Page 48 of One Last Smile

She blanches but catches herself and laughs airily. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“The two of you are involved romantically. I suspect you have been for quite some time.”

Her smile fades. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but my love life is none of your business.”

“No, it isn’t. But I’m taking it upon myself to warn you anyway. What you’re doing is very dangerous.”

She laughs, another sound like crystal shattering. “I don’t know what you’re on about, but you’ve clearly gone mad. I’ll see if Rupert can schedule you for an evaluation.”

I pull a photograph from my coat pocket and show it to her. She blanches further and becomes very still. “Where did you get that?”

“I won’t tell you,” I reply.

“Was it Lucas? It was, wasn’t it? That little brat.”

“Eliza!” I say sternly, pulling her focus back to me. “What you’re doing is very dangerous.”

“Oh, come off it,” she snaps at me. “I’m a grown woman, and I can shag whoever the hell I want.” Her face changes, becoming something vicious. “You’re jealous, aren’t you? I could see it in your face when you met him. You want him, and you’re jealous that he prefers me.”

“Believe me, I have long since grown past caring whether any man wants me, and a man who would impregnate his nineteen-year-old secretary, then urge her to abort, is far from my type.”

She slaps me, hard enough that I gasp and take a trembling step backward. She takes a menacing step forward, and I say, “I’ll scream. If I have to, I’ll fight. Be careful what you’re about, Eliza.”

She stops and stares at me, also trembling, though for a different reason. She lowers her head and takes a deep breath, then lifts her gaze to me again and says in a controlled voice. “How did you know about that?”

I decide not to mention the medical report. “It’s not hard to figure out. Minnie was your friend, then you two had a falling out. She was Oliver’s girlfriend, and he broke up with her. I assume the advice Alistair gave him was not to do anything foolish about it.”

“Alistair wouldn’t know his ass from his left hand if you labeled the pictures,” she says. “If he’s the one that told you—”

“He’s not,” I interrupt. “I’m an old woman, but not so old that I can’t tell when two people are attracted to each other. You say you saw attraction in my eyes? I saw lust in yours.”

She laughs and nods. “Wow. Well done. You…” She laughs again. “Yes, bloody well done, Mary. Well, here’s what you don’t know. It’s not lust, it’s love. I loved Rupert long before that cunt ever met him. She was a bloody girl when Rupert and I fell in love, and then she grows tits and all of a sudden the two of them are meant to be together? Ha.” She shakes her head almost violently. “No. No, no, no. He was mine, and she was in the way.”

“Did you get her out of the way?”

She moves as though she’s going to slap me again, but glances toward the house and controls herself. “I didn’t kill her, you old fool. I told her to get rid of the baby. She had no right to carry his baby.”

“You didn’t think that was a decision for her and Rupert?”

“You… Oh my God!”

She presses her palms to her temples and paces back and forth. I watch her warily, prepared to fight, flee, or scream if necessary. After a moment, she pulls her hands from her temples, shaking them in front of her like claws.

“You don’t understand! Rupert didn’t want the baby either! He wanted me!”

“But he slept with her.”

“Yes! Because he’s a man, and if a man’s in the mood, a bloody cow could wave her arse in front of him, and he’d drop his pants. But she wasn’t the future for him. She wasn’t anything. She was… It was a bloody afternoon! We both told her to get rid of the baby, and she wouldn’t listen!”

“So what did you do?”

“Nothing! I don’t know who fucking killed her! Do you think I’m a murderer? Is that it? Do you think he and I conspired to have her killed?”

Almost certainly. Out loud, I say, “No, dear. I just think that Rupert is using you. He’s telling you what you want to hear so he can keep using you, and as an older woman speaking to a younger one—”

“Oh, bugger off with your advice. I love him, and he loves me, and Minnie meant nothing but a bloody hole to fill while I happened to be out of town for graduation. She was never supposed to be pregnant. She was never supposed to be anything.”

“She was your friend. He used her too.”

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