With a giant scowl, I leave the room and go in search of the ladies’.
Business taken care of, I tuck my shirt into my tapered trousers and wiggle the material at the calves, adjusting them so they fall just above my pointed heels. My reflection seems older than it did two months ago. So much has happened; so much is happening. Things were so simple when it was just Dad, Sandy and me. That feels like the life of an entirely different person and right now, I don’t know which Scarlett is best. Old Scarlett had a father, a career she could be proud of, morals. New Scarlett is confused, up and down on a daily basis, a liar, a murderer. But she has a man she adores. A man she’s so utterly infatuated with, she’s about to throw away a huge opportunity at work because she can’t stand the thought of leaving him. A man who could be carted off in cuffs at any moment for a crime he didn’t commit.
He’s standing outside John’s room, leaning one hip against the wall and holding my black wool coat across his arm. ‘Ready?’
‘You’re done?’
‘Yes.’ He opens out my coat for me to slip in my arms, then turns me and fastens the buttons to my neck. He drops a kiss on the tip of my nose. ‘Right. What’re we doing with our day?’
‘Are you joking?’
‘Scarlett, I’m not letting this whole thing keep dragging us down.’
‘What happened in there?’
‘We agreed to request another ballistics report.’
‘Can you just request another ballistics report?’
‘Well, we aren’t changing our story and the report doesn’tmatchour story, so John’s going to make a case for it. If not, we’ll go independent.’
I mull the idea over for a moment, trying to get things clear in my head. ‘Let’s say we get a second report.’
‘We are.’
‘What if the report comes back exactly the same, which, let’s face it, unless they’re utterly shite at their job, it will do.’
‘Was there really a need to swear then?’
‘Stop changing the subject, Gregory, and yes. Since meeting you, I’ve found a lot of reasons to swear so please let me indulge my new vice.’
He steps towards me and wraps his arms around my lower back. I turn my head because I know I’ll see hooded eyes if I look at him and I’ll completely lose my train of thought.
‘Look at me.’ His words are heavy.
‘No.’
‘Look. At. Me.’
I do. His eyes are filled with desire. ‘I like that I give you a reason to swear… in some departments. In others, please watch your dirty fucking tongue.’
I laugh at his forced hypocrisy. ‘Can we be serious for a minute? If both reports say the same thing, Gregory, you have two damning pieces of evidence to rebut. They make you look like a liar.’
‘True. But if they’re both different, they completely undermine each other. John still thinks that if it’s an obvious case of self-defence, given my father’s history, there’s a good chance the CPS won’t even charge but if they did and the case went to trial, their reputation would suffer because of the conflicting evidence and it would be hard to refute our story and my claim of self-defence.’
‘But we have no way of knowing and now it’s another week of waiting.’ I take an enormous breath that doesn’t settle thetightness in my chest. ‘Gregory, why did you get the ballistics report early?’
He sighs. ‘I’ve told you. Barnes is an old friend of Jackson’s. It was a heads-up.’
‘He was angry.’
‘Well, he’s conflicted. He has to investigate a friend. Relax, baby, this is our day. We can’t change things.’
As if that’s supposed to make me feel better. I throw my arms around him and bury my head in his neck that still bears the faint evidence of that fatal night because I really don’t know what else to do or say.
‘I won’t give up without a fight, Scarlett. I’ll make this right. You’ll see that what happened, what we did, was right.’
He closes the passenger door to the DB9, locking me inside, then slips into the driver seat. ‘Right, what do you want to do?’
