Gosh, has Pauline already become spoilt? How exciting.
Perhaps, she decides, they save the really exotic,glamorousjets for the Hollywood stars. Perhaps Sigourney Weaver is flying about on the truly lavish ones; the ones that have jacuzzis and snooker tables.
Not that she’d want to play snooker anyway. John and snooker . . . yeugh. He played it every Wednesday and Thursday evening with his friends.
Before he faked his own death, that is.
Will he resume his snooker playing now, she wonders, likenone of it ever happened? Will he resume his life? Their lives? She can’t let that happen.
‘I still can’t believe John’s really alive,’ Pauline says out loud for quite possibly the hundredth time since yesterday’s Zoom meeting with him.
In a seat across the aisle, Ivy shoots her a look of genuine sympathy. Behind them, Audrey shouts, ‘Not for long.’
‘How am I going to tell Tilly and Seb?’ Pauline says, shaking her head.
‘You won’t have to, darling,’ Audrey points out. ‘If we can get to him before he tells anyone else, no one ever has to know he survived the Austrian Alps.’
Teddy nods. ‘It’s actually the perfect crime. As far as the world knows, he’s already dead. We just need to get rid of the body.’
‘What if he’s already told them?’ Pauline asks anxiously. ‘Seb’s only out in the shed in the garden. He may well have already come in and seen his dad. He would be so shocked! I want it to come from me, if he has to find out.’
‘How often does Seb come in the house?’ Teddy leans forward.
Pauline is struck by something her son said just before she left. ‘Oh wait! He’s on a course! He’s away for a week.’
‘A course?’ Audrey cocks her head. ‘How exciting! For work?’
Pauline has no idea. All she remembers is saying the wordcoursea lot. ‘Yes, for work,’ she confirms, hoping this might even be true.
Ivy smiles softly to herself. ‘Good for Seb.’ Then she nods. ‘Plus, John’s said he’s hiding out, staying under the radar until you’re back, right?’
John has been bombarding Pauline – or Paula as he’s still calling her, of course – with messages since his return to the family home. He has demanded she return immediately so they can ‘begin their new lives together’. He has also promised they’ll tell the children together – and the world – about what he’s calling ‘the wonderful miracle’.
Pauline shifts around uncomfortably in her seat, trying to find an angle that doesn’t make her behind quite so sweaty. She is unsuccessful.
She checks her watch, feeling a little queasy. She took some travel sickness pills after they took off, but they don’t seem to be working. It’s odd that she was perfectly fine on a boat all week, and yet being on this journey home has made her feel so poorly.
Maybe it’s less to do with the flying, and more to do with what she’s flying home to.
From the back, Teddy crows happily, ‘Pauline, babe? We’re all sorted.’
She cranes around to look at her friend. ‘What’s sorted?’
Teddy smiles, throwing her phone into a huge, brown leather bag that no doubt cost five figures. ‘Those pesky loan sharks. I had a quick chat with your man Craig before we boarded. My finance guy has just messaged to confirm he’s paid them off. They won’t bother you again. They send their thanks and best wishes.’
Pauline gapes at her. All these weeks of fear, all this time wondering what she was going to do and how she was going to cope. And Teddy’s solved the whole thing in a few hours.
She smiles a watery smile. ‘Thank you,’ she whispers, and Teddy winks.
She sinks back into her uncomfortable seat, the weight of weeks of fear and worry finally lifting.
Is it always so freeing to just . . . say your problems out loud? Granted, not many people have a pal with eight hundred million pounds in the bank, but even without Teddy’s surreal bank balance, admitting the issue – getting it off her chest – had already made Pauline feel a thousand times better. Who knew having best friends was so important?
She checks her watch again.
Not much longer until they land, and then straight back to Surrey to see John. Notseeactually – back to Surrey tooffJohn.
Pauline giggles childishly to herself at the thought. She’s never saidoffbefore. Well actually, shehassaid off, of course she has. Just not in reference to murdering someone.
