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He takes over, clicking through menus until the screen offers an ‘Enable Pin’ option. Nicole holds the pin up to the screen and it beeps. ‘Enabled,’ it says. She hands the pin to Patrick. ‘Attach it to your clothes somewhere and you’re good to go.’
She makes him tea the way she knows he likes it, and they sit beside the windows. The house feels a little warm and she wonders if the climate control is working or if it’s another glitch. ‘So, he died here,’ Patrick says. Even his hair looks good, and he’s clean-shaven.
‘He drowned in the pool. I found him.’
‘God, Nic. I’m so sorry.’ Patrick is the only other person apart from Tom who calls her ‘Nic’. It jolts her to hear it.
‘I can’t face going out there yet.’
‘The police came?’
‘They searched everything. Took Tom’s laptop. His phone was dead. It was in his pocket.’ She debates with herself over whether to mention the mysterious card, decides not to. Patrick was competitive with her about having Tom’s time and attention. She’s long trained herself not to tell him anything that couldmake him feel as if he has an advantage over her. Any suggestion that Tom might have been paying for sex gives Patrick a win, in the old currency of their friendship, and that still counts while she’s not sure what their future relationship looks like.
‘They treat you right?’
‘Yes. I mean, they act like I might have done it.’
‘It takes him a moment to reply. They don’t think it was an accident?’
‘I don’t know. They say they need to ask me things that make me sound like a suspect and I understand, but it was horrible. Ithasto be an accident. Who would hurt Tom?’
Patrick shakes his head. ‘Nobody would.’
‘They found something in his pocket.’ She blurts it out. Her protective instincts have deserted her. She wants to know what Patrick thinks.
‘What?’
‘A business card from somewhere called “Sadie’s Massages”.’ She feels dirty just saying the words, as if she’s betraying their marriage.
He frowns. ‘That doesn’t sound like Tom.’
She feels grateful to him for that reaction. ‘I know,’ she says.
They fall into a silence which she finds awkward. Patrick stares out of the window, frowning. She sips her tea and glances at him nervously, half looking for more reassurance, half fearing that she’s going to see something in his face she doesn’t want to. For all the years she’s known him and observed his friendship with Tom, she’s been a little afraid that Patrick knows more about Tom than she does, and that if Tom were to have a secret and were to confide in anyone other than her, it would be Patrick.
Does he know something she doesn’t?
He turns to her after a while, and those familiar dark eyes latch onto hers intensely, but to her relief she reads nothing in them apart from concern. He shakes his head. ‘Whatever that card is, it’s nothing,’ he says. ‘Tom would never do anything behind your back. This was an accident, Nicole, no doubt about it.’
‘Thank you,’ she says. Patrick moves to sit beside her, and she leans into him as he puts his arms around her. It’s a weird feeling, being comforted by him. But it’s not unpleasant. Any port in a storm, she thinks. He’s not Tom, he’ll never be anywhere near as good or as loyal a man as Tom, but he’s the next best thing because he knows – or knew – Tom so well.
‘I wish I hadn’t been a dick about the money,’ he says. ‘I’m so sorry. It was stupid. I feel like I missed out on Tom. I was planning to get in touch with him, soon. I wanted to invite you both for an amazing night out, on me, to thank you for what you gave me and to apologise for my behaviour and to show you what I’ve made of myself, so you’d never worry about me doing it again.’
‘He’d have been so thrilled to hear it.’
‘I regret treating you both like that.’
It’s a lot to hear. She wishes Tom could share this moment. After she’d decided they should cut off contact with Patrick for a while after the row over money, Tom hardly mentioned him, but Nicole knows the whole incident wounded him. Tom would have been hoping for a reconciliation like this, and now he’ll never get it. She starts to cry.
‘Hey,’ Patrick whispers, pulling her in tight again. ‘I’m here now. I’ll look after you.’
13
TUESDAY
Sasha
Olly and Sasha walk hand in hand down the Manor House drive. They pass the entrance to the stable yard where Kitty is pegging sheets on the line. She waves and they wave back. The sheet she’s holding billows in a rare breath of wind and Olly sniggers as Kitty fights to secure it.
