The Guilty Couple(45)
She stares up at her sister. Casey’s stopped climbing the stairs. Her eyes are closed, her breathing has slowed and her fingers are loosely curled around the banister.
‘Look at me, Casey! If you keep this up, the money I’m saving for rehab will end up paying for your funeral. Do you understand?’ Dani slips a hand through the bars and pulls on the denim of her sister’s jeans. Casey doesn’t respond. She’s fallen asleep.
Chapter 30
DOMINIC
As Dominic steps out of London Bridge underground station a little after 8 a.m., his phone pings with a message. Dani’s finally replied.
Was busy last night, the text reads. Olivia’s been to see Sonia Law.
A bead of sweat forms on his brow as he swerves out of the crowd of suits and heels and steps into a doorway, his pulse gathering pace.
Why? he types back. What did they talk about?
Dani’s reply arrives within seconds. I’ll tell you on Thursday after you fulfil your side of the deal.
Shit. He swipes the palm of one hand over his forehead. She doesn’t trust him to pay up. That’s why she’s withholding information. He can’t threaten her because his recordings of their conversations before Olivia’s trial prove his guilt as much as hers. And he can’t give her money because he hasn’t got any. Or maybe …
A thought hits him that makes him swear loudly enough that a blonde woman turns sharply in his direction. Sonia knows who he is, who he really is. They didn’t just chat at Jack’s twenty-first birthday all those years ago – they slept together. It was a casual, drunken shag and they didn’t see each other again. Well, not until he spotted her in the gallery when he and Jack were being sentenced at court. Has she told Olivia everything? And how much does Dani now know?
Dominic’s breathing has become shallow and ragged and he fights to calm himself down. It’s Monday. On Thursday it will all be over and he’ll be able to sleep well for the first time in years. What damage could Olivia or Dani possibly do between now and then? Yes, he changed his name. Yes, he committed a crime when he was younger but who cares if his colleagues or the partners find out now? His reputation was destroyed the moment he filed his last valuation. He hasn’t got a career to lose.
When he steps into his office at 8.16 a.m., Dominic keeps his head held high and his shoulders back. It’s just a normal day, he tells himself as he shrugs off his jacket and hangs it on the back of his chair. He’s completely in control. He glances at the floor. His pens and pencils are scattered all over the carpet and his pen pot’s on its side on the desk. Strange. Did the cleaner knock it over? Why the hell didn’t they pick them back up? Grunting, he crouches to gather the pens up, shoves them back into the pot then pulls out his chair and sits down. He gets up again, almost immediately, as the fear he quelled earlier threatens to erupt again. None of the stuff on his desk is straight. His notepad is skewwhiff and his letter opener isn’t where he left it. He opens the door to his office and shouts down the room to Tom, one of the junior surveyors, alone in a cubicle.
‘Hey, Tom! Has anyone been in my office?’
Tom swivels round in his chair and runs a hand over his dark quiff. ‘Sorry, what?’
‘Since you got in, has anyone been in my office?’
‘No. Not that I’ve seen.’ He shrugs. ‘Why? Something wrong?’
‘No, it’s fine.’
Dom closes the door, pulls down the blinds and keys the code into his safe. His logical brain is telling him no one has been in his office but another, more paranoid part of him, is drowning it out.
He blows out his cheeks as he opens the door to the safe. Everything’s still inside. Thank god. He closes the door, locks it, then sinks into his chair and groans. He’s got to keep it together. Getting updates on Olivia’s movements was supposed to make him feel in control but they’re doing the opposite. Last night he freaked out when a random Mercedes drove into the car park (he realised only after it left that it belonged to one of the partners who’d gone out for dinner with a client). Then, when he got home, he barely slept for panicking about Dani’s no-show. Now he’s freaking out about the text she sent earlier and how much she knows.
He takes out his burner phone and taps out a message:
Have any of the loans come through yet?
A couple of seconds pass then a reply appears: First two have been approved. 10 mil total. The rest should be through soon.
Dom replies: Olivia is digging, asking questions.
She’s not going to find anything.
He shakes his head, unconvinced: How do you know?
His phone buzzes: Hold your shit together. Three more days and she won’t be a problem anymore.
Chapter 31
OLIVIA
The taxi drops me outside Esther and George’s enormous detached house in Hampstead and I stare up at it in awe, just like I have every other time I’ve been here. My old house in Crouch End – correction, Esther and George’s second home in Crouch End – must be worth 1.2 million but this place, with its private drive, seven bedrooms, five bathrooms and huge garden, is a palace in comparison.
The first time Dominic brought me to visit his parents I was so intimidated by the house that I refused to get out of the car. I was brought up in Brighton, in a narrow two-bedroom terraced house, miles from the sea. My parents separated when I was five and my mum paid the mortgage with her nurse’s salary. I did well at school and got a place to study Art History at Exeter. I suppose that’s where the ‘posh’ voice came from. I was trying to be accepted by the students whose parents were loaded. Lee and I gravitated towards each other, outsiders who didn’t fit in. After we graduated we moved to London and rented a rundown house in Acton with damp patches on the walls and appliances that were at least twenty years old.