It was past checkout time, but Julius wasn’t in the lobby. I asked the twins where their dad was, and Amy said he was still packing in the room, so I took the lift upstairs and headed along to his door.
There was a maid’s trolley towards the other end of the corridor, but the floor was otherwise quiet. I almost knocked before I realised that the latch had been locked in place and that Julius’s door was open a crack.
Julius: It had been a busy morning. Everyone had breakfast together, except my sister, and then the girls had wanted one more hour at the pool before we went back up to pack. I’d sorted them out first but hadn’t quite finished my own packing. I was only running a few minutes late – and the taxis weren’t due until half-past twelve anyway.
Emma: Julius’s suitcase was open on the bed and there was a scattering of clothes and other things around the room. It was a bit of a mess – and I couldn’t see Julius. I moved inside, looking around the corners to see if he was in there somewhere.
I found myself over by the balcony door, which was open – although Julius wasn’t out there either. The door to the bathroom was closed and I figured that was the only place he could be. I was about to move, which is when I spotted the bin at the foot of the bed. It was almost full, mainly of food wrappers – but sitting on top was the necklace that Julius had bought at the airport on the first day.
I picked it up and shook it around – and it made the same whooshing sound that it had when we were in the shop. The noise that had entertained the girls so much. Julius had been wearing it at the first dinner, and then I’d not seen it since. I’d not even thought about it.
The necklace was still in my hand when I looked up and realised Julius was standing in the middle of the room.
He said: ‘What are you doing?’
Julius: That’s a reasonable question, isn’t it? I’d not heard her come into the room and then, all of a sudden, I come out of the toilet and she’s standing right there.
Emma: When we were in the hospital, Dad said that he was looking out over the cliffs and then he heard the wind whistling before he fell.
It felt like a really normal observation, except that I had walked to the hotel next door that night and didn’t remember it being windy. I said that to Julius and then rattled the necklace, which made a sort of cooing, low hum.
Like a gentle wind on a quiet night.
Julius: Emma said: ‘I have to tell you something.’
Emma: After I rattled the necklace, Julius said: ‘What are you talking about?’
I told him about the ‘Who benefits?’ line that Scott had mentioned. Scott always thought Dad had something to do with his own father’s death because it was my dad who benefitted the most.
Julius hadn’t known about the documentary and Scott at that point. It was all news to him and he didn’t know what to make of it.
Julius: She said: ‘I need the money.’ I said: ‘What money?’ – and Emma replied: ‘Dad’s money.’
Emma: Scott got that thought stuck in my head, except that I’d missed the most obvious thing. Mum didn’t have long to live, so if Dad also died, who was next in line? It wasn’t me. It would be the favourite son… the one who’d lost his highly paid banking job and not told his parents.
It would have been Julius who inherited the business.
There was literally nobody who would have benefitted more than my brother.
Julius: I was confused. I didn’t know what money she was talking about, but Emma kept saying: ‘Dad’s money’ as if that meant something.
She asked if I could lend her ‘ten- or twenty-thousand’, that she wanted to get her own place and that she couldn’t afford it on her shop wages. She kept saying: ‘You earn loads; you can afford it.’
Emma: I kept thinking of the night before, when Dad had been poisoned. I was so certain I’d put the pork paella on his plate. As certain as a person can be. I wouldn’t have made that mistake.
But Julius was right behind me in the line and there was rice on his plates. When the twins were on stage everyone had to turn, except Julius and Daniel. Daniel was further along the table, so perhaps he didn’t notice – or maybe he didn’t care.
Julius could have easily switched a plate with Dad in that time. It was Julius who called the waiter across and got rid of it so quickly afterwards. If I’d been paying better attention, I bet I would have noticed that Julius had the pork paella in front of him.
Julius: Emma was getting upset at this point. She said: ‘I had to do something. I can’t live like this any longer.’ I asked what she meant and she said that Mum didn’t have long to live. When Dad died, everything would be split between us – but she couldn’t wait that long.
Emma: Then there were the even smaller things. Julius said that Daniel had disapproved of some of Dad’s spending at the airport – but I’d not seen any of that. In fact, I couldn’t understand why Daniel would care. He’d got a free holiday out of things.
The only person who’d mentioned Dad’s spending was Julius. In the taxi on the way back from the hospital the first time, he’d said that Dad had been throwing money around since Mum got her diagnosis. I didn’t care – but he did. It meant it would be less left over to inherit.
Julius: It took me a while to catch on. I thought it might have been a mistake with the meal the night before, but I said: ‘Are you saying you tried to kill Dad?’
Emma stared at me with those cold, determined eyes of hers. She said: ‘It would be better for both of us, wouldn’t it?’
Emma: I saw Julius for who he was in that moment. On that first night, when he’d said that everything he did was for the girls, it felt so fake – and that’s because it was. It was always about him.
Julius: I saw Emma for who she was in that moment. Heartless and cold. Everything’s always about her.
Emma: I laid all those things out to him. It wasn’t evidence as such – the necklace that sounded like wind, the fact Julius was out of the room on the night Dad fell, his lost job, the opportunity to switch plates… and the fact that Julius would be the person who benefitted from our parents’ deaths.
Julius listened, but he wasn’t replying to anything. He turned and walked across the room. I thought he was leaving – but he unlatched the hinge and let the door swing closed – then he turned and strode back towards me.
I didn’t know what was going to happen in that moment. I said something like: ‘You were going to let everyone think that I’d poisoned Dad…?’
I thought he’d reply, but he was silent. Instead, he kept moving faster and faster towards me. I stepped backwards and he shouted: ‘You don’t have to do this.’
I had no idea what was going on. He was only a few steps from me and I replied: ‘Do what?’
He was still shouting, probably even louder at this point and he yelled: ‘You’ve got so much to live for.’
Everything happened in a flash after that. He shouldered into me, shoving me backwards towards the railing of the balcony – and that’s when I realised he was trying to make it sound like I was suicidal.