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‘We’ll work it out,’ Anna says. She wipes her forehead. ‘Come on.’
Nicole finds the keys and they get Olly’s body into the car.
A few hours later, when she’s showered and dressed, when dawn has broken and Anna has taken tea and toast out to the officers in the squad car, when the freshly arrived police search teams have begun to gather in the lane, she gives Jen a formal statement about the camper and what he said about seeing Olly. Then she asks if they can go out.
‘We can’t stand to be here all day just waiting.’
‘Understandable,’ Jen says. ‘I’m sure that’s fine. Where will you go?’
‘For a walk, and then maybe to town. Call us when you’ve finished. I hope you find him.’
‘We’ll do our best. I’ll be in touch with any news.’
‘Thank you,’ Nicole says.
In the garage, Nicole settles into the driving seat, Anna beside her. The Maserati dash is intimidating. She gets the car started and tries the accelerator. It has bite.
‘Ready?’ she asks. Anna nods. Nicole opens the garage doors and the police in the drive move aside. Nicole leans out to have a final word with Jen. ‘Do you want a set of house keys? So you can use the loo?’
She says it sincerely. Her gamble is that the more open and helpful she is, the less likely they are to suspect her and Anna of anything. It was natural that they suspected her when Tom died, but this is different. Now, she’s very much the victim.
‘No, thanks. We’ll be alright. See you shortly.’ Jen waves her on and she eases her foot down onto the accelerator, hoping the car will move smoothly, worried that if it doesn’t, they’ll realise it’s the first time she’s driven it and wonder why. But it behaves.
They don’t drive a long way once they’ve left Lancaut. When they get Olly out of the boot, his body feels warm, still, but it’s cooling rapidly. Getting him out of the car is easier than getting him in. They’re on a small pebbly beach beside the river. It’s not overlooked. They pack Olly’s pockets with stones.
‘It suddenly gets very deep here,’ Anna says. ‘If we get this right he’ll be down there for a long time. I’ll take him in.’
If the body is ever discovered, they hope that the water will complicate a post-mortem. They hope the stones in his pocket will suggest suicide.
Anna takes her clothes off and drags Olly into the river. As soon as she’s out of her depth, Nicole can see the struggle she has to stay afloat and worries for her, but Anna lets go of him suddenly and he’s gone, completely taken, invisible in the murky water. Nicole piles stones onto the sheet they wrapped him in and ties it around them. She tosses it far out into the water and watches it sink.
Anna climbs out, dripping, shivering. ‘We forgot to bring anything to dry you,’ Nicole says.
‘I didn’t.’ Anna pulls a small towel from the shopping bag she brought and dries herself then packs the towel neatly away. She dresses and they get back into the car.
As they pull out, she says, ‘Nick and I used to swim here,’ and Nicole says, ‘That’s a lovely memory.’
EPILOGUE
85
TWO WEEKS LATER
Nicole
The house feels quiet when Nicole wakes. It’s the first time she’s woken up to an empty home in weeks. Anna moved back to the Manor yesterday, and Nicole helped her.
Sasha has cleared out all of her stuff and Olly’s. Anna’s letting her stay in the Coach House for now though Sasha says she doesn’t feel safe anywhere, that she’s afraid Olly is out there somewhere, just waiting to take revenge on her.
Anna made Sasha an offer: move out of the Manor and disappear or stay in the Coach House and continue to run your yoga classes in the Manor. They hoped it was a tempting enough offer for Sasha, and it turned out that it was. She accepted.
Revenge on Sasha is going to be a long game, but it’s started.
Nicole likes the thought of Anna and her as close neighbours. She feels connected to her for life after what happened, andshe’s looking forward to spending more time with Anna. They get on beautifully.
Anna has offered to help with Tom’s funeral and plans are underway. It’s going to be the perfect tribute to her perfect man and the father of her child. Nicole has done a pregnancy test and she’s expecting. It’s the most glorious and scary thing that could have happened to her since Tom died.
She makes herself a green tea and a light breakfast and returns to her bedroom. She finds it hard seeing Tom’s clothes hanging in their dressing room but can’t bear to get rid of them for good, yet. She decides to box them up and move them out of the room as a sort of first stage. It takes her a while to fold everything carefully and pack it away. She can still smell him on the clothes in a way she no longer can on their bedsheets, or around the house.
