all the cosy nights in and home-cooked meals in the world aren’t going to smooth away all the bumps in our relationship. I can feel the pressure of his hand on mine, and glance at the wooden cottage door that he made sure to lock when we got back from the beach. And I wonder where the key is – and what he’d do if I tried to leave.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Alex is in the kitchen preparing the pasta bake when I text Jas back.
I’m not sure what’s happening here. I’m ok, but A didn’t take photo too well. Will stay in touch x
I go into the kitchen, where Alex is now slicing peppers and humming to himself, it’s the picture of domestic bliss. But that’s all it is – a picture.
‘God, I love this place,’ he says, as I walk in.
‘Me too,’ I say, trying to sound like I mean it while watching the knife go into the peppers like butter. ‘Just going to the bathroom,’ I add, leaving the kitchen and heading upstairs to see where he’s put the front door keys. I know from experience, he usually puts his house keys in his jeans pocket, but he’s wearing jogging bottoms with no pockets, so the keys must be somewhere. I pick up his jeans, folded neatly on the bedroom chair, I push my hand into his pocket, and there they are! I slip them into my hoodie pocket, while trying not to creak the bedroom floor.
‘You know, I was thinking—’ he calls from down in the kitchen.
I drop the jeans and head to the bathroom, flushing the toilet so he thinks that’s where I’ve been. I don’t want him to know I’m in the bedroom, he might put two and two together. He knows I’m not happy, and he’s hoping bloody pasta bake’s going to change everything, but it isn’t.
‘Hang on…’ I call, coming down the stairs. ‘What were you saying?’
He turns round as I walk into the kitchen and smiles at me. ‘There you are. I was just saying, babe – we could move out here, buy a nice little cottage, raise our three kids by the sea.’
I nod. ‘That sounds good,’ I say, but inside I’m screaming NO!
He laughs, almost to himself. ‘I mean, we’ve already got the dog, we’re picking Kevin up next week… I make dreams come true, don’t I, babe?’
‘You certainly do.’ I smile, and head back to the living room slowly, as if I’m just pottering, but once in there, I push the keys under the sofa seat.
I don’t know what to do next. He also has the keys to the car, and God knows where they are. I’m wondering how quickly I could get outside and get the car started before he realised and came after me, when I pick up my phone to see several missed calls and a text from Jas in the last few minutes. Christ, why did I leave my phone here? He obviously came in when I was upstairs and he must have seen the first few lines of her text, which says:
Get out of there asap!
I can hear the sound of chopping and Alex singing to himself in the kitchen, so I quickly open her message. She’s sent me a news link, and for a moment my heart stops, thinking it might be about Chloe, that the police have arrested whoever gave her the drugs, or, worse still, that she hasn’t pulled through. But when I open the link, it’s a news report on a man being killed outside The Orange Tree wine bar on Wednesday night. Killed? He turned away the first ambulance that came, insisting he was fine, and walked home, but was later found and taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries.
I look through into the kitchen at Alex still humming. Does he know?
I read on, apparently police are seeking a man who fled the scene. I’d never told Jas about that night, and Alex said he’d seen his policeman friend, who said the guy was fine.
I immediately text Jas back.
How did you know?
The guy said it was a businessman in a suit who attacked him. I guessed. You were quite jumpy the next day. I knew something was up. Now you HAVE to tell the police. x
Just as I put down the phone, Alex walks in. I’m sitting among the cushions by the fire and he comes and stands over me.