Page 89 of The New House

She rinses the shampoo from her hair, and gently massages conditioner into her scalp. The worst thing is, she can see how Millie ended up thinking this way. She should never have confided in her – a woman she scarcely knew! – about the problems she and Felix were having. But there’s no denying things had escalated in the bedroom to a point where she wasn’t comfortable, and she needed to tellsomeone.

The level of violence between them: it might be consensual, but even she could see it wasn’t healthy.

Felix clearly felt the same way: he’d gone behind her back and engaged a divorce lawyer. Who knows what he’d told Tom about the state of their marriage, but it probably wasn’t very complimentary. There are two sides to every story, after all. She doubted he’d painted her in the most flattering light. And if Tom had passed details of their marital troubles on to his wife – well, it would’ve just fed into Millie’s misguided conviction that Stacey needed rescuing.

And then there’s Harper Conway. Stacey hasn’t trusted the young woman since the first day she met her, she thinks, soaping her legs. Harper is publicity-hungry and a lot savvier than she lets on. And she’s got more reason than most to carry a grudge against Felix, given he stole all her money. Who knows what poison she’s been dripping into Millie’s ear? As she told the two detectives, she knows it sounds completely crazy, but what if Harper took advantage of Millie’s obsession with Stacey and somehow manipulated her into … well, into hurting Felix?

They didn’t take her seriously – she’s aware how paranoid she sounds – but she didn’t really expect them to. It’s like she’s trapped in a complex, elaborate maze of smoke and mirrors designed to make the innocent look guilty and the guilty seem innocent: nothing is as it seems. No one is to be trusted.

Stacey rinses the conditioner from her hair. The police may believe her for now, but she doesn’t kid herself she’s out of the woods yet. Millie Downton is a dangerous woman, and she’s not just going to leave things as they are. Stacey’s glad Archie is safely away at school, out of Millie’s reach.

The hot water is starting to turn tepid, so she finally turns off the shower and gropes for a towel. She needs to be proactive now. She’s losing control of events, and she has to turn that around. She’s got to work out Millie’s next move, and be one step ahead. She can’t rely on the police to do it for her.

She knots the towel around her, and pads into her bedroom.

The next thing she knows, someone has grabbed her from behind and is flinging her facedown onto the bed.

chapter 53

millie

‘There’s no point screaming,’ I tell Stacey as I twist her right arm behind her and press my knee into the centre of her back. ‘No one will hear.’

She doesn’t struggle. She turns her head sideways on the duvet so she can speak. And breathe. ‘Are you here to kill me or talk to me?’ she says.

‘I’m still deciding.’

‘Well, while you do that, can you let me up?’

‘Are you going to try anything stupid?’

‘I think you can see I don’t have a weapon,’ she says dryly.

I release her and climb off the bed, keeping a sharp eye out in case she lunges for one of the heavy lamps on the bedside tables.

Stacey rolls cautiously onto her back and then pushes herself into a sitting position, holding the white fluffy bath towel around her chest to protect her modesty. ‘How did you get into my house?’

‘The same way I did when you asked me to break into your husband’s study,’ I say. ‘You might want to actually use that expensive alarm system of yours now and again.’

Stacey smooths her wet hair back from her face with the palm of one hand. I can see her weighing up her options: she can’t outrun me, and one glance at the nearestbedside table tells her I have her phone. She must know I’d beat her in a fight. I work out every day, and years of broadcasting from a sofa have made her soft and weak.

‘Are you going to tell me why you’re here?’ she asks.

‘Really? We have to play that game?’

‘What game?’

I fold my arms, and lean against the mahogany and wicker chest of drawers behind me. John Hutton for Donghia, if I’m not mistaken. She won’t have got much change from twenty thousand pounds.

‘I pretend I have no idea what happened to Felix,’ I tell her, ‘you pretend you didn’t set me up to take the fall for his murder, I threaten you, you tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about, blah, blah, blah. I’d expect those kind of games from someone like Harper Conway, but I thought you were smarter than that.’

‘What is it you want?’

‘Ahh. Better.’

‘You must want something, or you wouldn’t be here.’

I smile wolfishly. ‘Psychopaths don’t need a reason to be psychopaths. I assume you know the fable about the scorpion and the frog?’

---