Page 49 of Cuckoo

‘And what did you know of Miss Arundale’s and Mr Coors’s relationship?’ Grosvenor asks.

‘I knew they were engaged.’

‘She told you this?’

Sukhi doesn’t falter. ‘She spoke about him daily. Just little things: mentioning going home to him, what they were doing at the weekend… She had a photo of him as her phone wallpaper, I saw it once when she was ordering a takeout lunch and asked to take a closer look. She was happy to show it to me. I knew he had a fancy job, that they had been on holiday together, and that they had hopes of travelling some more.’She tails off. ‘Lots of things, really. It was lots of little things that would come up when we chatted, which sort of built up a picture of her life, rather than one big conversation about her time outside of work.’ I’m nodding along. It’s true, I don’t speak about myself often. All that Sukhi knows of me is probably from her paying attention and picking up bits and pieces from different conversations and comments made.

‘And did she have an engagement ring?’ Grosvenor pushes.

‘Yes, she wore a ring that he gave her,’ Sukhi confirms.

‘So you got the picture that Miss Arundale was overall a very kind, caring person who was in love with her fiancé and in a happy relationship?’ Grosvenor summarises.

‘That’s correct,’ Sukhi says.

‘And can you run us through Miss Arundale’s reaction when you visited the Pulitzer Haas office on the nineteenth of September last year?’

‘Well, obviously, it was all a horrible surprise for Claire, finding out her fiancé didn’t work where she thought he did. She basically went into a state of shock, I had to get her some water and sit her down… It was a lot to take in.’

‘We have CCTV footage of this whole interaction,’ Grosvenor states, and grainy footage from the Pulitzer Haas foyer begins to play. My face heats up.

‘She looks quite distressed,’ Grosvenor comments, shooting a glance at the jury.

‘Well, yeah, anybody would be,’ Sukhi exclaims. ‘I couldn’t believe it myself, and I’m not engaged to the guy! I felt awful for her, the poor thing.’

I stare at the ground, embarrassed to be reliving this terrible moment in front of so many people, so many strangers.

‘Did she reach out to Mr Coors to find out where he was?’ Grosvenor asks.

‘She was in a state of shock, as I said, but I know that once she had recovered enough to try to call him, she did. I believe she also sent a text, if I remember rightly. But I mean, you never go looking for bad news, do you? I was there and she could barely speak to me, let alone the man who caused all this. She didn’tdeserveto have this to happen to her,’ Sukhi says quite sharply, with a fierce glance over at the jury.

‘And then later you were there when she confronted Mr Coors in a club?’

‘Yes, I was there, and once again, all things considered, she acted more calmly than I would have done,’ Sukhi replies, and I am taken aback by the defensive tone of her voice. This woman is protecting me. I have the urge to grab her in a huge hug, apologise to her for not being a better friend. This is a loyal woman, who is standing by me, despite only knowing me for fifteen months. A tear rolls down my cheek and I brush it away with my hand.

‘We had discovered Noah was at this club by searching on Facebook: I found his page and he’d been tagged at that location.’

‘And you told this to Miss Arundale?’

‘Yes, I went round to her home and showed her his profile. And it was awful– she was blocked from his Facebook so she couldn’t see it. Her own fiancé had blocked her, so she couldn’t find out what he was up to. He was clearly living some sort of dirty double life that he was trying to hide!’Sukhi sounds so outraged on my behalf, I feel another pang of love for her.

‘Objection! Speculation,’ Dodgson drawls.

‘Sustained,’ the judge confirms.

Grosvenor continues. ‘So you showed her the page that you found, and accompanied her to the club?’

‘Yes, and we saw him there, with Lilah Andersson. There was no denying it– they were all over each other. Well, Claire was very dignified in the situation, much more than I would have been! She took off her ring, told him it was over– and then I threw water over him for good measure. Not Claire, me. There are witnesses, I’m sure, who can corroborate that. I don’t want her to get the blame for his soggy suit.’ She folds her arms as though daring the jury to disagree with her, and I hear a few muffled chuckles. I’m starting to think Sukhi should have been a lawyer, too.

‘And how did they react? Mr Coors and Miss Andersson?’

‘Well, as you’d expect! Noah looked like he’d seen a bloody ghost when she walked in, couldn’t believe he’d been caught out. He even asked what she was doing there, I couldn’t believe the audacity of it! As for Lilah, she looked pretty ashamed of herself, but I wasn’t really concentrating on her. The other woman usually gets the blame, but in my opinion it was all on Noah. He was the one cheating, after all. He sat there gaping like a goldfish, didn’t argue or anything, even when I threw the water.’

‘And Miss Arundale just… left the club?’

‘Yes, I took her home. I believe a glass was thrown, but I don’t know who did that.’

I blink. Sukhi has just lied on the stand for me. She knew I threw the glass and she’s betting on the fact that the CCTV footage was too frenetic for the precise sequence of events to be visible. I cannot believe she has just done this! I look at the floor, unable to stop the thumping in my chest. It’s one thing to defend me, another to put her own liberty and reputation on the line and outright lie for me.

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