Page 34

THIRTY-THREE

TUESDAY 4 FEbrUARY

‘You’re not going to school today,’ Harper insists.

Dexter pauses with his spoon in the air then places it back in his cereal bowl, shooting milk onto the table. ‘I’m fine, Mum. I don’t want to stay at home.’

She reaches for his hand. ‘Listen, you’re not in any trouble for running away. I know you were upset with me. I just feel awful that I didn’t even notice you’d gone.’ Harper will never forgive herself for thinking Dexter was in bed. She’d said goodnight to him and then didn’t go in his room again. She’d thought she was doing the right thing by giving him some space to cool down. If only she’d checked.

‘How did the fire happen?’ he asks.

This is the question that’s kept Harper up all night. ‘I don’t know,’ she says. The police had found a large rock by the back door, which someone had used to smash the window, so clearly Kate didn’t do it herself. And for all her faults, Harper can’t question the love Kate has for Thomas.

And the other thing Harper knows is that if it wasn’t Kate, then someone tried to kill her and Thomas. They wouldn’t have known Dexter was there, so this can’t be about Harper.

‘Do you think Thomas will be at school today?’ Dexter asks.

‘I don’t think so. He’ll need time. Just like you do.’

‘The doctor said I’m fine.’

‘Physically, yes. But things like that leave scars we can’t see, Dexter.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means not everything that hurts us can be seen,’ Harper says, standing and taking her unfinished toast to the food bin. ‘Look, if you really feel like you’ll be okay, then fine. But if you change your mind at any point during the day, just tell the teacher and I’ll be straight there to pick you up. Now, finish your breakfast – I just need to make a quick call.’

Upstairs in the bedroom, she waits for Ellis to answer, counting the seconds until he picks up. ‘What the hell happened?’ she says, the moment he answers.

‘Why are you calling? I can’t talk to you.’

‘My son could have been killed last night. Yours too. And Kate.’

‘So it wasn’t you?’ Ellis says.

‘Of course it wasn’t me! Why the hell would I do that?’

‘Because you hate my wife. And you want to destroy her life.’

‘Ex-wife.’

‘We’re not actually divorced yet. You’ve been tormenting her for weeks, haven’t you? Trying to turn her life upside down. Trying to get me to take Thomas from her.’

‘Don’t act all innocent. I know this fire was something to do with you.’

Ellis snorts. ‘I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, because what you’re saying is dangerous. You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut.’

‘Why would someone want her dead? Aren’t you asking yourself that?’

Ellis takes his time to answer. ‘Someone other than you, you mean? And Kate’s not dead. Thomas is fine. Now they’re safely here with me, where I can keep an eye on them and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. Don’t call me again.’

He cuts her off, leaving Harper staring at her phone, shocked at the icy tone in Ellis’s voice, and the smug satisfaction. Now he’s finally got what he wanted all along.

Harper sits in her car opposite Ellis’s house, waiting for him to leave for work. It had been easy to find out where he lived from asking Thomas a few harmless questions when he was at her house with Dexter.

It’s crossed Harper’s mind that Ellis might have taken the day off, to stay with Kate and Thomas, and the thought of that chills her. Now that Kate and Thomas are in his house, what lengths will he go to in order to keep them there? Ellis knew about Kate’s affair with Jamie, and he never said a word. That would make him hate Jamie. It’s enough to send him over the edge. To lash out at the man he held responsible. The police would be interested to hear more about this, but telling them will only put Harper on their radar.

At ten past eight, the front door opens and Ellis steps outside, followed by Thomas, dressed in the school uniform Harper gave him and trainers he must have had at Ellis’s house. Like Dexter, he must have insisted on going in to school.

As soon as they drive off, Harper gets out and rushes to the front door, glancing back at the road in case they come back for any reason. She knocks and waits.

‘What are you doing here?’ Kate says when she opens the door. She’s wearing a large towelling dressing gown, which must belong to Ellis.

‘I had to come. I’ve…I’ve been wrong about you.’ She glances back at the road. ‘Has Ellis gone to work? Can I come in? Please, Kate.’

