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‘Hello, Hannah,’ he says.
TWENTY-SEVEN
‘Max,’ I say, glancing at his hands. There’s no knife this time, and he slowly stands up. Just as he was last time, he’s dishevelled, broken, looking even weaker than after his attack. But still I’m on edge.Trust no one.
‘I got your message,’ he says.
‘We need to talk, don’t we?’
He nods, but doesn’t move.
‘I don’t understand what’s been happening,’ I say.
‘Neither do I.’ He still doesn’t move, and it’s like we’re strangers, skirting around each other.This is Max.And I need to tell him everything.
‘You’d better sit,’ I say.
‘No, I’m fine standing.’ He takes a step backwards, and I realise he’s afraid of me. Or of what I’m going to say. And maybe he was the last time we spoke too, when he tightly clutched the knife.
‘Please sit. We’ve got a lot to talk about.’
Silently, he does as I ask, sitting back in the chair, as far away from me as he can get.
‘I think Shane Roberts killed Alice Hughes,’ I begin. And then for the second time tonight, I recount every detail of the last fewweeks, leaving out nothing. The more I tell this story, the more detached I feel, as if this hasn’t been happening to me.
Max buries his head in his hands when I’ve finished, and I wonder if he’ll ever look up so we can face this together.
‘I didn’t think it would come to this,’ he says. ‘I didn’t know what Shane was capable of. I knew he was…disturbed. And that he couldn’t accept that I’d had to fire him.’
I wait for him to continue.
‘It’s such a mess.’ He lets out a heavy sigh. ‘I was Shane’s boss. His mentor. I knew straight away that he doesn’t have what it takes. It’s hard in our industry. Cut-throat. But I gave him a chance. I tried my best to help him.’ Max stares at his hands. ‘It didn’t work, though – he just kept making mistakes all the time. Not just rookie ones. He made a mountain of errors that could have cost the company a fortune. Not to mention damaging our reputation. I carried him for months, but in the end I had no choice. I had to let him go.’
This corroborates what Paula said. ‘What did he do when you told him?’
‘He didn’t take it well. First, he begged me to change my mind. Give him a second chance. But it wouldn’t have been a second chance. We were way beyond that number. He said he’d just bought his own flat and he wouldn’t be able to afford the mortgage. He said the way things were at the moment, it would take him months to find another job. He was right, but I couldn’t let that be my problem. It was stressful enough with Peter leaving.’ Max studies my face, and I wonder what he’s thinking. ‘Shane tried everything to make me change my mind, and when that didn’t work, he tried taking legal action. But all the evidence pointed to him being incompetent. So he began threatening me. Telling me he was going to ruin my life, just like I’d done to him.’ Max shakes his head. ‘He’d follow me everywhere. I’d leave work and he’d be there in the car park. Just standing and watchingme. Sometimes I even saw him outside our house. He’d bombard me with messages, but not from his phone. He was too smart for that.’
I wonder how I hadn’t noticed all of this was going on. How did we drift so far apart that he couldn’t share something so major? ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I didn’t want to worry you. I wanted to deal with it myself.’
This explains why Max has had such a short fuse over the last few months, and why I’ve felt that I’ve hardly known him.
But how does Alice fit into this? She and Taylor were friends, and I saw pictures of them together. I’ve met Alice’s mother and Molly knew Taylor. Have I been wrong? Was Taylor just making me think Max was having an affair with her? I ask Max, and urge him to tell me the truth. And the faintest glimmer of hope plants itself within me.
Max falls silent, looking away. And that’s when all hope disappears.
‘I’m sorry, Hannah.’ There are tears in his eyes when he looks at me again. ‘I did have an affair with Alice.’
Even though this is what I’ve believed for weeks, hearing it from Max rips my insides. I’m conflicted. I want him to stop talking – he’s said enough – but also I need to hear the whole truth from his mouth. No more second-hand accounts. ‘Tell me everything.’
‘I met Alice in the Boathouse. I’d gone there after work one evening, just so that I didn’t bring home all the stuff that was happening with Shane. I didn’t want you to see me worried. I thought if I put a bit of space between work and home each evening then that might help. So I started working in there instead of the garden office.’ His eyes plead with me. But for what? To believe him? To accept what he’s done? At this moment I don’t know if I can do either of those things.
‘I’d seen her in there a couple of times,’ Max said. ‘Usually with a friend. But the first night we actually spoke she was on her own.’ I notice Max’s hand is shaking. ‘She kept trying to talk to me, and I was getting really irritated. I was even a bit rude to her. But she was persistent, and I’d had a shitty day.’ He glances at me. ‘I’m sorry. I bought her a drink, and that’s how it started.’
Just like that. So easy for Alice Hughes to insert herself into Max’s world.
‘I take full responsibility for the affair. It wasn’t her fault. I didn’t even tell her about you and Poppy until much later. Maybe I was hoping she would end it if I told her. I was having trouble walking away myself.’
