‘How do you know all this—about how Jack died, where his body was found, the portraits, what the police are going to ask me?’
‘Adam told me. It’s going to be all over the papers tomorrow, so he thought you should be prepared.’ She pauses a moment. ‘He wanted to tell you himself but I told him that, as you and I were the last people to see Jack alive, I felt it should be me who came to get you at the airport.’
I stare at her. ‘The last people to see Jack alive?’ I falter.
‘Yes. You know, last Friday, when I picked you up to take you to the airport. He waved goodbye to us after we’d put your case in the boot. He was at the study window, wasn’t he?’
‘Yes,’ I say slowly. ‘He was.’
‘And, if I remember rightly, you told me that he didn’t come out to the gate to wait with you because he wanted to get straight down to work. But what I can’t remember is whether he was wearing his jacket or not.’
‘No—no, he wasn’t. He wasn’t wearing his tie either, he’d taken it off when he came back from court.’
‘He waved us goodbye, and then he blew you a kiss.’
‘Yes, yes he did.’ The enormity of what she’s doing, of what she’s offering to do, hits me and I feel myself starting to shake. ‘Thank you,’ I whisper.
She reaches across the table and covers my hands with hers. ‘It’ll be all right, Grace, I promise.’
Tears well up from deep inside me. ‘I don’t understand—did Millie say something to you?’ I mumble, aware that even if she had, even if Millie had told Esther that Jack had pushed her down the stairs, it wouldn’t be reason enough for her to lie for me.
‘Only that she didn’t like George Clooney,’ she smiles.
I look at her in bewilderment. ‘Then why?’
She looks steadily back at me. ‘What colour was Millie’s room, Grace?’
I can barely get the word out. ‘Red,’ I tell her, my voice breaking. ‘Millie’s room was red.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ she says softly.