The Passengers(56)
‘Keep them, give them to someone else, shove them up your arse, I don’t care. If I’m only able to teach my kids one more lesson then it’s to face up to bullies; to stand their ground and not to allow anyone like you or their father to take advantage of me.’
The Hacker let the camera remain on a defiant Heidi for several moments before he spoke again.
‘Cadman, would you care to keep us up to speed with how the public are reacting with their hashtags to Heidi’s and Sam’s situation?’
‘Heidi has already overtaken Sam, and he’s actually dropped to below even Claire’s ranking. Apparently living a double life with two wives and two families is worse than driving around with your dead husband in the car.’
‘While the public never fails to fascinate me, neither do our Passengers,’ said the Hacker. ‘I find you particularly interesting, Heidi. Bringing your ten minutes to an early halt was a very risky move.’
‘It wasn’t a move because I’m not playing a game.’
‘That’s not true, is it?
Heidi’s heart sank. For a moment, she thought she had got away with it. As long as she was winning sympathy as the wronged wife, she would take Sam’s support and show him how it felt to be thrown under the bus. But the Hacker had known exactly what she was doing. And now everyone else was about to as well.
‘You’ve known about your husband’s second family for quite some time now, haven’t you?’ the Hacker continued. ‘And to get your revenge, you’ve been blackmailing him ever since.’
Chapter 40
For the second time in minutes, Libby’s eyes were fixed on Heidi’s face to judge her reaction. But she gave nothing away.
Libby looked to Sam instead. His leg was motionless. Heidi had shut down her emotions but Sam was the opposite. His face slowly became gnarled with anger, before frustration set in at not being able to communicate with her.
Sam’s shock appeared genuine, but Libby no longer trusted her judgement. She had taken the four Passengers’ stories on face value and each of them had proven to be dishonest. And the thought of what Jude might be hiding from her made her sick with worry. Unlike the other jurors and their charges, Libby had an emotional investment in hers.
As much as she wanted to believe Jude was different, in truth, what did she know about him? They were barely acquainted. Her sole judgement on what kind of man he was was based on spending four hours together. The only common link between the remaining Passengers was that were all were hiding something. It stood to reason that so was Jude, otherwise why would he be locked inside a car packed with explosives? Another thought struck her – what if the Hacker was saving the worst until last? The nauseous feeling was stronger than ever.
‘None of the Passengers are coming out of this well,’ said Muriel.
‘Neither are you guys,’ Cadman added.
‘Why ever not?’
‘For a jury charged with making important decisions, social media finds your judgement questionable. Each Passenger you’ve chosen to support has turned out to be either a husband killer, someone who protects paedophiles, an adulterer or a blackmailer.’
Libby didn’t have time to doubt Jude any longer. His face filled the main screen and the countdown clock appeared. Libby moved into the centre of the room with a confidence she didn’t really possess. The life of the man before her was now in her hands.
‘Libby, if you’d like to begin,’ said the Hacker.
‘Hi,’ she said, feeling suddenly very exposed.
‘Hi to you too,’ Jude replied. He gave her the same smile he’d offered from across the bar that night. And just like then, the butterflies in her stomach began their ascent. She couldn’t stop herself from remembering how wonderful he’d tasted when they’d kissed. If only it hadn’t been cut short.
‘How are you holding up?’ she asked. Before he could answer, she corrected herself. ‘Sorry, I promised myself I wasn’t going to ask any silly questions.’
‘That’s okay, I’m not too bad now I’ve got over the shock of it all. I can’t say it ever crossed my mind that when you and I met again, it would be like this.’
When, Libby repeated to herself. He said when. It meant he hadn’t given up on her. He’d thought there was still a chance.
‘I don’t think anyone could have imagined this,’ she replied. ‘How are you remaining so calm? I’m not locked in a hijacked car but I’m terrified.’
‘I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t freaked out by it. But I’ve learned that in life sometimes you have to accept your fate.’
‘When I first saw you this morning and realised who you were, I wasn’t sure if you’d remember me.’
‘You’re a hard woman to forget.’ Libby’s eyes twinkled. ‘I want you to know what I said earlier was true. I did trawl social media trying to find you. A friend of a friend works for the brewery that owns the pub and he broke a few data privacy laws by grabbing some images of you from CCTV to help me.’ Jude removed his phone from the dashboard and held it up to the camera to reveal the photographs he’d saved. ‘Now I’m showing you them, I appreciate how creepy it looks.’
‘If it was anyone else, it might,’ Libby said. ‘But not you.’ She held back a smile that wanted to swallow her face.