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‘Look, listen, when we were kids, when I asked you to, you know, exaggerate?—’
‘Lie. You told me to lie.’
‘That afternoon, you remember why we were all there, late at school?’
She’s silent. I find myself standing again in Jenna’s room. I study the shining eyes of the spider. When did I even walk up here?
‘Lydia?’
‘Do you think I’d forget?’
‘Well, the sessions were taped, weren’t they? And Tristan’s tape?—’
‘Tristan’s? You said Miss Smith had told him not to start recording. That was a particularly crucial point you made, Frances, in your persuasion of me and Mina.’
I clamp my eyes shut. ‘I know. I thought I was doing the right thing.’
She laughs.
‘Why are you so angry with me? For God’s sake my daughter is missing.’
‘Why do you think I’m so angry with you?’
I ignore her question. ‘I was meant to destroy the tape. Tristan said that what was on it could be… easily misconstrued – that it looked bad when it wasn’t.’ As I say it I know how flimsy it sounds.
‘And you believed him?’
‘Of course.’ Because I’m me. Because even if I hadn’t believed, I wanted to, so I did.
‘Do you still believe him?’
‘The thing is, I didn’t destroy it. And I think Jenna found it and maybe Rose took it from her and?—’
‘What was on it?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You’re telling me you never watched the tape?’
‘No, I?—’
‘Frankly, Frances, I’m not surprised.’
‘But I think Tristan knows, or suspects, that Jenna found the tape. That Rose has it. And, whatever’s on it, he doesn’t want it coming out – he… I think he’s maybe trying to slow down the investigation?’
‘He’s what?’
‘I don’t know. I just got the feeling he was going to try and get in the way of the police. Stop the investigation.’
Lydia takes in a breath. ‘Luckily, he’s not God.’
‘But he knows people in the police. He mentioned the commissioner.’
She laughs. ‘And what are you going to do, Frances?’
I can’t believe the cold, hard tone in my old friend’s voice. We may not have been close for years but some things bind us together forever. Don’t they? ‘I don’t know.’
‘You “don’t know”? Well, are you going to tell the police about the tape? About what he did?’
