Chapter 38 Jade

38 JADE

NOW

Kate still hasn’t answered my text message.

I had a brain wave yesterday, after I spoke to the woman in the island shop. If the morning-after pill has to be prescribed, then I could ask Kate if she’s willing to put her name on the prescription so Rob doesn’t find out. I know it’s a huge ask, but I’m hoping she’ll understand.

Luckily, we have an excursion this morning, a snorkeling trip to see manta rays on the house reef, so Rob doesn’t want sex. Still, I’m riddled with anxiety. Google tells me that the morning-after pill can work for three days after sex or five days, depending on which pill it is. No response yet from Kate. But every minute feels like a scythe swinging over my head.

I get dressed and tell him I’m going to check on Kate from villa two.

“Why?” he asks, incredulous.

“She’s poorly,” I tell him, lying. “I’m just making sure she’s OK.”

“Doesn’t she have mates who can do that?”

I smile. “I’ll not be long.”

At Kate’s villa I go to press the button but the door is already open, just an inch. I lift a hand to knock anyway. But then I hear raised voices.

“This is insane, Camilla. Do you actually hear yourself?”

It’s Kate. She sounds proper stressed, like they’re having a row. I should come back later.

But the clock is ticking.

Darcy says something, and although I can’t make out the words, she sounds equally wound up. Shit. I can’t. I’ll text Kate again.

But just as I’m turning away, I hear Camilla say Rob’s name. His full name.

“… Rob Marlowe!”

Camilla sounds angry, and tearful. My heart stops in my chest. Did I hear that right? I step back toward the door, leaning against the gap.

“… murdered,” she says, her voice moving in and out of earshot. “I know he did it… that photo didn’t come out of thin air!”

“Calm down, Camilla,” Kate says, and Camilla snaps back, her voice growing louder.

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down!”

Now my heart is jackhammering in my chest. What the hell is going on?

I press my ear close to the open door. Something scuttles past, right over my foot and into the bushes behind me. I give a jump and emit a small noise of fright.

“Someone’s at the door,” I hear Kate say, and I freeze. But too late—Camilla pulls the door open and sees me standing there, both of us stricken with horror.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” I stutter, stepping backward, my hands up. “I didn’t mean…”

She glances to either side of me before grabbing my arm and pulling me inside, closing the door tightly and checking several times that it’s locked.

INSIDE THE VILLA, I FOLLOW Camilla nervously into the dining room, where Kate and Darcy are sitting. There’s food on the table and a teapot but everyone looks upset. The air in the room feels like lightning has just spiked through it.

“The lock on the door is faulty,” Kate says, and I hear a catch in her voice. She’s been crying. She turns to me. “How much did you hear, Jade?”

I shake my head, keeping my eyes on the apples on the table, glistening red. “Nothing,” I say. “I didn’t hear anything.”

They don’t believe me. I’m like a deer in headlights. Darcy gets up and approaches me, a smile on her face that looks weird, false. Shit.

“I was only coming by to ask…,” I say, but Darcy speaks over me.

“Jade,” she says quickly, “it’s really important that you tell us exactly what you heard, because you might have formed the wrong impression. OK?”

I stare at her, my heart thumping loudly in my chest. “I… heard Camilla say Rob’s name….”

“Was that all?” Darcy asks.

I swallow hard. “Yeah.” The word murdered rings in my ears. Did I really hear that? It makes me break out in shivers.

Darcy pours a glass of water from the jug on the table and hands it to me. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

I stare at her stiffly. I really just want to go. I’m a bit afraid of these three. I’m afraid of what they might say next. But she points to a seat at the head of the table and I sit down, watching them as they do the same.

“Why were the three of you talking about Rob?” I ask gently. “Did something happen?”

Camilla turns to me, her eyes narrowed. “How long have you known him?”

“About three years.”

“OK. And what do you know about his past?”

I blink, confused. “He went to school in Bromley, left at fifteen, got an apprenticeship in plumbing…. He spent most of his childhood in foster care. He’s close to his nan, though. And his mum left him some money when she died.”

“Did he tell you what he did in Dover?” Camilla asks, her voice hardening.

“Dover?” I shake my head, confused. “No, I don’t think so. When?”

“It was in 2001,” Darcy says. “Before your time, I think.”

“I was a year old in 2001,” I say, looking at their faces.

“Remember I told you about what happened to me a long time ago?” Kate says. “At the guesthouse?”

I nod. Of course I remember. How could I forget it?

“We think Rob had something to do with it,” Kate says, shifting in her chair. “Another man was charged with the murders, a man called Hugh Fraser. But there’s new evidence. Evidence that implicates Rob, too.”

“Rob? My Rob?” I say, her words landing like a kick in my stomach.

Camilla shows me a photograph on her phone. It’s Rob, much younger, maybe even a teenager. And he’s standing next to an older man in a way that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. He’s kind of leaning into him, his hand on his stomach.

“Who is this man?” I ask.

Camilla hesitates before answering me. “That’s Fraser.”

I feel like someone is pressing very hard on my lungs. I look again, check the photograph. Rob’s nana has some old photos of him on her walls and he looks just like this. But his body language… It looks like they’re a couple.

“Six people?” I hear myself say.

“My twin brother was one of them,” Camilla says, her eyes hard. “There were two girls, aged twenty-three and twenty-four. The owner of the guesthouse, a man in his sixties with grandchildren; a professor in his forties; Darcy’s boyfriend, Elijah…”

I look over at Darcy, who nods to confirm it. “He had just turned nineteen.”

“Rob’s DNA was found inside the guesthouse,” Kate says. “But the police let him go.”

It feels like the floor has just dropped out from beneath me. All the lies Rob told, all the times I saw his face change into something… monstrous. I imagine him stabbing someone, the look in his eyes. The coldness I’ve seen there.

“What are you going to do?” I ask. My voice is barely a whisper.

I watch as they cast one another different looks. “We want to see if we can speak to Rob,” Camilla says. “It’s clear he had a relationship with Fraser, and that he lived near the guesthouse. Our detective thinks there was a possible motive, too. Does Rob have a history of selling drugs?”

I nod, my throat tight. “Yes. I know this. His nana’s mentioned it in passing.”

They trade looks again. “The guesthouse owner had a record of selling drugs, too. There might have been a dispute. And Fraser might have called in Rob to… sort him out.”

“You must not say a word,” Kate tells me. “Please. Not a word.”

I nod. “I won’t say anything, I promise. I mean, how can I? But… do you think he did it? I mean, the six murders. You really think it was Rob?”

Kate answers first. “We don’t know, honestly,” she says. “But this is the first time we’re learning about Rob having been interviewed. And he clearly knew Fraser.”

I press my hands to my face, wanting to cry. This is the most devastating thing ever. I’m married to a murderer. I want to be sick. And it’s dangerous, unspeakably dangerous, for them to approach him about it.

And he knows I’m friendly with Kate. He knows I’m here, in her villa. I’ll get caught up in this. He’ll think I had something to do with it.

Suddenly Camilla reaches across to me and grasps my hand. “You know Rob more than anyone,” Camilla says. “Don’t you?”

I nod, looking down at my engagement and wedding rings. Oh yes, I very much do know Rob. And I know what he will do if he finds out about this.

I lift my eyes to hers, realizing I have to steer this now. I have to be part of this, whether I want to or not.

“Let me help,” I say.