The Scandal

by Nicola Marsh

  “Avery didn’t mention it?”

  “As if.” Ris makes an odd scoffing sound akin to having a fish bone stuck in her gullet. “Who knows what else he’s keeping from me?”

  She says, “I take it you were behind the paternity test?”

  I nod. “I couldn’t tell you. It’s part of our ongoing investigation into potential suspects for Jodi’s murder and I didn’t want to compromise that because of our friendship.”

  “I get it.” Ris’s brow furrows, like she’s just thought of something. “So if he’s the father of her baby, he’ll be the number one suspect?”

  I hate to disappoint her when she’s had enough of those already this evening – learning the truth about her cheating brother-in-law who she idolizes and her deceitful friend – but I say, “Yes, but he’s not the father so—”

  “I think he is.”

  I understand where she’s coming from. She’s angry, shocked, thirsting for revenge. But as much as I wish Avery were the father of Jodi’s baby, it’s a scientific impossibility according to the test results.

  “Look, Ris, it’s been a long night for you—”

  “Elly fiddled with the paternity test.”

  She pronounces it calmly but she realizes the impact as she stares at me, a glimmer of a smile playing about her mouth as she notes my reaction.

  My jaw drops. The back of my neck prickles. A cold sensation trickles down my spine. I manage to utter, “What?”

  “You heard me.” Ris isn’t shaking anymore. In fact, she’s smug. “You know how Avery has bailed Ryan out of situations since they were kids?”

  I nod and Ris continues. “What if Avery finally called in a favor himself and asked Ryan to be the intermediary?”

  I’m still not following but I give her time.

  “Elly said Ryan came to her at work, professing his undying love, saying he’ll leave Maggie and they’ll be together. Of course, she had to do one small favor for him.” She sniggers, her eyes switching from devastated to maniacal in a second. “Switch paternity tests. Swap Avery’s for someone else’s.”

  I can’t comprehend this. It’s like something out of a B-grade crime movie on TV.

  “Why the hell did she do it? I mean, it’s illegal for a start. She’s tampered with a police investigation. Perverted the course of justice. My God, I can’t believe she’d do this for some dickhead she’s been foolish enough to fall for.” I’m rambling out loud and stop myself when I see Ris’s stricken expression.

  Ris’s bottom lip wobbles so I reach for her hand and hold it between both of mine. “Hey, you’ve done the right thing in telling me and thankfully, Elly finally came to her senses and told the truth.”

  “What happens from here?” She’s reverted to timid and afraid. “I can’t go back to the house tonight. I can’t pretend that everything’s okay in front of him.”

  She starts to cry, tears trickling down her cheeks in a constant stream. “Regardless of what happens I can never go back there.”

  My grip on her hand tightens as I try to convey some degree of comfort. “Stay here. For as long as you need.”

  I need to buy some time, at least until the morning, so I can get Avery’s DNA sample retested. If Ris goes home Avery will take one look at her and know something’s drastically wrong. She’s not that good an actress. She’s too guileless, too nice for him.

  She hangs onto my hand like she’ll never let go. “What will I tell him?”

  “I’ll ring him and say you and Elly came over because I was upset, we ended up having too many drinks and you’re staying over.”

  A plausible story that would give me enough time to put together the pieces of this scrambled jigsaw.

  However, my plan hinges on Elly too. “What about Elly? Is she likely to contact Ryan or Avery tonight?”

  Ris snorts and the tears start again. “Right now, Elly is a woman scorned.” She swipes at her eyes with her free hand. “She told us Ryan blackmailed her into fiddling with the test. Then she had the audacity to try and justify her behavior by saying she’d been married too, and gullible like Maggie, so she had the affair to help her wake up.”

  “What the…” I shake my head, not needing Elly’s drivel to mess with my head, not now when clarity was all-important. “That’s bullshit. She probably only told you because Ryan announced he wants to renew his vows and lied to her and our prima donna needed revenge.”

  More tears trickle down Ris’s cheeks and I inwardly curse my bluntness. “Damn it, I can’t stop crying.”

