'Thank God,' Maria said as Nick waved to the waiter.
Once the champagne was on its way, they sat beaming at each other, enjoying the sensation of an ordeal survived. 'So what did the Foreign Office have to say?' Charlie asked.
'Lisa's lawyers tried to have her declared unfit to plead but the court wasn't having it.'
'That's not as surprising as it might seem,' Charlie said. 'When she's not actually rolling around on the floor gibbering, she's capable of simulating a high level of normality. There are very few situations in which she couldn't pass for acceptably normal.'
Nick pulled a face. 'Your idea of normal and mine are clearly not even close.'
'You never saw her at her most convincingly charming,' Maria said. 'You'd have totally fallen under her spell. Like her thousands of NV acolytes.'
'I'll have to take your word for it. Anyway, since the Spaniards were determined to go to trial, her legal team persuaded her to plead guilty. There really was no arguing with the forensics. Her DNA was all over the villa where Ingemarsson was killed. They had records of her ferry crossing and the hotel she stayed in near Santander. There was always a mountain of evidence. But they never had a suspect to test it against.'
'I can't believe she was so careless,' Maria said. 'It's as if she wanted to be caught.'
'Some killers do. But I don't think she was one of them.' Charlie paused as the waiter poured the champagne. They toasted each other, then she continued. 'I think Lisa believed that she was invincible. That her cause was so patently right that she couldn't be stopped. It's a kind of magical thinking that some grandiose personalities indulge in. She was just lucky.'
'Bloody lucky,' Nick said bitterly. 'I still can't believe the bloody CPS, deciding there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute her for the shit she pulled over here.'
Charlie shrugged. 'By that stage, they knew the Spanish would do their dirty work for them. So, how long did she get?'
Nick looked sombre. 'Thirty years. Not much fun in a Spanish jail.'
'That's why her lawyer's already working on trying to get her transferred to a UK prison. And if he succeeds, I bet you a pound to a gold watch she'll do her time in a secure mental hospital rather than a prison.'
'How come you know what her lawyer's up to?' Nick demanded.
Charlie looked faintly embarrassed. 'Because I'm helping to build the case,' she said.
Nick looked astonished. 'She tried to kill you, Charlie.'
'I know. But she's ill.' Charlie fiddled with the stem of her glass. 'She can't be held responsible. The person who should be held to account and who never will be is Jay. That's why I've been making her sit down and take me through the history.'
'You've been sitting down with Jay Stewart?' Nick's voice rose an octave.
Charlie shrugged. 'Why not? She's got nothing better to do with her days right now. She might only have got a suspended sentence for concealment of a body, but it's made her persona non grata with the 24/7 shareholders. They kicked her off the board and she's having to lie low and lick her wounds. She might as well be talking to me.'
Nick shook his head in wonderment. 'You never cease to amaze me, Charlie. So what's she saying?'
'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.'
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Trick of the Dark Page 40