He let go of me as rapidly as he’d embraced me. There was no sign that he had been crying, though I knew, of course, that grief hits people in different ways, at different speeds. He was probably still at the denial stage.
‘Why did you follow them there?’ he asked.
I hadn’t been expecting to be hit with this question so soon. I looked to Holly, who shook her head almost imperceptiblyand said, ‘Can we go inside? It’s too cold to even think out here.’
We all went inside, into the kitchen. Zack was there, on his laptop at the table, the dog at his feet. Their hunting rifles were propped against the wall, the overnight bags they’d taken hunting sitting unzipped beside them. The sight of the guns made me feel even more on edge.
‘I’ve been in touch with Nathalie,’ Zack said to Charles. ‘She’s preparing a statement about Lewis, although it’s mostly telling everyone to respect the family’s privacy. You’ll need to take a look at it.’
Nathalie, I gathered, was the head of Gravitas’s PR department.
‘I’ve spoken to the chief constable, too,’ Zack went on.
This was the highest-ranked officer in the Scottish police. No ordinary mortal had any chance of communicating with him, but this was Charles Grant. ‘He assures me they are going to do everything they can to find Jasmine and to find out what happened to Lewis. I’m afraid he also backed up what Williams said. The weather is making it impossible to get anyone here right now. They can’t even get a helicopter out. The snow is supposed to stop later, around midnight, at which point…’
‘She’ll be back by then.’ Charles sounded confident. ‘She’s a survivor, my Jasmine.’
I noticed how Miranda’s eyes narrowed at the mention of her name.
‘Obviously, we need to decide exactly what to say when the news gets out,’ Zack said. ‘About Lewis, but also, well…’
Miranda folded her arms. ‘The news that you are married.’
Charles’s tone was impatient. ‘How many times do I have to say it? I was going to tell you tonight. Now please, stop nagging me. Put the kettle on. I need coffee.’
She flinched, but obeyed.
‘I expect you could use a coffee, too, eh, son?’
He patted me on the shoulder.
‘Sit down. That’s it. Now, talk to me. What made you go to the caves?’
So Susan Williams hadn’t told them about my suspicions of Lewis. I wondered why. Was she waiting for more evidence? Afraid of upsetting the family? Perhaps she was going to wait for the detectives to arrive from Inverness, let them deal with it. Or maybe she thought my story was unbelievable.
I took a deep breath and glanced at Holly.
‘Go on, then,’ she said. ‘Tell them why you went there. You’ve already told the police.’
Everyone was staring at me.
‘I… I was worried about Jasmine. I thought Lewis might be planning to… harm her.’
Miranda dropped the teaspoon she was holding, the noise as it struck the counter surprisingly loud in the silent kitchen. Zack looked at me the way a nightclub bouncer eyes a drunk.
The only person who didn’t seem alarmed was Charles. His voice was calm. Even. ‘You think he was going to try to kill her?’
‘I…’ I tried to catch Holly’s eye, but she wouldn’t look at me. And then I made up my mind. I needed to be firm. Jasmine was out there. If we wanted to find her, lying, trying to protect feelings, was only going to harm her chances of survival.
‘Yes, I do.’
I told him what I’d told Holly. He listened, his face impassive. When I’d finished, he said to Miranda, ‘Is it true? Did Lewis indicate he was planning something?’
‘No! I mean… he said something about how everythingwould work. He didn’t say he was going to push her to her death. This is nonsense. And I didn’t speak to him on the phone last night. That’s absurd.’
‘What exactly did he say this afternoon?’ Charles demanded.
I answered. ‘He said, “I promise you, Miranda. It’s not going to turn out like that. I’m going to fix it. Trust me.”’
