Silent Victim(31)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

ALEX





2017


Luke lowered the phone from his ear and slid it into the pocket of his jeans. I had half expected him not to return from the toilet, and I watched his face closely for clues of his intentions.

‘Girlfriend?’ I asked, half hoping it was. I was conscious of the time. Soon the barman would call last orders and Luke had not told me why he had contacted me. Each time he was about to open up, we were faced with an interruption. Was he stringing me along or had booze addled his brain?

‘Don’t talk to me about girlfriends,’ he said, taking a sip of his drink.

My thoughts darkened. I wanted to confront him, squeeze it out of him if necessary with my bare hands. I wasn’t buying the nice guy act. If he had hurt Emma, then he would pay. I tipped my glass to my lips, barely sipping my drink. Alcohol brought out the worst of my temper and going off the rails was not going to help anyone. My mother’s saying floated in my memory. You’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. She was always telling me off for my scowl, said if the wind changed then I’d stay that way. But she was right about one thing. I needed to keep my temper in check. Our area of the pub had cleared of patrons, and I was relieved that I could hear him without having to shout.

‘You were about to tell me about that, weren’t you?’

Luke nodded. ‘Sorry. This is hard for me to talk about. But you need to know who you’re married to.’

I forced a nod. I wanted to tell him he wasn’t worthy to utter Emma’s name. ‘She said you were her teacher. Just how far did your . . . relationship go?’ It was the question I had wanted to ask my wife. I knew she was trying to protect my feelings but keeping me in the dark was hurting me more.

‘Too far,’ Luke said. ‘And I put my hands up to that. I was newly qualified, just a few years older than the class I taught. But I should have known better. Emma was your typical love-struck teenager. She was infatuated with me, there at every turn.’

‘You’re having me on,’ I said, my throat growing dry.

He shook his head, a half-smile rising on his face. ‘She told you it was me, didn’t she? Figures. That’s the line she fed everyone.’ Lowering his voice, he tipped his head towards mine. ‘She followed me everywhere I went, constantly texted me and gave me the eye. I was flattered, who wouldn’t be? This attractive young woman coming on to me. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

I stared in disbelief while, inside, my stomach kept turning over. He was talking about my Emma. He was lying. He had to be. And what the hell was I doing, betraying my wife by buying her stalker drinks? She would be mortified if she could see us now. But I needed to hear what he had to say. I sucked in a breath, ‘So you slept together?’

Luke nodded. ‘I gave in to temptation just once. She was a very troubled girl. I thought I was helping when she opened up to me. But she formed an attachment. They warned us about stuff like this but . . . Ach, I was very naive. One day she followed me to my dad’s beach hut. She made a pass at me and we got carried away.’ He caught my tight-lipped expression. ‘I won’t go into details but I told her it could never happen again.’

I sat quietly fuming at the thought of her with another man. Would she have been that forward at sixteen? Her youth was something she didn’t like talking about and pressing her for answers just caused upset. I couldn’t help but wonder whether we might not have found ourselves in this situation if she had been more open about her past. Luke was feeding me an entirely different story than the one I had been given. If he was talking about Emma, it was not the woman I had come to know.

‘I backed off immediately,’ Luke said remorsefully. ‘To be honest, I couldn’t believe what we’d done. But it was too late by then.’

My cheeks flushed as I manufactured a response. ‘What do you mean, too late?’

‘God, even thinking about her gives me the chills,’ Luke said, giving me a furtive glance. ‘She became my shadow after that. Then the phone calls started, day and night. When I wouldn’t respond, she broke into my house. I had to get a police injunction against her in the end.’ He gave a dry laugh. ‘She was like the Terminator. The injunction slowed her down, but it didn’t stop her.’

‘It must have escalated quickly if she tried to kill you.’ I gave him a cold smile. I hated hearing him talk about Emma in that way. He was lying so I’d turn on my wife. I stared unblinkingly ahead, allowing his words to flow over me. Luke carried on as if he had not heard me.

‘She became really nasty, told everyone that I’d pressured her into sex. It was her word against mine. Rumours started flying about and my contract was cut short. It was very hard to get anywhere to employ me because they wouldn’t give me a reference. My teaching career was in tatters before it began.’

‘I’m surprised you didn’t go to prison for sleeping with someone in your care,’ I said, showing little sympathy.

‘There was no proof, and believe me, I’ve paid the price. All those years in university and the best I can get is a job in an art gallery on minimum wage.’

My eyes fell to his left hand, which had clenched into a fist. He caught my gaze and stretched his fingers before wrapping his hands around his pint glass. ‘So you’re bitter, and maybe you’ve called me here for some sort of closure. But Emma’s no threat to you.’