‘I don’t know, Teri. He didn’t expand on the subject.’
‘Don’t get touchy. I’m just curious, that’s all. For Max to have an affair at work means he must have been unhappy at home, don’t you think?’
Here we go again. I shake my head and laugh. ‘I’m not being touchy, Teri. Of course there was something wrong in the marriage. He was – I mean is – a psychopath. That usually makes for an unhappy marriage, in my experience. It’s not like I loved him.’
She tilts her head at me. ‘Maybe you should let him go. Have you thought of that?’
I pick up some notes, just like she did, and let them fall. ‘That’s what I’m doing.’
‘No, I mean, let him and Holly go.’
My head hurts. It’s all this talking. The emotional rollercoaster. It’s giving me a migraine. I don’t understand what’s happening. I have just poured my heart out. I have described the nightmare that Holly and I are living in. I have told her about my sister’s murder, for Christ’s sake. And I have confided in her about my deepest fears, the kind that keep me up at night.
She waits for me to reply, a concerned expression on her face. ‘I’m not leaving Holly with him, Teri,’ I say. For a moment, I forget that he is dead in the freezer. ‘I thought I’d explained that for, like, the past hour.’
‘Don’t be so defensive,’ she says. ‘I only mean that, well, it’s not very fair to keep his daughter hostage?—’
‘Hostage?’ I shriek.
‘You know what I mean.’
‘No! I don’t!’
‘You don’t love him, Kate! It’s not fair to force him to be with you if you don’t love him! Let him go! Let them both go!’
Oh, my God.
It’s her.
21
The front door closes. ‘Hi!’ Holly calls out.
I scramble to my feet. ‘Holly’s home.’
‘Did I say the wrong thing?’ she asks, using the side of the wardrobe to pull herself up.
‘Kate? Teri?’ Holly calls out.
‘Coming!’ I reply. ‘It’s fine,’ I say to Teri. She watches me as I gather the last of the banknotes and put them back in the box.
‘It’s an awful lot of cash,’ she says, still looking at the money.
‘Are you all right now?’ I ask. ‘Your ankle?’
She winces. ‘I think so.’
My heart drops.I think so.
‘You’ll be able to go home tomorrow, then.’
She gives me a tight smile. ‘That’s what we discussed. Yes.’ Then she puts on that face again – the concerned one. ‘You’re sure I didn’t upset you?’
‘Not at all.’
I shove the box back on the shelf.
‘Listen. I haven’t said anything to Holly about this, so please don’t.’
