Page 65 of You Lied First
‘You want to lead the police to where we buried her?’ Guy’s eyes flash and Margot realises she’s on dangerous ground. Guy’s so tightly coiled right now. But he turns his back and moves away from her, slamming his balled fist into the palm of the other hand. She watches as he paces up and down. Then he stops and speaks.
‘If we wanted her to be found, we’d have been better off just leaving her lying there and pretending we’d never seen her body in the first place. But we decided to bury her. We all agreed, remember? And let’s not forget there’ll be DNA – I don’t know what shit they’ll find that could be linked to us.’ Guy runs his hand over his forehead. ‘Look, this isn’t a pleasant situation, is it? And I hate to say it, but it’s dog eats dog. Survival of thefittest. Our sanity or that of her parents. And, when it comes down to it, if I’m choosing between them or me, I’m going to pick me every time. Every. Single. Time. Remember, Celine is dead. Saying something to her parents isn’t going to change what happened. It’s only going to land us in deep shit. Really deep shit. That woman needs to stay six feet under.’
It wasn’t six feet, Margot thinks, not even half that – but she’s not going to tell Guy that. The whole plan seems so ill thought-out now. Maybe they should just confess. Maybe the police will give them some clemency in return for answers.
‘Believe me, I’d like to help them,’ Guy continues, ‘but there’s nothing we can do without compromising ourselves. We can’t bring her back to life. You know that. You want to know how I see it? Out there, we were caught in a difficult situation and we did what we had to do in order for us all to carry on living our lives. To give our kids the chance to fulfil their destinies. The Cremorne family is unfortunately the collateral damage. That’s all. Sadly, they’re going to have to come to terms with the fact that she’s gone. And we need to stick to the plan we agreed on.’ He pauses. ‘Now, are you still with Sara and me? Or do you still want to blow up all our lives?’
He’s interrupted by the buzzer ringing from the gate. Guy goes to speak over the intercom. Margot hears some sort of high-pitched crackly commotion and Guy say, ‘Okay.’
‘Who is it?’ she calls.
‘Sara. Sounds upset. She was okay when I left her.’
‘Has something happened that we don’t know about?’ Margot checks her phone. It feels as if it’s never out of her hand these days. ‘There’s nothing on Breaking News.’
Curiosity brings her to the hallway as Guy opens the front door. Sara almost falls through it, mascara streaked down her blotchy face, and gasps: ‘Have you seen Facebook? Celine’s left a comment! She’s alive and she knows what we did!’
‘What?’ Margot’s heart thuds.
Guy takes Sara by her upper arms and gives her the tiniest shake.
‘Sara, calm down. Look at me. She’s dead. We all saw that she was dead.’
‘But what if she wasn’t?’ Sara wails. ‘What if she was just unconscious?’
Margot’s headachey brain is struggling to keep up.
‘We buried her,’ she says. ‘Under the sand. Didn’t we, Sara? It feels like a dream, but it wasn’t, was it? We dug a hole. We put her in it, and we filled it in. Right?’
Sara shakes Guy off her and walks this way and that in the hallway. ‘Yes! But maybe we didn’t do a good job, Margot! I’ve never dug a grave before! Maybe we didn’t pack it tightly enough! It wasn’t very deep.’
‘It’s not like we had a compactor, is it?’ Margot says. ‘The Jeeps were coming. We were in a hurry.’
‘Yes! We were literally just throwing the sand back in as quickly as we could. We should have pressed it down more! And we should have checked she was really dead! All three of us. We should have all stood there and confirmed it.’ She flings her hands over her face. ‘Now she knows what we did! She’ll tell the police and that’s it! We’ll go to jail and she’s not even dead!’
Margot sinks down onto the stairs. Guy is tapping his phone.
‘It’s on the appeal page?’
‘Top comment,’ Sara says.
‘Got it.’ He reads for a moment then scoffs. ‘For God’s sake, Sara. Clearly a prankster. Set up an account using her name and photos that are freely available. That’s all it is. Saw the news about the phone and thought they’d stir it up a bit. People can be such arseholes.’
‘How can you be sure?’ Sara says. ‘Sometimes I have nightmares that she’s alive …’
Guy holds out his arm. ‘She’s dead, trust me. Come on, let’s calm down.’ He leads her towards the orangery as if she’s a skittish foal, while mouthing to Margot, ‘Brandy.’
By the time Margot brings three crystal glasses and the brandy bottle on a tray, Sara’s sitting on the sofa in the orangery looking a bit calmer. Margot pours them each a generous slug of brandy and Sara downs it in one. Margot refills it. Sara downs that also, then leans back on the cushions, her hand on her chest.
‘Even if it is a crank, they’re not wrong, are they?’ she wails. ‘What if the police get wind of this? What if it opens up a new line of enquiry?’
Guy shrugs. ‘Let it. There’s nothing to lead them to us.’
‘And what if sheisalive? Margot, you know what I mean? Do you ever have doubts?’
Margot opens her mouth, but Guy beats her to it.
‘Well,’ he says. ‘If she is alive, then there’s absolutely no way you should be telling her parents that she’s dead, Mar!’ He bites his lips, as if stifling a chuckle. ‘Imagine.’
