Page 162 of One of Us Is Guilty

I tensed before I asked my next question. The answer would dictate what happened next.

‘I almost died. Bloch and Lake too. Other people weren’t as fortunate. So I have to ask this, and I need you to be honest. Remember, I will know if you’re lying. Did you tell Patrick that Bloch was searching the Hamptons house with Raymond?’

‘I did, but he never told his father. It was the lawyers, Buchanan and Duff. They told Julian as soon as their associate called it in. And Julian got Dekker to call the painters, like he did before with Teresa and Molly.’

‘Why did you tell him?’

‘Because I needed him to trust me. If he found out that you were investigating the house and Teresa’s death, he would assume that I knew you were doing that. It would look like I was trying to double-cross him. His father always said he was weak. I needed to be there, by his side, to make sure that he went through with the plan. I never wanted to put your team at risk, I swear.’

‘I take it Patrick doesn’t know who you really are?’

She shook her head. ‘And he never will. He thought Molly was Willow. I never told him otherwise.’

I looked down at Vanessa’s boots, tilted my neck, saw exactly what was there on the ground.

‘You want to tell me who Molly really was? Better still,’ I said, gesturing to the ground, ‘show me.’

She stepped to the side, picked up a black Nike gym bag with a white swoosh on the side.

She handed it to me. In her other hand, she held that red purse tight.

I took the gym bag, put it on the ground and opened it.

Inside was a phone, a laptop, a notebook and a small, framed photograph. The photo was of a man in his fifties or sixties, with white hair, in a sharp suit, holding a baby girl in his arms.

‘There’s no blood in that bag. There never was a head in there. Molly gave me her stuff in case Patrick came back and started tearing her apartment apart. I should have taken her with me.’

‘I think she knew the risks,’ I said.

‘That’s Molly and her father. Molly was her real name. But her surname wasn’t Green. She was Molly Cherry. That’s the only photo of her and her father, Boris, who worked for Julian for years. A week after that photo was taken, Julian fired Boris. Patrick was there when it happened. I’ve heard him talk about it, talk about how nasty his father was to this man. Patrick believed his father fired Boris to teach Patrick a lesson in cruelty and ruthlessness in business. Six months after he was fired, Boris Cherry threw himself offthe roof of his building, and his family disintegrated. Molly’s mother lost herself in alcohol, and died three years later. Molly spent her childhood being ferried around different foster homes, with foster parents who were much more interested in Molly’s trust fund than making her a decent meal, or looking after her at all. When she grew up, she had nothing. No money, no prospects, a juvie record and one family to blame for it all. She knew the most important thing in Julian’s life was his son. He wanted Patrick to have political power. Molly wanted to get close to him so she could find some dirt on him, something to ruin him. And if she couldn’t find it she was going to do a tell-all exposé to the press about the affair. So I don’t blame her for what she tried to do. I was doing the same thing.’

The rumble of a large truck on the bridge above filled the silence between us.

‘So you and Patrick are on decent terms now?’

‘Yeah, you could say that. We’ve agreed to part. The police investigation against him for Molly’s murder won’t go anywhere, because there’s no link between Patrick and the paint crew, not enough evidence to charge him and no new evidence to find.’

‘So they never found the bracelet?’

She shook her head, said, ‘I took it the night Molly was killed, thought I might be able to use it against Patrick. Like an insurance policy. Proof of his infidelity. When Patrick told me the truth, I used it to get the meeting with Julian, pretending to blackmail Patrick.

‘And those burn marks on your arms – I take it you did that to yourself?’

‘I had no choice. I met Patrick on his first election campaign. I was a staffer, just like Molly, and Patrick was married then too, although that relationship was already going off the rails before I came along. Geoff Gilbert is a great political campaigner, but a lousy judge of staff. He often says he doesn’t have the best campaign staff, but hedoes have the hottest. A low-cut top and a smile go a long way in certain branches of politics. So I was able to get close to Patrick, just like Molly. But I’d been a junkie for too long. I’d gotten clean, but there’s only one way to hide scars from those kind of needles.’

‘You’re a formidable person, Willow. I’ve got a good sense of when people are lying too. It’s kind of my thing. I think you’ve told me the truth tonight. Thank you for that.’

I turned away, but I felt her gaze on me.

I stopped.

I let her see my back. I didn’t turn around.

‘You don’t need the pistol in that purse,’ I said. ‘I’m glad you never had cause to use it. From the sounds of it, Molly knew the risks, and she was playing a very dangerous game. If I were you, I’d go start that new life. Lots of people died, and that’s something you have to live with. Julian Vanderpool came after my daughter and he tried to have me killed, so I only have one question – was he conscious when he started to burn?’

A bird called overhead. The river lapped gently at the shore.

‘Yes.’