Page 56 of The Quarterlands (Dark Water #4)

Chapter Fifteen

Josiah

While Reed was examining the nanodrives, Josiah took Jabir to the interview suite and recorded his testimony.

“Can you tell me why you brought us these nanodrives?” he asked.

“I regretted that I wasn’t able to help Mr Alexander when he lived with us in Spain. It has always weighed on my conscience,” Jabir replied.

“Why is that?”

“He was such a lost soul. He was scared to be my friend. I worried for his health. He was tired all the time, and he seemed to have given up.”

“Do you know why that was?” Josiah asked.

Jabir hesitated.

“You can talk freely,” Josiah prompted.

“I cannot say for sure, but he and Mr Tyler seemed to be in a relationship of sorts.”

Josiah stiffened. Tyler had already told him this, but he’d struggled to believe it, and Alex hadn’t been forthcoming on the subject.

“A romantic relationship?”

“I believe so. I often saw them kissing and they shared a room.”

Josiah felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. “Do you believe they were in love?”

Jabir considered this. “I cannot say. Or, at least… I believe Mr Tyler was. I’m unsure whether that was also true of Mr Alexander. I believe, maybe, this was the source of the conflict between them.”

“You heard them arguing?”

“Not exactly. Mr Tyler frequently brought Mr Alexander gifts and took him out on his yacht. He seemed very attentive, but Mr Alexander was quiet and distant with him, as he was with everyone. This seemed to frustrate Mr Tyler.”

“How did that frustration manifest?” Josiah asked.

Jabir paused again, then sighed. “I never saw Mr Tyler strike Mr Alexander, but I did see the bruises on him many times. One time, I found him in the courtyard lying on the ground, badly hurt.”

“Tyler hurt him?”

Jabir paused again. “Well, I cannot say for sure as I saw nothing, but… who else could it be?”

“Is it possible…” Josiah sought for the kinds of arguments Tyler’s defence might use when confronted with this testimony. “Could these injuries have been sustained as part of a sex game?”

Jabir looked shocked. “I don’t know. I suppose they could, but… Mr Alexander did not seem to be enjoying it, if that was so. I had the sense of an unequal relationship. I offered Mr Alexander a way to leave, a chance to escape the security guards, but he refused.”

“Because he didn’t want to, or because he was afraid of what might happen if he did?”

“He said that he didn’t want to place me or my family in danger, but that didn’t seem likely to me.”

It did to Josiah, but then he was aware that Jabir didn’t know the whole story. He could see, all too clearly, that Alex’s actions were influenced by what had happened to Solange; he was terrified that someone else might get hurt.

He took Jabir’s testimony, then made sure the man had a safe place to stay.

“You might be called on to give evidence in the trial,” he advised.

Jabir looked strained, but he nodded. “I do not wish Mr Tyler ill,” he murmured. “He has always been a kind and generous employer to me and good to my family. It pains me to be here, but I cannot forget poor Mr Alexander. I liked him. He has a gentle soul, I think.”

Josiah gave a tight smile. If anyone could recognise a gentle soul, it was Jabir, who was clearly precisely that.

Josiah arrived home late. Alex had been dropped off hours ago by an Inquisitus agent and had already texted that he was going to bed. Josiah parked his duck in the garage and climbed out wearily. He glanced at the red Jag, parked next to his duck… and that was when it hit him.

“Fuck.” He looked at the date on his watch for confirmation, then leaned against the side of the Jag, winded. He stood there for ages, unable to move, hating himself.

“Hey,” a voice said softly from the direction of the house. He looked around to see Alex standing in the doorway.

“I thought you’d gone to bed.”

“I did, but I couldn’t sleep. I heard you pull up, but then you didn’t come into the house, so I thought I’d check you were okay.”

“Me? I’m fine.” Josiah pushed himself away from the car.

“Are you?” Alex walked over to him, his fingertips brushing the side of the Jag. “I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, but I know what today is. I’ve known all day.”

“You did better than me, then. I forgot.” Josiah’s voice was ragged and broken. “For the first time, I forgot, until I saw his car just now.”

“Don’t beat yourself up.” Alex took hold of his face, gazing at him intently. “Peter would prefer you to forget than to be how you were a year ago, locked up in all that pain. I know he would.”

“Yeah.” Josiah gave a shaky laugh. “Today’s the first day I haven’t polished the stupid car.

I’ve done it every year on the anniversary of his death.

Every damn year. Even last year, until I was interrupted by an urgent call about a case.

