Next, Charles agreed to a divorce from Jasmine, after they had negotiated a lump sum in lieu of ongoing alimony, an amount that sounded impossibly large to me. The money would be transferred as soon as he got back to Birmingham and Jasmine would file for divorce as soon as she got home.
In return, Charles would get their silence. This would be the official story: Zack killed Samir and Morag. He murdered Samir because he wanted the app for himself and Samir was threatening to take it to another company, and he had killed Morag because she had threatened to tell the police what she’d seen. The story would be that after I had found out about this, Zack had tried to kill Charles, who shot him in self-defence.
‘And what about Lewis?’ Holly asked.
‘He fell,’ said Brenda. ‘An accident.’
‘Just like Jimmy,’ said Charles.
They looked at each other without speaking.
‘And I hid in Brenda’s shed for twelve hours.’ Jasmine broke the silence. ‘Only making myself known right at this moment.’ Jasmine gestured at the gathering. ‘That’s why we’re all here. You rushed here to make sure I was okay.’
She turned to me. ‘Obviously you won’t be able to make your documentary. None of this can ever come out. But everyone involved tonight needs to be bought in. Avril?’
‘Do I have a choice?’
‘Of course you do. This deal isn’t going to go ahead without your approval. You’ll be rich.’
She stepped away from the window. ‘Gran?’
‘I know it’s unfair, love. That your mum won’t ever get proper justice. But the money… This will make your life so much better. I think it’s what she would have wanted.’ Also, it would keep Brenda from facing any consequences for killing Lewis.
Avril went quiet.
‘Come on,’ Charles snapped. ‘The police are going to be here any second.’
‘There’s one more thing I want,’ Avril said.
‘What is it?’
‘The arts centre. I want you to start developing it again. To go through with all the promises you made back then.’
‘That will cost a fortune.’
‘I don’t care. I want you to do this, for Applecross. For all the jobs it will create. The money it will bring here. And I want you to call it the Morag Hamilton Arts Centre.’
‘What about you two?’ Jasmine asked. ‘Holly? Patrick? Are you prepared to keep quiet?’
There was a long pause, before Holly said, ‘I don’t know.’
Charles opened his mouth, but Brenda spoke over him. ‘Come on, hen. Do it for me. For Avril.’
‘This is really what you want? You don’t want Dad to go to prison for killing Jimmy?’
‘There’s no evidence, is there? And there never will be. Even if you testified that you saw him, he can keep denying that he did it.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘I’ve lost both my Morag and my Jimmy. Avril is all I’ve got left now. I’m doing this for her. And she’s your sister, Holly. If I can agree to all this, you can, too.’
Finally, Holly nodded. ‘Okay. Okay. Fuck.’
‘That just leaves you, Patrick?’
I looked at Avril, and thought about how much easier the money would make her life. And how amazing the arts centre would be for this community. But it all felt wrong, and not because of the documentary I’d never be able to make. I didn’t care about that. The problem was that justice was not being done here. Charles deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison.
There was another knock and a female voice that I recognized said, ‘Police. Open up.’
‘What about Samir’s family?’ I said. ‘His parents.’
‘They’ll think Zack killed him,’ Jasmine replied. ‘Which is true. They just won’t know Charles was involved.’
