The Breakdown(101)

She looks at me, wanting to know if she should go on and I nod, because how can I ever come to terms with it all if I don’t know the reasons behind it? ‘OK, here goes. About two years ago, Rachel had an affair with someone at Finchlakers. He was married with three young children. He ended up leaving his wife for Rachel and, once he had, she lost interest. So he went back to his wife, and Rachel started up the affair again. He left his wife for a second time and it was catastrophic for the family.’ She pauses. ‘The affair ended and this time, his wife wouldn’t take him back. It was especially difficult for her as she also worked for Finchlakers, so she saw him every day. She spiralled into depression and because she was Jane’s best friend, Jane got caught up in it all. Naturally, she hated Rachel with a vengeance for breaking up her friend’s family, not once but twice, but as they worked in different departments their paths didn’t cross very often. However, her opinion of Rachel fell even lower when she came across her having sex in the office late one evening. She confronted Rachel the





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next day, basically telling her to get a hotel in future otherwise she would report her.’

‘Don’t tell me that’s why Rachel killed her,’ I say, giving a hollow laugh. ‘Because she was worried about being reported.’

‘No, Rachel’s world only fell apart when Jane realised the man she’d seen her with in the office was Matthew.

Sorry,’ she says, catching sight of my face. ‘If you need me to stop for now, just say.’

I shake my head. ‘It’s all right, I need to know.’

‘If you’re sure. Do you remember you told us that

you thought Jane had recognised Matthew through

the restaurant window? Well, you were right, she had.’

It seems unfathomable that something I’d made up

was right. It’s so absurd I want to laugh. I don’t know what it was that made me stumble unwittingly on the truth about Jane’s murder. Maybe it was my subconscious – maybe the look of surprise on Jane’s face when she saw Matthew outside the restaurant window that day had registered in my brain as a flash of recognition, maybe her invitation to have coffee at hers had registered as something more than just a casual suggestion to meet up again. Maybe, somewhere deep down, I had known that Matthew and Rachel were having an affair, maybe, somewhere deep down, I had known that Jane was going to tell me. Perhaps it was just pure and simple luck. Or maybe, when I’d sat in the lay-by yesterday and had felt Jane’s presence, she had led me to the truth.

The Breakdown





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‘It’s easy to imagine how Jane must have felt when she


realised that the man she’d seen Rachel having sex with was the husband of the young woman sitting opposite her, her new friend,’ PC Lawson goes on. ‘Outraged on your behalf, she sent an email to Rachel, who was away in New York at the time. She reminded Rachel that she’d already broken up her best friend’s marriage and said she wasn’t going to let her do the same to you, especially as she was meant to be your best friend. She then threatened to tell you about their affair if she didn’t break it off with Matthew immediately. To get Jane off her back, Rachel promised to break things off with Matthew that evening. But Jane didn’t trust her and when she went back to the restaurant, after leaving her friend’s hen party, to use the phone there – she’d left her mobile at home – she not only phoned her husband but also Rachel. We have someone checking the records but it doesn’t actually matter because Rachel has already confirmed that when Jane confronted her in the car park earlier that day, she had demanded Rachel’s business card and had jotted her mobile number on the back.

Unfortunately, when we looked through Jane’s handbag, we found a whole assortment of business cards, most of them from people who worked at Finchlakers, so Rachel’s didn’t ring any alarm bells. Anyway, she asked Rachel if she’d broken things off with Matthew and when Rachel admitted that she hadn’t, saying that she needed more time, Jane told her that as she’d be passing





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by Nook’s Corner on her way home, she was going to stop off and tell you about their affair.’

‘What, at eleven o’clock at night?’ I say. ‘I doubt that she would have.’

‘You’re right, she probably only said it to threaten Rachel. Anyway, Rachel panicked. She told Jane that before she said anything to you, there were certain things she needed to be aware of, that she couldn’t just tell you brutally, hinting at your fragile state of mind.

She suggested that they meet in the lay-by and that once Jane had heard her out, if she still wanted to go ahead and tell you, they would do it together. Jane agreed to listen to what she had to say so Rachel drove to a track off Blackwater lane and ran to the lay-by on foot. And well, we all know the outcome. Rachel maintains that she had no intention of killing Jane, that she only took the knife to frighten her with. But Jane didn’t buy what Rachel told her about you having mental problems and they began arguing.’

Slowly, things fall into place. When I stopped in the lay-by on the night of the storm, Jane hadn’t needed my help because she was waiting for Rachel to arrive. She hadn’t known it was me in the car; if she had, she would have run to me through the rain, climbed in beside me and told me that, strangely enough, she’d been on the way to see me. And sitting in the car, she would have told me that Rachel and Matthew were having an affair.