Page 56 of You Lied First
T he guests are given half an hour after the starters to take a last look at the auction lots and get their bids in. Margot doesn’t bother getting up. She can see that there’s a cluster around the cricket bat, and she hopes Guy doesn’t bid on it when he’s not even into cricket.
‘I don’t know what to bid on. What does Sara Say?’ she hears Guy say to Sara, who’s seated next to him.
‘Well, do you fancy anything?’ Sara asks.
‘Come with me. Let’s go and look.’
Guy holds out his arm like the type of gentleman who would never pin his wife to the bed and Margot turns away, trying to blot him out.
She just can’t deal with that now – her mind is full of the body found in the desert.
Of course it’s Celine, she thinks. But then she oscillates the other way: Guy did make a good point when he said it was an obvious camping spot.
They’re not going to be the only ones who camped there.
But they are probably the only ones who buried a body there.
Of course it’s her.
She looks around the crowded room, seeing friends, community and joy as this body of people comes together to raise money to improve the lives of those less fortunate, and she suddenly feels like an outsider.
Not one of them knows what it’s like to bury a body and run from the authorities.
Compared to what’s on her plate, their worries are so trivial.
Sitting there, Margot begins to understand that what they did has put a chasm between them and the rest of the world.
But they’re not bad people. They didn’t kill her and neither had they left Celine Cremorne’s body to the mercy of the elements, as they could well have done.
She sighs inwardly and takes a deep slug of her wine.
What’s done is done. There’s nothing she can do to bring Celine back.
She needs to focus her energy on matters closer to home: what to do about her marriage.
What Guy did this evening has brought that to breaking point.
Guy and Sara return, giggling, and take their seats.
‘Did you bid on anything?’ Ali asks, and Guy nods.
‘Just a bit, for the craic.’ He winks at Margot and she looks away.
‘Look at this,’ he says half an hour later, as he triumphantly carries the cricket bat back to the table to a round of applause. ‘Every signature of the England team from the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup.’
Margot stares at him, aghast.
‘It’s definitely a piece,’ Ali says. ‘Congratulations.’
But then Guy grins around the table and holds out the bat. ‘I’d love your father to have it. Nothing makes me happier than the charity getting the money, and the bat being with someone who’ll appreciate it. So, please …’
Adele’s the first to start clapping.
The evening comes to a close around eleven-thirty.
Margot can’t bear to look at Guy as they make their way back down the red carpet.
His hero act nauseates her. He’d tried to gift the bat to Ali but, fair play to the man, he’d insisted on paying Guy what he’d bid.
Regardless, Guy still came out of the whole thing smelling of roses.
Margot’s teeth grind together as she yanks open the cab door.
She’s relieved that they ride largely in a silence, punctuated only by snorts of laughter from Liv and Flynn as they watch things on his phone. Then Flynn gasps.
‘Click on it!’ Liv says.
‘No!’
They tussle as Liv tries to grab his phone. ‘Give it here! Let me look. What does it say?’
‘What is it?’ Margot asks.
‘Wait, wait, wait,’ says Flynn. ‘It’s loading. God, it’s slow. Give me a minute.’ Then he adds, ‘Oh my God. “The body found in Oman has been identified as that of missing Briton Celine Cremorne”.’
Guy says very meaningfully, ‘That woman who’s been in the news? How awful. Her poor family.’
Liv looks as if she’s about to ask a question, but Sara discretely pulls an imaginary zip across her lips. Liv and Flynn look at each other with wrinkled foreheads. They’re almost at Sara’s.
‘Umm, would you guys like to come in for a coffee?’ Sara says as they turn into her road.
‘Great idea, thanks. We’d love to,’ Guy says. When the cab stops, they all pile out onto the pavement.
‘Why did you want us to shut up?’ Flynn asks as the cab drives away. ‘What’s going on?’