“If I was in her position I would have made the same choice.” Alex shrugged. “You said Ben’s coming to Green Springs.”
“He wants to talk to you.”
“I have to admit that’s a nice surprise. I would have thought he’d want to keep his distance.”
“The fact he is coming here makes me think he might not be the murderer.”
“Or he could be doing it in order to make is think that.”
Sighing, she nodded. “I know, but I just… I hate that investigating murders make you start to suspect everyone. Ben is doing a good thing. I want to believe he’s doing it for the right reasons.”
“Keep believing that. It’s the best way to get through all of this. So far I haven’t been able to find Alison, but I have a couple of my old colleagues out looking for her. Hopefully we’ll find out what we need to know about her as soon as possible. For now I’m just glad I don’t have to do the same thing for Ben.”
“Have you started looking into Kyle’s emails?”
“I have, and they’re very interesting, but he deleted anything that might have helped.”
“So what’s interesting?”
“Kyle was keeping more secrets from Jessica than either of you know, and I think he might have been keeping them from everyone he knew.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Alison isn’t his only ex. There are three exes it could have been, but I don’t think Jake and Liam know about the others, because Kyle was dating all four of them at the same time, and it seems like he’s been with two of them the whole time he’s been with Jessica. A couple of the emails were reassuring the other girlfriends he still loved them, even though he was marrying Jessica.”
“You can tell her about that, because she’s going to be furious.”
“Yes, she is, which is why I want you to be there with me. She’s going to need the support.”
“I hate you sometimes.”
“None of this is my fault.”
“I know that, but I still hate you.”
Alex smiled. “Hate me all you like. We both know you enjoy this really.”
“I do, and I don’t.” She smiled back. “I like finding out the truth. I don’t like how the truth hurts people so much.”
“That’s what I hate, but we have to tell them. I’m going to ask Jessica to come in this afternoon, because it will be best to get this done as soon as possible, and then we can go from there.”
“Okay.” Mary-Ann sipped her coffee. “I’ll be ready.”
***
Jessica looked between Alex and Mary-Ann. “How bad is it?”
“I suppose that depends on your point of view.” Alex brushed a hand through his hair. “Have you ever gone through Kyle’s emails before?”
“No, I never had a reason to.”
“He never said anything to you about Alison?”
“We talked about our past relationships, but he never told me about Alison. Kyle didn’t want me to worry about her, if what Jake said is true, and I don’t think that was his decision to make.”
“After going through his emails I think Kyle was someone who lied far more about everyone and everything than anyone realised.” Alex took some sheets of paper out of a folder. “I have these for you to read, because I thought it was better than trying to make you believe I was telling you the truth about the man you loved.”
“Right now I think I’d be willing to believe pretty much anything, because Kyle… I hate this, but he wasn’t the man I thought he was. The man I thought he was would have told me about Alison.” Jessica looked down at the papers. “This was from the night before the wedding.” She shook her head. “He was emailing another woman on the night before we were going to get married. Yeah, he definitely wasn’t the man I thought he was.”
“From what I’ve read he seemed to have several girlfriends. When he proposed to you the other two he was with were worried about the choice he was making.”
“They knew about me.”
“Yes, they did.”
“I didn’t know about them. It never once crossed my mind he might be cheating on me.” She stared down at the emails. “Do you think Jake and Liam knew about this?”
“Maybe.” Alex glanced at Mary-Ann. “I don’t think they do, though, because they have been willing to talk to you about what they knew, and that makes me believe they would have told you about this too.”
Nodding, Jessica brushed a hand through her hair. “Can I keep these?”
“Of course you can.”
“Good. I’m going to have to email them and let them know what happened to Kyle.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“They deserve to know. I’m sure they’re going to want to say goodbye to him as well.” Jessica sighed. “Kyle was the one who made the decision to cheat. I’m not going to blame those women for the choices he made.”
“I don’t know if I could do that, so you have my admiration, Mrs Morton.”
“Thank you.” Jessica stood, the papers in her hand. “Let me know if you find out anything more, Detective Inspector.”
Alex stood. “I will.” He glanced at Mary-Ann. “If you need anything you know where I am. I’m happy to go through any aspect of the investigation with you, so you know exactly what’s happening.”
“I appreciate it, but I don’t think I care enough right now.”
***
Mary-Ann stayed silent most of the way back to Polly’s house. “Are you doing okay?”
