A cold, greasy fear engulfed me. ‘Jonathan’s, you mean?’
She nodded, terrified. ‘I recognise it. I almost drove into it the day I was trying to get away from their house, when his mother offered me that job and I argued with them.’
‘You’re sure?’ I said.
‘Yes. I am. He’s got a wanky personalised plate. J05THN.’ She was starting to breath faster as we pulled up at the busy crossroads, traffic thundering past us, left and right. ‘What’s happened? What’s he done now? He was blogging, or vlogging, whatever you call it, left, right and centre. He was enjoying this too much to have done something stupid.’
I put my hand out on her lap. ‘Try to calm down.’ I looked up and noticed in the rear-view mirror that one of the police cars was there. ‘Look, I’ve got to concentrate for a minute: they’re behind us. Let me get across the road, I’ll pull over, and we’ll talk.’
‘What do you mean, “they’re behind us”? A police car?’ She whipped round in panic. ‘Do you think they’re following us?’
‘Of course not! Please, just be quiet a minute so I can do this?’ I looked both ways and pulled out over both lines of traffic to turn right.
‘Are they still there?’ Alex asked as we continued up the road.
I looked. ‘No, they’ve gone.’
She exhaled so deeply it was as if she’d just finished a race and placed a hand on her stomach.
‘Are you having another panic attack?’ I looked at her. ‘What do I do? Do you need me to stop? Shall we pull over and get you some water at the garage?’
‘Yes,’ she said faintly. ‘Yes, please.’
I put my foot down and pulled in sharply onto the busy forecourt, dumping the car by one of the pumps. I climbed out and ran into the shop, grabbing a bottle of still water. By the time I’d almost reached the front of the queue, the jobsworth fifty-something assistant was already on the tannoy.
‘Lady in the Qashqai, can you please stop using your mobile phone and wait until you’re off the forecourt, as per the warning on the pump right next to you? Thank you.’ She clicked it off and said pissily to the bloke she was serving. ‘They always think the rules don’t apply to them – and it’s always a “really important call”.’
‘That’s my wife, thanks!’ I called out furiously. ‘And phones don’t actually spark fires on forecourts. Only a moron would still think that.’
Everyone turned to look at me for a moment, and the assistant shouted back warningly: ‘I don’t make the rules, Sir, but it’s my job to enforce them. We also don’t tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour against staff? So I’ll thank you to lower your tone and not insult me?’
I stared at her in disbelief as she gave me a smug, fat smile and everyone went back to waiting. When it was my turn, I fixed her with a fierce glare the whole way through, arms crossed, but said nothing. I knew she’d be desperate to have any excuse to refuse to serve me from behind her crappy plastic screen. She stared at me when she handed back my card, and I almost said something, but changed my mind, hurrying back out to Alex instead. There were more important things at hand.
I passed her the bottle, put my seatbelt on and pulled away. ‘Who were you phoning?’
‘David, to see if he knows anything – if the police have contacted him yet. They haven’t.’
‘Why would they contact him?’
‘To get Jonathan’s medical records.’
‘If it’s even him?’ I looked at her sideways again. ‘I really think you need to try and relax. We don’t know anything for sure, Alex. There are a lot of silver Golfs.’
‘Not with that number plate. It’s him. I know it is. And like you said, they only put up tents like that when they’re protecting forensic evidence. Don’t you see what this means? They’re going to think I had something to do with this.’
I swerved slightly. ‘Why on earth would they think that?’
‘Because it’s happened on our doorstep! Because he publicly accused me of harassing him. Because everyone knows we had a relationship and now he’s dead!’
‘You don’t know that!’ I raised my voice.
‘I was at home alone last night. I took a sleeping pill and went to bed – no one is going to believe that if something really bad has happened to him. I’ve just asked David to say he stayed with me until just before 9 p.m. because I was in a bit of a state after Gary Day’s unpleasant visit, which isn’t a total lie. In fact, it’s good that he saw David. It proves David was there.’
‘But why are you going to say he was there longer than he actually was?’
‘Because I need an alibi.’
My mouth fell open. ‘You’re not serious? An alibi for what?’
‘Whatever Jonathan’s done in the woods. Don’t worry, I’ve been very careful about it. David doesn’t live anywhere with CCTV on the roads, his mother was out until half nine and you were home by, what, 9 p.m?’
‘I went straight back out for a takeaway though.’ I struggled to think. ‘I was back home by half nine too? Maybe a tiny bit later. I’m not exactly sure. I’d be on the takeaway security camera though; but Alex, this is crazy. What do you think you need to?—’
‘OK, so I was “alone” for, at most, ten minutes in between David leaving and you coming home,’ she interrupted impatiently, ‘and then for another separate half an hour while you were getting your food. That’s not enough time to do anything.’
‘Do what?’ I was genuinely confused.
‘Kill him.’
I swung round in shock.
‘Keep your eyes on the road,’ she said.
I did as I was told and blinked several times while I tried to think what to say next. ‘You’re worried the police are going to think you’ve killed Jonathan?’ I managed eventually.
‘People don’t just die in the woods,’ she said quietly. ‘Whatever he’s done, they are going to consider foul play and I have to be prepared. Rob, I know I talked about killing him yesterday. I even said: “if I could do it and not get caught, I would”. But please know that I have got nothing to do with this. I would be caught, that’s the whole point. They would lock me away from Maisie and Tilly forever. I would never risk that. Although the real point here is, of course, I couldn’t kill anyone.’
‘I’ve never said you could.’
‘I know, but you didn’t actually see me when you got back, did you? You just saw a note on the door that said I’d taken a pill and could you sleep in the spare room?’
God – she was right. I realised I had caught my breath.
‘Obviously I was there,’ she said carefully, watching me, ‘but that second of doubt you just had? Everyone is going to have that multiplied by a million, because they’re not my husband who loves me and knows I would never do that – and that’s why I need an alibi.’
I pulled over suddenly, making the car behind us break heavily and lean on the horn as they passed.
‘Do you know what has happened?’ I asked. ‘Are you just pretending to guess like this?’
‘No. I’m not. But I’m telling you that’s his car – and they only put up tents like that if they are shielding a body.’
‘Swear on our daughters’ lives – you know nothing about this at all?’
‘NO!’ she shouted, putting both of her hands on the side of her head. ‘How can you even ask me that? This is insane, absolutely insane! I took a sleeping pill and I went to bed!’ She started shaking, but I couldn’t tell if it was with anger, or fear.
‘You’re not hiding anything from me?’