Georgie looked at her, eyes narrow. ‘What?’
Meg chose her words carefully. ‘It’s just … I think maybe Issy, you know, maybe that’s what Issy thinks.’
Georgie scoffed. ‘As if I would go anywhere near her sleazy boyfriend. He’s older than my dad!’
Meg remained silent, feeling like there was something Georgie wasn’t saying.
‘Don’t you believe me?’ Georgie asked.
‘I want to.’ Meg’s voice was gentle. ‘But I saw something, Georgie, which left me wondering if there is something going on with you and Hugh. I wasn’t going to mention it …’
‘What?’
‘I think you were with Hugh at the Red Lion—’
‘I work there! Of course I’ve seen him there!’
‘But you were upstairs where the hotel rooms are.’
Georgie glared at her.
‘Georgie?’
She shook her head.
‘What were you doing there?’
‘I don’t want to get in the middle of this.’
‘In the middle of what?’
Georgie ran her hand through her hair. ‘Look, Hughischeating on Issy, but not with me.’
Meg frowned. ‘Who with then?’
Georgie shook her head again and reached for her bag. ‘I can’t say.’
‘What? How am I meant to believe you if you won’t tell me anything?’
‘Okay.’ Georgie sighed heavily. She stared out the windscreen as she spoke. ‘I’m not having sex with him, Meg. I’m blackmailing him.’
‘Blackmailing him? What the hell?’
‘I … found out he’s been sleeping with someone. Someone he definitely shouldn’t be sleeping with. I saw them go upstairs at the pub, that night when you saw me, so I confronted them. He offered me money to keep quiet. That’s how it started.’
‘How it started? So it’s still going on? You’re still blackmailing him?’
‘I figured if he paid up once, he’d pay again,’ Georgie said quietly. ‘Georgie! What the—’
‘I knew I shouldn’t tell you!’ Georgie opened the car door. ‘Just pretend you don’t know.’
What the hell was she thinking, Meg wondered, as she watched Georgie disappear inside the house. Blackmailing the General Counsel of Ashworth Property! She closed her eyes as her mind raced, thinking of all the ways it could backfire.
A wave of tiredness washed over her. After the break-in and her fight with Jenny and finding out now about Georgie’s blackmail situation, she felt utterly exhausted. What a relief that there was a deluxe king room waiting for her just down the road at the Ashworth Park Hotel. Issy had booked it earlier after Meg told her about the break-in. She would order room service for dinner, she decided, followed by a long hot bath.
As she drove up Barton Drive, she studied the houses on her left. Most of them were empty now. It was easy to tell which ones had sold first, their front gardens were overrun by waist-high weeds. The houses which had sold more recently looked like they might still be occupied, but the junk-filled letterboxes and cobwebs around the eaves suggested otherwise. And now the Baxters had an offer too. What were the Ashworths planning?
Georgie had mentioned a dairy factory. Noticing a pathway running between two houses, Meg pulled over to have a look around. As she passed through the narrow corridor, a chill ran through her, despite the heat of the day—the strange sensation that someone was watching her. She rubbed her bare arms and looked around to see a bony, ginger cat crouching on top of the graffitied fence, eyeing her suspiciously.
