Chapter 53 Kate

53 KATE

NOW

Kate feels sick with nerves as she waits for Jacob to pick up. Camilla stares at her, both of them wary. The call connects.

“Hello?”

The voice on the end of the line sounds weak and breathy. She wonders if she’s misdialed.

“Is this Jacob?” she asks tentatively.

“Who is this?”

She puts him on speakerphone. “It’s Kate Miller. And Camilla is here, too. Have I called at a bad time?”

“No.” She listens as he coughs, his voice distant. “No, I can talk.”

“OK. Look, Jacob, Camilla and I both have some questions about the emails you sent. Particularly what you said about Darcy possibly hiring Adrian. Can you clarify?”

“Right,” Jacob says. “Look, this is all a bit complicated, so I appreciate I might have come across as a bit of an arsehole—”

“You can say that again,” Camilla snaps.

“There have been a few developments, shall we say, since last week. I found both your names on my software report, so my first thought was that you had both hacked into this new software package.”

“Hack into software?” Camilla says. “I can barely cut and paste.”

“Look, I’m a bit… out of sorts at the moment,” he says. She can hear the sound of a door closing in the background. “Has Darcy mentioned anything about hiring Adrian to hack into my software program?”

“What software program, exactly?” Camilla says.

“It’s called Shelley. It’s an AI program.” He pauses. “Artificial intelligence.”

Camilla screws her face up. “I know what AI is,” she says.

“Adrian is a private detective,” Kate says. “Darcy did hire him, but it was nothing to do with software.”

“Why would Darcy hire a private detective?”

“To investigate the Spinnaker killings,” Camilla says. “You know, Elijah? Who was murdered?”

“What?”

Camilla rolls her eyes. Kate knows what she’s thinking—Jacob is leading them up the garden path, trying to blame Darcy because she’s here, in the Maldives, celebrating their divorce.

“How well do you know Darcy?” he asks.

“Quite well, I’d say,” Camilla says acidly.

“Look, I’m not trying to ruin your holiday,” Jacob says. “I have a very upset and frankly traumatized twelve-year-old here who no longer wants to live with his mother, and so I’ve been trying to piece things together. And based on what I’ve found… I think you should be careful.”

Camilla and Kate share looks. Traumatized twelve-year-old?

“Can you tell us what happened?” Kate says.

“There was an incident a few months ago with Charlie, our oldest. He’s only just told me, and I want to speak to Darcy more about it. Basically, she took him away for the weekend to Manchester, and then they went swimming in the hotel pool. Charlie can’t really swim—long story—and when he found himself in the deep end of the pool Darcy wouldn’t help him. Just watched him start to drown, basically.”

Camilla and Kate share another look.

“Is he all right?” Kate asks, still trying to make sense of this.

“Yeah, he’s fine,” Jacob says. “He’s fine now . But he doesn’t want to live with his mother anymore. And I’ve just found a cabinet full of…”

He trails off, as though unable to get the words past his throat.

“Go on,” Kate prompts, her heart racing.

He takes a loud, rallying breath, forcing the words out. “I’ve just found all these… animal skulls. In Darcy’s garden shed.”

A beat. Kate wonders if she heard him right. “Animal skulls?”

“Yeah.”

“Fucking hell,” Camilla says. “Are you sure? I mean, they’re not Darcy’s… are they?”

“Sounds like I’m making stuff up now, doesn’t it?” Jacob continues. “Charlie saw her when he was playing in the garden. Saw her… cutting things up.”

Kate feels her stomach turn. She can’t reconcile herself to the thought of Darcy killing animals. Even so, the image of it is vile. And her son finding it. Poor Charlie.

“She has the cabinet locked up but somehow he found the key. Don’t know how I’m supposed to make him OK after this….”

Just then, there’s a knock on the villa door, the sound of Darcy calling a cheery “Hello!” Kate gives a little jump, Darcy’s voice colliding with her macabre mental images of animal skulls.

Quickly, Camilla ends the call. “You all right, love?” she says to Darcy.

Kate is glad that Camilla’s here, with her devilish ability to switch gears, to reply brightly to Darcy despite what they’ve just heard. Kate, however, can’t manage to stretch a fake smile on her face, and so she looks up at Darcy like a deer caught in headlights. And when she glances at the clock and notes the significance of the time—twenty-five minutes to eight—and the reason why Darcy is here, she realizes she is too stricken to react.

The plan to confront Rob suddenly feels like a runaway train: she’s no longer sure if it’s more dangerous to jump off or stay on board.