Page 55 of By His Side

Julian sat forward. “Oh, come now. Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who believe everything they hear. Isn’t that something of a liability in your profession? You must need to fact check, surely, before you include things in your books?”

“Why don’t you tell me what the relationship was between the two of you? You never denied knowing her, right?”

“I knew her. We were friends.”

“Friends?” I did my best not to sound judgmental. Julian’s expression said I hadn’t been wholly successful. I vowed to do better. “How does a friendship between a sixteen-year-old girl and a thirty-plus-year-old man come about?”

Julian shrugged. “She needed someone to talk to, and I was happy to be that person for her. I was something of a father figure to her.”

“She had a father.”

“She did, but he worked abroad a lot.”

I decided to cut through the bullshit. “Did you kill her?” My question was so direct that I almost expected the noise in the room to fall to church-like levels and for everyone to turn our way. It didn’t, everyone continuing with their conversations.

“No, I didn’t.” Julian’s brow furrowed. “I thought that was why you were here, that you’d looked at the case and seen how problematic it was.”

“Problematic?”

“It was a sham from start to finish. They’d already decided what the verdict was going to be.”

“If you didn’t kill Lily Reynolds, who did?”

“Felix Church.”

Even though I’d known what he was going to say, the name still packed a punch. Realizing I was gripping the pen so tightly that it was in danger of cracking,

I forced my fingers to relax. “Felix was your boyfriend, right?” I waited for Julian’s nod. “Why would he kill her?”

“Why would my boyfriend kill a girl I was spending a lot of time with?” Julian’s voice dripped with derision. “You can work out a motive, surely?”

“Jealousy?” He nodded, and I pretended to write something on my notepad—the words absolute gibberish. Not even words, really. More like random squiggles. I hadn’t reckoned on him trying to pin the entire thing on Felix. It was the opposite of what I’d come here for.

“You see, Felix was always so volatile.”

I forced myself to lift my head and meet his gaze. “In what way?”

“He used to fly off the handle at the slightest thing. You’re probably aware there was an age gap between us?” My turn to nod. “Well, I used to put a lot of it down to him being much younger than I was.” He laughed. “You know, immaturity. I thought he’d grow out of it, but he never did. I never had him killing one of my friends as a possibility, though.”

The water tasted like acid when I lifted the bottle to my mouth, my throat muscles needing coaxing to swallow. “So… he killed her… he buried her in a shallow grave, and you had nothing to do with it?”

“Correct!” Julian sat back in his chair and looked pleased with himself. “He just fluttered those long eyelashes of his and the jury fell for it. The only saving grace was he didn’t get away with it completely. He’s out now, though. Did you know that? He got out last month.”

Lie or tell the truth?“I did know that.”

Julian’s eyes narrowed. “Have you spoken to him?”

“Would it matter if I had?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, it would.”

“Why?”

He took an angry swig of his Coke. “Because he’ll feed you lies and you might be stupid enough to believe them. Just like the judge did when he only sentenced him to thirteen years while I got life.”

For a moment, I allowed myself to consider a world where Julian was telling the truth and Felix had lied to me. I’d seen Felix’s face when he’d talked about how Julian had abused him. No one could be that good an actor, surely? One thing was for sure. I wouldn’t get a better opening for what I needed to say. “I spoke to him as part of my research. Obviously, he was easier to get hold of than you… no visiting order required.” I stretched my right leg out in front of me, nudging the recording device closer to him. “He claims it was all you, that he was innocent.”

Julian rolled his eyes. “That old story! Did you get the violin out and play it for him?”

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