“Not really.” His voice was hoarse.
“Then do you want to tell me why you and Marina Holt hate each other so much?”
He snorted. “You know, usual reasons. I’m not political candidate boyfriend material.”
My eyebrow returned to cocked position.
“They couldn’t even say what I do for a living in any blurbs. ‘Riz’s fiancé works for the government’ was as much as we could offer.”
Oh.
“Wow, you actually are a spy?” I asked, feeling a bit stupid.
He gave me a look.
“Can you answer that?”
He was giving me the look still.
“Can we sit?” His voice seemed small. He pointed towards a tree stump that was repurposed as a seat. I followed him.
“Did you make this?”
He nodded and swigged his beer. He purposely sat faced away from me, staring at the trees, and sniffed loudly. I looked at him in surprise; there were tears running down his face.
“Sorry, I was trying not to cry in front of anyone.” He cleared his throat in the way men do when their embarrassment has caught up with their other emotions.
“Don’t do that,” I said. “You loved him.”
“Why?” he said sharply. “Why has this happened? There’s no rhyme nor reason to it. Riz wasn’t going to win the seat. Not even with Guy dropping out. He … he was a doctor, for God’s sake.”
No rhyme nor reason.
“I know.” I put my hand on his shoulder.
He slumped forward, tears on his face. We sat there for several minutes, maybe longer. It could have been an hour. The only sound was Simon’s occasional sniffs. He angled himself so I couldn’t see his face.
“I need to find out who did this, Arden,” he said eventually.
That snapped me back to attention. “Let the police do that, you focus on you.”
He shook his head. “No, I need to know who did this. I need to make them pay.”
“Simon.”
He spun around to me. “You caught Tarquin. You could show me what you did.”
Ah. “It wasn’t really a case of me catching him, per se.” I’d thought Tommy Douglas had done it.
He shook his head again. “But the police have nothing. They told me this morning. Neuberger said they found no physical evidence at the scene.”
“The killer will make a mistake,” I said, trying to ease his fears. “They’ll catch him. He’ll try and sell something he stole from Riz’s wallet or—”
“It wasn’t a robbery, Arden. He wasn’t carjacked,” he snapped. “This is Dorset, not Johannesburg.”
I was saved from this going further by Marion opening the door and coming out into the garden. “Darling, there are some more people here. Lady F.”
Simon grimaced but stood up and wiped his face. “I need a minute to fix myself up,” he told his mum and went inside.