“I have no idea, Mare.” Jessica shook her head. “I loved him, and I don’t think he loved me anywhere near as much as I loved him. How could he when he was keeping all of this from me?” She blinked. “Obviously he was lying to me when we were talking about coming here, because he never would have left his other girlfriends.” Sighing, she looked around. “I’m thinking of staying, because New York is going to be full of memories I don’t want to have to deal with. Kyle and I were only here for a short period of time, so it should be simpler.”
“What about your life there?”
“I can build a new one here. It’s not something I wanted to do without him, but now… he made his decisions, and those decisions led to what happened to him. Now the time has come for me to make the best choices I can, even though it won’t be an easy thing to do, because I don’t know what the best choice I can make is.”
“Take some time. You don’t have to do anything now, and you’ve only just found out he was keeping secrets from you. You have to take some time to come to terms with that.”
“Can I come to terms with that? I don’t know why he was lying to me.”
“Does why really matter all that much, Jess?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. When it came to Alison I think I can understand why he didn’t tell me about her, but the others… how could I not have known he was cheating on me? Why did I not suspect something? I should have done, as he was seeing two other women at the same time as me, and yet it never once crossed my mind. I believed he loved me. I believed he wanted to be with me.”
“Talk to the other women. Talk to Jake and Liam. That’s the only way you’re going to be able to understand, at least in some small way, why Kyle made the choices he did, even though I don’t think it’s something I would be able to forgive.”
“I don’t think it’s something I can forgive either. I hate that he did this to me. I hate that he could hurt me like this. I hate that I’m angry with him when he’s been murdered, but this… it’s not as though I can stop myself from being angry with him when he did this to me.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “The man I trusted enough to marry cheated on me, planned on cheating on me in the future, and didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact he was doing that to me.” She glanced down at the papers in her hand. “I hate him, Mare, and I hate that I hate him at the same time. I just want this all to be over, so I can start again somewhere.”
Chapter 4
As Mary-Ann walked back to her a
partment she couldn’t help thinking about how lives were changed by murders. Paul’s murder meant the parents of a young women found out who’d hurt their child, but it had changed the life of a good friend forever.
Kevin’s murder… she shook her head. Lots of people kept secrets and those secrets affected the lives of everyone involved, which was exactly what was happening to Jessica, as she learnt more about the man she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with. Sighing, Mary-Ann stepped into the park. It was the place she went she needed to think things through, and, as she sat down underneath a tree that brought back memories of the choices she’d made in the past, she tried to work out what her next step was going to be.
Could one of Kyle’s other girlfriends have been willing to kill him? She shook her head. Being able to murder him from that sort of distance would have taken some time to plan out, which made her think someone had been working on it for a while.
Someone else might have been involved. Maybe one of Kyle’s friends would have been willing to put the poison in his glass. It seemed unlikely, but she’d found out before anything was possible. That anything included someone who seemed to care deeply about the person who was murdered being involved. Until the truth has come out it never would have crossed her mind that Kevin’s dad would have been willing to do something like that to his own son. It was something she was still having trouble coming to terms with. She knew it would take Jessica even more time to accept the man she’d chosen to be her husband had been cheating on her.
Mary-Ann took her notebook out of her bag. The main suspects were Ben and Alison, because they were the two people who seemed the most unhappy with Kyle, but that didn’t meant she could ignore the possibility it was one of the other girlfriends. Alex had emailed her a copy of Kevin’s email, so she could go through them. That she could do when she got back to the apartment. Spending some time away from there did often help her to sort out her thoughts. If Robert had been home the two of them would have been in one of the coffee shops, or in the library, going over the emails with a fine tooth comb. She missed him. She missed working with him on the case. At least Alex was still there, otherwise things would be far too different, and she was really beginning to understand him, which was something she never thought could happen.
Someone sat down next to her. Mary-Ann glanced at Polly, not surprised to see her old friend, before turning her attention back to her notebook. “Jess told me Kyle’s been cheating on her since the two of them got together.”
“Or he was cheating on someone else with her.” Mary-Ann sighed. “It seems like Kyle led a very busy life, even though Jess didn’t realise it.”
“I don’t think Jake and Liam did either. They both seem like the sort of people who would have told Jess if they knew about what he was doing, so, as they haven’t, I believe they didn’t know.”
“That’s what Alex thinks. I’m still going to talk to them, to see if they noticed anything, as it’s entirely possible they did and put it to the back of their minds, because they didn’t want to believe Kyle was cheating on Jess.”