  I feel my eyes moisten for what my kind friend has had to endure. I pull her to her feet and propel her toward the bathroom. “Go tidy up. Take a shower. Whatever you want to do. I’ll leave a spare set of sweats outside the door and there are clean towels in the cabinet under the sink. Will you be okay?”

  After what seems like an eternity, she nods. “Yeah, I have to be.” Her chin comes up in defiance. “I want to see that bastard get his comeuppance. And if he had anything to do with Jodi’s murder…” She shakes her head, but not before I glimpse an expression that makes me pause.

  Ris’s twist of rampant fury indicates she’s a woman capable of anything. In that moment, the medical examiner’s words come back to me.

  “… the murderer didn’t really want to hurt the girl… it seems like this person cared… I’d even go as far to say as I think your suspect could be a woman…”

  No. I’m reaching. In my desperation for answers, my overworked, overtired mind is coming up with implausible scenarios. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this job over the years it’s to never discount the impossible.

  Had Ris somehow discovered Avery was the father of Jodi’s baby and in some warped attempt to hide the truth she’d killed the girl?

  Had she worried that even if her plan had gone smoothly, and I adopted the baby, that one day Jodi or the child would come forward and demand compensation – or more – from Avery and that would disrupt her perfectly ordered life?

  Had she simply killed the girl in a fit of jealousy?

  If so, was her turning up here tonight, distraught, part of some elaborate act, a way to throw me off? To get me to focus on Avery as the prime suspect, letting her walk?

  I hate these questions and how logical they are. I need to get answers. Tonight. And I need to start at the beginning.

  Getting those paternity test results.

  “Go take that shower, leave everything to me.”

  Her anger has vanished and she stares at me for a long, interminable minute, a mix of sorrow and regret, before she enters the bathroom and shuts the door.

  Dane pops his head into the hallway. “What’s going on?”

  I want to say, “You’re off the hook. For now.”

  I settle for, “Ris is staying the night. She needs our support right now.”

  “Okay. Let me know what I can do.” His agreement is instant, no questions asked. My supportive husband, one of the things I love about him. It’s good to remember these things. It gives me hope for the future.

  “I need to make a few phone calls. Can you grab the clean sweats out of my top drawer and place them outside the bathroom?”

  “Sure thing.” He’s already gone, only too happy to help.

  It makes me feel guiltier for suspecting he could’ve had anything to do with Jodi’s murder. It’s going to take us a long time to recover from this. Especially when I tell him the truth about what I did all those years ago.

  I know that if we’re to have any chance moving forward, there has to be no secrets between us. That we have to confront the mistakes we’ve made, deal with them, and embrace forgiveness. At least, that’s my hope once I solve this crime.

  For now, I have to move quickly. Starting with a phone call to Ron.

  We need to expedite a new paternity test, on the correct sample this time.

  Forty

  Elly

  After Ris and Maggie leave I’m hollow. Like all the blood has drained out of me, my m
uscles can’t function and I’m weak to the point of passing out.

  Earlier, at Ris’s anniversary party, I’d envisaged feeling relieved when I told Maggie everything. That in revealing the truth about her lying husband I would’ve saved her from a life of being duped so she wouldn’t end up a loser like me.

  Now, I feel empty. A failure. My good intentions shot to shit because this time my great reveal has torn apart the life of someone I actually care about. I’d known this all along, that I’d end up hurting Maggie, but somewhere along the line of my revenge plot I’d lost my way.

  The rape had destroyed my meager self-esteem and when Ryan had reached out, I’d taken what comfort I could get. Stupid, because it had never been anything beyond the sex for him, but the longer the affair continued the more I became caught up in something bigger than the both of us.

  I sink onto the sofa and hug my knees to my chest. I rock a little. I want to cry. I can’t. I’m dead inside. I’ve lost everything. My job, my friends, my home. I despise what I’ve become, a woman so desperate for comfort that she’d tear apart the lives of her friends because of it.

