that he had done such a good job of whitewashing him in death. But it made him sick, the way everyone had nodded sagely, accepting the bullshit, their pious expressions acceding to this hypocritical fiction.
He wondered how they'd have looked if he'd walked up to the front of the crematorium and told the truth. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to burn a murderer. This man you thought you knew spent all his adult life lying to you. David Kerr pretended to be an upstanding member of the community. But the reality is that many years ago he took part in the brutal rape and murder of my mother, for which he was never punished. So when you thumb through your memories of him, remember that." Oh yes, that would have wiped the looks of reverent sorrow from their faces. He almost wished he'd done it.
But that would have been self-indulgence. It wasn't fitting to gloat. Better to stay in the shadows. Especially since his uncle had turned up out of the blue to make his point for him. He had no idea what Uncle Brian had said to Gilbey and Mackie. But it had rocked the pair of them back on their heels. No chance now of them forgetting what they'd once been part of. They'd be lying awake tonight, wondering when their past was finally going to catch up with them. It was a pleasant thought.
Macfadyen watched Alex Gilbey walk to his car, apparently oblivious to everything around him. "He doesn't even know I'm on the planet," he muttered. "But I am, Gilbey. I am." He started his engine and set off to haunt the fringes of the funeral buffet. It was amazing how easy it was to infiltrate people's lives.
Chapter 32
Davina was making progress, the nurse told them. She was breathing well without oxygen, her jaundice was responding to the fluorescent lights that shone night and day around her cot. While he held her in his arms, Alex could forget the depression Mondo's funeral had trailed in its wake, and the anxieties Weird's reaction to the wreath had generated. The only thing that could be better than sitting with his wife and daughter in the neonatal unit would be doing exactly the same thing in their own living room. Or so he'd thought until his conversation at the crematorium.
As if she read his mind, Lynn looked up from feeding. "Just a couple of days now, and we'll be bringing her home."
Alex smiled, hiding the uneasiness her words created. "I can't wait," he said.
Driving home afterward, he thought about broaching the subject of the wreath and Brian Duff's revelation. But he didn't want to unsettle Lynn, so he kept quiet. Lynn went straight to bed, exhausted by the day, while Alex opened a particularly good bottle of Shiraz he'd been saving for a night when they deserved indulgence. He brought the wine through to the bedroom and poured them each a glass. "Are you going to tell me what's eating away at you?" Lynn asked as he climbed on top of the duvet next to her.
"Oh, I was just thinking about He'd and Jackie. I can't help wondering if Jackie had a hand in Mondo's murder. I'm not saying she killed him. But it sounds like she knows people who might, if the money was right."
Lynn scowled. "I almost wish it was her. That bitch He'd deserves to suffer. How could she creep around cheating on Mondo and pretend to be the perfect wife?"
"I think He'd's genuinely suffering, Lynn. I believe her when she says she loved him."
"Don't you start defending her."
"I'm not defending her. But whatever the score is between her and Jackie, she cared about him. It's obvious."
Lynn pursed her lips. "I'll have to take your word for it. But that's not what's bugging you. Something happened after we left the crematorium and before you arrived at the hotel. Was it Weird? Did he say something to wind you up?"
"I swear to God you're a witch," Alex complained. "Look, it was nothing. Just some bee Weird got in his bonnet."
"Must have been the killer bee from Alpha Centauri to have this much effect when you've got so many other important things going on. Why don't you want to tell me? Is it boys' own stuff?"
Alex sighed. He didn't like keeping things from Lynn. He'd never believed that ignorance was bliss, not in a marriage that was supposed to be equal. "In a way. I really