Alex is still in custody and how the hell would Laura even know about Gemma and this professor?
So is this actually more straightforward? The jealous rage of a betrayed wife. Did Sam’s wife find out about Gemma? Was it simply all too much with the pregnancy?
But would a jealous wife take a gun to a cathedral and shoot someone in broad daylight? Would she? Could she?
Matthew thinks again of the body in the bedroom. That smashed-in eye socket. The evidence of white-hot rage. Then he calls up the image of the holiday photograph beside the bed. The smiling face of the petite Lily. Tanned and holding up her glass of wine glinting in the sunlight.
He’s not wondering if she could be capable of this. The heavy bookend in her hand. Smashing. Obliterating. He’s seen enough of the darker underbelly of life to park any surprise quickly; to stop questioning what ordinary people are capable of.
What he’s wondering about is the gun. If this really is down to a tortured wife, he’d expect something more domestic. A kitchen knife. A spur-of-the-moment lashing out.
But a gun? It’s always been a puzzle to everyone on this case, Matthew especially, that Gemma was shot. Firearms are the territory of drugs crime and gangs, not domestics. And how the hell would nice, middle-class Lily even get a gun?
CHAPTER 52
THE DAUGHTER – BEFORE
Discuss the theme of parental responsibility and neglect in relation to the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Don’t know why I’m bothering with the fake essay headings. It’s official. No . . . more . . . essays. And for a blink at least, I hardly care if ‘A’ is hacking me. Guess what?
I got my first!!! Results came through about ten minutes ago and for a blissful moment it really did make me forget everything. I’ve phoned home and Mum and Dad are over the moon. Neighbours must have heard Mum shriek for miles.
It was lovely, actually. For those few brief minutes on the phone, to hear Mum so happy. I’ve only ever wanted Mum and Dad to be proud of me. But when I finished the call, I just looked at the phone and the tears came again. And it’s horrible, realising that the good feeling can’t last. I’ve had to lie to them about why I’m hanging around until the graduation ceremony. I’ve told them it’s to do with the flat lease and helping out to cover a mate’s job in a coffee shop. Felt terrible, but I just can’t face going home yet. Look at me; a complete hormonal mess already. I’m afraid I’ll just break down.
Can’t even bear to mention what’s happened with that adoption idea. Talk about a wrong steer. Not even legal, I’ve discovered since. And the advice I was being given? Very, very dodgy . . .
I’m distancing myself now but it’s all going horribly pear-shaped.
And the worst thing of all is I think I may have been wrong about who’s been targeting me. My social media and everything.
I’ve got this truly horrible feeling it might actually be someone connected with the snake’s wife. There’s been this woman watching me around the campus. Not his wife herself but someone a little bit older – and I’m starting to wonder if she’s a friend of hers or something.
I had this sort of weird feeling of being watched a few times. I put it down to yet more paranoia at first, and then this one day I caught the woman’s reflection in the glass door of the coffee shop on campus so I was able to watch her without her realising. I pretended to wave at someone inside the shop at the counter and she was definitely eyeballing me. And it’s happened again since. She carries a magazine or a paper and sits on benches and stuff. But every time I move, she moves.
I’m sure I’m not imagining it.
So if it is someone, put up to it, I mean, by ‘S’’s wife, I really don’t know what to do. Maybe I should just confront her. Walk up to her and have it out – what the hell do you think you’re doing? Why are you watching me?
Problem is the messages are so weird. He’s not who he says he is.
Is that really something his wife would write? If she’s found out about us, I mean. I suppose she might mean he’s not genuine. Maybe she thinks I believe he’s single or properly separated. But I can’t help wondering – surely she’d just write something angry. Bitchy. More direct.
I’m trying really hard to just ignore it all, to concentrate on getting through graduation and how the hell I’m going to tell Mum and Dad afterwards. About the baby. But every time I pull myself together, I get more DMs.
More and more, I keep thinking about karma; that I’ve brought all of this on myself. I mean – a fling with a married man. What was I thinking?