Page 66 of You Lied First

‘F lynn?’ Margot can hear her son talking to someone in his bedroom. She knocks and, when there’s no reply from inside, pushes the door slowly until her head fits around. ‘Flynnie?’

He’s at his desk, his back to her, headphones on, on what appears to be a video call – with her dad. That’s a new development. She looms into the picture behind Flynn.

‘Hello, Dad! What’s going on here?’

Flynn spins around, his face for a moment the perfect picture of a kid caught stealing. Then he flicks the call to computer speaker and her dad’s voice rings out. Flynn bashes a key to turn down the volume since Guy’s in the house.

‘Hello, Margot. Very timely! We were just talking about you. How are you?’ her dad says.

She snorts. ‘Super!’ She’s being sarcastic, but then she realises her dad might not have heard about the autopsy results, nor connected the case to the one she was telling him about. ‘So, er …?’

Her dad sighs. ‘Flynn and I have had a lovely chat but, Flynn, maybe you want to speak to your mum alone now? You know what I think and I’m always here if you need me.’

‘Okay,’ Flynn says.

So goodbyes are said while Margot takes a seat on the end of Flynn’s bed and waits to hear what’s been going on between her father and her son.

‘So?’ she says, when Flynn finally faces her.

‘So,’ he says, and grimaces. ‘Sorry. I needed to talk to someone.’

‘You know you can always talk to me, don’t you?’

‘But I did,’ Flynn says. ‘And nothing’s changed. Except we now know that one of you killed her! Mum! The autopsy results? She was strangled! How much longer are you going to ignore the fact that we’re living with a man capable of murder? What’s it going to take?’

‘We don’t know he did it,’ she says.

Flynn scoffs. ‘Who else? You? Sara? Get real!’

Margot looks at the duvet. He has a point, and she wants nothing more than to get away from Guy but she can’t see how. The autopsy results have only made it more difficult.

‘Gramps says you should leave him. We’ll get a place together, the three of us.’

‘It’s not that simple.’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘If I leave your father, there will be consequences. Financial, lifestyle, the business. Everything. He’ll make it as difficult as possible for me.’

‘But you make the houses. You don’t need him for that. Do you? And we can get a small place. I’ll share a room with Gramps if I have to, or sleep on the sofa . I leave school in the summer. I can take a year out, get a job, save for uni.’

‘That’s sweet of you.’ Margot’s mind is whirring through the possibility of the three of them living in a small flat. No more Guy. The business her own once more. But then …

‘He’s a man who doesn’t like to lose face, Flynn. You know that. Appearances are everything to him. He would hate for it to come out that I left him. It’s what happens to other people, not to us. You know his motto: all for one and one for all . He won’t like it.’

Flynn shakes his head at her in disbelief. ‘Get over it, Mum. Seriously. That is not your problem. It’s his. People will admire you for getting out. They never admire the ones who stay with an abuser.’

‘Abuser?’

Flynn eyeballs her. ‘Gramps said it, not me.’

‘He said that?’ Shame creeps through Margot’s veins. She knew her dad didn’t like Guy, but that he thinks she’s putting up with an abuser?

‘He told me he’s already said you should leave. Is that true?’

‘Err, not in as many words … but, yes, I suppose he’s hinted at it.’

The door bursts open. ‘Who’s leaving who?’ Guy says. ‘Is this a conversation I should be in?’ He steps into the room and takes in the sight of them both on the bed. ‘Oh, look at this. A cosy mother-son chat. How lovely. What did I miss?’

Margot and Flynn remain silent.

‘Well,’ Guy says, ‘if what I just overheard is right, someone’s planning on leaving someone.

And let me just say, Margot Forrest, if you ever entertain the idea of leaving me, I will be in that police station telling them the sorry tale of how my wife strangled the woman I was in love with.

’ He glowers at her then at Flynn. ‘So I would think very carefully before making any decisions that might separate you from your son for life.’

He slams the door as he leaves, and Margot looks at Flynn. ‘See what I mean?’