It was two weeks before I heard from her again.

•   •   •

She sent me a message early one Friday morning, two weeks after Tom died. I was taking a long weekend so I was at home on my own; Harry had gone in to work. Had she known that? I was just trying on my new yoga pants; there was a pregnancy yoga session on at the gym in town that morning and I thought I’d give it a go. I had every intention of being one of those lithe and relaxed yummy mummies that you see on adverts. And yes, when I put them on I thought of Ruby and me in our fictional yoga class, but then she was always on my mind.

When I saw the message: Hi, it’s me. Are you free for a chat? my knees were suddenly so weak I had to sit down on the bed. Had something happened? Was she going to warn me that the police would call?

I took a deep breath. If they were going to contact me, I needed to know. I started to type Has anyone suspected anything? and realized how that might look if our messages were ever seen, so changed it to a chatty, Hi, how are you?

She must have assumed I was being friendly. Immediately she replied: Fine, thanks. Just thought a coffee would be good.

Oh, decisions, decisions. I could bend my tired body into downward dog while awaiting the treat of a wheatgrass smoothie. On the other hand I could face my husband’s mistress—or was that my lover’s widow?—and talk about how we’d collaborated in concealing the way he died. It was a hard choice but eventually I replied:

I’ll be at the Oval Café at 11.

CHAPTER 72

Emma

I got there early and sat with a glass of water in the corner at the back of the café. There were just enough people there so that we wouldn’t be noticed, but not enough that anyone would have to sit near us. The French windows were open and most people had spilled outside onto the small terrace. At the counter there was a wide array of cakes and normally I would’ve made the most of them, but that day my stomach was clenched and I couldn’t have eaten a thing. I saw a little black car drive up the street, then slow down and park. I recognized it immediately. It had been parked outside their house that afternoon, two weeks ago.