an accident,” he said, quickly and apologetically. “It doesn’t matter.”
He moved over behind her and slid one arm around her waist. With the other he took the dishcloth. “I’ll do it,” he said quietly. He kept his arm round her as he mopped up the spillage. “See? All fine.”
He kissed her on the side of the neck, and she put a hand up to his cheek, and leaned into him.
“I’m a grumpy bastard today, aren’t I?” he murmured.
Anna laughed a little tensely. “I think you have good reason.”
“Never a good enough reason to be sharp with you,” he disagreed. “You look gorgeous in that dress,” he added. And then, with another kiss, he extricated himself. “I promised Jojo tea.”
“It’s brewing,” Anna said, tilting her head at the pot.
“You’re wonderful.”
He grabbed the big straight-sided blue mug that Jojo liked and put a slug of milk into it, and then poured in the tea. Which he worried was slightly too strong, but he decided to leave it. Anna had been trying to help.
He felt his phone buzz in his pocket as he carried the tea back through to Jojo. And then it buzzed again, a call instead of a text.
He knew, somehow, that it was Coralie, without having to check. He felt a slight sinking in his stomach. He should have told her that Benners was coming. She was wound up tightly at the moment, and somewhere between angry and devastated over Topaz rejecting her.
He pulled the phone out, and saw her name, plus the beginning of a message about needing to talk. With a slight sigh he put the mug of tea in front of Jojo, who had a brooding look about her.
“Coralie. I won’t be long.”
* * *
—
CONNOR WAS SICK of the car journey long before they arrived. Or, in fact, sick of the silence. Being in a car next to his wife simply amplified it. It was a sharp contrast to their usual openness, and to the way they both liked to think everything through by talking.
A large part of him wanted to comfort Topaz. But he felt resentful toward her, too. Was this really what they had come to after more than thirty years? This level of distrust and doubt?
It even told in the way she was driving. Where she was generally happy to fling the car around, tonight, Topaz was restrained. She accelerated slowly, stopped at every junction, and kept well within speed limits. Their progress was infuriatingly slow, and he wondered if she was doing it to annoy him.
“What do we do if he’s not there?” Connor eventually asked, set on getting some kind of response out of her.
Topaz gave a tiny lift of her left shoulder. “Go home,” she replied.
Connor couldn’t remember ever before feeling like he wanted to shake his wife.
Luckily, they didn’t have to deal with the possibility of going back home. Brett answered the buzzer with a voice that sounded more downbeat than usual.
“Hi, Brett,” Topaz said a little uncertainly. “It’s me and Connor. I’m sorry for not ringing….”
“It’s OK,” Brett said. “You know you’re always welcome. Come on in.”
Topaz kept up her moderate pace as she drove up the driveway. Connor was slightly disconcerted to see that Jojo’s Mitsubishi was already pulled up to the right of the house.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones,” he muttered.
Topaz, not unexpectedly, said nothing, but he saw a deeper furrow develop in her forehead.
He wasn’t quite sure why it bothered him that Jojo was already there. Perhaps because it was no longer all of them against the police. Not now they knew what had happened to Aurora.
But there was another feeling of unease. He’d always felt close to Jojo. Aside from Benners, she’d been his closest friend for most of his life. He felt jealous, somehow, at the thought that she might be closer to Brett now. But that was what happened when you married and moved away, he guessed. People forgot you.
The feeling didn’t improve when Brett ushered them into the sitting room and he saw that Jojo was at her ease on the sofa, a mug of tea in her hands and a distant expression on her face. It took a long moment for her to break into a grin and rise to greet them.
“It’s so good to see you,” she said in a husky voice. She directed it somewhere between him and Topaz as they hugged her in turn. Her hug felt reassuringly strong and warm, though.
Brett hovered behind