” He gave a wry grin. “And you ran full tilt back into my life.”

Alex wrapped his arms around him. “You’ve had a lot on your plate. It’s not surprising you forgot with the trial going on. ”

“Eight years. It’s been eight years.” Josiah threw his head back, swallowing down the lump in his throat. “Hard to believe.”

“Eight years since he died – and since we first met.” Alex rubbed gentle circles on his back.

“It’s so bizarre that those anniversaries are on the same date.”

“Even more bizarre that Elliot should have been killed on that exact same day, too,” Alex said.

Josiah made no reply. There was no mystery there – Gideon had planned it that way – but he wasn’t going to tell Alex that.

Besides, today was Peter’s day. He closed his eyes and was immediately back on the side of that road, holding Peter’s bloody body, with the rain pouring down and Alex standing under a street light transfixed with panic.

“I’m glad I was there that night,” Alex said softly. “So that you have someone to share that memory with now, and don’t have to bear it alone.”

Josiah swallowed hard, then opened his eyes and smiled down at him.

“Me too.” It was true. He’d been alone with this memory for all these years, but Alex had been there, too, and sharing it made the burden easier somehow. “I still miss him so much,” he said, aching.

“Of course you do. He was special.” Alex smiled up at him. “I barely knew him, but even I could see how wonderful he was.”

Josiah lost it for a moment, then, but Alex’s arms were a comforting haven from the storm. They stood there for a long time until he was able to pull himself together, and then, finally, with one last sad look at the Jag, they walked back into the house, hand in hand.

Josiah decided not to tell Alex about Jabir’s visit. They had no idea what was on those nanodrives, and no way of knowing whether Reed would ever crack the encryption. He didn’t want to give Alex any false hope, especially as he was about to testify soon.

Alex was nervous the night before he was due to take the stand. He paced around the living room for half the evening until Josiah ordered him to bed .

“Just get some rest, even if you can’t sleep.”

Josiah didn’t get much sleep himself. He knew HMS would do his best to tear Alex apart on the witness stand, and it felt almost cruel to send Alex to this fate after all he’d endured. Still, Alex had proved himself to be nothing if not resilient. This was just one more hurdle for him to jump.

Around 3a.m., he heard a muffled thumping from Alex’s room and knew that he was performing his yoga. Unable to sleep, he slipped into the box room and took out his own nervous energy on the punchbag; they each coped in their own way.

Neither of them mentioned it the next day. Alex appeared, smartly dressed as usual, with highly polished shoes, not a hair out of place, the dark shadows around his eyes the only clue to his sleepless night.

“Please promise me you won’t leave while I’m on the stand,” Alex begged as they climbed into the duck.

“I promise.”

“You left the other day,” Alex pointed out.

“Unavoidable, but it won’t happen today,” Josiah told him firmly. “I’ll be there for every second of your evidence.”

“Thank you.” Alex took several deep breaths.

For fun, and because it had become their ritual, they listened to the radio on the drive to the court building.

They heard very little that was good about themselves but were beyond caring.

Now, they revelled in little in-jokes based on the wildly inaccurate public perception of their characters and motivations. Today was no exception.

“So, Amanda, today’s the big day,” Alan exclaimed. “When we finally hear what Alexander Lytton has to say for himself. Are we expecting any revelations?”

“Oh, I’m sure there will be many.” She sounded as if she was rubbing her hands together in glee. “This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for.”

Melissa from Swanley came hesitantly onto the line. “Is it possible that he’s telling the truth?” she asked. “I mean, everyone seems to assume he’s lying, but supposing he isn’t?”

Shaun from Reigate wasn’t having any of it.

“Come on! So far, we’ve heard from an obsessed weirdo who runs an army shop and a low-life croc dealer with a grudge against Tyler.

Are we really supposed to believe that the director of the IS agency and the owner of the biggest tech firm in the UK are the ones lying here?

It’s absurd. I don’t even know why the judge is allowing this nonsense to continue. ”

“Because there’s a skeleton, and a lock of hair with DNA that matches that in the locket. You can’t discount them,” Melissa argued. “Inquisitus investigated this, and I’d trust Josiah Raine with my life. He’s not making any of this up. He believes it.”

“Ah, Melissa. Our heroine.” Alex smiled at Josiah. “She believes us, even if nobody else does.”

“Where there’s one, there’ll be others,” Josiah said with more confidence than he felt. For the next half hour, all the callers to the programme disabused him of that notion, and he was thoroughly depressed by the time they arrived at the courthouse.