Simon turned to Guy for a second and took a deep breath. “Just after I moved here, there was a lad at the base. Risen through the ranks quickly. Hand-picked. He was drafted on to our team. Very clever, spoke Chinese, an analytical brain. He was perfect for us.”
The hairs on the back of my arms were standing on end. I knew where this was going. Thunder clapped again. The sky outside was black.
“He was also … he was good-looking. He introduced himself to me. Very flirty. Young, confident. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’d just moved here; I didn’t know anyone. I was single. One day, he sidled over and asked me for a drink. It’s not technically allowed, but it’s also not expressly forbidden. So, I went for it.”
“This lad already had a reputation. Already on thin ice. He was wild, he drank too much, he stayed out all night, and he took a lot of drugs. Neither of us were looking for much more than casual, so it worked for a while. One night, he came over and, well, it was a freezing winter’s night, we decided to head down to the Fox and Lamprey.He was charming, kind, lovely. He had everyone eating out of his hand. We ran into Guy.”
“I could tell straight away what he was after,” Guy said. “I’m embarrassed to admit we both fell into his game. I’d seen Simon around a bit but hadn’t got to know him very well. That night, the three of us sat at a table. He was, as Simon said, good-looking. Very charming. Flattery, drinks pouring. He had his hand on my leg from the moment we all sat down. I freely admit that I wanted it to happen. He rubbed his hand up and down my thigh, making eye contact with Simon, daring him to join in or to rebuff him. If we didn’t want it, he wanted us to make a scene.”
“But we didn’t.” Simon gulped the rest of his drink. “Good-looking men are a curse,” he said with some bitterness. “They take and take and always expect to get more. He was the same. We came back here. And we … well, we didn’t know what he’d taken until he offered it to us. I’d never had it before or again. I didn’t enjoy it.”
“What was it?” I asked.
“G,” Guy said. “GHB, liquid ecstasy. It was his drug of choice. You see it on the chemsex scene.”
I raised my eyebrows again. “Oh, fuck off, Arden. We all have histories,” he snapped.
Tarquin once described Guy as so stuffy that he thanked his lovers after some half-hearted missionary. I held up my hands in apology and then beckoned for them to carry on.
“That night was wild,” Simon said. “There, we admit it. Yes, Guy and I had a threesome with some bloke while all of us were totally off our heads on whatever drugs he had on him. It was stupid, but it was fun. We weren’t ashamed.”
“And then what happened?” I asked, dreading the answer.
Simon shrugged. “He and I fizzled out. We stopped seeing each other. He moved on to the next.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
He shook his head. “His behaviour began to get worse. He was reprimanded. They worried he was a liability. He was too young for the job, maybe. I don’t know. I know they were looking at ways of moving him out again.”
“One night, a few days before Christmas, he turned up here again,” Guy said. “He was off his head. I’d say I was surprised he knew how to find me again, but obviously, in that job, they have their ways.”
“I was here with Jed,” he said. “The pair of us were drunk. Well, I was drunk. Jed was shitfaced. He was passed out in front of the fire. Then in this guy comes, all gorgeous and young. He wants a repeat performance.”
“And you said?”
“Yes, obviously,” Guy said as if any other answer would have been lunacy.
I was in a parallel universe. “I invited Simon over. He was less than convinced but came anyway. Jed barely knew what was happening. He was so drunk. I think he was dimly aware Simon was here. It wasn’t until much later that he realised. Anyway, the three of us went upstairs. Did the deed. Simon and I came back downstairs for a drink and left him up there. He was a bit out of it, so I told him to have a lie-down, and that he could stay the night if he needed to. But he was determined to leave later, said there was a party back on base he wanted to go to.”
“We were down here, drinking,” Simon said. “After a few hours, it was getting late. Jed had recovered and toddled off for a piss and opened the door to Guy’s room. Saw him on the bed.”
There was a very long pause.
“He’d mixed it with alcohol,” Guy said. “Lethal.”
Holy shit.
“Jed freaked out, as one would. There was some naked man upstairs with no pulse on my bed, and where the hell had he even come from, because he wasn’t there when Jed arrived.” Guy took a long sip of his drink. “We’re not proud of what we did next.”
I stood up and began to pace. The room felt close and hot. The thunder was near. Every thirty seconds, the booming claps came.
“It would have ruined us all,” Guy said.
My heel hovered an inch above the ground as I went to take my next step. “You covered it up?” I spat at them.
Both looked like small boys reprimanded by teachers. Their shoulders were slumped. Guy bit his lip. Simon wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“We called one of my bosses,” Simon said. “Asked them what to do. A vicar, and someone of Guy’s status, on the grounds of a stately manor with some dead twink? A scandal.”
