‘We need to talk,’ Lara says in a voice that makes a chill go down Jill’s spine.
Ted looks worried and turns away from her.What’s going on?Jill thinks. ‘Okay,’ she says, and leads them into the front room.
Lara sits down in an armchair and regards them both with a hardness in her eyes that Jill has never seen before. Like flint. It throws Jill off balance. Why is she here?
‘A man broke into our house last night,’ Lara says. ‘Ben is dead.’
‘Oh my God!’ Jill blurts out. Her head swims. She glances in shock at Ted, but he doesn’t meet her gaze. He’s watching Lara instead, his face an unreadable mask.
‘What happened?’ Ted asks.
‘He was looking for something,’ Lara says bitterly. ‘Something we didn’t have. Some camera footage.’
Jill feels physically ill.
‘What are you talking about?’ Ted asks, in apparent confusion.
‘Oh, stop pretending, both of you!’ Lara cries, leaping up out of her chair. ‘You know what’s going on!’ She glares at them with tears of pain and fury in her eyes. ‘And now Ben isdead! And it’s your fault!’
‘It’s not our fault,’ Ted says automatically, but lacking all conviction, Jill thinks. He doesn’t convince Lara.
‘You’re liars! And murderers!’ Lara cries. ‘You obviously killed Greg! And someone put cameras in your house to spy on you and now they’re holding it over your heads, aren’t they? Only you don’t know who it is, do you, because you thought it wasme! And you sent that man last night to get the files, and he killed Ben! Admit it!’ She turns to Jill. ‘You thoughtIplanted those cameras, didn’t you? Is that what you thought, of yourbest friend?’
Jill can’t feel her body any more. She’s numb. She can’t bearit, being accused like this. Lara looks so upset, sowronged, that Jill can no longer believe that she is behind this. And now somehow Ben is dead? And Lara hates her, and she’s right to hate her, Jill thinks. Itistheir fault, it is all their fault, all of it.
But she’s not going to admit it. She’s never going to admit it.
Lara leans forward, toward her. ‘All I ever did was support you! I suspected that things didn’t happen on that boat the way you said. Because of Ramirez. And because you’ve been sofreaked out, Jill. I thought you couldn’t live with what you’d done, or that you were afraid of Ramirez. But it’s someone else you’ve been afraid of all along, isn’t it? Someone has some videos of you. And I can just imagine what’s on them. The two of you, congratulating yourselves on a job well done. An accident at sea! No proof! No witnesses! And you getmillions! But thereisproof, isn’t there? And you’re fucked. And you’re panicking and you sent someone to threaten me and Ben, to get us to give up the footage. Only WE DON’T HAVE IT!’ she shouts. ‘You thought it was me because I have a key, is that it? And I knew the security code.’ Now she rips off her bandage to show her sliced arm. ‘He tortured me! And then he murdered my husband, my good, kind husband! He forced him over the railing, from the top floor. He killed him. And it’s on you!’
Jill can only gape in horror. She can no longer look at Lara’s face, contorted with grief and fury, so she stares at her arm, with its hideous carvings, slightly puffy.
Then Lara says, more quietly, ‘So you tell me who he was. Tell me who murdered Ben.’
Jill turns to face her husband.
Ted can’t believe this is happening. He can’t believe that Ben is dead. How the fuck did that happen? It must have been John, who he met with just two days ago. What a fuckup. Obviously, things went badly wrong. So John isn’t perfect either. It gives him no satisfaction. Because Ted is left here having to deal with the consequences. He should have dealt with it himself. His mind has been working furiously throughout Lara’s diatribe, his body surging with too much adrenaline. How can he salvage the situation? What the fuck does he do now? And Jill is looking at him with that familiar, nauseating mixture of fear and blame. She thinks this is his fault too. He must deny it.
‘How do we know you’re telling the truth?’ he says to Lara.
Lara turns to him and strikes him hard across the face. ‘How DARE you!’ she cries.
His face stings, his eyes blur.
‘Sit down, Lara,’ Jill says, her voice firm. He’s surprised to hear his wife speak. Suddenly she is taking charge.
‘I’m so sorry, about Ben. I know how much you loved him.’ Her voice breaks. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’ She stops for a moment as if to collect herself. ‘But we have no idea what happened at your place. We didn’t send anyone. I swear. You have to believe me.’
Ted watches as Lara faces his wife with disbelief. She says scathingly, ‘Who else would send someone to get those files? And why the hell would I believeyou?’ She transfers her gaze to him. ‘You’remurderers.’
‘No, Lara, we’re not!’ Jill insists. ‘We didn’t hurt Greg– it was an accident!’
‘I don’t believe you,’ Lara says coldly.
Ted finds his voice. ‘What did you tell the police?’
Lara replies, her voice shrill, ‘Oh yes, it’s still all aboutyou, isn’t it?’
Ted just waits. He’s afraid to say anything else; anything he says will only feed her fury.