The Cold Hard Truth: A Gripping Novel About Secrets and Lies

by Amanda Leigh Cowley

  She nods and looks towards the counter. “I was standing over there just now, near where you were having your conversation with the staff about the computers. I’m sorry but I couldn’t help overhearing what was said.”

  “That’s okay,” I reassure.

  She smiles shyly. “I practically live at this place. You could call me the original bookworm….”

  I nod, desperate for her to get to the point.

  “On Saturday afternoon I was in here as usual, finishing an historical literature project for college.” She looks over her shoulder to the rows of computers. “I heard the librarian say which computer you were interested in. I was sat at the end of that row. I hate to feel closed in, so if I need to use a computer I always try to sit at one on the end.”

  My eyes are like saucers. “So, you were two seats away from the computer the librarian was talking about?”

  She nods.

  I look from her to Nate, and back again. “Did you see the person at that computer?”

  “Sort of.” She bites her lip. “Mostly there was nobody in between us, so although we weren’t side by side, I was aware of the man sitting there.

  “A man?” I breathe out a deep sigh of relief. “Are you sure it was a man?”

  “Yes, I’m pretty sure.”

  “Did you see his face?” I’m frantically unzipping my bag and scrabbling to find the photos inside. I select the one of Dominic and hold it in front of her. “Could it have been this man?”

  She takes the photo from me, holds it up to the light and studies it hard before looking back at me. “I-I really couldn’t say. He was wearing a grey top with the hood pulled up. I’m sorry, I was so engrossed in my project, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to him.”

  I close my eyes for a couple of seconds. “Okay, can we just go back to the gender because it’s important. If that person had their hood up, what makes you think it was a man?”

  “I don’t know why I thought that. Maybe it was the way he held himself, or maybe he spoke to someone and I heard his voice. I can’t remember why exactly, but I’m convinced it was a man.”

  I slide the photos back into my bag and zip it up, feeling deflated for the third time since we got to the library.

  “Can I ask why this is so important to you?” she asks.

  I glance at Nate. He raises his eyebrows, giving me an ‘it’s up to you if you want to tell her,’ kind of expression.

  I take a deep breath. “Whoever was sat at that computer on Saturday could possibly be the person responsible for my dad’s murder.”

  Her jaw drops.

  “Listen, can I give you my number?” I say. “Just in case you remember any more details. Anything at all.”

  “Yes, yes, of course.” She hands me her phone. “You can put the details in there.”

  I punch in my name and number. She takes her phone back and checks the information I've entered. “Thanks, Emily. My name is Su-Yin by the way. I’m going to try really hard to remember some more details for you.”

  “Thank you, Su-Yin. I appreciate it. You’ve already helped more than you know.”

  Chapter 28

  Nate drops me back at the café, before heading off to his accountant’s to finalise the investment paperwork.

  I walk into O’Shea’s and immediately feel guilty when I see the queue. “Sorry, sorry,” I say, rushing to the counter and pulling an apron over my head.

  “Em, where have you been?” Riley looks up briefly before sliding sandwiches under the grill. “It’s crazy in here this morning.”

  Lois pulls a face behind his back and then winks at me.

  I smile at the next customer, taking his order for a Frappuccino and a grilled cheese sandwich. Then I move to the counter against the wall, closer to Riley, and start pressing buttons on the beast.

  “We went to the library,” I speak in hushed tones, so only Lois and Riley can hear. “We were hoping the staff might be able to help us out with something.”

  “Library staff?” Riley says, studying my face. “What did you need their help for?”

  “We were trying to find out who left the bad reviews for this place, among other things….”

  “Oh, right. Nate doesn’t think it’s Sasha anymore, does he?” he asks.

  “No, he’s pretty sure it’s not her.”

  “That reminds me,” Lois says, pulling a grimace. “She was in here earlier looking for you.”

  My hands still on the beast. “Who? Sasha?”

  “Yeah,” Lois says, grabbing a glass dome of chocolate fudge brownies and taking them back to the counter. “She seemed agitated.”

  I finish making the Frappuccino and hurry over to join her. “Did she say why?” I whisper, handing my customer his drink.

  “No. You know what Sasha’s like. She was very mysterious about it all.”

  “Well that’ll be something to look forward to….”

  The café’s not working it’s magic at all today. My head is spinning with everything and I seem to spend the rest of the morning spilling coffee, getting orders mixed up and taking the wrong change.

  Just after two, Lois touches my back. “The eagle has landed,” she says.

  I twist around from cleaning the beast and see Sasha heading towards me. My stomach muscles tense.

  As she gets closer I sense there’s something off about her. Her head is tipped forward and her eyes are downcast. She seems to have lost her air of confidence.

  I take a deep breath as she reaches the counter. “Hello, Sasha.”

  “Hey, Emily.” She squeezes her lips into a smile. “How are you?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay. You?”

  “Not bad.”

  Gosh, this is tedious.

  “Uh … I hear you were looking for me.”

  She nods. “I was hoping you and I could have a little chat.”

  I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Of course. What’s on your mind.”

  “Not here,” she says, frowning. “Is there somewhere private we can go?”

