After the Accident: A compelling and addictive psychological suspense novel

by Kerry Wilkinson

  Paul: I think I probably waved at Emma, although I’d have been trying to play it cool because I wouldn’t have wanted the rest of the team to see. We had that great night together and then I’d not heard from her the whole of the next day. It’s not like we swapped numbers, or made promises – but I’d been keeping an eye out for her around the hotel and village, hoping I’d see her.

  Then, all of a sudden, there she was.

  Emma: I knew Paul was making a documentary about Alan, but I didn’t realise that documentary actually involved Scott being on the island. Worlds were colliding.

  Paul: We were doing a bit of prep for that day’s filming. Scott was walking us through the village first thing in the morning before it got too busy. We’d got a few minutes of framing shots that could be spliced in for creating a mood, plus I’d gone to the beach and recorded the sound of the waves crashing. We didn’t know if we’d need it, but it was there.

  Emma: It wasn’t just Scott at the front, with Paul behind. There were four of you there and—

  Sorry, I said ‘you’. Is that OK?

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This seems like a good time to explain that After the Accident began life as a documentary about the death of Alan Lee on the island of Galanikos.

  There’s an old journalistic saying that the reporter should never be the subject of their piece. I agree wholeheartedly with this, except that, as the team from Garibaldi Media visited the island to start shooting, a larger story overtook the one on which they were working.

  The story of the two falls have to be told together. Like it or not, Alan and Geoff are linked.

  In addition, there would also be an enormous narrative gap without including Paul and Scott. That is why some of the transcripts you have been reading come from interviews done on the island, while others had to take place at a later date.

  Emma: It wasn’t just Scott at the front, with Paul behind. There were four men there. Paul was carrying a boom mic over his shoulder and the guy behind him had a large pack on his shoulders. He looked like he was doing most of the work. The one at the back seemed to be ordering everyone around. He had a big mouth and a fat arse and a stupid walk and—

  OK, he didn’t have any of those things. The truth is, I didn’t really notice the guy at the back because I was so stunned by both Paul and Scott being there.

  Paul: When we first met, Emma laughed at me for goldfishing – but she was much worse. Then Scott said her name.

  Scott: I’d stopped, which meant the guys had also stopped. It seemed stupid to pretend we didn’t know each other. At first I thought Emma was trying to avoid looking at me. It was much later when I found out she already knew Paul.

  Emma: I was staring at Paul, trying to tell him with my eyes that I was sorry. He was looking between Scott and me, probably putting the pieces together.

  Paul: I can’t remember how I felt at the time. Probably confused.

  Emma: It was like a blink and I was in front of Scott. I’d somehow crossed the path without knowing I’d done it.

  We used to be friends in the way people are when they grow up together. Our dads owned a business together, so we’d end up being left alone to play while the grown-ups talked downstairs. We’d always be at each other’s houses, or told to go out and amuse ourselves. Julius was older than me and used to say that Scott was my boyfriend – but we were much too young for that.

  By the time we became teenagers, we drifted apart. I had my friends at school and he had his. We didn’t need to be together all the time when our parents were working because we had our own hobbies and interests.

  Scott: Is that what she said? It’s… well it’s sort of true. We definitely went our own way as teenagers, but that’s because she dropped me. She was in with all the popular kids.

  I had quite bad acne when I was that age. I had to have this special cream from the pharmacy and it reeked. Dad made me sit in my room with my door closed and the windows open. It used to make me gag.

  Emma: Acne? I don’t remember that. We were teenagers: we all had acne. Me and my group of friends were like a walking Clearasil advert. If you’re a teenager who stops being friends with people because they have spots, you’re going to be a very lonely person.

  Scott: I understand why it happened like it did. She had money because of her dad, plus she was pretty and her chest had exploded when she hit about fourteen.

  Yeah, I noticed that. I was a teenage boy. We tend to pay close attention to that sort of thing.

  Emma was everything I wasn’t and she didn’t want to hang around with me, so we stopped being friends around then. We’d still see each other because of our dads, but it was never the same. We could go months without talking – and then it was years. The only time I ever saw her was if we all ended up on Galanikos together.

  Emma: …

  …

  I don’t think any of it is quite as brutal as he makes it sound. It’s not like I woke up one day and thought, ‘He’s not my friend any more’. Things happen gradually. We’d be in different classes and I’d have a lot in common with the person I was sitting next to. We might go straight from that class to the canteen, so I’d eat with the person I was already hanging around with. I didn’t try to cut out Scott from my life, but the two of us were changing.

  …

  I don’t know if I should bring this up – but he started talking to my chest and not my face. He’d do it all the time. I know that he was fourteen or fifteen, that there’s hormones and all that, but why would I want to be friends with someone who looks at me like that? That’s what I mean when I say the two of us were changing.

