‘She told Dom your dad tried to attack her and she was acting in self-defence. I suppose he had no reason to doubt her.’
‘But if the police didn’t suspect anything, why kill herself?’
‘I overheard her and Dom talking about the night of the murder. Dom saw me and told Simone. That’s why she left me that note. She was luring me here so she could kill me too.’ My voice starts to wobble and I take a deep breath. ‘Dom realised what she’d done and came after me. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be dead.’
Willow reaches over and squeezes my good hand. I give her a watery smile.
‘When you arrived and told her Demetriou was on his way she must have realised the game was up,’ I say. ‘She’d run out of options. Be arrested and slung in a Greek prison or die a freewoman. I guess it wasn’t much of a choice when it came down to it.’
‘It wasn’t just that though, was it?’ Willow says thickly.
‘What d’you mean?’
She looks away. ‘Nothing.’
I think about Dom. Handsome, charming, gallant Dom, who made a promise to Simone that he would always have her back, but was prepared to break that promise for me. And then my thoughts turn to Simone. Beautiful, brittle, spoilt Simone, who couldn’t live with the fact that Dominic was no longer dancing to her tune.
Simone decided to end her life and that was her choice, but she had no right to take Dominic with her. I will never, ever forgive her for that.
In the distance, above the roar of the sea and the noise of the cicadas, comes another sound. The throaty growl of a diesel engine. Willow hears it too and scrambles to her feet. I follow stiffly, my wrist throbbing and every muscle aching like I’ve been used as a human punchbag.
Soon, this quiet promontory will be awash with police search teams and scenes of crime officers, scurrying around like worker bees under the calm counsel of Detective Lieutenant Demetriou.
‘D’you think they’ll find them?’ Willow’s voice is so full of hope it breaks my heart.
‘I’m sure they will,’ I say. But even as the words leave my mouth, I know I’m only telling half the truth.
They’ll be found.
Just not alive.
EPILOGUE
AMBER
The captain’s voice crackles over the intercom.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just begun our descent into London Gatwick. The local time is sevenforty-fivep.m. and the weather is clear and mild. We’ll be landing in about twenty minutes. Cabin crew, please prepare the cabin for arrival.’
I stifle a yawn and stretch, careful not to knock the plaster cast on my right wrist. To my surprise, I managed to sleep for most of the three-hour flight. It was as if I was finally able to relax once the plane left Greek airspace. No, not relax, because there’s nothing relaxed about the numb state I’ve been in since that terrible morning. Maybe I felt I could finally drop my guard. I no longer had to pretend I was shinier, posher –better– than plain old Amber from the South Langley Estate. I could just be me.
Willow and her mum flew home yesterday. Victoria and Barney were on the same flight. I couldn’t leave until today because I had to wait for Demetriou to officially rule me out of the murder investigation and release my passport.
As I signed my final witness statement, Demetriou admitted Simone had been on his radar from day one. Something about her ice queen demeanour had troubled him. But all the time shehad a solid alibi – Dominic – there was little he could do except continue to build a picture of what happened the night Felix died.
‘I did wonder if he was lying to protect her, but why would he do that when there was a chance the finger of suspicion would fall on you?’ he said, mystified.
Why indeed.
‘Call it misplaced loyalty,’ I said, shrugging. ‘He was a dependable kinda guy.’
Coastguards found Dominic’s body on a tiny beach accessible only by boat not far from the lighthouse that evening. Simone’s body washed up at high tide the following morning. When Demetriou called us all onto the terrace of Villa Paradiso to tell us, he assured us they would’ve died instantly, and the others seemed to take some comfort in that.
Not me.
The Greek police had more than enough evidence to prove Simone’s guilt in the end. When they recovered her body, they found my phone on the rocks below the lighthouse. Thankfully, the recording I made survived the fall. They also found a pair of latex gloves in her bathroom bin, streaked with Felix’s blood and speckled with marble dust from the bust of Athena.
‘Why the hell would she have left such damning evidence in her bin?’ I’d asked Demetriou, even though I knew the answer. Simone’s hubris made her careless. As long as Dominic stood by her, she thought she was untouchable.
