabriel says. ‘He also likes to humiliate. And the women he selects – women like you, Teri – are so infatuated they let it happen. Then, once he’s broken them down completely and they’ve lost their self-respect, he moves on to someone new.’

A pulse beats in her throat. ‘Gabe,’ she begins.

‘You’ll struggle to put him behind you, Teri. I know because I’ve seen it happen. After you leave this house, you’ll go into mourning for what you lost. It’s going to be lonely. Difficult.’

His gaze travels over her small frame, her perfect hair and nails. He wonders if she knows that desire is a natural consequence of grief, a repudiation of it.

‘I’d like to see that picture,’ he says. ‘The one you framed for your bedroom. Will you show me?’

Her expression is of glazed horror. ‘Angus wouldn’t … I’m sorry, Gabe, but that’s private. It wouldn’t be right.’

‘Angus has moved on,’ Gabriel says. ‘He no longer has any interest in you – nor in what you might choose to share with me. I’d like to see it.’

Teri’s lungs fill. Gabriel’s lungs fill, too. When she shakes her head and starts to close the door, he puts out a hand and stops it.