‘And have you noticed . . .’ Tilly nudges her mum with her elbow, nodding towards the corner sofa across the room. There sit Ivy and Seb, their heads almost touching as they speak in such a familiarly intimate way.
‘Oh yes.’ Pauline grins, taking another sip of her drink. ‘I have noticed indeed.’
‘It’s about time my little brother got his act together.’ Tilly sounds amused. ‘And I’m getting the impression she’d be well worth upgrading from the shed for.’
‘I can tell you,’ Pauline says, smiling again, ‘she very much is.’
They snuggle into one another for a moment before Tilly speaks again in an urgent tone. ‘I really am so sorry about everything, I hope you know that. I was so stubborn about seeing what you were going through.’ Tilly sighs.‘I feel like it was some kind of temporary blindness, like I was wearing blinkers, and couldn’t see what was right in front of me for so long.’ She looks down at her own lap. ‘It was like your life with Dad was a magic eye picture. Everything was so blurry and confusing – a big blur of a photo – and then when you explained it all, it suddenly came into focus. I thought I didn’t really know you all this time, but it was him I didn’t know. I misunderstood you both completely.’
‘I’m sorry, too, Tilly,’ Pauline tells her. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping you in the dark. By staying with him and putting up with it.’
‘I know, I get it. It’s not your fault, Mum. And I hope they throw the book at him,’ Tilly says darkly. ‘I hope he gets everything that’s coming to him.’
‘I hope so too, my love,’ she says, thinking of that plastic bag of evidence she’d passed across the desk at the police station. She wishes she could see his face when they brought him in.
After all, if framing someone for murder doesn’t even the score for a faked death, what does?
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
‘I can’t believe the police finally caught up with us!’ Audrey says sombrely, regarding her partner in crime, Pauline, from across the cramped room.
‘Are you two OK in there? It isn’t too horrible?’ Ivy calls loudly through the solid, locked door, her voice full of genuine concern.
‘There’s a toilet!’ Audrey replies excitably, waving at the amenities. ‘And a sink! It’s right next to the bed. How incredibly handy. I might get one of these at the castle.’
‘We’re fine,’ Pauline calls out. ‘It’s a bit grey and cramped in here, but no worse really than a private jet.’
From where she’s sitting at the end of the cot, Audrey cackles.
‘After everything we’ve been through, we really could’ve done without this,’ Teddy shouts reproachfully, her voice muffled by the walls. She sounds a bit bored.
‘It’s not my fault!’ Pauline cries. ‘Don’t blame me, it was Audrey who ran off with the pizza and refused to get out of the jacuzzi. I just happened to be there with her. They shouldn’t have arrested me as well, it wasn’t fair.’
‘They didn’t arrest you, Pauline,’ Ivy calls out reassuringly.
‘It’s police corruption!’ Audrey shouts, defiance in her voice. ‘They can’t just lock us in a prison cell like this.’
‘I wouldn’t exactly call thempolice,’ Teddy says carefully. ‘And I wouldn’t exactly call that a prison cell.’
‘Fine,’ Audrey tuts. ‘Well then, it’s cruise ship security corruption. And they had no right to put us in the brig. I thought maritime law meant anything goes. Surely international waters mean you can do whatever you like without consequences.’ She shakes her head. ‘We really should’ve remembered that when we were in our murdering era.’
‘They had every right to put you in the brig, actually,’ Teddy tells her archly. ‘Really, Audrey, you gave them no choice when you refused to listen to staff and do as you were told. All you had to do was stop eating pizza in the hot tub! You were getting pineapple and ham in all the jets.’ She tuts. ‘And instead, you had to be chased out by security, and then you both ran away to hide in the mini golf castle. There were children trying to play through.’ She sighs. ‘And Pauline, you really shouldn’t let Audrey be such a bad influence on you. You’re like Batman and Robin these days, always up to mischief.’
Pauline and Audrey look at each other and giggle.
Until this afternoon, they’d mostly managed to stay out of trouble during their Christmas cruise. But that was never going to last very long, not with Audrey around. And – as she’s said more than once during their travels – it’s important to get your money’s worth when you’re paying twenty thousand pounds a week to get seasick.
Not that Pauline would say it isn’t worth the cash. Her cabin – positioned right at the front of the boat, on the portside, overlooking the ocean – must be well over eight hundred square feet. It has a king-sized bed, a huge walk-in wardrobe, its own separate living room, and a bathroom that would put most five-star hotel rooms to shame. Not to mention the private terrace, where Pauline directs the on-board butler to serve coffee every morning. She’s sat out there on her own for a few minutes each morning, sipping her cappuccino and letting herself be hypnotised by the deep blue, blue water.
It has been like a dream.
Until their dramatic arrest by security, who escorted them to the brig an hour ago.
‘Why didn’t you just get out when they told you to?’ Teddy sounds exasperated through the door.
Audrey waves her hands. ‘I don’t like being told what to do.’
