“Exactly,” Marina said. “It was only ever supposed to be about knocking Guy off his perch. Riz hadn’t intended to shake the whole bloody system.”
“And you have no idea who this person was?” Simon asked.
“Not a clue. I tried to get him to tell me. I really did, Simon, you have to believe me!” Her eyes fell downwards. “I thought he’d got them from you for a few days.”
“From me?” He sounded shocked.
She shrugged. “Your name was mentioned in a few meetings. I was told—” She shifted uneasily in her seat. “To stay clear of you and to tell higher-ups in the party immediately if you offered any information or if I felt something was off.”
“And did you?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Simon can confirm that he and I barely spoke two words to one another the whole time.”
I looked at Simon. His scowl – if it was possible – was even deeper than usual.
“Let’s clear this up, once and for all,” I said. My head was hurting from the sun and the hangover. “You say you knew Riz leaked the photos – after?”
“Yes, when Suzy told me that Riz had come clean to her.”
“You had no idea beforehand?”
She nodded. “He’d mentioned some underhand tactics might come into play. That’s why I didn’t tell the police … I thought … well, you know, I should have stopped him earlier.”
“Who was the other Marina in his phone?” Simon asked.
“I have no idea,” she said after a long pause. “I wasn’t aware … wait, no, I remember once. He got a phone call from someone when we were in the same room a few days before the photos were leaked, and the caller ID was Marina. I thought it was strange at the time, and I even asked if he had a friend called Marina. He said he used to work with her.”
“Convenient.” I turned to Simon. “Did Riz only work at the hospital in Salisbury? Do you know where else he’d been employed?”
Simon shook his head. “He did his med school in Edinburgh,” he said. “I think he worked around there for a few years before moving back nearer his parents once he was all trained up.”
“So, this other Marina is the person who had the photos?” I asked out loud. I turned to her. “What about Jed Fulford?”
She shook her head. “The vicar? What about him?”
Simon was rigid.
“Did Riz ever mention him?” She shook her head again at my question.
“No, just that day when the news broke about him being attacked.”
“He was with me that day,” Simon said stiffly. “I got a call, which was the first he knew about it. He didn’t even know who Jed was until then.”
“You never introduced them?” I asked, confused. “Jed and you are friends.”
Simon kept his eyes firmly in that middle distance. “Jed isn’t quite as tolerant about the men who like men stuff as he pretends to be. He likes it kept at a distance.”
I pursed my lips at this. I’d take Simon’s word for it, but that didn’t sound like the man who was happy to be included in dinner parties to set me and Guy Frobisher up, like he had been when I first moved here. Then again, he’d been a no-show that night on account of an upset stomach, so God only knows.
“Look,” Marina said. “I know I screwed up monumentally. I should’ve told the police about the photos. I will do so – tomorrow. I’ll go in and make a statement.”
A thought occurred to me. “Wait until Monday.”
They both looked at me.
“I need to check on my children,” she said. It was time to go. Marina, with her last bit of confidence, was politely telling us to fuck off.
She ushered us out to the front of the run-down house with its flaking paint on the window frames and weeds in its guttering. I’d lived in houses like this. Simon made for the car, but I held back.
