‘Don’t worry, Rebecca. We’re going to do everything we can to find out who this man is. In the meantime, if you think of anything else, any other details, you let us know, okay? No matter how small you think it might be. Thank you for your time, especially under the circumstances. Once again, I’m so sorry for your loss.’
‘Thank you, Officer. I appreciate that,’ Rebecca said as the nurse ushered him from the room, and Rebecca sank back into the pillows behind her, leaving her and Lisa alone once more.
‘Jesus Christ, I’m so sorry, Becks,’ Lisa said, full of guilt for ever doubting Rebecca. She hadn’t realised the severity of what had been going on right under her nose.
‘You have nothing to be sorry for, Lisa. You’ve done nothing wrong,’ Rebecca said giving her sister-in-law’s hand a gentle squeeze.
‘I knew…’ Lisa paused, wondering how much she should say, but quickly deciding to tell the truth.
There was no point in lying now. Not when Jamie was dead.
‘I knew where Jamie was when you got home from the hospital. He was at my house. Him and Ella. He asked me to pick you up from the hospital, but he begged me not to say anything to you about where he was. He said he needed to get his head straight. That he’d only stay for a day or two at the most. I felt awful for not telling you the truth. I told him that too. I told him that he should have been at home with you…’ Lisa said, realising now that if she’d tried harder, if Jamie had listened to her, he could have been at home. And then maybe none of this would have happened.
Jamie might still be alive.
‘You were looking out for your brother, Lisa. I’d have probably done the same,’ Rebecca said, too drained to hold any kind of grudge now. What was done was done.
Lisa faltered. Wiping her tears. Rebecca could see by her face there was something else she wasn’t saying. So she waited.
‘I know this isn’t the right time, Rebecca, but I need to tell you something. Jamie had been watching you too. I looked on his phone and his computer when he went to make a telephone call. That night he’d come home early and found you in the garden, you said it was strange how he turned up right when he did? That he’d never come home at that time before from a business trip, in the middle of the night? Well, he’d been at her house. Jenna, the girl from his office. I only found out yesterday when I read their messages. He’d been staying there the night.’ Lisa paused.
Rebecca frowned.
‘You’re saying Jamie was watching me too?’
Lisa nodded.
‘He’d hired a private investigator to follow you around. He’d been asking questions about your past.’
‘About my past? What was he hoping to find out?’ Rebecca said, her face a picture of confusion.
‘I don’t know. He didn’t say. All he did say was that you were lying to us. That you couldn’t be trusted…’ Lisa felt a surge of disloyalty run through her, at betraying her own brother in this way. But Rebecca was family too. And what Jamie had said hadn’t made any sense.
And Lisa couldn’t forget how he’d gone behind Rebecca’s back. Cheating on her and having her followed, when it was Jamie that couldn’t be trusted all along.
‘He went to take another call and I was going to have it out with him when he came back downstairs. I was going to make him leave. I was going to insist that he went home and talked to you…’ Lisa trailed off, almost embarrassed now at how cruel and unsupportive Jamie had been, how she hadn’t seen it herself until it was too late. ‘Only, when I went to speak to him, he’d already gone. We’d argued before he left. He seemed so distracted and angry about everything. And I was worried that maybe he’d gone to see you, and that something might happen between you both. He was in a strange mood, and I didn’t understand why he was having your movements tailed… why he didn’t trust you. So I called Officer Blythe and told him everything I knew.’ Lisa was sobbing now. Wishing that things had been different. That she and Jamie hadn’t parted on such bad terms. ‘He should have told the officer that he’d been watching the security tapes. He should have said where he was that night. How could the police investigate what was going on, when all they had to go on was lies? Maybe things would have been different. Maybe Jamie would still be here?’
Rebecca closed her eyes, then opened them again, blinking back the last of her tears.
She wasn’t going to cry anymore. She needed to be strong, to focus on getting better so she could look after Ella.
‘None of this was Jamie’s fault, Lisa. He wasn’t to know. We all saw the tapes. There was no sign of an intruder on them. Jamie had every reason to worry about my state of mind. He had every reason to believe he couldn’t trust me. That’s what this nutter set out to do. He wanted to make me look as if I was crazy, and it worked. Christ, even I’d started questioning my sanity at that point. I felt as if I was going stark raving mad. And that’s exactly what this man wanted everyone to think. That had been his plan all along, to make everyone around me believe I’d lost my mind. You can’t blame Jamie for the way he acted. He didn’t know any better,’ Rebecca said, the conversation ending when Nurse Rath walked back in the room.
‘Right, how about I show you to the day room, Lisa? You can get yourself a coffee and I’m sure some of the nurses down there would love to coo over this young one. Rebecca needs to get some rest. The sooner she makes a full recovery, the sooner she’ll be discharged,’ Nurse Rath said, ushering Lisa and Ella from the room, before any of them could protest, though Ella had already started crying.
‘It’s like a sixth sense isn’t it,’ Lisa said to Rebecca. ‘They pick up on everything. Don’t you worry though, Becks. I’ve got her. She’s in safe hands. I’ll see if she needs a feed. You get some sleep, yeah?’ Lisa said, hoping to give Rebecca some reassurance. ‘We’ll be back before you even know it.’
‘Can you hear that, Rebecca?’ Nurse Rath said, turning back to Rebecca and shooting her a smile once they’d gone. ‘Silence. You make the most of that for the next hour or two and get yourself some rest, lovey. Because I can see your little one has the same fighting spirit in her as you do.’
Rebecca nodded.
Turning her head to the side, she closed her eyes, unable to get the image of Jamie and Jenna together out of her mind.
And the fact he’d hired a private detective, that he’d seen those articles online.
That he’d been so close to finding out everything about her.
All her buried secrets.
She’d been right about him all along. It had only been a matter of time until Jamie had found out everything.
Her only conciliation now was that the dead couldn’t talk.
No one need find out a single thing.
She shouldn’t feel bad about what she did. Not anymore.
She’d protected herself and Ella.
She’d done the right thing.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Fastening my seat belt, I start the engine before turning to look at Ella, all snuggled safely, cocooned in her car seat.
I glance back at the house one last time, taking one last final deep breath as I pull away.
I watch through the rear-view mirror as my once perfect home, my once perfect life, get smaller and smaller as I make my way into the distance.
Until that life is gone completely from my sight.
I concentrate on the road ahead, knowing that in time it will feel as if none of this had ever happened.