‘She was on her own,’ says Leonard before I can speak.
‘Okay, you’re certain?’
‘Yes. Absolutely.’
‘No!’ I cry out. ‘No. I wasn’t alone. Tom is in the water. He can’t swim.’
The police officer has a right to look surprised. ‘I thought you said she was alone.’
‘I didn’t see anyone else,’ says Leonard.
The police officer calls to his colleague and together they wade into the water, their torch beams scanning the waves. One speaks urgently into his radio. I can’t hear what they’re saying.
‘Tom can’t swim,’ I repeat looking at the officers.
‘Probably a good thing,’ says Leonard.
They break the news to me the next morning. Tom’s body was recovered from the water at first light. The weather conditions were too poor the night before to carry out a full search-and-rescue operation. They tell me he probably drowned within the first few minutes of entering the water.
I cry for Tom. My friend of many years. I cry for the years we spent together and the good times we had. How we made it through university together and then worked together. He was one of my best friends. I don’t cry for the Tom who deceived me. The Tom who has stolen money from the trust fund and the Tom who tried to blame Leonard.
‘I’ve had my suspicions about him for a while now,’ says Leonard, as he sits beside me in my hospital room. I’ve been taken back to the same room. Luke is on his way back from his parents with the girls, although I’ve asked him not to bring them to the hospital.
‘Why didn’t you do anything if you thought he was up to something?’ I ask. ‘Maybe it didn’t have to get to this point.’
‘Proof. I couldn’t prove anything. You know Tom’s a whiz on the old computer. He has set it all up to look like I’m the one who’s crooked. After everything I’ve done for that boy. I never thought he’d turn on me like that.’
‘He must have had his reasons.’
‘Gambling debts, a messy divorce, maintenance payments. All the classic things.’
‘I wish he’d come to me and told me. I would have helped him. I would have given him the bloody money. He didn’t need to steal it.’
‘Trouble with Tom, he thought he was far too clever to get caught,’ says Leonard.
‘He needed help. Not just the financial kind.’
‘Clare, there’s something I want to ask you.’
I have a good idea what it is and I suppose I owe it to Leonard to tell the truth, but I also have a loyalty to Luke. No one needs to know what happened between Tom and me on the pier last night. I change the subject quickly. ‘I hope Luke gets here soon. He left a message with the nurse to say he was dropping the girls off with Pippa and then coming straight over. I don’t want the girls to see me in hospital. I want to see them at home tonight. If they ever let me out of this bloody place. What about Mum? Hadn’t you better get back to her?’
‘Her friend from the WI is with her. The doctor came and gave your mum a sedative.’
‘I should be there with her. If it wasn’t for the bloody police coming to interview me, I’d go home but I don’t want them turning up at the house, not with everything that’s gone on. It will be too much for Mum.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to stay for the police interview?’ says Leonard. ‘They’ve got rather a lot to talk to you about.’
‘I’ll be fine. It’s Martha they should be talking to. Is she still not saying anything?’
Leonard shakes his head. ‘She won’t say a word. Even when I told her Tom was dead. She just turned away and looked at the wall.’
‘What’s going to happen to her now?’
‘It will need to be dealt with in America. She’s not actually committed any crime here, apart from entering the country on false documentation. So, I assume, deported back to the USA, where she’ll be arrested for the murder of Alice and then she’ll face a trial. The conversation you found on the memory stick in Tom’s apartment will be a crucial piece of evidence.’
‘They still have the death penalty in Florida,’ I say, picking at the edge of my new plaster cast.
‘If she gets herself a good defence attorney, I suspect they’ll enter a plea of manslaughter. I don’t think she’ll face the death penalty for that.’
‘Despite what she’s done, I don’t wish that on her,’ I say, looking up at Leonard. ‘All I want is to find where Martha buried Alice.’
For the first time I allow myself to cry as an overwhelming sense of loss engulfs me. I accept the comforting embrace of Leonard and sob quietly into his shoulder. I’m conscious that this small act is the start of a new connection between myself and Leonard but I can’t think about the future yet, not when I still have so much of the past the contend with.
Leonard has only been gone for about twenty minutes before the police and Luke turn up, practically at the same time.
‘Hi,’ says Luke. ‘I met these in the corridor. Sorry, it’s not the customary bunch of flowers husbands are supposed to bring their wives.’
My heart does a little flip of joy. In that one sentence, I know that Luke and I are going to be all right. I smile at him. ‘Don’t worry, all is forgiven.’
He offers a smile in return and comes over to me, kissing the top of my head and perching on the bed next to me. He picks up my hand in his and turns to the police officer. ‘What did you want to speak to my wife about?’
‘A couple of things, actually,’ says PC Evans. ‘First of all, Mrs Pippa Stent is dropping the charges about the damage to her car.’
‘Okay, thank you. That’s good.’
‘Yes, we couldn’t identify clearly from the CCTV footage who bought the paint from the garage. They were wearing a baseball cap and Mrs Stent is convinced it wasn’t you after all. She said she thought it might be your … er … Miss Munroe but under the circumstances it’s not in our interest to pursue the matter further.’
‘Pippa’s cool with everything,’ Luke says. ‘I spoke to her today. She’ll call by in a couple of days to see you.’
‘We need to take some information regarding the accident at the house but, as I understand it, that will be part of a new investigation, so my colleagues in CID will be discussing that with you at a later date.’
‘Is that it?’
‘Yes, we’ll be in touch soon but if, in the meantime, you could stay in the UK, that would be much appreciated by our colleagues in CID.’
‘Of course.’
‘Thank you. We’ll be off now, then.’ Evans and Doyle depart, leaving Luke and I alone.
‘I’m so glad to see you,’ I say. The relief that Luke is here envelops me.
‘I came as soon as Leonard phoned,’ says Luke. ‘He’s told me everything. I’m so sorry for not believing you about Alice, I mean Martha.’
‘How has Mum taken it?’ I ask. ‘I think Leonard was playing it down.’
‘I’ll be honest,’ says Luke. ‘Not great.’
‘I need to get home and see her. And the girls. Are they okay?’