“Oh shit!” He put his hands up to his face again, shaking his head.
“Why else did you come to the book club, if not to steal themoney?” Phyllis demanded. “And if you try to tell me it’s because you like reading then I’ll know forsureyou’re lying.”
“No, it wasn’t that,” Michael said from behind his hands.
“Well, why did you come, then?”
Michael didn’t reply, his whole body hunched over like a child trying to hide. The poor thing, it was clear he was having some kind of nervous breakdown. Nova glanced at Phyllis, but the woman’s face was hard. From far below them, she heard the sound of a wave crash against the rocks.
“We need to get outside; this building’s not safe. Can you stand up, Michael?”
He didn’t move.
“Phyllis, can you help me get him up? I think we need to take him to a hospital, he’s clearly in shock.”
Phyllis grunted and stepped forward to take one of Michael’s arms. But as soon as she touched him, he shrieked and recoiled.
“Come on, Michael. We need to get you out of here,” Nova said.
“You can’t hide here forever,” Phyllis said. “Either you or your wife killed your mother, and whichever of you it was deserves to go to prison for a very long time.”
“It wasn’t either of us,” Michael moaned.
“I told you, there’s no point trying to protect Cynthia,” Phyllis said. “Are you aware your wife’s been having an affair? She even hired a PI who’s been investigating you.”
“What?” Michael looked up from his hands and his face had gone even paler. “What private investigator?”
“A man called Graham Pierce. We thought Cynthia might have paid him to kidnap you, but now it seems that theory was incorrect. But she was certainly paying him to do something related to you, as the man has a computer file with your name on it.”
“Oh God!” Michael said with a low groan.
“We have a copy of the file back in St. Tredock, so as soon as we can get into it, we’ll know exactly what Cynthia’s been up to.”
“Please, no…” The man had started to visibly shake.
“Michael, are you okay?” Nova said. “You need to breathe, you’re hyperventilating.”
“You can’t see them!”
“See what?” Phyllis said.
“The photos.”
“What…” Nova stopped. “Hang on, how do you know there are photos in the PI’s folder?”
Michael’s eyes were roaming the room now, looking everywhere but at her and Phyllis. “It wasn’t meant to happen like this,” he muttered to himself. “Not here.”
“What are you talking about? What isn’t meant to happen here?”
“I can’t do it here…It’s all wrong.”
Michael had a strange intensity in his eyes. An intensity Nova had seen once before, with Declan. She felt a cold stab of fear.
“Michael, please try to keep calm.” As she said the words, Nova began to slowly back away from the man, trying to nudge Phyllis toward the door. “Just take deep breaths, you’re going to be—”
But she didn’t get to finish her sentence, as at that moment Michael leaped to his feet and hurled himself at Phyllis.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
