Page 91 of You Lied First
‘It’s so clear,’ Sara says, ‘Not grainy at all.’
‘It’s a good camera. Right … hang on, we’re nearly there. After the fox …’
As if on cue, a little desert fox trots across the sand, pauses and stares at the camera, its eyes glowing like white orbs, then exits stage left.
‘Now,’ Margot says, and Sara leans in a little more, herbreathing fast and shallow. The two women watch as Celine’s tent opens and she staggers out, grabs her beer and slumps in a chair. Then Guy suddenly appears from the bottom right, looks back at his tent, then creeps across the sand with a finger on his lips.
They watch in silence as he stands next to her while they talk, then suddenly the body language changes. They gesticulate more, then Celine stands up, steadying herself on the back of the chair. Guy takes a step towards her so he looms over her, but she holds her own, trying to draw herself up to her full height and jabbing her finger at him.
‘They’re fighting,’ Margot says. Sara has her hand over her mouth, her eyes huge as she stares at the screen.
‘I didn’t hear a thing,’ she says. ‘They must be whisper-shouting.’
In front of them on the screen, Guy grabs Celine’s arm but she shakes him off. She starts to walk away but he grabs her again. They struggle and she breaks free and walks back towards her tent, sticking her middle finger up at him. Guy stands with his hands on his hips as if weighing something up, then he leaps after her and shoves her into her tent. He looks quickly around the campsite, then follows her in and the tent zip comes down. The time on the screen says 02.45.
‘Oh my God,’ Sara says faintly. ‘And then what happened? Can you tell?’
‘There’s a bit where the side of the tent ripples but who knows what they’re doing in there. Maybe they argue and he tries to silence her by strangling her. Or maybe he fucked her and then strangled her. Perhaps it was always his plan to do her in. Nothing surprises me about Guy anymore. I guesswe’ll never know. But look …’ she moves on to the next video. ‘Now he comes out.’
And so Sara watches while Guy’s head pops back out. He looks around, wipes his brow with the back of his hand, then crawls out of the tent and scampers back across towards his tent.
‘Did he really not know the camera was on?’ Sara asks.
‘I set it up while he was out on the quad bike. He was busy trying to impress you all. I don’t think he noticed.’
Guy’s face looms close then disappears off camera. Margot stops the film.
‘So that’s it? That’s all you have?’ Sara says. She’s frowning intently at the screen as if staring at it hard enough will show her what happened inside the tent. ‘There’s absolutely nothing else?’
‘It’s all I need,’ Margot says. ‘It’s enough.’
‘But, after that? It just ends?’
‘Nothing happens. There’s no more movement and then that’s it. Nothing else triggers it. Then the battery ran out. But look at that! All I was hoping for was a sand cat or a jackal!’ Margot chuckles. ‘Who would have thought I’d catch my husband? Not even cheating – but killing someone!’
‘So what now?’ Sara asks. Her voice is faint. She looks as if she’s seen a ghost.
‘Look, I know it’s a lot to take in. It took me a while to process it myself and I’ve been agonising about what to do with it. I wasn’t going to tell anyone about it but then you came up with this crazy idea to hand yourself in! What were you thinking?’
Sara just shakes her head.
‘Obviously I can’t let you do that, not knowing what I do. But the question is: shall we hand over the memory card, or not?’
Sara sighs deeply, then she looks at me with a strange look on her face.
‘Margot,’ she says, and it sounds as if she’s got the weight of a thousand years on her shoulders. ‘Tell me this honestly. Do youwantyour husband to go to jail?’
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SARA
Margot’s eyes continue to hold mine as we stare at each other.
‘I mean, you could just divorce him like a normal person,’ I say. I have to give her the chance, but every ounce of my body is urging her to say yes, she wants him to go to jail. I cannot believe she’s found this video. This is my chance; my salvation. I could actually be off the hook. Thank God I’m sitting down, because my legs really are shaking and I can feel sweat beading at my hairline. I try to keep my breathing as normal as I can.
‘I know he’s my husband,’ Margot says, ‘but Guy has a terrifying and dangerous temper, and I think he should pay for what he did. It’s only a matter of time until the police come asking questions. I don’t want Flynn and Liv questioned any more than you do, and I also think that Celine’s parents deserve answers … which I have. As a parent on both counts, handing over the footage is the right thing to do.’
‘I agree,’ I say, frowning as if I’m weighing up the issue, but actually now that Margot’s dangled the carrot of escape in front of me, I will do anything to pin it on Guy instead of me. ‘But how can we hand this in without incriminating all of us?’I ask. ‘The police will want to know why we never admitted that we were camping with Celine.’
