to pull out and wait.’
Sam and Charlie waited. The traffic had started to inch forward.
Simon didn’t move, not until the car behind beeped its horn. He was too focused on his thoughts; the outside world, with its baking heat and its traffic jams, had receded.
‘Second time round, Bowskill planned to do it differently,’ he said. ‘He told Connie he’d changed his mind, he had no desire to move to Cambridge – told her to forget all about it, they could be just as happy in Silsford. It was classic reverse psychology, and it worked. Connie started to resent him for giving up on the Cambridge dream. Thinking he’d abandoned it, she claimed it as her own. Bowskill, meantime, was waiting for 18 Pardoner Lane to come up for sale again – he was prepared to wait as long as it took. The longer the better – he knew Connie would get progressively unhappier, caught in the Monk family trap. When the house finally came on the market again, Bowskill would be ready with his pre-emptive offer – enough money to make sure the Gilpatricks accepted, whatever that took. He’s the director of a successful company now – no question of him having to go begging for handouts. Once his offer’s been accepted, he tells Connie, “Oh, by the way, a mate of mine in Cambridge says our house is for sale again – pity we’re so happy here.” Then he sits back and lets her enthusiasm for their original dream do the rest. Aided and abetted by her desperation to get out of the Culver Valley and never go back.’ Simon said this last part with feeling, as if he knew how she felt. Charlie was puzzled. He’d always given the impression of being wedded to Spilling until death did them part – his death, presumably, since Spilling was as dead as it was ever going to be, at least until the sun made the world explode, or whatever it was that was eventually going to happen to put a stop to everything; science had never been Charlie’s strong point.
‘So, second time round, Connie’s in the role of enthusiastic driving force?’ said Sam.
‘Yeah,’ Simon said. ‘And Bowskill’s the doubter, the one who has to be persuaded – because he loves his Little Holling cottage so much, or so he’s made Connie believe – he’s even commissioned a portrait of it.’
‘Yuck,’ Charlie said again.
‘From the minute he missed out on getting 18 Pardoner Lane in 2003, Bowskill threw his heart and soul into his pretence of loving all things Silsford,’ said Simon. ‘He had to – to create the necessary resistance in Connie. Meantime, he’s working on the other strand of his plan, the one based in Cambridge.’
‘Jackie Napier,’ said Sam.
‘Jackie Napier,’ Simon repeated. ‘Clever, unscrupulous, and keen to claim Bowskill as her own. Here’s a question for you: if Bowskill hated to be seen to fail, how come he ended up involved with a woman who must have known exactly how gutted he was not to get the house he wanted? He’d have had to tell Jackie he couldn’t raise the fifty grand. For someone as proud as Bowskill to end up in an . . . affair with a woman who’d witnessed his defeat in that way – how was it possible for him?’
‘You’re the one who knows him so well,’ said Charlie drily. ‘Tell us.’
‘All right.’ No problem for Simon, who of course knew everything. ‘Jackie’s smart enough to pick up very early on that Bowskill needs to see himself as a winner. She says to him, “You haven’t lost the house – you just haven’t got it yet. You’ll get it in the end, but we need to play a longer game.” She comes up with a plan. First step? She makes a copy of the keys to 18 Pardoner Lane before handing them over to the Gilpatricks on completion of the sale. She uses her fake charm – which would have been hard to resist – to befriend Elise Gilpatrick, so that she can find out as much information as possible, including much that’s of interest to Bowskill: the Gilpatricks have a young baby and they’re not planning to stop at one. 18 Pardoner Lane doesn’t have a garden. Sam, would you and Kate ever buy a house without a garden?’
‘We wouldn’t,’ Sam said. ‘With kids, you need a garden.’
‘And Jackie Napier would have told Bowskill that the Gilpatricks would realise this, probably sooner rather than