  After leaving Chicago and wreaking revenge on those other cheaters, I’d convinced myself I was invincible, devoid of empathy. I could be impartial and help other women like me.

  But the rape had changed all that and in turning to Ryan, I’d shattered what was left of my soul.

  I should’ve stopped after that first time together. I should’ve changed my MO this time and kept the cheated wife out of it. I should’ve ruined Ryan some other way. Instead, smug in my delusions of retribution and caught up in feeling something for a man for the first time in forever, I hurt my friend, one of the few people in this world who actually give a damn about me.

  It makes me sick to my stomach.

  I stop rocking and curl up in the corner of the sofa. What am I trying to do? Make myself invisible? It’s not going to change anything. I can still see myself in the mirror over the low mantel. I know what I’ve done.

  I expect Ryan will call any minute. Maggie will go home, confront him and he’ll go berserk. Backtrack. Make excuses. They all do when challenged with their lies. The others had all capitulated after I’d threatened them with exposure. I had voice recordings on my cell proving their infidelity so they’d had no choice. I’d witnessed their confessions from afar, usually from my car parked outside their homes, to make sure they went through with it. I forwarded those recordings to their wives just in case.

  As for losing my friendship with Ris… there’ll be no coming back from this with her. She’ll judge me and find me lacking. Not that I blame her. I deserve her ire. But she’s always been so good to me, especially after the rape, that I feel like the lowest of the low for flinging her friendship back in her face. Not having her in my life anymore will leave a gaping hole, even if a lot of the time we spent together she made me feel worthless. Not deliberately, but because of who she is.

  From the first moment we met I felt inferior. I’d been having a drink in one of the Main Street bars and she’d breezed in, wearing a nautical dress I knew cost a bomb, with navy pumps and a matching handbag that had been released a week earlier with an extensive waiting list for it. I should know; I was on it. She’d been laughing at something Claire said, revealing the kind of smile that elevated her from pretty to gorgeous.

  But it was more than her well put-together appearance that made me feel mediocre. I envied Marisa Thurston on sight because she exuded that invisible quality that no amount of money could buy.

  Class.

  She reveled in it, confident in her own skin in a way I could try to emulate but never could. Because my confidence was as fake as the new life I’d created for myself. Despite the fortune I spent on cosmetics, skincare and fashion, I could never command a room like her.

  It’s not her fault. She has no clue that her competence in all areas of her life makes me feel useless. She has everything. The husband. The kids. The house. The job. The adulation of the local community. The lifestyle. The friends. I have two of those, a job and a lifestyle, though I’ll be fired now too. As for friends, I’ll be cast out of her cozy circle and vanquished. My life as I know it over, just like that.

  That’s what I was trying to show Maggie. That no matter how great you think life is there’s always a shit-storm waiting to dump on you around the next corner. Now that she knows the truth, what does she have? Nothing. Her life is in tatters, like mine once was. I’d planned on doing things differently. I’d wanted to tell Maggie and give her a chance to get her affairs in order. I’d envisaged her cutting him off financially, which would’ve been the ultimate payback for Ryan. But the announcement tonight of their vow renewal, hot on the heels of him blackmailing me, pushed me over the edge and I blurted the truth to her in the worst way possible. Remorse fills me for the pain I inflicted on her.

  My cell rings. It’s on vibrate and it starts skittering across the coffee table. I glance at the screen.

  Ryan.

  I consider ignoring him but I know he’ll keep bugging me until I pick up. Or worse, he’ll turn up here with some sob story and I can’t face him. Not tonight, when I’m raw and exposed. He’ll either be fuming and seeking revenge for me ruining his life and I have no intention of facing down a madman with the way I’m feeling, or he’ll be apologetic for the renewing vows fiasco and conciliatory if Maggie has kicked him out. Like I’d want anything to do with him now.

  I pick up the phone and stab at the answer button.

  “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry about tonight,” he rushes in before I can utter a word. “I know how shocked you must’ve been hearing all that bullshit about renewing vows, but I didn’t have a chance to tell you my big news beforehand.”