Kate frowns, and Harper understands her reluctance. ‘Please. I just want to talk. We need to put an end to all of this. Things are already bad enough, and I think they’ll only get worse.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ Kate says, folding her arms. ‘You can’t stand me. You think I killed your husband. And I’m certain it was you . So tell me – how the hell is us talking things over ever going to work?’

‘I know things are crazy,’ Harper admits. ‘And a lot of that’s my fault. But I did not start that fire. You have to believe me. And I know it wouldn’t have been you – not with Thomas in the house. So just think about this – if it wasn’t either of us, then someone else is trying to hurt you.’

Harper lets that sink in. If this doesn’t work, then she’ll never be able to get through to Kate. Seconds tick by and Harper turns back to check the road again, convinced that any second now Ellis will reappear.

Finally, Kate stands aside and lets her in. ‘Five minutes,’ she says. ‘That’s all I’m giving you. And don’t think for one second that I trust you.’

When Kate doesn’t invite her further into the house, Harper suggests they go and sit down. ‘I know you want me out of here fast so let’s lay all our cards on the table.’

Silently Kate walks into the living room and sits on the sofa, her arms still folded, while Harper sits opposite her, taking a deep breath. She never thought she’d be opening up to this woman. ‘If I’m honest with you, will you do the same for me?’ she asks.

Kate slowly nods. ‘But how do we know we can trust each other? After everything that’s happened.’

‘Because we’re both mums, and we could have both lost our sons in that fire. Tell me about your affair with Jamie, Kate. How did it start?’

‘There was no affair! It was one night – that’s all. And I thought he was separated.’

Harper wants to believe this, but given all that’s happened, she’s still not sure she can trust Kate. She needs the truth. Now. ‘Think of the boys,’ she says. ‘Nothing is more important than them – not me, or you. Nothing. This is far from over and we’re both in the dark. If we tell each other everything, maybe we can get to the truth. Before someone gets hurt. If anything had happened to either boy?—’

‘Stop! Don’t you think I know that?’ Kate yells. ‘And I would never have forgiven myself…because however I look at it, it all comes back to me. And now Faye, the podcaster, is in hospital. She might not make it and?—’

‘ What? ’

‘I was going to meet her at her house. She…she was helping me. And when I got there an ambulance and police car were already there. She’d been attacked. It was horrific. She looked…barely alive.’

‘Oh my God.’ Harper tries to process what this means. ‘I only saw her on Thursday. Why would someone attack her?’

‘I thought it was you,’ Kate says, heavy suspicion in her eyes as she scrutinises Harper. ‘But you seem shocked by it.’

‘What have the police said?’

‘I checked just on social media and according to what everyone’s saying, apparently there’s no new information. No suspect. Nothing.’

‘This doesn’t make sense. And if she was helping you, why did she put me in touch with Mona Shaw?’

Kate’s face is ashen. ‘What?’

‘I’m sorry. But after what happened when you were fifteen, I had to know if there was any connection to Jamie.’

‘I wasn’t lying about any of that!’ Kate shouts. ‘Graham White attacked me. It was self-defence.’ She stands up and walks to the window then turns back to Harper.

‘I don’t know what happened to you back then or what you did,’ Harper says. ‘I only care about what happened with Jamie. I need you to tell me all of it. How long was it going on for?’

Kate takes her time to answer. ‘It was just one night. That was it. I’d never met him before that night.’

‘You’re lying to me, Kate. I found a photo of you on Jamie’s phone, months ago. And I followed him to your work the week before he was killed.’

Kate’s face folds. ‘I swear to you – I’d never set eyes on him before that night. But I think he was following me for some reason. Targeting me. But he never approached me until that night in the bar.’ Her eyes drop to the floor. ‘My partner at the surgery told me he’d been in asking for a female vet. The week before. It was weird. It didn’t make sense. I’m the only female vet there – it’s a small surgery, just me and my partner, David.’

Harper already knows this; she’s done plenty of research on Kate Mason. Perhaps it’s foolish to believe Kate, but for some reason she does. ‘Okay. Let’s say I believe you. Tell me how he actually approached you.’

