The Husband's Secret(69)

            “Geez, Janie, if you still can’t give me a straight answer, I mean . . . fuck!”

            Connor stood up from the bed and Janie gave a disdainful little laugh, while at the same time her face crumpled like a child’s, but Connor only heard the laugh. He walked straight toward the camera. His hand reached out so that it filled the screen.

            Rachel held out her hand to stop him. No, don’t turn it off. Don’t take her away from me.

            The screen instantly filled with static, and Rachel’s head jerked back as if she’d been slapped.

            Bastard. Murderer.

            She was filled with adrenaline, exhilarated with hatred. Why, this was evidence! New evidence after all these years!

            “Call me anytime, Mrs. Crowley, if you think of anything. I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night.” Sergeant Bellach had said that so many times, it had become boring.

            She never had before. Now at least she had something for him. They would get him. She could sit in a courtroom and watch a judge pronounce Connor Whitby guilty.

            As her fingers jabbed at Sergeant Bellach’s number, she bounced up and down impatiently on the balls of her feet, while the image of Janie’s crumpled face filled her head.





EIGHTEEN


            Connor,” said Tess. “I’m just getting some petrol.”

            “You’re kidding,” said Connor.

            Tess took a moment to get it. “You gave me a fright,” she said, with a touch of petulance because she was embarrassed. “I thought you were an ax murderer.”

            She placed the nozzle in the petrol spout. Connor kept standing there, without moving, his helmet tucked under one arm, looking at her as if he expected something. Okay, well, that was enough chitchat, wasn’t it? On your bike. Off you go. Tess preferred people from her past to stay in the past. Ex-boyfriends, old school friends, past colleagues—really, what was the point of them? Lives moved on. Tess quite enjoyed reminiscing about people she once knew, not with them. She pulled on the petrol lever, smiling warily, politely at him, trying to remember exactly how their relationship had ended. Was it when she and Felicity moved to Melbourne? He was a boyfriend in between lots of other boyfriends. She usually broke up with them before they broke up with her. Normally after Felicity had made fun of them. There was always a new boy to take their place. She thought it was because she was the right level of attractiveness: not too intimidating. She always said yes to whoever asked her out. It wouldn’t have occurred to her to say no.

            She remembered that Connor had always been keener than she was—he was too old and serious, she’d thought. It was her first year at uni; she was only nineteen, and she’d been somewhat bemused by the intense interest this older, quiet boy was showing her.

            She may well have treated him quite badly. She’d been lacking in so much confidence when she was a teenager, worrying all the time about what people thought of her and how they might hurt her, without even considering the impact she might have on their feelings.

            “I’ve been thinking about you, actually,” said Connor. “After I saw you at the school this morning, I was even wondering if you’d like to, ah, catch up? For a coffee, maybe?”

            “Oh!” said Tess. A coffee with Connor Whitby. It just seemed so preposterously irrelevant, like those times that Liam suggested they do a jigsaw puzzle just when Tess was smack-bang in the middle of some computer or plumbing crisis. Her whole life had just imploded! She wasn’t going to go for a coffee with this sweet, but essentially dull, ex-boyfriend from her teens.

            Didn’t he know she was married? She twisted her hands on the petrol pump so that her wedding ring was in full view. She still felt extremely married.