He smiled up at them with something approaching pure happiness in his eyes.

‘She stroked my hand, you know. And then she said goodbye. And she left.’

A tear fell from his eye and rolled down his cheek.

Bailey bit her lip to try and stop emotion from overwhelming her. Had Jennifer somehow survived? She could barely believe it. Surely not. It was impossible. This had to be nothing more than a psychosis brought about by the effects of the dexamethasone.

All the same, a tiny seed of doubt now assailed her…

Either way, she knew she could never tell her father the whole truth of the matter. So instead she squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes.

‘Wherever Jennifer is,’ she said, ‘she loves you.’

86

Wendy Molloy did not particularly enjoy coming to visit the prison where her husband was being held. Sitting there in the noisy visiting hall waiting for him to appear, she observed the other visitors with a certain amount of distaste. They really weren’t her kind of people.

However, coming here was something she was duty-bound to do. After all, she was still married to Rick and that being the case, she was determined to stick by him through all of this.

When she’d realised that Kaia wasn’t a mistress and that her husband, to her knowledge, hadn’t been unfaithful, she’d felt a massive sense of relief, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Not only had she felt bad for ever doubting his fidelity, it had actually served to reinforce her love for him, and she had subsequently discarded the whole idea of a divorce.

So, in a funny way, this whole thing had been good for them. There was, of course, the slight issue of him being here in prison. He was currently being held on remand whilst the Crown Prosecution Service put together a case against him, and from what she understood, it was going to be a big trial.

Whatever the outcome, she was certain he’d get through it. And so would she, although her mother had warned her that she might end up having to move out of the mansion if Rick was found guilty and the authorities decided to confiscate his assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act. But when it came to surviving, Wendy was sure she’d be able to soldier through things one way or another. At the very least, the beauty salon was doing decent enough business to keep some kind of roof over her head.

As she waited there, she tried to anticipate what he’d want to talk about today. He’d want to know about his two dogs and if she was taking proper care of them, that was for sure. And she was hoping he’d notice and comment on her nails. She’d painted them maroon especially for today’s visit, because she knew it was one of his favourite colours.

He probably wouldn’t want to talk about the court case though, even if she asked him about it, because even now he refrained from telling her anything about his business dealings. So saying, she was curious about how he’d been caught in the end, especially considering how careful she knew he was. Somehow, somewhere, he must have made some kind of slip-up.