  Scott: Maybe this isn’t the place to say it, but you’ve probably guessed. Emma was my first love. I doubt I was hers, but it’s like that when you’re a kid. She was a girl I’d grown up with and then, suddenly, she was a woman.

  I’d have these long, ridiculous fantasy conversations with her where I’d say something, and then she’d say something, and then we’d realise we were meant to be together…

  I was probably sixteen then, but you don’t know how anything works at that age. Your body is desperately trying to get you to be an adult, while your mind is stuck watching Ninja Turtles on a Saturday morning.

  That probably lasted for about three years in all. I think the first time I finally stopped thinking about Emma like that was when I got to uni and met a girl during freshers’ week.

  Emma: Did he really say I was his first love?

  …

  I kind of want to give him a hug and say sorry. First loves never go right, do they? I never felt like that about him, but I do wish we’d been better friends.

  First love? That poor guy.

  Scott: Bear in mind, when I saw Emma outside that car hire place, not only do I know that her dad killed my dad, I still have all those old teenage thoughts going through my head. I’ve not seen her properly in nine years and there’s a lot of complicated emotions there.

  Emma: Scott turned to the crew and goes: ‘This is Emma. Her dad killed mine. Put that in your film.’

  Scott: I probably shouldn’t have said that.

  Emma: By this point, everyone is looking at me. I’m still trying to tell Paul I’m sorry without actually telling him. But I’m also thinking of the driving licence I found that morning and wondering for the first time if, maybe, my dad does know something about what happened with Alan…

  Perhaps I don’t mean it quite like that. I had a lot of questions and hardly any answers.

  Paul: I thought I was going to compromise the entire project. There were only three of us on the crew and we’d made the expense of going to the island – then I’d slept with the daughter of the man who might well have been prime suspect.

  Emma: There was a long pause where nobody seemed to know what to say, then I go: ‘Dad didn’t kill anyone.’

  Scott: When Dad died, the only person who benefitted was Geoff. With the way things worked out, he got sole charge of the company – and then
he brought in someone new.

  Emma: Scott was right about that – but so what? After Dad fell, I got to move into a beautiful cottage. I benefitted, but that doesn’t mean I was involved.

  That’s how I thought about things at the time.

  Scott: She went back to that old line of saying how the police cleared her dad, blah-blah-blah. I told her that the police found no evidence. It’s not the same thing. What’s indisputable is that her dad wasn’t in his room at the time my dad went off that cliff.

  Emma: That’s true. Dad never denied that.

  Paul: Things were tense and one of the crew said that we should move on. I had two points of view. My professional opinion was that, if we were going to have this conversation with Scott and Emma, then it should be on camera. My personal opinion was that I was in trouble.

  Scott: I said something like ‘see you around’ and carried on walking.

  Emma: He said: ‘I don’t know how you sleep at night’.

  Paul: I started following everyone else and then stopped to tie my shoe. I told the rest of the crew I’d catch up but then went back to Emma.

  Emma: I said ‘sorry’ straight away. I was mortified. I still think about it sometimes. I should have told him who I was on that first night and then, if things had happened after that, at least he knew.

  Paul: It felt like a genuine apology. I think I laughed it off, saying ‘We had a good time, didn’t we?’ Something like that. I still thought I might have endangered the whole project.

  Emma: I asked where the crew were staying and how long they’d been there.

  Paul: I didn’t get what she meant at first. She already knew where I was staying, but she was really asking about Scott. I told her that he was in a villa a little along the road from the hotels. We’d all arrived about four hours before she did.

  Emma: I was trying to figure out if Scott really had a chance to push Dad. His villa was around half a mile away from the cliff.

  Paul: I asked her why she didn’t tell me who she was. She knew what I was filming, so she must have realised the connection.

  Emma: I told him I was having a good time and didn’t want to spoil it.

  Paul: Perhaps she was playing up to my ego with that. I don’t know. The more you find out about Emma, the more complicated she is. When you read about what she did, it sounds like the worst thing in the world. Something that’s the very definition of unforgiveable. You think that, if it was you, you’d never go outside again.

  But then you see her, and you talk to her, and it makes you question everything. Life isn’t black and white, with villains and heroes. Good people do awful things and awful people do good. I suppose the difficulty is in knowing the difference.

  Friends who know what happened with Emma and me on the island have said that I’m crazy for believing her.

  When she said she was having a good time with me and didn’t want to spoil it… well… of course it was flattering. Of course I wanted to believe her. That doesn’t mean she was manipulating me, or that it wasn’t the truth.

  Emma: I really was having a good time with him that night.

  Paul: I told her I had to leave. A person can only stop to tie their shoes for so long and I didn’t want any of the crew coming back to check on me. I’d probably taken a step or two away when I figured I’d try my luck.

  Emma: He asked if I’d do an interview on camera to give the other side of Scott’s story.

  Paul: She didn’t say ‘no’ – but she did say it probably wasn’t a good idea. That’s when I asked her if she fancied a drink instead.

