I choose my words carefully. ‘Do you…do you think it was an accident? That she really did lash out in self-defence?’
He is silent for a moment. ‘Felix was a complete shit where women were concerned. One of those men who’d try it on with anything in a skirt. She’s never said he’s been violent before, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t.’ He looks conflicted. ‘Maybe she was frightened he’d find out if she told anyone.’
‘It’s a possibility,’ I agree. Or maybe he never laid a finger on her and she was lying through her teeth, I think privately. Either way, the damage is done. Felix is dead and by helping his former girlfriend hide the body, Dominic is implicated.
‘How did you get the body onto the building site without anyone seeing? Demetriou said the cameras weren’t working. Was that down to you and Simone?’ The question’s been on my lips since yesterday.
‘I went down to find a wheelbarrow while Simone wiped the recordings and made it look like a power fault. Between us we managed to manhandle Felix into the barrow and I pushed it back down and hid him as best I could next to a pile of rubble.’ Dominic pulls a face.
I remember seeing a wheelbarrow abandoned outside the gates of the villa as I walked up from the beach the next morning. I picture Dominic pushing it down the track, Felix’s head lolling every time he hit a loose rock, and bile rises in my throat.
‘You must have known it wouldn’t be long before the builders found him.’
‘I never said it was foolproof.’ Dominic sways, and for one horrible moment I think he’s going to topple over the edge of the ledge. I grab his T-shirt and pull him closer to the cliff face.
‘Sorry,’ he says, clutching a root above him like a handrail on the Tube. ‘I haven’t slept.’ He closes his eyes briefly. ‘I spent the whole night trying to talk Simone into calling the police, but she point-blank refused. Said it was too late the moment we hid the body. The alibi was her idea.’
‘Didn’t you realise the police would suspect the rest of us?’
His face sags with guilt. ‘Honestly? I was so caught up in what we’d done I didn’t think about anyone else. Then Simone admitted she left your necklace beside Felix’s body and I freaked out. I told her that if she didn’t go to the police, I would. And I was going to speak to Demetriou this morning, Amber, I promise. I went up to find you to tell you, but when I went into our room I saw the note Simone left you on your bedside table. When I checked the villa and realised you’d both gone I came up here as fast as I could. Thank God I did.’
‘You think she was planning to kill me too?’
‘It sounds mad, doesn’t it?’ He shakes his head as if he can’t believe it could be true. ‘I don’t know. She’s always been fragile but she’s hanging on a thread. One more thing could tip her over the edge.’
‘The irony,’ I mutter, not sure whether to laugh or cry. I glance over my shoulder to where the ledge falls away and waves crash against the rocks below. The sight alone is enough to make my stomach plummet. ‘You think she’s up there waiting for us?’
‘No. If she’s got any sense she’s on the next sea taxi to Thalassia.’
‘I hope so.’ I let out a small sigh of relief. ‘Do you have your phone?’
‘Of course.’ He pulls it out of his back pocket, but his face falls when he checks the screen. ‘No signal.’
‘Are you sure?’ I grab it from him, squinting at the lockscreen. He’s right – there isn’t a single bar. ‘Shit. What are we going to do?’
‘You’re going to have to climb.’
‘What?’
‘Just a few feet at a time. I’ll help you.’
‘I don’t think I can?—’
‘Come on, Amber. It’ll be fine, I promise. Anyway, what’s the alternative?’
We both stare up at the wall of rock on one side and the drop to the sea on the other. Dominic is right.
We don’t have a choice.
68
AMBER
‘Wait!’ I grab Dominic’s arm.
He flinches at my touch and I realise he’s barely holding it together.
‘There’s something else, Dom. Before you arrived, Simone told me we were alike. What did she mean? I’m not like her, am I?’
