Page 74 of The Family Remains

The word filled Rachel’s head with a kind of calm. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I will. I will have nothing to do with him at all.’

Dom’s baby was born on 28 April, right on her due date, an eight-pound baby girl they called Ava. Spring turned to summer and still Rachel did not hear from Michael. In June, Rachel went to Ibizawith Dom and Jonno and the baby and another couple who were pregnant. She was the only single person there, but she did not mind. Other people’s relationships looked tainted to her eyes now. She imagined the reality of their lives behind closed doors. She saw, in her mind’s eye, a smashed plate of pumpkin risotto smeared on all of their walls, if not now, then maybe soon. She felt the ripples of tension in the ways the couples addressed each other, especially Dom and Jonno as they tussled gently back and forth over who should do what for the baby and when.

One night, as midnight moved towards 1 a.m., Dom and the other couple had already gone to bed and Rachel found herself up with Jonno drinking tequila and sharing a spliff. Jonno, who had never once said anything to her about her split from Michael back in April, narrowed his eyes at her and said, ‘I found out other stuff. You know. About Michael. But Dom said not to tell you. Once you said you were engaged to him.’

Rachel blinked at him. ‘Oh, yeah?’

‘Yeah. Do you want to … I mean, shall I tell you? Or are you—?’

‘Tell me. Please. I want to know.’

Jonno squinted into the smoke he’d just exhaled and passed the spliff to Rachel. ‘Sure?’

‘Yes. God. Just tell me.’

He breathed in and then laid his hands out on the table in front of him. ‘His business ventures. What did he tell you about those?’

‘Oh, like transport logistics? Industrial equipment? For making boats? Something like that?’

‘Yeah, right. So notquite. More like industrial equipment sold to high-volume drug manufacturers.’

‘Drugs? You mean, like illegal drugs?’

‘Correct.’

‘And, sorry, what was Michael doing exactly?’

‘A middleman, essentially. He procures the equipment from legitimate suppliers and then sells it on at vast profit to the drug manufacturers. He also has some involvement with their trafficking systems.’

‘He traffics drugs?’

‘Well, tangentially, yes. Not directly. In a very hands-off way. And all of this of course would be very hard to prove.’

‘He’s a criminal.’

‘Neegh.’ Jonno shrugged and grimaced. ‘Not exactly. But criminal adjacent.’

‘He lost all his money.’

‘Shit. He told you that?’

‘Yes. He said a shipment of equipment went missing in transit. He’d paid for it up front and the people who lost it refused to take accountability for it. A million pounds, or more.’

Jonno sucked in his breath and dropped his chin. ‘Fucking hell. And it was his money?’

‘Well, yes. I suppose so.’

He sucked in his breath again, this time through his bared teeth. ‘Might not have been though.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean it might have been money that was …fluid. I.e. money that was meant to be repaid somewhere along the line. Did he seem extra stressy?’

‘Well, God, yes. I mean, that’s pretty much why I left him.’

Jonno nodded. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I reckon there’s more to comeof this sorry story. Definitely more left to tell.’ Then he tipped the tequila bottle towards her and said, ‘Another shot?’

Rachel smiled and said, ‘Sure. Why not?’