‘Yeah, sort of. It’s all a bit surreal at the moment. I’m not quite sure what I am.’ I give a laugh that I don’t really mean. ‘I can’t stop thinking about the accident. It just goes round and round in my head. I keep thinking was there something I could have done to avoid it.’
‘You mustn’t blame yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong.’
‘It all happened so fast.’
‘You know, I’ve been thinking about the accident and I hate to be the one to suggest it, but you don’t think Leonard had anything to do with it, do you?’
‘He wouldn’t do anything to hurt Hannah,’ I say. ‘It was my fault for driving too fast.’
‘Let’s come at it from a different angle.’ Tom looks at me as if there’s a significance to what he’s just said. I shrug, so he continues. ‘What was Leonard doing there? He doesn’t usually turn up at breakfast time, does he?’
‘No, that’s true. Mum said he had some paperwork for her to sign but I think now he might have been there to speak to me before the police did.’
‘What if he had guessed you’d discovered the truth about Martha pretending to be Alice? What if he didn’t want this information to get out? He might have come to the house to warn Martha. Maybe he wanted to talk to her in private and said to meet him down by the gate …’
‘Knowing that I was on my way,’ I finish Tom’s sentence and the thought that Leonard is possibly behind the accident makes me feel sick. ‘But, how could he have timed it so well?’
‘Luck, maybe. You’d already said what flight you’d be back on. It doesn’t take a genius to work out timings.’
‘This is all conjecture. We’ve no proof. I still find it hard to think he engineered it all.’ I wonder if this is because I don’t want to believe it. ‘He wouldn’t harm Hannah. No way.’
‘I’m sure he wouldn’t. It could be just unfortunate that Hannah was there.’
I think back to the accident that is never far from my mind, although calling it an accident doesn’t seem right now. ‘I’m sure Martha tried to push Hannah out of the way. If it hadn’t been for her, I can’t bear to think what might have happened.’ I feel my leg begin to shake at the thought.
Tom rests his hand on my thigh to quell the trembling. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you but I’m just thinking he’s tying up loose ends. Martha could have already got rid of Alice for him.’
‘She’s not a bag of rubbish,’ I snap, uncomfortable with the way Tom talks about Alice, as if her fate is a foregone conclusion. One that I’m not prepared to fully consider just yet.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.’
‘It’s okay. Forget it.’ I try to sound gracious. ‘We need to speak to Martha again. She’s the one who holds the key to everything. She can tell us exactly what happened.’
‘I don’t think you‘ll be very welcome there. Leave it with me and I’ll speak to her.’
‘Okay, thanks.’ I take a sip of the wine, which warms and ever so slightly burns my empty stomach. I think about Tom’s theory and Leonard being involved. It’s hard to accept, but my rational thought process won’t let me rule it out. Head over heart wins every time. Despite this, there’s something nagging me at the back of my mind, something I can’t quite reach and I don’t know what it is.
‘You know Leonard’s always had an evil streak in him,’ says Tom. ‘He’s threatened me in the past. Don’t look so surprised.’
‘I just feel we’re talking about two different people. I know he can be harsh at times but I’d never have said evil.’
‘It’s different for you, he’s a family friend and all that, but there’s a side to him you haven’t seen. Why do you think he’s been divorced three times?’ Tom leans forward, resting his arms on his knees. ‘I’ve seen him in action when we went out drinking once. It wasn’t long after I’d split up with Isabella and we went to that private members’ club.’
‘Vanilla Paradise?’
‘Yeah, you know it?’
‘It’s the one McMillan owns and sacked that lad from, who is now claiming unfair dismissal.’
‘That makes sense. Well, Leonard was a complete bastard to the staff there and got really out of hand with one of the girls who performed a private dance for him. We had to pay off the girl to stop her calling the police. I’ll spare you the details, but Leonard was a complete pig.’