“What about other guys he was with?”
Simon shook his head again. “I haven’t got a clue. I’ve tried to piece things together, but I’ve got nowhere.”
All the while he was running around with me, he’d been doing his own, much more important, investigations. I was only ever to tie up some loose ends. I pursed my lips.
“So, any number of disgruntled ex-boyfriends could have done it?”
He nodded. I resumed pacing. After a few seconds, a thought occurred. “Who else knows? The whole story, I mean? You three, me now, and your superiors?”
They both looked at each other. Guy coughed. “I told Tarquin everything.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ,” I said. It was endless. The tendrils kept on growing and reaching out to find more nooks and crannies to burrow into.
My head was back in my hands. I was so tired.
The thunder boomed. The air was dry and full of a tangy, metallic taste. Maybe we’d get lucky, a lightning bolt would hit Guy’s house, and we’d all go up in flames.
I may have enjoyed that little thought for too long as Guy and Simon were looking at me with concerned expressions. “What was his name?” I asked.
Simon swallowed. “See, that’s the thing. His name was Stuart. Stuart Murray.”
S Murray.
Simon caught up to me as I walked as fast as I could away from that fucking cottage. Lying, manipulative …
“Arden, please, wait, I’m sorry!”
I kept walking.
“Please, I didn’t lie on purpose. Please.”
I spun around. “But you lied. You lied to me again and again and a-fucking-gain! It’s all you do, Simon. From the moment this all started, you’ve played me like a fucking puppet on a string. Just dangling half-truths and twisted facts at me, trying to make me jump.”
Simon stood a few metres from me. The thunder crashed. The wind had picked up. For the first time in weeks, I was cold in just a T-shirt. Simon’s face was wretched in agony. His eyes were wet, his skin was red and blotchy from, I don’t know, holding back tears. Self-pity probably.
“No, Arden, I would never do that to you. Everything was genuine. I desperately wanted your help. Everything I kept from you was to protect you.”
“You kept me in the dark!” I screamed at him. “Someone is pretending to be your dead ex to murder your other ex! And you don’t tell me shit, Simon!”
Tears were rolling down his face. He yelled in frustration and swore at the sky. “I am stuck, Arden. I can’t … if I tell you things, we could both go to prison.”
“Who do you work for?” I yelled as loud as I could, my voice breaking.
“I can’t tell you!” he shouted back.
Tears streaming down my face too. “You are a liar, and you manipulated me and played me for a fool. I – I don’t ever want to speak to you again. For God’s sake, you kissed me this morning. Was that another ploy that I’m not allowed to know about?”
“You know it wasn’t!” he yelled. But he was already talking to my back.
I walked as fast as I could down that path. I’d keep walking. Maybe I’d walk to France.
“Wish I’d never moved to this fucking village,” I said, my voice cut through with sobs. Behind me, I heard him shout my name.
“I wish I’d never met you,” I said, but the thunder drowned my voice out.
Chapter 23
So that was it. As far as I was concerned. There. Solved. Someone pretending to be Stuart Murray was doing this. They had contacted Ollie’s law firm using that name. Then they had sidled up to Riz and concocted a story of how they could guarantee him a place in Parliament at Guy’s expense. They had attacked Jed.