  “Sorry. I’ve used up all my breaks today. Besides, Riley’s just popped out so it’s only me and Lois holding the fort. I can’t leave her on her own.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Lois chips in. She’s obviously been eavesdropping. “We’re not busy at the moment. You go ahead, Em. I’ll be fine on my own for a bit.”

  I try to signal to Lois with my eyes. I need to make her understand I don’t want to be Sasha’s captive audience, but she doesn’t pick up on it.”

  “Okay.” I sigh and push myself off the counter. “Let’s go upstairs to the office. I can give you ten minutes.”

  She gives a small nod. “That’s all I need.”

  I follow Sasha up the stairs in silence. At the top, she waits for me to open the door to the office, then she walks in first and sits down on the visitor’s chair. I walk past her, round the desk and perch on the edge of Nate’s chair. Her perfume catches at the back of my throat.

  “Right,” I say, placing my hands on my knees. “What did you want to talk about?”

  She rubs at an imaginary mark on her dress before meeting my eye. “I … uh … I wanted to apologise.”

  “Apologise for what?” Is she about to confess to leaving those reviews?

  She presses her lips together and frowns. “For how I acted towards you when I first met you.”

  “Oh.”

  “I shouldn’t have warned you off, Nate. It was stupid and it was wrong.”

  I shrug. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t pay it much attention to be honest. I mean, I like Nate, but what you were saying - it wasn’t really relevant to me.”

  “But I led you to believe Nate was a player.”

  Yes, you did.

  “It was a lie, Emily. I need you to know what I said couldn’t be further from the truth.”

  I frown. “Why did you say it, then?”

  She keeps her eyes downward, rubbing harder at the imaginary stain. “Because I was jealous.”


  That makes no sense to me whatsoever. “Of what?”

  She blows out a deep breath and looks up. “You.”

  I laugh. “You were jealous of me?”

  “Yes. Because of the effect you have on Nate. It was obvious he was falling for you. I could tell by the way he lit up whenever he said your name.”

  “Really?” My cheeks suddenly feel warm.

  She leans forward and her voice gets lower. “It’s the way he looks at you, too. I’ve wanted Nate to look at me that way for the past two years.” She sniffs and then does a small shrug. “I’ve finally realised I’ve been dreaming. It’s never going to happen.”

  I clear my throat and shift uncomfortably on the chair.

  “I shouldn’t have lied about him, though. I thought if I said those things about him, you’d back off from any kind of intimacy….”

  Ha. If only I had.

  She crosses one leg over the other and dangles her shoe off the end of her toe. “I had a bit of a wake-up call when he came around to accuse me of leaving those TripAdvisor reviews. I couldn’t believe he thought I’d sink that low.”

  “He knows it wasn’t you, Sasha.”

  She nods. “I know. He’s apologised. It’s just the fact he thought I might be capable in the first place. It made me look at myself differently. I thought about how I’ve behaved over the last couple of years, playing games to try and win him over, warning him off girls, warning girls off him, that kind of thing…. I finally saw myself through his eyes and I didn’t like what I saw. I’m not proud of my behaviour.”

  While I commend her coming to tell me this, there’s a part of me that wonders if Nate has put her up to it. I push strands of hair away from my face. “Why are you telling me all this?”

  She meets my gaze. “I guess I finally found a conscience. Nate doesn’t deserve to have someone like me spreading lies about him.” Her expression softens. “He’s one of the good guys, Emily. I don’t want to be the reason he’s not happy.”

  “Well,” I say, studying her face. “That’s very honest of you.”

  She nods. “It feels good to get it off my chest.”

  I chew the inside of my cheek. “Sasha, can I ask you something? And I need you to tell me the truth.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “What were you and Nate talking about on the beach at the party the other night?”

  She tilts her head to one side and frowns. “Uh - that was when he told me he was paying my investment back.”

  It just didn’t look like that kind of conversation.

  “I made a complete fool out of myself,” she adds, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

  “How?”

  She opens her eyes and studies me for a moment, obviously deciding whether to share the details with me. Then her shoulders slump forward. “When he saw me at the party, he said he had something important he wanted to discuss and asked if I’d pop round to see him at the café the following day. He said we needed privacy.”

  She presses her lips together and frowns, as if she’s struggling to find the words. I nod to try and encourage her.

  “I convinced myself it was because he’d finally realised how much he liked me, so I didn’t see why we had to wait until the next day to move things forward.”

  She jiggles her foot and her shoe bobs up and down, threatening to fall off. “I practically threw myself at him. Tried to kiss him…. It’s embarrassing to think about it now. He was really sweet about it. Just kind of pulled back from me without making a big scene, told me how much he cared about me, but not in that kind of way. It makes me feel ashamed just thinking about it.”

  I surprise myself by feeling sorry for her.

  “So he had to come out with it all there and then. How he’d secured other investors because he’d realised I had feelings for him. He said he was really sorry, but he didn’t feel the same way, and for that reason he didn’t think we had a healthy working relationship. He said he was paying back my original amount, plus the interest we’d agreed, and a lump sum on top.” She presses her lips together and sniffs. “It was so humiliating, Emily.”

