‘I’m not sure how anything we learned today is going to fit into an episode,’ Connor commented, as he drove carefully down the steeply twisting hillside, ‘but it’s somewhere I wouldn’t mind going for a spot of R&R, that’s for sure. If I could afford it, but I probably can’t.’
Cristy was only half-listening, still distracted by the brief conversation she’d had with Meier when he’d turned up to say goodbye.
‘Thank you for coming to see us,’ he’d said, holding her hand between both of his, his dark eyes gazing deeply into hers.
‘Thank you for the talk last night,’ she replied. ‘I think it helped.’
He smiled and continued to hold her eyes and her hand. It was hard to look away from him, although she didn’t actually try. ‘It’s not my place to ask what happened between you and David Gaudion,’ he said quietly, ‘but if you do want to talk about it, you know where I am.’
She was thrown by his use of David’s name when she was sure she hadn’t mentioned it, and she couldn’t think what to say.
He raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re not the only one who does their research before meeting someone.’
Rolling her eyes at herself, she said, ‘Of course. And thank you.’ They hadn’t mentioned Nicole or the twins, had simply continued to look at one another, until she’d eased her hand free and got into the car.
‘So, what are we making of it all?’ Connor asked, whenthey finally made it to the main road and were able to speed up a little. ‘Do you believe anything he told us?’
She turned to him curiously. ‘Does that mean you didn’t?’
‘No, not at all. He came across pretty well to me – I’m just interested to hear what you think.’
Realizing she would be too, she said, ‘To be honest, I’m still trying to process it, but I can tell you this: Maggi believes in Nicole’s confession. She thinks Nicole killed them.’
‘Wow,’ he murmured. ‘She actually said that?’
‘She did. She doesn’t know how or why, but she said she believes in the confession, and even intimated that, deep down, Meier believes it too.’
‘Holy shit. Does he know she told you that?’
‘I don’t think so. Food for thought though, isn’t it? Unless she was messing with me, which I guess is possible, although hard to see to what end. How about you? Did you get anything out of your new BFF, Johan? I guess you realized he’s the Johan Bauer who was in Bristol with Meier back in 2005?’
Connor frowned. ‘He didn’t mention it, but makes sense. So, he was one of the “Clifton set”?’
‘As was Maggi.’
Connor’s head came around. ‘We definitely have to talk to those guys some more,’ he declared. ‘I wonder if Johan also thinks Nicole did it?’
‘I’ve no idea, but think about this: if he was a part of that free-loving friendship group twenty odd years ago, there has to be a chance he’s the twins’ father.’
Connor sat with that, mulling the left-sided nature of its potential, until Cristy said, ‘Going back to Meier. I find him quite … distracting, don’t you?’
Connor nodded. ‘I guess. I mean, I could see he got to you.’
Cristy’s eyebrows rose as her heart contracted, but ratherthan respond to the insight, she said, ‘He wants to see Nicole, and we know she wants to see him …’
When she didn’t continue, Connor said, ‘So are you thinking we should make it happen?’
Was she thinking that? She had been, as far as they had any power to, but now, the more distance that opened up between them and the farm, the more concerned she was becoming about the effect Meier had had on her. She remembered someone in the feedback mentioning hypnosis without consent and that she still wasn’t sure what had happened while she was under. It was hard for Cristy to believe she’d fallen victim to that kind of thing. In fact, she was fairly certain she’d had her wits about her the entire time, frayed and hyper though they might have been – and still were. Apart from the dream, of course – she hadn’t been in control then – but no one ever was with a dream, and there was no doubt in her mind that it had been nothing more than that.
In the end, instead of answering the question, she said, ‘We need to speak to Honey, because, as taken as I was at the time by the powerful connection he described between him and Nicole, I’m finding myself struggling with it now.’ She gave herself a moment to assess that and added, ‘Maybe, I’m just not a romantic at heart – or it could be that getting dumped has turned me into a cynic.’
Connor glanced at her, clearly not sure whether to engage with that. Having no idea what she wanted, she gave him no guidance.
Eventually, he said, ‘Are you really just going to let things go with David?’
Sighing irritably, she reached for her phone, of course hoping for a message – and there was one, just not from him. ‘If he wanted to speak to me,’ she said, sending a thumbs up to her son to confirm she’d be at home later, ‘he’d call. That tells me all I need to know.’
As Connor started to respond, his phone rang.
