‘No,’ went Michael. ‘You did that all by yourself.’
Nick took a visible breath. ‘Okay. Look, emotions are running high, unsurprisingly. Can we meet up tomorrow, maybe, on neutral ground, and talk properly when everyone’s had a chance to calm down and get their heads round this?’
‘Yes.’ The word left Duncan’s mouth in a sort of sigh. ‘Okay. Let’s do that.’
‘Michael’s got my number,’ said Nick. ‘Think about it and let us know.’
And then he was leaving.
And he and the lassie had gone.
Had that really happened?
Nick had just been here?
Maggie’s head was spinning.
‘God,’ groaned Duncan. ‘Oh God.’
Maggie turned on him. ‘Are you out your mind? You’re buying that sob story?’
Duncan just lifted his shoulders.
For a long time, the three of them sat or, in Maggie’s case, stood frozen. Then Michael got up from his chair and went to stand over Duncan. ‘He’s playing you. Maggie’s right. You can’t let him mess with your head all over again.’
‘Aye, he’s playing us,’ said Maggie slowly. ‘But let’s us just go along with it, make him think we’re buying it. This could work in our favour. We arrange to meet him and Lulu tomorrow in a café some place, and Michael, you pretend to get a call from the police and say your piece about a lead. Then if Nick makes an excuse to leave without Lulu, we follow him. We can hire another car so he won’t recognise it.’
Michael nodded. ‘Good thinking.’
Duncan made a wordless sound of protest. ‘That boy hasn’t done anything to Yvonne! He’s not the person we thought he was. Isn’t that obvious? He’s a successful City trader, he’s married to that nice girl . . . Oh, God.’ He put his head in his hands. ‘We’ve wronged him – I’ve wronged him so badly!’
31
Lulu - June 2019
‘It’s been quite a day,’ said Nick, shovelling pasta into his mouth. ‘Come on, Lu, eat up. You’ll feel better with some food inside you.’
But Lulu couldn’t eat a mouthful. She pushed the plate away.
‘I can’t believe that Dad . . .’ Nick chewed, looking off. ‘Dad’s alive! It’s like all this time I’ve been struggling along with a huge weight pressing down on me, the thought of what must have happened to him and Isla . . . and all the time he was alive!’
‘It’s only natural if you feel anger towards him.’
Nick shook his head. ‘But that’s the thing – I don’t. I really don’t. It was Maggie, you see? All along, it’s been that bitch Maggie, getting inside his head, dripping poison. It’s not Dad’s fault.’ He sighed. ‘But that’s in the past. The important thing is that he’s okay, and now we have years and years to make up for lost time.’
‘Maybe Maggie . . .’ She took a deep breath. ‘Maybe she thought she had her reasons.’
He stopped mid-chew. Swallowed. Raised his eyebrows. ‘What do you mean?’
Lulu backtracked hurriedly: ‘Just that she was a new mum. Any threat – any perceived threat to her baby would have sent her into protective overdrive.’
‘The bitch was paranoid! She was the nutter, not me! I know, I know.’ His mouth quirked in a smile. ‘There’s no such thing as a nutter. But once you get to know Maggie – because unfortunately she and Dad come as a package – you might find you change your mind on that one. Christ, she was furious, wasn’t she, when Dad and I were hugging? This must be her worst nightmare, the two of us being reconciled.’ He nodded. ‘I wouldn’t put it past her to try something. We need to get that window fixed. Pity there’s no alarm system. Maybe we should leave in the morning, book into a hotel, somewhere safer . . .’
After dinner, Nick made them both cocoa and rooted out a packet of chocolate ginger biscuits from the larder. ‘Shall we adjourn to the drawing room?’
As they sat side by side on the sofa, Lulu’s first sip of the cocoa told her it was drugged. It had a strange taint which the stronger taste of the hot chocolate last night must have masked.
She should challenge him. Tell him she knew he’d put zolpidem in the drink.
Again.
But somehow the words wouldn’t come.
It wasn’t the right time. He had been through too much today. Tomorrow morning, she would tackle him about it. Wouldn’t she?
Suddenly, sickeningly, all her fears from last night, this morning, about Nick came flooding back.
Why was he drugging her? Was he just worried about her not sleeping, or –
Or what?
She knew he couldn’t be intending to harm her in any way. Why would he? Nick loved her. She should never have doubted that, not even for a second. Tomorrow, she would tell him she knew he had tried to drug her.
She made herself keep sipping the cocoa.
‘I’m beat,’ she yawned, after she had drunk less than half the mugful. ‘I think I’ll have a shower and go to bed.’
‘You haven’t finished your cocoa.’
So she smiled, and drank the rest of it down.
‘Goodnight, darling.’ She kissed his mouth. ‘It’s been quite a day, as you say. A wonderful day, but I feel like I could sleep for a week!’
‘Me too. I’ll be up soon. Goodnight, my darling Lu.’ He kissed her again, more lingeringly.
She would have to be quick.
But she made herself not run up the stairs. She trudged wearily, and only when she was safely locked in the bathroom did she step it up a gear, rushing to the shower and turning it on to provide a covering wall of noise as she stuck her fingers down her throat and vomited into the toilet bowl.
After a sketchy shower, she undressed and got into bed. Had she got the zolpidem out of her system soon enough? She felt so tired, so drained of energy. She wanted to close her eyes and sink down into sleep.