Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(70)

Bailey started to say something but his wife waved him down.

‘Even if there was some sort of a mistake –’ Michelle’s eyes darted to the family portrait. ‘Even if they’d been flirting, for example, and he said something that Margot misconstrued, why would she send him something like that? Doesn’t she have any self-respect? If she didn’t want those pictures to end up online, maybe she should have thought of that before acting like such a little whore.’

The words were barely out before Bailey had jumped to his feet and ushered his wife out of the room. He was gone for a few minutes. Falk could hear the muffled sounds of a firm, low voice and frantic higher-pitched replies. When he came back, he looked even more tense.

‘I’m sorry about that. She’s very shaken up.’ He sighed. ‘She was the one who discovered the photos and videos. We’d got a new tablet for the family room and Joel’s mobile phone had somehow synced with it. Probably by mistake when he was downloading something, but it saved his camera roll and she saw everything. Michelle called me. I was already on my way to catch the bus to that bloody retreat – I had to turn around and come back. Joel was here with a couple of friends. I sent them home, made him delete the images, of course. Gave him a talking to.’

‘That’s why you were delayed getting up to the retreat?’ Falk said, and Bailey nodded.

‘I didn’t want to go at all, but it was too late to cancel. It’s a bad look for the boss to drop out. Besides –’ He hesitated. ‘I thought perhaps I’d better warn Alice.’

Falk saw Carmen’s eyebrows rise.

‘Even though you’d already deleted the photos?’ she said.

‘I felt it was important.’ There was a hint of martyrdom in his voice.

‘And did you manage to? Warn her?’

‘Yes. On that first night of the retreat, when we went to the women’s campsite. I’d tried to phone her from the road but hadn’t been able to get through. By the time I got to the retreat, the women’s group had already started walking.’

Falk thought of their own mobile signals, dwindling to nothing as they approached the ranges.

‘But why the urgency?’ he said. ‘You said the photos had been deleted, so why not tell her after the retreat? If at all?’

‘Yeah. Look, personally I would have been happy to wipe the images and for that to be the end of it but –’ He glanced at the doorway where his wife had stood earlier. ‘Michelle was – is – very upset. She knows Margot Russell’s phone number. While I was driving up, I started to worry that Michelle might, I don’t know, feel the need to say her piece. I didn’t want Alice to come out of the retreat three days later and find a string of messages from Margot complaining about my wife and Alice knowing nothing about it. She’d have legitimate grounds for a complaint in that.’

Falk and Carmen looked at him.

‘So what did you tell Alice?’ Falk said.

‘I thought she probably wouldn’t want everyone else to know, so I took her aside.’ A ghost of a tight smile. ‘To be honest, I didn’t want everyone else to know. I told her that Joel had some photos of Margot but they’d been deleted.’

‘How did Alice react?’

‘At first, she didn’t believe me about the pictures. Or didn’t want to believe me.’ He glanced at the doorway where his red-eyed wife had stood. ‘But perhaps that’s to be expected. She insisted Margot wouldn’t do something like that, but when I said I’d seen the photos myself, her reaction changed. She started to take it in, asking if I’d shown them to anyone else, or if I was planning to. I said no, of course not. I think she was still trying to understand. I couldn’t really blame her. I was having enough trouble with it myself.’ He looked down at his hands.

Falk thought of Jill Bailey, frowning. It’s a family matter.

‘Did you tell your sister what had happened?’

‘On the retreat?’ Bailey shook his head. ‘Not all of it. I told her I was late because we’d discovered Joel with some inappropriate photos. I didn’t mention Margot was involved. I thought that was a decision for Alice to make as her mother.’ He sighed. ‘I had to tell Jill after the retreat though, when Alice didn’t make it out.’

‘How did she react?’

‘She was angry. She said I should have told her the whole story on that first night at the campsite. Which maybe I should have.’

Carmen sat back in her chair. ‘So how did the images manage to get out? Margot said they’d been online since yesterday.’

‘I honestly don’t know. I drove down yesterday as soon as I heard about it from Michelle. She’d heard it from another mum.’ He shook his head. ‘For what it’s worth, I really don’t think Joel would spread them about. I spoke to him for a long time about respect and privacy and he really did seem to take it in.’

Daniel Bailey, Falk thought, sounded a lot like his wife at that moment.

‘Joel had had a couple of friends with him when Michelle discovered the files,’ Bailey went on. ‘I think in the chaos, it’s most likely one of them copied the images.’ He turned his own mobile over in his hands. ‘I just wish Joel would answer his bloody phone, so we could get this straightened out.’