Besides, as Cat had just pointed out – he’d been distracted, back then. Well, he couldn’t deny that. Having a ‘sexual harassment in the workplace’ accusation hanging over you would be distracting for anyone. But that was over now and, as far as he was aware, Cat had believed his version of events. She had no reason not to. There was no evidence.
But she had been cold with him recently, and he was going to have to get to the bottom of that. Go over it all again, continue to protest his innocence. If he ever got off this mountain.
‘Is this something about what you two were arguing about at breakfast, the morning after her party?’
Cat blew out a long breath. ‘If I’m dispensing the truths here, I expect you to do me the same honour.’
Shit. He felt trapped now, but, given the circumstances, didn’t think he had much choice. Plus, he was actually desperate to know what this was all about. An illicit affair seemed too cheap for the effort that had gone into bumping off the surplus partners. ‘Seems fair.’
‘Ginny somehow convinced my parents to change their will. They left everything to her. She was supposed to allocate something to me. She showed me a letter, where there was this sum of money. It was meant to represent half of the house . . . But she got everything else.’
Interesting. ‘Your parents had the house valued, then? They definitely wanted this new will put in place?’
Cat nodded. ‘Ginny spun them some line. Well, lots of lines. It had been going on for years. Behind my back. Slowly eroding their trust in me, through mistruth and misdirection. Discouraging them from questioning me on things.’ She shrugged. ‘I guess if you feed someone enough bullshit, with nothing to contradict it, eventually they’ll swallow it.’
This felt like a direct dig at him, but he let it go.
‘I just can’t imagine your parents going for all this. They weren’t stupid people, Cat . . .’
She whirled around to face him. ‘Are you calling me a liar, Paul?’
‘No. Of course not. It’s just . . .’ He let his sentence trail off. Was he calling her a liar? He’d known her parents, or at least he’d thought he had . . . Of course things had taken a turn for the worse for them, when the economy collapsed and they’d had to re-evaluate their import-export business. But to be coerced into changing their will was a bizarre concept that he was struggling to process. Had stupid little Ginny really had the power to make that happen? Maybe she’d been brighter than anyone had given her credit for.
Cat was staring at him. ‘Well?’ she said, her eyes like steel. ‘I think it’s your turn now.’
Paul swallowed. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Give me a minute.’ The shadows in the room had shifted. He glanced around, taking in the scene outside the dirty window and the half-opened door. The sun had risen, casting a muted mustardy glow. The cluster of ferns lining the ramshackle path had changed from black to dark green.
They could leave now. They could make their way back down the mountain. To their lives that had been irreparably changed by this trip. Their new lives, then. Whatever those might be. He stood up, lifting one of the rucksacks and throwing it on to his back, wincing inwardly at the pain. ‘Let’s get going. I’ll tell you everything. I promise.’ He forced a smile so hard that it hurt his cheeks. ‘Then you can tell me about your plan to get us out of this mess.’
Forty-Three
SUNDAY, EARLY MORNING
They took the path towards the signpost, walking in silence. Cat knew the way instinctively, after following the path to the house the night before in the dark. In the morning sun, she realised that the path was quite well trodden, not as deeply hidden in the woods as she’d imagined. Something fluttered in her chest. People might be here soon. They might go to the house. Despite the state of it, maybe people did use it for shelter regularly. The place would be covered in Tristan’s blood. His DNA. Traces of all of them. They had to hurry. At the signpost, they turned right, heading towards the descent.
‘Are you sure this is the right way?’ Paul said. His voice was thin. Pained. The adrenaline that had got him through their earlier exertions gone now. Cat felt weak, too. She would love nothing more than to curl into a ball and sleep. But she was determined. With all she’d been through to get to this point, she wasn’t giving up now.
‘I’m sure.’ She pushed a couple of branches out of the way and walked through the gap in the trees that led to the way down. Despite the morning sun, it was dark and cool on this part of the mountain, and she was glad they hadn’t tried to attempt it last night. Although, if they had, might Tristan still be alive? That would bring its own problems. Having Paul back on the scene was causing her to have to think through things in ways she’d never envisaged.