‘I’ll probably just kill them. Now, get up to your room.’
I turned away from him so that he couldn’t see how much his words had shocked me. Finding a way out—killing Jack—had never seemed more urgent and I knew that if I went back to my room, another opportunity would be lost. It was time to put the next part of my plan into action.
‘Can’t I stay down here for a while?’ I asked.
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘You know very well why.’
‘When was the last time I tried to escape? Look at me, Jack! Do you really think you’re in danger from me? Have I done anything except behave as perfectly as possible for the last six months? Do you honestly think that I want to risk going down to the basement?’
‘It’s true that your trips down there seem to have had the desired effect, but, nonetheless, you’ll be going up to your room.’
‘Then could I move into another room?’
‘Why?’
‘Why do you think? Because I need a change of scene, that’s why! I’m fed up looking at the same four walls, day in, day out!’
‘All right.’
I looked at him in surprise. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. Come on, I’ll take you down to the basement and you can look at the four walls there instead. Or do you think that maybe your room isn’t so bad after all?’
‘I think maybe my room isn’t so bad after all,’ I said dully.
‘That’s a shame. You see, I think the room in the basement has been empty for far too long. Shall I let you into a secret?’ He leant down towards me and lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘It was hard, very hard, to let Millie leave just now, much harder than I thought it would be. In fact, it was so hard that I’m going to suggest she moves in as soon as we get back from Thailand. What do you think, Grace? Won’t it be lovely to be one happy family?’
I knew then that not only would I have to kill Jack, I would have to kill him before we left for Thailand. Terrible though it was to realise how little time I had left, having a deadline helped me focus. As I went up the stairs in front of him, I was already planning my next move.
‘When you bring me up my whisky, will you stay and have one with me?’ I asked, as I got undressed.
‘Now why would I want to do that?’
‘Because I’m tired of being cooped up for twenty-four hours a day with no one to talk to,’ I said listlessly. ‘Have you any idea what it’s like? Sometimes I feel as if I’m going mad. In fact, I wish I would.’ I let my voice rise. ‘What would you do then, Jack? What will you do if I go mad?’
‘Of course you’re not going to go mad,’ he retorted, pushing me into my bedroom and closing the door.
‘I might!’ I called after him. ‘I just might! And I want my whisky in a glass!’
I don’t know whether it was because he’d refused me everything else I’d asked for or if he was worried that I really would go mad, but, whatever the reason, when he came back ten minutes later, he was carrying two glasses.
‘Thank you,’ I said, taking a sip. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Go ahead.’
‘It’s about the Tomasin case. He married an actress, didn’t he? Dena somebody or other? I seem to remember reading something about it, back in the days when I was allowed to read newspapers.’
‘Dena Anderson.’
‘So is she accusing him of beating her up?’
‘I’m not allowed to discuss my cases.’
‘Well, everybody here today seemed to know about it so either you haven’t been very discreet or it’s common knowledge,’ I said reasonably. ‘Doesn’t he give most of his fortune to good causes?’
‘It doesn’t mean he’s not a wife-beater.’
‘What did Adam mean about her having a lover?’
‘Adam was just being provocative.’
‘So there’s no truth in what he said.’
‘None at all. One of the tabloids invented the story to discredit her.’
‘Why would they do that?’
‘Because Antony Tomasin is one of the shareholders. Now, drink up—I’m not leaving here without the glass.’