Page 64 of Perfect Wives
We drive in silence. My heart won’t slow down.
Who did we almost kill? I try to gather myself, to cling on to whatever it is inside me that makes meme. I cast around for my to-do list. I think about tomorrow. The house needs…I really should…The girls will want…
Nothing comes.
How many times have I wished I could turn off my thoughts, step outside myself and have a break? But I never meant like this. I can’t think. Nothing makes sense.
Ten minutes later, we’re parked at the back of an empty retail car park. The engine off. The silence heavy.
Beth shifts in her seat and looks from Georgie to me. Her face is ghostly pale. ‘Was that man even Keira’s ex? He said his name was Paul, not Richard. That was the name of Keira’s ex, right? Richard Philips. And that man – Paul – said he didn’t have children either.’
‘Could he have been a different runner?’ Georgie asks.
‘No,’ I reply. ‘She sent us a photo, remember? It was him.’
There’s a wildness in Georgie’s blue eyes I’ve never seen before. A part of me is reassured that she seems as shaken as I am, but mostly the realisation only adds to the roaring panic inside me. Nothing rattles Georgie.
‘But,’ Georgie says with a frown, ‘if that man wasn’t her ex, who did we almost kill?’
‘You mean, who did I almost kill?’ Beth whispers, her voice hollow.
An icy cold trickles through my blood. I’m shivering, my whole body trembling. ‘But why would Keira lie?’ I ask. ‘Why set us up to kill that man if he’s not her ex?’
‘Maybe she wanted him dead for another reason,’ Georgie says. ‘And used us to do it.’
‘If Jonny wasn’t killed so we’d kill her ex, then why did she kill him?’ I ask. ‘And who else does she want dead?’
‘Yeah. And the other thing I can’t get my head around is where she got the key for Jonny’s place from?’
‘I assume he let her in,’ Beth says. ‘Then she took a key after she’d killed him?’
‘Maybe,’ Georgie says, not sounding convinced. ‘None of this is making sense.’
‘Because she’s crazy,’ I cry.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Georgie says. She sits up a little straighter, and when her eyes meet mine, they are sharp and determined. ‘What matters is what we do now.’
‘What do you mean?’ I ask.
‘I mean,’ Georgie starts, ‘she probably won’t know we didn’t kill that man until tomorrow, right? We have tonight to act.’
Beth shoots Georgie a look, her expression apprehensive. ‘Act how?’
‘Keira said she hid evidence in Jonny’s house that incriminates us. She took my gloves and your scarf that night in the pub, remember? And I have the key she sent me. So let’s go to Jonny’s house and find the things of ours she’s hidden.’
‘It isn’t just the evidence she has and the police finding out though,’ I say. ‘She threatened to come back to Magnolia Close. We know she’s crazy. She could kill our children.’ Fear is a jagged rock in my throat.
‘But we have to try, don’t we?’ Georgie replies. ‘We have to do something.’
‘The police have already searched Jonny’s house,’ Beth says. ‘If it was obvious, they’d have found it.’
‘Maybe,’ Georgie says. ‘Or maybe they didn’t know it was important, but we will.’
Beth looks at me, and I nod my agreement. The thought of breaking into a dead man’s house is crazy, but it’s better than killing someone.
Beth starts the engine and pulls away, the car feeling like it’s moving at a snail’s crawl after the speed on the country lanes.
My mind darts to Marc. To the secrets he’s been keeping. Jonny knew what he was doing during those three months Marc pretended to go to work. He knew because he was helping him.