  “It’s an easy mistake to make….”

  She shakes her head. “No, it isn’t. And I went completely over the top. I cried and begged him to change his mind. Investing in O’Shea’s was my only link to Nate and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing that contact. He was adamant though. Told me his mind was made up and he’d made the decision more for my sake than his. I didn’t believe him at the time, but I can see what he meant now.”

  I sit and digest what she’s just told me. On the one hand, I’m angry with her because she tarnished my opinion of Nate. But on the other hand, I admire her honesty and the fact she wanted to come round and tell me all this.

  “Thank you, Sasha.” I lean across the gap to touch her arm. “I appreciate your honesty.”

  “I got there eventually, didn’t I?” she says, smiling. “Do me a favour, Emily. If possible, can you not mention to Nate what I said about him? He’ll hate me if he knows I did that. I promise I’m going to leave him alone now, but I don’t want his opinion of me to sink any lower.”

  “I don’t think he’s got a bad opinion….”

  “Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?”

  I sigh. “I won’t say anything, I promise.”

  “Thank you.” She holds my gaze for a moment and I feel something shift inside me. I think it’s a flicker of respect.

  “So, what are you going to do now, Sasha. Have you got any plans?”

  She nods. “I’ve kind of wasted the last couple of years, so I’ve decided I need a complete change of direction.” Her eyes light up. “I’ve decided to go travelling, and I thought I’d start with Europe.”

  “Wow. Good for you.”

  She smiles. “One more thing before I go … and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I have to know. Do you like him, Emily? As much as he seems to like you?”

  I frown. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to respond to that.

  “It’s okay.” She smiles. “Your expression just told me you do. And I’m glad. It means I haven’t wrecked things completely for the pair of you.”

  I look down at my hands, desperately trying to think of a way to change the subject. “Uh … can I get you a coffee or anything?”

  She shakes her head. “No, I should go. I just needed to put this right, that’s all.” She stands and smiles. “Good luck, Emily. I hope everything works out well for you.”

  “Thank you,” I say, smiling back. “You too, Sasha.”

  Chapter 29

  Harriet comes to visit early Sunday afternoon, shortly after the café has closed for the day.

  “Are you on your own?” she asks, lifting her bag up so I can clean the counter.

  I nod. “Lois has finished her shift and Nate and Riley have gone out to pick up supplies for the café. I’ve got the place all to myself for the afternoon.”

  “Well, you did until I came over. Sorry about that.”

  “Don’t be silly.” I swipe the cloth at her. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s good to see you.”

  She smiles. “Do you mean that?”

  “Yes, of course I do.”

  Once I finish cleaning, I make coffees from the beast, pinch a couple of Lois’ leftover chocolate fudge brownies and lead the way upstairs to the apartment. I put everything on the coffee table and then drop onto the sofa, taking the weight off my hot, aching feet.

  “How are things at home, Harriet?”

  She hovers the brownie she was about to take a bite of, mid-air. “Mom still won’t hear a bad word about Dominic. I keep bringing up the subject of the court case and asking her what she’s going to do if he gets a guilty verdict, but she won’t even discuss it.”

  “Do you think she’s burying her head in the sand?”

  “I guess.” She bites into the brownie and then does a double-take at the remainder in her hand. She speaks through her mouthful, “
Oh, Em, these are amazing.”

  I nod. “Brownies are Lois’ speciality.” Then I lean forward to pick up my coffee and swirl it round in the cup. “Do you think she’ll cope if he goes to prison?”

  “I don’t know. She’s terrified of losing him. Apart from leaving his wife, he’d have done anything for her; she just had to snap her fingers and he was there.” She takes another bite of the brownie and then licks the crumbs from her fingers. “She thinks she needs that security from a man and the fact she could pick him up and put him down whenever she had enough was perfect for her. But now there’s a good chance he’s about to be put away, she’s not coping, at all.”

  I shake my head softly.

  She leans forward and puts a hand on my knee. “Em, I think if you came home it would make a huge difference to her. I think it’s the only way she would be strong enough to deal with what’s happening.”

  I frown. “I don’t think so, Harriet. I need to be away from her for my own sanity while this is going on. And if Dominic does get convicted and she supports him, I don’t think I’ll be coming back home at all.”

  Before she can reply, my ringtone starts playing. I exchange a look with Harriet before fishing my phone out of my pocket. An unknown number is displayed. I look back at Harriet. “Do you mind if I take this? It might be important.”

  “Of course not. Go ahead.”

  I swipe my phone and say hello, climbing off the sofa and walking through to the bedroom for a bit of privacy.

  “Hello … uhm … is this Emily?” The female voice on the other end sounds vaguely familiar.

  “Yes, it’s me.” I look out of the window towards the sparkling ocean. “Who’s this?”

  “Oh, hi. It’s Su-Yin here. We met in the library a couple of days ago. Do you remember?”

  I straighten my spine. “Yes, yes, of course I remember you. How are you, Su-Yin?”

  “I’m good. And you?”

  “Yes, not bad thanks.”

  “Emily, I’m ringing because I’ve remembered something about the person using the computer in the library. The one you were interested in….”