  I’m stunned.

  He doesn’t know.

  If Maggie had made it home he wouldn’t be ringing to apologize for his shitty behavior tonight. He’d be wringing my neck.

  So I play it cool. “What news?”

  “An international merger is on the cards for Avery’s company. It’s worth billions, which means I’ll get a massive bonus and won’t be reliant on Mags for money. And some delegates from the overseas offices are visiting next week so I need to present a stable front.” He has the audacity to laugh. “You know how good Maggie is for my reputation, so I need to keep her around until then. And once the deal is done…”

  His voice lowers to a seductive purr I’m all too familiar with. He uses it often to get his own way. “After that, it’s just you and me, baby. I can’t wait.”

  I can. An eternity. Is the idiot delusional? Because after he blackmailed me, I’d shut down. I’d told him we were over. Yet in typical self-absorbed fashion he hadn’t believed me. He’d said that once we got past ‘this little hiccup’ we’d be together for sure.

  The guy is an egotistical moron with no conscience whatsoever. Thankfully one of the doctors had needed to see me and I’d escaped. When I’d returned to my office, he’d left. I hadn’t expected to hear from him ever again because once I told Maggie everything he’d paint me in the worst light possible.

  Ris will stand by her brother-in-law, as it should be: family first. Claire will side with Ris and I’ll be an outcast, banished from their circle.

  Why hasn’t Maggie confronted him yet? I feel disarmed. As usual, he doesn’t even notice I’m not responding. He keeps talking.

  “And Avery said we can have the cottage—”

  “What’s Avery got to do with this?”

  “He’s the landlord.” He chuckles. “Surprise.”

  These two make me sick but I don’t have a chance to tell him as he continues.

  “I’d love to see you but I’ve got a videoconference with the French and German CEOs of the company considering the merger starting soon. I have no idea how long it’ll go on for but if I can get away I’ll pop by your apartment later tonight, okay?”

  I don’t respond, knowing he’ll never call me again because once Maggie makes it home we�
�re over, thank goodness.

  It can’t come quick enough.

  “Bye, sweetheart.” He hangs up and I’m so relieved I actually drop the phone.

  It bounces off the floorboards and slides under the sofa. I don’t care. I can’t summon the energy to look for it. I’m bone-deep exhausted yet want to get out of town as soon as possible. But the fatigue is relentless so I slide lower, until I’m lying flat on the sofa. I turn onto my side and press my face into a cushion, comforted by its downiness.

  Is this how Jodi felt when Avery smothered her?

  Now that Ryan has revealed the company’s precious merger, it all makes sense. Having a bastard child would’ve put a major crimp in his grand plans, he would’ve lost his hostess Ris before the merger went through and there’s nothing more important to Avery than image, money and prestige.

  But how much does Ryan know? When I asked him about Jodi and whether he knew her, I thought he’d been lying. If so, is he involved somehow? I’d hate to think he’d be involved in a murder but he’s a master manipulator and an excellent liar.

  After living with a chronic liar in a fake marriage for years, I should know.

  I move the cushion away from my nose and gasp in a breath. I’m weary, soul-deep tired. I can’t risk going home and have Ryan turn up there like he mentioned. I’ll sleep here tonight and face my future, whatever’s left of it, in the morning.

  * * *

  All too soon, sunlight is warming my face and I wake with a start, momentarily disoriented. Then I remember and wish I didn’t.

  I stumble to the bathroom and splash water on my face. I reach for a towel and remember I took them home to wash the last time I was here. I open the small cabinet under the sink, hoping I’ve left at least one towel here. I pat around, searching for it. I’m in luck. My fingers close over something soft, a towel, but as I pull it out I dislodge something. I hear a crash and smell something odd.

  I squat, and peer into the cabinet. The smell is stronger now, bleach, but more pungent. It sticks in my throat and makes me gag a little. I cough and place a hand over my nose while I straighten the bottle and use some toilet paper to mop up the spill then flush it away.