  Emma: Smooth, huh? I told him that would be a better idea. After that, he jogged away to catch up with the crew and Scott. I guess I watched him, trying to take in everything that had happened.

  The village was starting to come alive by this time. The delivery trucks were back and stallholders were setting up. That hum of activity was beginning and the shadows were starting to stretch as the sun climbed higher.

  Perhaps the strangest thing about that morning was the sheer level of inception going on. Scott was watching me talk to Barak, then, when Scott and I were talking, what neither of us realised was that we were being watched, too.

  Chapter Fourteen

  LANDER

  Lander Contos (resident of Galanikos): I was walking through the village and then, from nowhere, she was on the side of the road. We’d not seen one another in nine years, but I knew it was Emma the moment I saw her. I think it’s something about the way she stands… the way she moves. It’s like she has an assurance of who she is. I looked towards her and she’d changed but… not really.

  I didn’t think I’d ever see her again and then, suddenly, there she was.

  Emma: When I’d been talking to Police Chief Jin on the cliffs, he’d mentioned Lander and then I’d sort of forgotten. It wasn’t anything to do with Lander, it was more that so many other things had been going on.

  Lander: There were four or five guys around her and I think, maybe, they were arguing. I was standing on the other side of the road, just watching. It didn’t cross my mind to intervene. I think I was in shock.

  Emma: After Paul walked off to catch up with his crew, I felt my neck prickling with that sense of being watched. I think I probably shivered – then I turned and saw Lander on the other side of the street. I suppose it was a morning for reintroductions.

  Lander: She came across to where I was standing and we looked at each other for a few seconds. I couldn’t think of what to say. There was probably a part of me that still couldn’t believe she was actually there.

  Emma: We were outside a tea shop and so I asked if he wanted one for old times.

  Lander: I should have said no – but I don’t think I’ve ever said no to Emma.

  Emma: He snapped out of the trance he was in and ended up ordering for the pair of us. It’s not like there’s a huge menu in those island cafés. They do thick coffee, or something called Mountain Tea. It’s made from leaves grown on the slopes of the volcano. Everybody from Galanikos drinks it and it’s as common as tap water might be in Britain. I’ve never been much of a tea drinker back home, but Mountain Tea is something else. You have to try it to believe it.

  Lander: I asked how she was.

  Emma: I said I was good. There’s a reflex in that answer. When you’ve not seen someone in nine years and they ask how you are, you don’t immediately unload about how everything went badly wrong.

  Lander: I told her I was good, too.

  Emma: So there we were: both good.

  I remember looking at his face and taking him in. His skin had always been this beautiful golden brown, but it had gone darker as the wrinkles were starting to come through around his eyes. His hairline had started to edge up his forehead a little and there was the merest whisper of grey close to his ears. I bet he’s dyed it out by now.

  Lander: I’m not going grey.

  Emma: It made him look older, but I think it suited him. Some people grow out of their looks, but others grow into them.

  It felt like another lifetime that we used to sneak off to the beach and cosy away in that cove underneath the cliffs. I never thought we’d end up as some old married couple… but I also didn’t think we’d go almost a decade without seeing one another. There was this part of me that thought we’d always be in one another’s lives, even though that made no sense.

  Lander: She told me about her clothes shop, but I was confused by that. I said: ‘Didn’t you used to work for your dad?’

  Emma: It wasn’t the time to talk about that – and he wasn’t the person to talk to.

  Lander: She didn’t want to talk about herself and kept asking questions about me instead.

  Emma: He was married with two little girls. Who’d have guessed?

  Lander: Do you want to see a picture? The girls look just like Rhea. Three beautiful women. I’m a lucky man.

  Emma: His wife is called Rhea. I don’t think he said it enough. Rhea, Rhea, Rhea. Did he mention his wife
is called Rhea?

  Lander: Emma said ‘Oh’ – but I didn’t know what that meant. Was she surprised? Happy? Did she think I’d be waiting for her?

  Emma: Of course I didn’t want him to wait. That’s ridiculous. I was surprised, that’s all. I never really thought of Lander as the marrying type. Then he kept saying ‘Rhea’ over and over.

  Lander: It was awkward.

  Emma: It wasn’t that awkward. I ended up pointing out towards the Grand Paradise and saying something about how they’d never finished the hotel.

  Lander: We used to sneak away on the really hot days. They had almost finished building part of the lower floor for the new hotel, so there was a roof and shade.

  …

  She was trying to avoid the issue, so I said it outright.

  Emma: ‘You never came back.’

  Lander: I said: ‘You never came back.’ She kind of looked away and I don’t think she wanted to be there.

  Emma: I tried to explain that, after everything with Alan’s fall, my family didn’t want to return. He didn’t reply, but I understand what he was probably thinking. I never emailed or wrote. I didn’t call or text…