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“Well, surely if the police thought there were anything untoward going on, they’d have examined the motorbike themselves?”
“This may come as a shock to you, Teddy, but the police aren’t infallible. As it turns out, there was a fault with the bike.”
Teddy set his wineglass down carefully on the table. “Was there?”
“Well,” Summer backtracked, “they couldn’t be a hundred percent sure. But the mechanic at St. Martin’s said the markings on the brake cables and the way they’d frayed suggested that they may have been tampered with before the crash.”
“Tampered with?” Teddy’s mind raced.
“Yes. Someone may have wanted Michael to crash that day.”
Teddy shook his head. “No. I don’t believe it. That can’t be true.”
“Does Michael have any enemies, that you know of?”
“Enemies? The boy was an events organizer, not a spy.”
He still is an events organizer, thought Summer, but she held her tongue.
“I daresay he may have pinched the odd fellow’s girlfriend over the years,” said Teddy, adding tactfully, “Before he met you, obviously, my dear. But I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt him. Not seriously.”
“Maybe it wasn’t Michael they wanted to hurt,” Summer suggested. “Maybe it was you. Or Alexia. Maybe Michael was just a means to an end.”
Teddy pushed his plate to the side. “You said the chap that you showed the motorbike to wasn’t sure.”
“Not absolutely sure, no. The evidence might not hold up in court. Not on its own, anyway. But it’s a start.”
“A start of what?” Teddy reached across the table for her hand. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Summer. But do you not think that, perhaps, you might be hearing what you want to hear?”
Summer bridled. “I’m not making this up, you know.”
“I’m not suggesting for a moment that you are. But by your own admission, the evidence is inconclusive. The brake cables could have frayed when Michael saw the lorry hurtling toward him at God knows how many miles per hour. Could they not have?”
“Technically, yes, they could have,” Summer said grudgingly.
“You want there to be a meaning to all this. A reason for your pain, and for Michael’s suffering. But the truth is, there is no reason. Any more than there’s a reason why that lunatic Drake took a shot at Alexia. Bad things just happen.”
“You don’t know there’s no reason for what happened to Michael.” Summer was surprised to find herself close to tears. Teddy really knew how to push her buttons. “Someone may have tampered with those brakes.”
“You can torture yourself with ‘may have’ Summer, but it won’t bring Michael back to us.”
“No. But it may bring us the truth.”
“But why, my dear?” Teddy sounded exasperated. “Why would anyone want to kill my son?”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to figure out.”
“By ignoring the answer that’s staring you in the face? The answer is: they wouldn’t! Michael didn’t have enemies. This wasn’t some dastardly plot. This was an accident. Brake cables fray in accidents.”
Summer tried a different tack. She’d hoped the news from Walthamstow might rouse Teddy’s curiosity at least, but he seemed determined to dismiss it. Instead she asked him the same question she’d asked Roxie at
Kingsmere weeks earlier.
“Did Michael talk to you about a secret in the weeks leading up to the summer party? Something troubling he’d discovered.”
“No. He didn’t.”
“Are you sure?”
