‘Well she must have started. That’s why Karen was taken in for questioning: she was seen at our house the morning Eleanor … the morning it happened.’
‘I don’t know anything about that. I haven’t spoken to Karen in over a week. She wouldn’t answer my calls.’
Bea thought back to the date her best friend had set up for her, the video emailed to her workmates. What the hell was going on with Karen? It wasn’t like her; she’d always been so together, never one for nasty, malicious games. The conversation they’d had just a few weeks before flashed through her mind.
‘I need to ask you a question.’ She looked down at the table, unable to meet Adam’s eyes. ‘Before we fell out, Karen said she’d seen you with one of her patients. She thought you were having an affair.’
If it was possible for Adam’s face to lose even more colour, Bea was sure it happened at her words.
‘I wouldn’t … I couldn’t …’
She reached out a hand and touched his arm. ‘It doesn’t matter now. Whatever happened, it’s not important.’
‘Of course it is. I can’t allow people to believe I could do that to Eleanor.’ He let out a sigh. ‘Let’s face it, the last few months I was a shit husband. I worked late on purpose to avoid whatever I might have done or said wrong that day, when Els needed me there for her and the boys. I got out of the house at any opportunity; I went to the gym, for Christ’s sake – I haven’t been to the gym in years! I was so selfish, I just kept thinking about how I needed space and time to myself when I should have been spending every last minute with my family. Oh God, if I could just go back and be the husband she deserved …’
He was either telling the truth or a very good liar; Bea wasn’t sure which. Her head was full of all the things that had happened to the three of them over the last couple of months, and she had no idea what the hell was going on. Karen wouldn’t lie about seeing Adam with another woman. And this patient of hers, Bea was sure she was real too. So what was the truth? And who could she trust? But most importantly, with Eleanor gone and Karen missing, what would happen to them now?
75
Bea
‘Bea, it’s Michael. Can you let me in? We need to talk.’
Bea pressed the talk button on the intercom and injected as much venom into her voice as she could manage. ‘I’d rather shit in my hands and clap. Go away.’
There was a silence, filled only by the static that indicated Michael still had his finger on the buzzer.
‘Look,’ he said at last. ‘I know you think I’m to blame for what happened—’
‘That’s because it’s your fault,’ Bea interrupted. ‘I know you aren’t responsible for …’ She couldn’t say the words. Eleanor’s death. ‘But you’re to blame for what has happened to us. You’re the reason none of us were speaking. Why are you even here? You should be with Karen, supporting her. Isn’t she being questioned again?’
‘I have no idea. We had a huge argument the night before … the night before Eleanor … about this patient of hers, and she told me to go back to … to go home. She won’t talk to me, she won’t let me in the house and I don’t want to let myself in – it’s her home after all. I was hoping you could talk to her, make her see sense …’
‘Piss off, Michael. Sounds like she’s already seen sense. Go home to your family.’
Bea released the button and wandered round the front room, picking up the remote and moving it from the sofa to the table, tidying the magazines from the table to the sofa. The buzzer didn’t sound again. Was he still outside? She peered through the useless peephole; there was no one in the narrow hallway, no eye staring back at her. He couldn’t be in the hall, not unless someone let him in through the front. She was just being stupid.
So Karen and Michael were no more. In that case, why hadn’t she been answering Bea’s calls? It had been nearly two weeks since they last spoke – had she been alone since Eleanor’s death? Whatever their differences, Karen surely couldn’t go through this alone.