Page 55 of Cuckoo

‘Do you think, from what you experienced on that day, that Miss Arundale is the type of woman to lose her judgement when it comes to Mr Coors?’

‘Yes, she came across as obsessive and clingy, very controlling if shewasthe girlfriend, I’d say. Couldn’t blame him for trying to hide from her at work!’

I let out a hiss between my gritted teeth and try to count to ten in my head, Grosvenor patting my knee beneath the desk.

‘Thank you, Mrs Thurnwall,’ Dodgson tells her, his voice slimy as a slug trail.

Grosvenor blows out a long breath and closes her eyes for a moment before standing up and striding purposefully towards Maggie, who blinks at her.

‘Mrs Thurnwall, when Mr Coors told you that he did not know my client, despite the fact he had accepted lunch from her merely days earlier, did you believe him?’ she asks, straight to the point as usual.

‘Well, to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure, because you know what men are like– I had seen Mr Coors meeting a few different ladies at the end of the working day outside theoffice. Some of them he did look pretty cosy with… But it wasn’t my business. He worked in the building and my job was to see he wasn’t disturbed unnecessarily. End of.’

‘So what you’re saying is: it’s possible my client truly was just a girlfriend being treated poorly by an unfaithful partner who was, to use your words, “trying to hide from her at work”?’

Maggie hesitates, eyes flicking quickly towards Dodgson before she answers Grosvenor.

‘Yes, it’s possible.’

‘And is it also fair to say that many people eat in the courtyard outside Pulitzer Haas’s office building, and that to sit there and do so every day is not so very unusual?’

‘I suppose not,’ Maggie says now, her voice wavering.

‘So really, the only evidence that you are bringing to the table is that Miss Arundale had lunch a few times in a courtyard, dropped off lunch once to Mr Coors who accepted it, but then later told you he did not know her and not to receive any more food packages from her?’

‘Well, yes, that is what happened.’

‘And at any point when Miss Arundale was becoming upset and had to be removed by security, did she waver from saying that she was engaged to Mr Coors and within her rights to visit him?’ Here I have to bite my cheek to stop myself from smiling at how quickly Grosvenor has turned this around for me.

‘Yes, the girl seemed so sure, so confident in what she was saying, and so I did suspect there was more to it than met the eye… but as I said, I had to do what I was told. If he didn’twant her there during the day, it was my job to go along with it. I didn’t care what happened outside of working hours and the building, that was his problem.’

‘And did you see Mr Coors with any other women after these incidents?’

‘Yes, I did. At the office Christmas party he turned up with a blonde on his arm, very leggy and young-looking, said they’d been together for years. Again, I thought it strange, but it wasn’t my place to get involved. To be honest, I avoided them for the evening because I knew for a fact he had been on a date with a different woman right before that.’

I draw in breath, a sudden sharp oxygen surge that feels as though it’s cutting through my airways.Another date?I rack my brains to remember if he took me out just before his Christmas party, but I can’t be sure.

‘How did you know this?’ Grosvenor asks, sounding unsurprised by the information that is overturning my world.

‘I have access to their calendars, you see, for arranging meetings if necessary. And I had clocked that Mr Coors had a few dates with someone called Mads logged in for evening hours. One date was days before the Christmas party, and then on that night he turned up with this blonde woman. Now, of course, I know it was Lilah Andersson, but at the time all I could think was,You’re not Mads from the calendar.’

‘And how did you know that?’

‘Well, I admit, I was guessing and stereotyping, but the name accepting the calendar invites was Mads Choi.’

‘A Korean name,’ Grosvenor states.

‘Yes.’

‘And when Lilah Andersson turned up on Mr Coors’s arm that night for the Christmas party, you put two and two together: that Lilah was not of Korean descent and ergo most likely not the woman he’d been meeting recently in the evenings?’

‘Yes,’ Maggie confirms.

‘And would it be fair to say that your perception of Miss Arundale was that she was perhaps one of many girlfriends Mr Coors was seeing?’ Grosvenor asks.

‘Yes, I believed that she definitely knew him in one way or another, but as I said, Mr Coors had several women hanging around. The three most prominent in my experience were Claire, Mads– who I never met but saw in all the calendar invites– and Lilah,’ Maggie confirms.

‘So to counter your previous statement, if we look at all the facts together, Miss Arundale actually did not come across as unstable? Nor was her behaviour particularly controlling?’

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