Zannah wrinkles her nose. ‘No, he wouldn’t. Would he have pretended to have a client who was a local news editor? I don’t think so! He’d have said they were being unfair and asked for an apology, but he wouldn’t have got creative and blackmailed them. And he’d have let them give me and Murad detentions for having our phones in school and being cheeky, when you were, like, “That’s not happening.”’
She’s probably right.
‘They gave me back my phone too late, though.’ Zannah giggles. ‘I wish I could have recorded you saying, “Tell you what, Mr Stevens – why don’t you and your staff work on your own behavioural problems for a few weeks first and then maybe I’ll allow Zannah to accept a detention from you.” Mum, you know what I’m gonna do?’ Zannah brushes crumbs off her hoody. ‘Revise thefuckout of my GCSEs from now till they’re done.’
‘That’s great, don’t swear, and how come?’
‘Nothing will piss Hosmer off more than me doing better than they all expect me to.’ Zannah peers at me. ‘What?’ she asks. ‘What was that funny look?’
‘You made me think of Tilly.’
‘Who?’ Zannah says. ‘Oh, Rubis Tilly who got me drunk?’
‘Yougot you drunk. Yes, that Tilly. And Lewis Braid. If the true explanation for someone’s behaviour is unusual enough, it’s the easiest thing in the world to hide it behind a more obvious explanation.’
‘What’s that got to do with me revising thefuckout of my—?’
‘Imagine you get all 9s in your GCSEs, because you work really hard.’
‘Never gonna happen. But I could get all 6s and 7s, maybe.’
‘You would know that you’d only made the effort in the hope of ruining results day for Camilla Hosmer, but that would never occur to most people. If you said to a stranger, for example, that you did nothing, and did nothing, and did nothing, and then suddenly started revising like a maniac in the run-up to your exams, why would any stranger think you might do that?’
‘Weird question. They’d probably think I suddenly panicked and was worried about failing.’
‘Right. So if you told them that was why, they’d believe you without a second thought. They wouldn’t question it. Just like, if Lewis is hanging around outside Tilly’s house in his car when he should be in Florida, what’s the obvious explanation there? If you keep turning up outside someone’s house, and lie about why when they ask what you’re doing there … well, it looks as if you might be an obsessive stalker, doesn’t it?’
‘So?’
She’s impatient for the conclusion, but I’m not quite there yet. ‘Lewis Braid is the father of Thomas and Emily Cater. They have his eyes, just like older Thomas and Emily do. Flora was with him when she rang me last week. That means he’s still around, still involved in whatever’s going on at Newnham House.’ I raise my hand to stop Zannah asking questions before I’ve finished. ‘But he’s not supposed to be. Think about the lies he and Flora have told me: Georgina’s twelve and doing great; they have no young children, only the three they had when they moved to America, where they now live; they have no connection with Hemingford Abbots any more.’
‘I don’t get it, Mum.’
‘Tilly kept finding Lewis loitering outside her house. Then she found him in her back garden clutching her silk pyjamas, at which point he declared his obsessive love for her. She and her husband had a word with him, he promised faithfully to stop, and he did – he never bothered them again.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Stalkers don’t just stop, Zan. Someone as determined and driven as Lewis Braid wouldn’t have given up so easily. Nor would he pick Tilly to obsess over. She isn’t his type. So why would he pretend to stalk her and be in love with her?’
‘I don’t think he would,’ says Zannah. ‘You can’t be sure—’
‘I’m sure,’ I cut her off. ‘Think about what Tilly told us: the pyjamas in the back garden and the crying and admitting it all – that came later. The first thing, she said, was that she noticed Lewis outside her house a few times.I assumed she meant he was lurking in her front garden near the house – number 3 doesn’t have any gates, so that’s possible – but she didn’t say that. She said “outside my house”. That could mean thatshewas in her front garden or on her driveway and she saw Lewis in his car, parked where we parked when we went to Wyddial Lane.’
‘If she just saw him in a car on the street, she wouldn’t assume he was in love with her.’ Zan rolls her eyes.
‘No, but if she spotted him more than once, she might think, “Why does he keep turning up? I thought the Braids had moved to America.” And think about what kind of person Tilly is. She said the first few times she confronted Lewis, he made crap excuses for being there. That probably means she trotted enthusiastically up to his car, knocked on the window, said, “Hi, Lewis! What are you doing back? I thought you’d moved to America.” And he was forced to lie.
‘I’ve been to Wyddial Lane three times now. It’s a silent, mind-your-own-business sort of place. Everyone’s hiding behind their high walls and gates, not watching what’s happening on the road. I’d bet everything I own that no one except Tilly on that street would rush up to a parked car and cheerfully demand to know the business of the person sitting inside it. Marilyn Oxley at number 14 is nosy and observant enough, but she’s also keen on keeping her distance. You should have seen the effort I had to put in to persuade her to leave her house and come and talk to me through the gate. Anyone would have thought I was waving a bomb around or something.’
‘Okay, so Tilly saw Lewis parked outside her house, and she went and tried to chat to him,’ says Zannah. ‘She asked him what he was doing there, and he made crap excuses. I still don’t get it.’
Silvia picks this moment to wander over to our table. ‘You ladies want more rolls? More coffee?’
‘No thanks,’ I say.
‘They are very good, though?’
‘Sublime, as always.’
