Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,45
the Ewans’ poltergeist is somehow mixed up with Adam. I want to know how as well as why.”
“Bizarre,” Roxy murmured, still gazing at her.
Jilly took a sip of the whisky—smooth and smoky on her tongue, burning its way down her throat. Then, because she had to start somewhere, she blurted, “When did you last see Adam?”
“Nearly a year ago. March. When he dumped me.”
Jilly’s mouth fell open. “He dumped you?”
Roxy smiled lopsidedly. “Thank you for being so surprised.”
Jilly flushed and tried to pull herself together. Why did the idea make her so happy? It wasn’t as if it made Jilly or even Adam himself any different. “Can I ask why you split up?”
Roxy hesitated, sipped her whisky, then: “He was right,” she said abruptly. “I loved him to bits, and he was fond of me, but we weren’t going anywhere. We had nothing together that was more important than what we did apart, if you see what I mean. I was touring all the time, and he’d go off into development mode for weeks at a time so he might as well have been touring too.” Her lips twisted. “The tour times didn’t necessarily coincide.”
“So…you grew apart,” Jilly said slowly. No big bust-up, no falling out over drink and drugs. “Did you live with him?”
“God, no. Adam was impossible to live with. Bloody good fun, though.” She blinked rapidly and took another sip of whisky.
“Did you ever do drugs with him?”
Roxy regarded her quizzically. “Are you sure you’re not a journalist? Are you recording this?”
“No and no,” Jilly said, taking off her coat and setting her phone on the low table in front of the sofa by way of proof. “So, did you?”
“Once or twice, but he never took anything stronger than cannabis. We got drunk together more often, but even that was a rarity. Adam didn’t like to cloud his mind. He liked it sharp.” She smiled faintly. “Some people don’t need narcotics to boost their imagination. He had it already. In spades.” Her eyes came back into focus, large and miserable. “Which is why it’s so awful he sank into that trap in the end.”
“Were you in touch with him at all after March?”
“E-mailed a few times at first. But he was insanely busy on his new project, and I was working on the new album and then the American tour… I’ve wondered since then if I should have stayed. You see, it was after I arranged the American tour that he decided we should split up as a couple and just be friends. Maybe he needed someone to be there, and I couldn’t see that…”
Jilly’s throat closed up. After a moment, she managed to say, “Did he ever give you that impression?”
“That he needed me or anyone else? No. He didn’t even need Dale. Anyone could have run the business, made a success out of the games Adam came up with. But he never wavered from Dale.”
“Then they were close?”
“Yes, in the old days. Before Petra.”
“He didn’t like Petra?”
Roxy shrugged. “He liked her, all right. More than I did, to be honest. And no, not just because she’s easy on the male eye. Adam always looked beneath the surface and usually found something pleasant the rest of us were too lazy to look for. In everyone, I mean, not just women who fancied him.”
Jilly felt her eyes widening again. Perhaps it was the whisky, but she no longer cared. “Petra fancied him?”
“Well, Dale’s all right, you know. Nice guy, but put him beside Adam and he just doesn’t shine.” She curled her lip. “I’m biased, of course.”
“Did she go out with Adam? Before she married Dale?”
“No, and they didn’t have an affair either, to my knowledge. Doesn’t mean she didn’t look.”
I’d have looked too, Jilly thought wistfully. But he’d never have seen her, not if there was anyone else.
Jilly set her glass on the table. “Did he ever talk to you about Australia? About emigrating?”
“Never.”
“Was he ever…violent?”
Roxy stared at her. “Violent? You mean did he hit me? No, of course he bloody didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t mean that,” Jilly assured her. “I mean, did he get into fights? Was he an aggressive man?”
“No. He’d stand up for himself or a friend, wouldn’t let anyone push him around, but he never went around thumping people. He was pretty good-natured, in fact.”
“Then…you couldn’t imagine him ever…killing someone?”
Roxy drew in her breath. “All right, what’s this about?”
“The police think he murdered a hit man called James Killearn. We dug his body