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‘Heavens Tess,’ he laughed. ‘You did give me a fright!’ He stood up to beckon her in. ‘Come in, come in. Shouldn’t you still be at the party? I thought we’d leave you youngsters to it.’
Tess smiled weakly, suddenly finding that she couldn’t swallow as she looked at him. What made this worse was that she liked Leonard Asgill.
‘I have to ask you something, Leonard,’ she said finally, with more resolve than she felt. She moved a few feet further into the room but remained standing, still not wanting to get too close.
‘I have to know what happened on the night of Meredith’s wedding. I have to know what happened to Olivia Martin.’
His smile was rigid, but his tone remained light.
‘Surely that’s all water under the bridge,’ he said, ‘We all read the Washington Spy story, but it didn’t have any impact – old news. Certainly the wedding is still going ahead tomorrow, which it wouldn’t be if Wendell Billington believed a word of what was being alleged.’
‘I know what happened, Leonard,’ she said softly, forcing herself to meet his gaze.
His smile relaxed until his mouth was a thin line. ‘No one knows, Tess,’ he said. ‘No one will ever know.’
‘No one except you.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he replied airily.
‘I think you do, Leonard,’ insisted Tess. ‘You’d do anything for family, isn’t that what you told me once? Support them, protect them? Does that extend to killing for them?’
He put down his pen. The genial smile had now completely left his face.
‘To what?’ he said, his eyes narrowi
ng. ‘How can you say such a thing, Tess? After everything this family has done for you.’
Tess could feel her fingernails pressing into her palms. Her resolve was wavering, but she had to go on.
‘You were in the rose garden the night of Meredith’s wedding, weren’t you, Leonard?’ she persisted. ‘You had just had sex with Mary–Ann Henner and, when she left, you saw your sister and Olivia come into the rose garden. You overheard Olivia blackmailing Meredith.’
‘This is nonsense!’ he said, his voice angry and raised.
Tess heard a noise behind her and turned to see Meredith standing in the doorway, her face still. For a long moment, her eyes locked with Leonard’s, then he looked away.
‘Well, Leonard?’ she said. ‘Is she correct?’ Meredith’s voice was taut yet even, her eyes hard as flint.
‘Of course she’s not right. This is fantasy, supposition.’
Meredith closed the door to the study, the satin of her Valentino couture rustling as she walked slowly into the room. ‘I want the truth, Leonard.’
Leonard sank back into his chair. ‘It is the truth.’
His sister walked up to the desk and placed both hands on the dark wood.
‘Tell me!’ she hissed. ‘Tell me now.’
For several long, painful moments, he just stared back at her. Finally he gave a tiny shrug and nodded.
‘Yes, Mary–Ann and I were in the rose garden. She returned to the party but I stayed back to have a cigarette. You and Olivia came in, but I was sitting on the ground so you didn’t see me. I heard you talking, and I heard how much money she wanted.’
His expression darkened. It was a few seconds before he continued.
‘Olivia was a slut, Meredith,’ he whispered. ‘A few weeks earlier I found out that she had been sleeping with Howard. I tried to warn her off, but she just laughed at me. Then I saw her chatting up everything that moved at the wedding.’
‘What happened, Leonard?’
He stood up and paced to the window, staring out at the blackness.
