Page 47 of You Lied First
‘I’m so sorry,’ Sara says. ‘I don’t know what else to say.’
‘Come on, get in,’ Margot says. ‘There’s nothing we can do now. Going back will take time we don’t have and if we start looking for a missing phone we’re only going to draw attention to it and to ourselves. We just have to hope no one finds it. Or that it’s damaged. Or for a miracle.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yep.’ Margot starts the engine. ‘But one thing: don’t tell Guy anything about the phone. Please? Do that for me?’
‘Sure,’ Sara says. ‘Thank you.’
Guy must be watching for them because when Margot and Sara reach the villa, the front door swings wide and he’s there in the doorway.
‘All okay?’ he asks.
She nods. ‘Yep.’
‘Well done,’ Guy says and he gives them both a nod.
‘How are the kids?’ Sara asks.
‘Fine,’ he says. ‘They’re disappointed about leaving early,but I said we needed to get back for an urgent work meeting – a VVIP house commission I couldn’t talk about. And that, Sara, you’d decided you may as well come with us. Hope that’s okay. And they were more than happy not to go to the hospital.’
Later that day, Margot and Guy take the cars to be valet cleaned and return them to the hire company, so they have a smoother journey through the airport in the morning. Margot then throws together supper from the odds and ends left in the fridge. As she lays the table for the final time, Sara hesitates over the sixth place.
‘Lay it,’ Margot tells her. ‘The kids will wonder if we don’t.’
It’s ironic how happy she’d be to see Celine now, Margot thinks, given how she used to dread her appearing from across the pool at dinnertime with her wearisome predictability and chirpy yoo-hoos. The weather’s absolutely perfect, the air warm velvet on Margot’s skin as she bustles about, but she can’t look at the pool. Is she the only one who sees the shape of Celine stretched out on a sunlounger, ghostly in her white swimsuit?
‘This is good,’ Guy says, nodding, as they place the food on the table. ‘Just like any other night. Nothing out of the ordinary. Good work, ladies.’
‘What did you say to Diane and Tom when you gave the camping stuff back?’ Sara asks.
Guy had vacuumed the tents and packed them up properly, refilled the quad bike, and taken everything back that afternoon.
‘Nothing. They weren’t home. I left the stuff in the garage for them.’
‘Should we tell them not to say anything about us borrowingthe gear if anyone comes asking questions?’ Margot knows that the British expat community in Muscat isn’t that big. One degree of separation, if that. Once Celine is reported missing, it’s bound to come up in conversations with Tom and Di.
‘No,’ Guy says. ‘We’ll look like we’re hiding something. It’s suspicious. Trust me, they’re cool. They won’t say anything. Tom and I go way back. The things we know about each other …’ He laughs to himself. ‘Anyway, look, to be honest, by the time anything’s found – if it’s found at all – it’ll be incredibly difficult to pinpoint when it happened exactly. And we’ve only been here for a week.’
‘A week. Imagine,’ Sara says.
‘I know!’ Guy says. ‘It doesn’t seem like it, does it? And we flew in during a massive influx of Christmas holiday tourists soifit comes to it – and that’s a big if – finding out who did this is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.’ He summons a smile. ‘Right, shall we call the kids? Remember, Celine came back with you two and, as far as we know, she’s in her villa. Okay?’
Flynn and Liv don’t need to be called twice; they fall into their seats and start passing round the dishes. To an outsider, all would look normal, Margot thinks. Two families eating on the terrace on the last night of their holiday, with the fairy lights twinkling and the garden lights reflecting off the gleaming surface of the pool. Happy memories.
Only not.
‘I don’t wanna go back,’ Flynn says. ‘Why can’t we stay with Sara while you two go back?’
‘Yeah,’ says Liv. ‘Please, Mum?’ She gives her mum a puppy-eyed look.
Sara examines her fork as she loads it with vegetables. ‘I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘It’s all booked now, and I can’t change it.’
‘Really?’ Liv puts her head on one side like she doesn’t believe her.
‘Really,’ Guy says. ‘Now eat up. I think there are ice creams that need finishing after this.’
‘Should we wait for Celine?’ Margot asks.
