The Lies We Told(49)

Clara eyed Mac above her hand of cards. ‘So what was she like then, this Jade? Luke never said.’

He frowned, trying to remember. ‘Bit of a party animal, good looking, quite posh. I only met her a couple of times though; me and Luke were at different unis.’

She picked up a card from the pile. ‘Why did they split?’

‘As I recall, she finished with him. He was quite cut up about it.’ He thought for a while, brow furrowed. ‘Actually, there was something odd about their break-up, now you mention it. I remember him calling me upset that Jade had ended it out of the blue. Said she’d accused him of something that wasn’t true.’

‘Accused him? Of what?’

‘That’s just it, he wouldn’t say. He was really down for a while. I saw him in the holidays and he wasn’t his old self at all.’ He picked up a card then shrugged. ‘The next time we spoke, he was over it.’ He gave a half-smile. ‘You know Luke, not one to dwell on things too long.’

Jade Williams – now Spencer – lived in a smart Georgian townhouse in Lambeth. Pinning her down to a time she could meet had proven tricky, and when at last a day was agreed, Mac had to work, so Clara went alone. She stood on the front step after she’d rung the doorbell, taking in the freshly painted olive green door, the pots of well-tended geraniums and the antique glass lantern that hung above her head. It was a quiet, leafy street with expensive cars parked outside each carefully renovated house.

The woman who answered was tall, attractive and blond, immaculately dressed in a chic trouser suit that made Clara instantly conscious of her own jeans and trainers. From behind her a red setter came bounding on to the step, wagging its tail and enthusiastically sticking its nose into Clara’s crotch. ‘Clara? How nice to meet you,’ Jade’s smile was sincere but distracted as she ushered her inside.

She led Clara down to an enormous basement with an open-plan kitchen, tasteful and expensive looking with duck-egg blue units and white marble worktops. Clara perched at the rectory table and watched as Jade flew around making tea, talking in rapid, breathless flurries as she told Clara about the interiors company she’d started with her husband – ‘Honestly we’ve been working like dogs, our poor baby barely recognizes us, though luckily we’ve got the most wonderful nanny’ – and the alterations they’d had done to the house – ‘That’s the thing about buying around here, anywhere bigger than a shoebox and you have to expect to completely gut the place …’

Clara tried to imagine what she would have been like when she was younger and dating Luke. It was a strange idea. Had she always been so intimidatingly self-assured? She couldn’t quite picture them together.

‘So what can I do for you?’ Jade asked, suddenly businesslike now that two delicate cups of ginger tea sat on the table between them. ‘Your email said you wanted to talk about Luke Lawson.’ She leant forward, her eyes wide. ‘So awful, isn’t it? Though, as I told the police, I’m not sure what I can possibly do to help …’

‘I know this must seem strange,’ Clara said, ‘the police, as you probably know, haven’t come any closer to finding him …’

‘Yes. So I gather. I heard they’d found a van? So odd. Dreadful. You must be out of your mind.’

Clara nodded. ‘I am, we all are. My friend Mac and I are trying to find anyone who might have held a grudge against Luke. You were close to him once, and if there’s anything you can think of, anyone he might have got on the wrong side of, or who might have something against him …’

‘Hmm,’ Jade said, as though mulling it over. ‘People who might have disliked Luke.’ She pursed her lips. ‘He was a very popular lad at uni. Lots of friends, so …’

‘You were together a couple of years?’

‘More or less.’

‘Do you mind me asking why you split?’

Jade’s smile remained exactly the same, it was only her eyes that became a touch cooler. ‘It’s rather personal, actually. And a long story.’ She took a sip of her tea.

Clara nodded. ‘Of course. I’m sorry …’

She must have looked desolate because Jade sighed. ‘The thing is, Claire—’

‘Clara.’

‘Clara, sorry. The thing is, Luke Lawson … all that, was a long time ago. I really don’t think I can help you.’

‘I understand, and I’m sorry for bothering you.’ There was a silence, and Clara felt her spirits sink. This was hopeless. The whole thing was hopeless. She shouldn’t have come – it had been a stupid idea to think she’d find anything out by sticking her nose into Luke’s past like this. She was about to get to her feet when a thought struck her, and because she had nothing else to lose, asked, ‘Did you love him?’

For a moment Jade’s poise slipped a little, and someone younger and far more vulnerable took her place. ‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘Yes, I did, at first, very much.’

‘At first?’

She dropped her eyes. ‘As I said, it was a long time ago. Nearly a decade, in fact.’

‘I know. I’m just trying to get a picture of him, to work out why anyone would want to hurt him. If there was a side to his character I didn’t know, it might help track down whoever has done this to him. I don’t know where he is. My boyfriend has disappeared, possibly murdered, and no one has a clue where he is or what’s happened to him.’ She pressed her fingers to her eyes, forcing back her tears.