Page 71 of Happily Never After
DS Rogers crossed to the chart and examined it. ‘Five foot four inches. About your height, Ma’am.’
‘It’s a very common height for women,’ DI Harrison observed testily. ‘I think we’ll need more than that to secure a conviction, don’t you?’
‘Yes, but it’s a start. So far, we know we’re probably looking for a woman, around five foot four and possibly of a similar age to the victim. If it’s a crime of passion, she might have been his wife or lover. Do we have an ID for the victim?’
‘Not yet,’ Alicja replied. ‘Is only matter of time though.’
And so the game began. Piece by piece, the puzzle would start to come together and the net would begin to close. As the senior investigator, DI Claire Harrison was somehow going to have to solve a murder she herself had committed, without implicating herself in the process.
Life was so fucking unfair sometimes.
‘I thought you might like some coffee.’ I look up to see Angus with a slightly anxious expression on his face, carefully setting a cup down on the table. ‘I’m not disturbing you, am I?’
‘No,’ I tell him, glancing at the countdown timer on my phone. ‘You’ve timed it perfectly, actually.’
‘Great. Do you mind if I bring another cup over and join you?’
‘As long as you don’t start on about us getting back together again.’
‘No.’ He smiles ruefully. ‘That ship has sailed. I get it.’
‘Slightly unfortunate analogy,’ I can’t help pointing out.
‘You’re right, sorry.’
‘Stop apologising for everything!’
He holds up his hands in surrender. ‘Sorry for being sorry. Back in a moment.’
I watch him as he heads back towards the terrace, where the coffee and pastries have been laid out. For a moment, I feel sorry for him. Despite everything, I do still care for him and I don’t like being the reason for his evident unhappiness. But, I remind myself fiercely, nothing has actually changed. He may say he wants to come back and give it another try, but that look that flashed across his face when I challenged him told me that he definitely has a problem with me earning more than him and, if he can’t even admit that, we’re just going to end up back in the same place.
‘I also brought you one of Cara’s delicious-looking pastries,’ Angus tells me when he returns, setting down a plate in front ofme. ‘Do you know, if it wasn’t for the fact that everybody else here seems to hate me, I’d be loving this. It’s such a beautiful place, and the food is superb.’
‘I don’t think anyone hates you.’
He laughs. ‘Nice try, but it’s obvious that the snotty woman absolutely loathes me, and you’ve made it perfectly clear you’d rather I was a million miles away. The others seem broadly indifferent, I’ll grant you, but the overall mood is hostile.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about Gina,’ I reassure him. ‘Despite her going on about you not being a writer, I think her main beef is actually that you’re connected to me. If you think she’s anti you, that’s nothing compared to the way she feels about me.’
‘What have you done?’ He smiles. ‘Apart from telling her to fuck off, of course.’
‘I have no idea. According to Lynette, her sister, she hates me because I’m already published, but I can’t believe anyone would be that petty.’
‘Sometimes other people’s success can be hard to swallow,’ he observes.
‘Are you speaking generally, or from personal experience?’ I ask. Maybe he’ll open up and be truthful this time.
There’s a long pause while he takes a mouthful of his pastry, and I do the same. It’s soft, buttery and very moreish, but I find I’m not enjoying it as much as I normally do. I’m waiting to hear what he has to say, and I have the distinct impression I’m not going to like it.
‘Personal experience,’ he admits eventually. ‘Look, Laura. I know I said the money didn’t matter earlier, but that wasn’t strictly true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely delighted that your career took off in the way that it did. If anyone deserves to be a roaring success, you do. But it did leave me feeling a bit left behind sometimes, if I’m honest.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it put you in a different league from me, don’t you see? If you fancied going out for dinner, you’d just book a table for us in that fancy restaurant at The Mermaid hotel. I’d have to save for weeks to be able to afford to take you there. It felt… unbalanced somehow and it made me feel inadequate, because I couldn’t keep up.’
‘Oh, Angus. I’m so sorry. I never meant to make you feel that way. I guess I just wanted to share, and it never occurred to me until Liv brought it up.’
‘What did she say?’ he asks, his voice a little sharp.