“Possible.” Polly sighed. “Jess has asked me if Ben can stay with us when he gets to Green Springs.”
“At least he’s doing the right thing.”
“When I met him I thought he was a good man, but I couldn’t see the two of them spending the rest of their lives together. Jess called me when she ended things with him, and I know it hurt her to do it, even though she knew it was the best choice she could make. The two of them loved each other, and she hated finding out that love, sometimes, really isn’t enough. Then she met Kyle. I thought he was the one for her. It never once crossed my mind he might not be the person he seemed to be. Finding out he had two other girlfriends, that he’d been lying to Jess the whole time they were together… I just can’t get my head around it. I know Jess can’t.”
“Is she emailing Kyle’s other girlfriends?”
“She was trying to work out the wording when I left. I needed some time to think things through and I knew you’d be here.”
“That’s what happens when you’ve been friends with someone since kindergarten.”
“Both Kelly and Darren have been by to check on us.”
“I bet Darren bought you some of my lemon meringue.”
“He did.” Polly laughed. “Apparently it cures all ills.”
“Darren would think that.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “I’m glad they’ve been by. You need someone who can be there for you more than I can at the moment.”
“Right now you’re doing the most important thing. Finding out who murdered Kyle is something we all want to happen, because he didn’t deserve to die that way. He didn’t deserve to die young, no matter what choices he made, and I want to know who would have been willing to do that to him.”
“You don’t think it was Ben?”
“No, I don’t. He might have hated Kyle, but that doesn’t mean Ben would have done something like that, even though it does mean there’s a chance he might be able to get back with Jess when she gets over all the pain she’s dealing with.”
“Do you think she will?”
“I have no idea.”
***
“When Jess rang to tell us about the emails I knew you’d be back.” Jake smiled at Mary-Ann. “I take it you want to know if we knew anything about Kyle’s other girlfriends.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Until Jess told me I didn’t even suspect there might be another woman in his life. I was certain she was the one for him.” Jake shook his head. “Learning he’d been cheating on her the whole time with two other women… I didn’t want to believe it was possible. Kyle didn’t seem to be the sort of person who’d be willing to do that.”
“People, sometimes, are very good at hiding things they don’t want us to know.”
“Kyle… he was one of my closest friends, and I thought I knew everything about him, so finding out I didn’t is a shock. Lying to Jess about Alison was one thing. I could almost understand why he made the decision he did. Lying to Jess about her being the only one for him wasn’t on and I’m beginning to think we might find out something more in the near future. I’m really not certain I want to learn anything more.”
“Unfortunately that’s what happens during murder investigations. Secrets come out, when we least want them to, and there’s nothing we can do to change things.”
Mary-Ann looked over at Liam. “Did you notice anything that made you think Kyle might have been cheating on Jess?”
“No, but Alison had accused Kyle of cheating on her more than once. He told her he wasn’t that sort of person.” Liam shook his head. “Obviously he was lying to her.”
“When D.I. O’Connor was going through the emails he found that Kyle was dating three other women at the time he was with Alison, so I’m not surprised she accused him of cheating. All the emails he was trying to hide were deleted from his account.”
“He forwarded one to me.” Liam took his phone out of his pocket. “It was about a week before the wedding and he wanted me to read it, because that one was definitely from Alison. She was threatening to tell Jess the truth about Kyle’s other girlfriends. He told me it was all lies and I believed him.”
“You had no reason not to.” Mary-Ann took the phone when Liam offered it to her. “Do you mind if I email this to D.I. O’Connor? It should help with his investigation.”
“I don’t mind at all.” Sighing, he shook his head. “I want to know who killed Kyle. He might not have been the man I thought he was, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the case solved. I want to know who was willing to kill him.”
Nodding, Mary-Ann forwarded the email to Alex, before passing the phone back to Liam. “We all want to know who killed him, Liam, because he didn’t deserve that.”
“What he did deserve was someone telling Jess the truth before the wedding. That way she wouldn’t have been willing to marry him.”
***
“Thank
you, Mare.” Alex sounded relieved. “Having that email really will help.”
“Good. You getting anywhere with the hunt for Alison?”
“She seems to have disappeared. There’s a chance she might be on her way to Green Springs, or she might already be here, or she might have gone somewhere else, because she is guilty of murdering the man she once loved.”
“Where do you think she is?”
“If I knew that I’d know where to look. At the moment I don’t have any idea. I’ve got people out everywhere I can think of looking, because I need to find her, and then I can talk to her about this.”
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