She listens as Kate recounts the details of how she met Jamie, what she thought at the time was a chance meeting, and her words seem laced with honestly.

‘He told me he was separated,’ Kate says. ‘And I think because it was the day Ellis had moved out, I felt some kind of bond with Jamie. Like we were both a bit adrift. I had no idea about you still being…together – otherwise I would have stayed away from him. You weren’t even?—’

‘Jamie had affairs before you,’ Harper blurts out. ‘Lots of them.’ She hasn’t planned for it all to come out like this, but now she’s said it, she feels the heavy burden lifting from her body. ‘But they weren’t exactly affairs.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We’d been together for years when I found out Jamie was cheating. Only, when I confronted him, I found out it was something completely different.’ Harper pauses to gather her thoughts – these are words she’s never uttered before. ‘He met these rich women in the gym where he got a job as a personal trainer. He’d start some kind of relationship up with them but all he was doing was taking their money. Jamie had got into a lot of debt, and lost the business. I never even knew. He had people demanding money from him. And these clients at the gym just threw money at him. He knew how to charm them, and I guess in return he gave them his company. But however you look at it, he was conning these women out of their money.’

Kate’s mouth hangs open as she clearly struggles to comprehend what Harper is telling her.

‘Jamie was very careful about the women he targeted,’ Harper continues. ‘He’d study them for months, making sure he knew every detail of their lives so he knew how to appeal to them. Whatever they looked for in a man, that’s what he’d become. He’d develop a relationship with them and somehow convince them to invest in his fictitious company. When really, the money was paying off his extreme debts.’

‘But what did he want with me ? I don’t have much disposable income. I do all right with the practice, and we don’t want for anything, but I’d never have enough to give away to anyone.’

‘That’s what I’ve been struggling to understand,’ Harper says. ‘You don’t fit the mould of the kind of woman Jamie would have targeted. Of course you’re attractive, anyone can see that, but it was never about looks for Jamie. And the other three were all clients at the gym. Older. Forties. Fifties. And extremely wealthy.’

‘Why me, then?’

Harper shakes her head. ‘I wish I could answer that. I thought it must have been different for him this time. I thought maybe he’d fallen in love with you. That your affair was nothing to do with money.’

‘There was no affair!’

‘But I thought there was.’

‘Why?’

‘Because of that photo I found of you on his phone. It terrified me more than anything. Not because I’m weak and couldn’t let go of him, but because Jamie and I had unfinished business. I wanted to hurt him how he’d hurt me.’

Kate gasps.

‘Not as in kill him. No, I wanted to pay him back for what he did. Not just because of the other women, but because he…it was his fault our baby girl died.’ Feeling the suffocating sadness as if it had only just happened, Harper tells Kate about Molly.

Kate comes over and puts her arm around Harper. ‘I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking that must have been.’

Harper takes a moment to compose herself. It feels strange to be comforted by a woman who until now has been her enemy. ‘That’s why I didn’t want him to fall in love with someone else. Because then he would easily have walked away and I would never have got justice for our girl. If he moved on with his life, then Molly would be out of his mind, and he’d be free. I couldn’t let that happen. That’s why I stayed with him. I wanted to punish him. Every day. I’d talk about Molly all the time, drive him crazy with it. And then eventually I was going to leave him and take Dexter far away. Until I realised that I couldn’t do that to my son.’

Kate stands again, walking across to the window once more. ‘You weren’t married, were you?’

Harper takes her time to answer. She’s never been honest about this before; it was just between her and Jamie. ‘No, but we were very much together,’ Harper says. ‘Jamie always said marriage was just a piece of paper and I agreed with him. So we never actually got married. But we felt like we were, and that’s what we told people.’

Kate sighs. ‘I knew that. And Faye confirmed it.’

