‘Is that what she said, that I killed him?’ He sucks deeply on the cigarette, blows out the smoke. ‘I suppose I did, but it was an accident. I was already leaving, and the idiot came after me. I acted in self-defence.’
Ted looks back at him, incredulous. He’s not sure what to believe. John is unreadable, a cipher.
‘Why would I kill him?’ John asks reasonably. ‘What would be the point? I hurther, to make her talk, to make him talk, but it was clear they didn’t have them. I checked all their devices just to be sure.’ He adds, ‘I’m not happy he’s dead either.’
A long silence falls between them, an uncomfortable silence. They stand in the biting cold. At last, John asks, ‘What did she tell the police?’
‘Nothing. She’s not going to say anything about the camera footage,’ Ted says, his voice bitter, ‘but she wants a hefty cut for it.’
‘Poor you. Money doesn’t go as far as it used to, does it?’ John says.
Ted turns on him, rather viciously. ‘Not when everyone wants a cut! And I still don’t know who actually has the damn files! How much do you thinkhe’sgoing to want?’
John turns away from him and looks across the still pond, into the distance.
Ted says, more quietly, ‘You justkilleda man. You’ve made things exponentially worse. Just– just stay out of it! I’ll figure it out on my own. I’ll find out who this fucking bastard is.’
‘Well, if you’re sure,’ John says.
‘I’m sure,’ Ted snaps. With that, he abruptly walks away.
He hears John call after him, ‘Good luck with that.’
John watches Ted stride away from him. He drops his cigarette to the ground and rubs it out angrily with his foot. It sounds like this will go down as a simple home invasion. That’s good. He’d been worried. He doesn’t want Lara Donleavy telling the police the truth, doesn’t want the police finding out about the recordings and the blackmail. Because if Ted’s arrested, he might tell the police that John was the one behind Ben Donleavy’s death. He’s glad Lara saw sense.
Screw Ted. John still has avenues to pursue. The cleaning lady is worth looking at. He already knows where she lives. But he will have to be more careful now.
Once he has the files, he’ll show Ted who’s boss.
‘Well?’ Jill says, when Ted arrives home. She says it with contempt, and she can tell he feels it by the hurt on his face. She doesn’t care. She no longer respects him, and how can you love someone who you don’t respect? He’s made one mistake after another– involving John Burnley is just the latest one. She doesn’t think Ted is weak, but she thinks he’s stupid, and that’s almost worse. She berates herself for having married a loser, for having joined such a perilous enterprise with a man who is a fool. How had she not seen his true worth before?She’d been so blinded by his supposed wealth and good looks, by all his trappings of success and the promise of an easy life. And she’d been seduced by his adoration of her, by the way he treated her, like she was the most precious thing that ever was. He still loves her, she knows that, and he’s afraid of losing her. He just doesn’t realize that he already has.
But Jill can never leave Ted, because what they have done has bound them together for ever. He’s made a murderer of her. And because of what they’ve done, they must stick together. It makes her sick, all of it. How could he have asked for help from that deranged criminal? Look where it’s got them! Ben is dead, and her best friend knows everything and has turned on her.
This is not the life she imagined, trapped with a man she now thinks of only with contempt. A life of constant fear, and worry, and financial stress. And she can’t even turn him in to save herself, because he wouldn’t get the inheritance then, and she’d have nothing. She’d have to start all over again, probably after years in prison. By the time she got out she’d be drab and unemployable. Released to a life not worth living.
Because of him, she is going to lose everything. She has already lost her best friend.
‘It was him,’ Ted says, facing her grimly in the front hall, under the glittering chandelier.
‘No kidding,’ she says acidly.
Chapter Forty-Six
‘DON’T WORRY,’ TEDsays to his cold wife. ‘He’s not going to say anything. He’s got enough to worry about.’
‘You think? He killed Ben!’
He looks back at her angrily, hurt by her scorn. She is outraged that John tossed Ben over the stair railing to his death, but she’d had no such scruples about killing Ted’s brother, Greg. ‘He says it was an accident. Ben came at him– it was self-defence.’
‘Oh, and you believe him?’ Her voice is strident, mocking, verging on hysterical.
‘Why would he want to kill Ben?’ His voice has risen too. ‘He says he was already leaving when Ben came at him!’ He realizes he’s yelling at her. He takes a breath, tones it down. ‘Anyway, I’ve told him to stay out of it. To stay away from us, from all of it.’ He strides past her to the kitchen, and she follows.
He starts making himself a coffee while she moves around the kitchen restlessly.
‘You should never have asked him for help,’ she complains, her voice accusing.
‘Well, we couldn’t go to anyone else, could we?’ he says bitterly. That shuts her up for a moment.
