Page 129 of The Dead Ex

‘Why are you so surprised and shocked?’

Anger and relief burst out of my mouth. ‘Because he’s finally turned up, of course.’

‘I suggest that the real reason is that you are now face to face with the man youhave been stalking for months.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘I also suggest that you hoped to get him back. Is that correct?’

‘Sometimes,’ I whisper. ‘Sometimes not.’

‘But Tanya Goudman was the one person standing in your way. So you killed her.’

‘No!’

The court is in uproar. The judge asks for the jury to be sent out and calls for the prosecution and defence barristers to approach him.

David islooking up at me with a concerned – but also smug – expression. He has finally got me.

54

Helen

David is here? I don’t know whether to be relieved or angry. He looks older. Thinner. Not nearly as good-looking. I try to compose myself during the break. Someone near me is saying in a loud voice that the lawyers need to discuss something with the judge. (I don’t get all this court stuff.) Eventually, the jury is called back in. According to my neighbour, who seems to know what’s goingon, the judge must have permitted the prosecution to reopen its case and call David as a witness.

‘Would you like to tell the court where you have been since the end of January?’ asks the prosecution barrister.

He rubs his chin, the way he did that very first time I saw him. ‘I needed some space.’

‘Were you aware that many people had the impression that you were missing, presumed dead?’

‘I’msorry for that.’ David speaks entirely to the jury. He has that charming look on: the one that allowed him to get away with so much. ‘May I be honest here?’

‘I would hope so,’ interrupted the judge. ‘You are under oath.’

David makes anof coursegesture. ‘The thing is that I went abroad to get away because I had some problems inmy personal life. I went to a retreat. I needed to find myselfand get some peace.’

That’s rich, from a man who failed to give me support when I needed it.

Then David puts his head down. His voice comes out as a sob. ‘I never thought that my poor wife would be murdered while I was away. I loved her as much as life itself.’

Bastard! My mind goes back to the last time I saw him. The morning of the day he’d ‘disappeared’. The day I’d told him I was pregnant.How terrifying he’d looked. But now it seems as though he has everyone eating out of his hand. At least I know Mum had nothing to do with his disappearance now. I feel bad for even thinking it. But what on earth is going to happen next?

55

Vicki

David. Alive and well. How can this be?

I think back to the night of 31 January. I’d been at home, just as I’d told the police. I’d finished treating a client and was curled up on the sofa, watching an old Meg Ryan film on television. It had just got to the bit where she finally gets to be with the man she’d always loved and I was suddenly filled with a terrible cold emptiness. Davidhad behaved appallingly towards me but I still, for some inexplicable reason, missed him. I couldn’t help imagining a different future where we’d stayed happily married and had children together. So I did it again. I rang his mobile in order to hear his voice on the answerphone. I knew my number would come up on his screen and that he wouldn’t pick it up. He didn’t the first time. But then I triedagain, seconds later. And this time he did.

‘Please, Vicki.’ His voice had sounded weary and tired. There was noise in the background as if he was in a busy place. ‘Just leave it, will you?’

‘I can’t,’ I stutter.

‘Well, after tonight, you won’t get hold of me again. So you might as well stop bothering.’

What was he talking about? I’d almost rung the police there and then. It even passed throughmy mind that Ishould call Tanya. But David wasn’t the kind of person who’d kill himself. He was too ambitious. So full of self-belief. I decided he was being melodramatic, trying to get rid of me.