‘It doesn’t take a private detective to work it out,’ Harper says. It’s just a piece of paper. ‘But like I said, we were as good as married. We even had rings.’ Harper reaches into her bag and notices Kate flinch. ‘This was Jamie’s. And Dexter found it in your kitchen.’ She hands the ring to Kate, who stares at it but doesn’t take it. ‘It’s got an inscription. Look. That’s what Jamie and I used to say to each other. It’s just a piece of paper.’ Harper feels the sting of tears in the corners of her eyes. ‘How did it get in your house? It had blood on it!’

‘I’ve never seen that before,’ Kate says. ‘I swear. I don’t know how it got in my kitchen. But Jamie definitely wasn’t wearing a wedding ring that night. Otherwise I would never have slept with him. And the blood could have come from anywhere.’

Hearing her say those words forces Harper to picture Jamie and Kate, and it’s all she can do to push the image away. ‘Then we have a problem. It doesn’t make sense. Why would Jamie’s ring be in your house?’

Kate shakes her head.

‘And that photo of you on his phone I found months ago. That’s what convinced me you were having an affair. Jamie never kept photos of those women on his phone. Only yours.’

‘I can’t explain that,’ Kate says. ‘But why didn’t the police find it?’

‘Because Jamie’s phone was never found. Whoever killed him must have taken it. The police said it hasn’t been switched on again.’

‘Who else has been in your house since Jamie died?’ Kate asks.

‘No one. Ellis. That’s it.’ Harper considers this. It always comes back to Ellis, but she needs to be sure Kate is being honest. ‘What aren’t you telling me, Kate?’

Kate buries her head in her hands, taking her time to answer. ‘Jamie and I arranged to see each other the next afternoon, so I went back. The door was unlocked so I assumed he’d left it open for me. I went in and…saw him on the floor. He was already dead.’ She looks up, her eyes pleading with Harper. ‘I panicked and ran. I know that was wrong – I should have called 999, but after Graham White I was terrified. It all came crashing back to me so I had to get out of there. I even dropped my keys.’

‘Where?’

‘In the apartment.’

‘I never found any keys and the police didn’t mention any.’

The two women fall silent, and Kate is the first one to broach what they’re both thinking. ‘Then that means someone has the keys to my house.’

‘Does Ellis have a key?’

‘Not any more – he gave it back the day he moved out. Why?’

‘Because the more I think about this, the more I think Ellis must have something to do with it.’

‘Ellis wouldn’t have done all that stuff. The dead flowers. The running tap. That note left on my car. He wouldn’t…’ Kate doesn’t finish that thought.

‘None of that was me,’ Harper insists. ‘All I did was call Maddy and pretend to be you. And the school that time to say I was picking up Thomas. I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t do anything else.’

Harper is expecting some resistance to this claim, but Kate doesn’t flinch. ‘You already think that, don’t you? Because you know Ellis doesn’t want to let you go. Kate, there’s something I need to warn you about.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘Ellis knew you were having an affair with Jamie. Or at least he thought you were, like I did. And I’m the one who told him. A couple of months ago.’

‘What? How? You didn’t even know me, and I didn’t know Jamie until that night?—’

‘But I’d found that photo of you on Jamie’s phone, and I managed to find out who you were. It’s not that hard to do. I tracked down Ellis after work one evening and told him you were having an affair with my husband.’ Harper gives Kate a moment to process what she’s just said. ‘He never confronted you, did he?’

‘No.’

‘Don’t you think that’s weird. Especially when you found out about his affair. He never mentioned what he thought you’d done with Jamie. Why is that? Why are you staying in his house, Kate? Ellis is clearly tied up in this. It’s the only thing that makes any sense, if it wasn’t you who killed Jamie.’

‘I’m staying here because I need to be close to him. It’s the only way I’ll find out what he’s doing. Because I’ve been thinking this too. He had access to Thomas’s bag that day I found the photo of Jamie. And if you say it wasn’t you?—’

‘It wasn’t.’

‘Then—’

Harper’s phone beeps in her pocket, and she fishes it out and stares at the screen, her face draining of colour.

‘What is it?’ Kate says. ‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s Faye’s sister. I set up an Instagram account so I could contact her. Told her I’m a good friend of Faye’s and asked how she’s doing. She just told me that Faye’s dead.’