by Val McDermid
'I finally got the back story. Lisa Kent wasn't always Lisa Kent. She started out as Louise Proctor. She and Jay fell in love at Schollie's and had one of those totally consuming affairs. Jay made the fatal mistake of telling her about Jenna's murder and how she'd hid the body. She says it put her in Lisa's power, but of course, there's an element of bullshit in that. She must have known that the penalties for what she did were negligible compared to what Lisa was doing.' Charlie saw her anger and disgust mirrored in the faces of her companions. 'Even then, it was clear Lisa was completely obsessive and when Jess Edwards started her campaign against Jay, she decided it was her job to protect her lover. So she killed Jess. It was Louise that Corinna saw in the meadow that morning, not Jay.'
There was a moment's silence round the table while they all contemplated the consequences of that misidentification. 'Of course, committing a murder put her under tremendous stress even though she was convinced of her absolute right to defend Jay in any way that was necessary. But then her family freaked when they found out she was in the thick of a lesbian affair so they whisked her off to some extreme Catholic retreat where she promptly tried to kill herself, twice. She had a complete breakdown. She took a year out, then came back to Oxford, but not to Schollie's. She transferred to Univ, changed her name and remade herself. She even tried to turn herself into a nice heterosexual girl.'
'The perfect recipe for mental health,' Maria said drily.
'Well, it worked on a superficial level. She was functioning well enough to synthesise all the therapeutic avenues she'd gone down into a self-help programme that slowly started to take off.' Charlie sighed. 'It would be nice to think that she might have made it if she'd never encountered Jay again. The reality is she'd probably have found someone else to act as an outlet for her delusional fantasies.'
'But presumably she did run into Jay again?' Maria asked.
Before Charlie could reply, the food started to arrive. A relay of waiters spread a dozen dishes before them and there was a brief pause while they started on the food. 'How did they meet up again?' Nick asked after he'd devoured an entire pitta bread slathered with aubergine caviar.
'According to Jay, Lisa read an article about her when doitnow.com started to take off. Jay arrived at the office one morning to find the place filled with flowers. There was a card with them that had the name of a bar and a time. Jay figured a public place would be safe enough so she went along. And there was Lisa.'
'I bet that totally did her head in,' Nick said. 'She must have thought she was free and clear after all that time.'
'According to Jay, she tried not to get sucked back in. But Lisa's very persuasive. And very good at passing for a normal, sane, sympathetic person. And then there was the small matter of Jess's murder. Jay was well aware that she was the person with the motive and no alibi. She claims she was scared of what Lisa might do if she refused all contact. Instead, she took a leaf out of Lisa's own book and did this big song and dance about how they were destined to be together but not yet. There would be tests and challenges before they would be worthy of each other.'
'Jeez,' Maria said. 'Remind me again, which one's the nutter?'
'Obviously not Jay,' Nick said. 'She's the one who's walked away from all of this with nothing more severe than a suspended sentence. Her stepfather's doing life for murdering her mother, her ex is doing thirty years in a Spanish jail and Corinna Newsam's had to resign her fellowship because she kept quiet about seeing someone in the meadow. But Jay still has her shares in 24/7 and her big house in Chelsea and her lovely life.'
'Not quite so lovely now,' Charlie pointed out. 'She doesn't have Magda.'
'She doesn't? That's news to me,' Nick said.
'Did I not tell you? Magda dumped her right after she found out it was Lisa who killed Philip. She realised Jay must have known that all along and the whole thing about Joanna and Paul was just a stunt to make it look like Jay was totally devoted to her. She was devastated that they'd been put through a murder trial just to make Jay look good.'
'Even though they did do the insider trading that they're still in prison for,' Maria said, less than charitably.
'Poor Magda. Another fucked-up life, thanks to Jay and Lisa,' Nick said.
'Not entirely,' Maria said. 'Tell him, Charlie.'
'Corinna's furious. Magda's hooked up with a lesbian theatre director who's trying to get pregnant via donor insemination. We're all hoping Henry will die of apoplexy when she finally succeeds.'
'So Magda got a bit of a happy ending,' Maria said. 'And she gave all Philip's insider trading money to the oncology department where she works. We took her out to dinner a couple of weeks ago and she told us all about their lovely new facilities.'
Before he could respond, a cascade of acoustic finger-picking emerged from Nick's jacket. He snatched at his phone, swearing under his breath. 'I'm sorry, I've got to take this,' he said, jumping to his feet and heading for the door. 'Work. Sorry.'
Charlie watched him go, an affectionate smile on her face. Then she turned back to Maria. 'I'm glad the trial's over. I know there's still work to be done to get Lisa back to a proper facility in the UK, but this feels like some sort of closure.'
Maria put her fork down and gave Charlie a long level stare. 'You were in love with her, weren't you?'
Charlie felt as if a gaping pit had opened beneath her feet. 'Sorry?' she blurted out.
Maria's smile was edged with sadness. 'It's OK, Charlie. I know it's over.'
'I never--'
Maria leaned forward and put a finger to Charlie's lips. 'Sssh. You don't need to explain. I think she was your demon lover, like in folk tales. The one you have no resistance to. I'll be honest, Charlie. I was scared I was going to lose you. When I saw the way you didn't look at her in Skye, I was sure you were going to choose her over me.'
'I couldn't leave you,' Charlie said, her voice cracking under the strain.
'I know that now. But I didn't then. I'm glad you fell back to earth.'
Charlie swallowed hard. 'Me too.' As she spoke, Nick strode back into the restaurant, a relieved smile on his face.
Maria spoke quickly, determined to say her piece before he reached them. 'And if you ever think about betraying me again, you'll wish Jay hadn't stopped Lisa adding another scalp to her tally.' She gave a grim smile. 'And that's a guarantee.'
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Epigraph
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Part Two
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Part Three
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Table of Contents
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Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Epigraph
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Part Two
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Part Three
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15