The Marriage Act(42)



Her mood lifted at the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside and recognition of a courier delivery van. A robot appeared as the rear doors opened and made its way down a ramp and towards her front door. As Roxi opened its rear panels and removed a brown box, Darcy hurried up the driveway and into the house without acknowledging her mother. Tears streamed from red eyes and down her cheeks. Roxi reasoned that if she was already that upset, it wouldn’t make much difference if she dealt with it now or after she’d carried the package inside.

With each television or radio appearance – and there had been seventeen now – Roxi’s media career was gaining traction. Instead of approaching PRs cap in hand, they were approaching her. Closer inspection of documents attached to the box revealed it had been sent by a French cosmetics company. Darcy could wait one more minute. Inside it was a selection of moisturizers and perfumes. It was a high-end brand she had targeted in the past but her requests had fallen on deaf ears. She totted up the value – there was at least ?3,000 worth of merchandise here. Delighted, she clasped her hands together as if in prayer.

She made her way upstairs and into the bathroom to cleanse her face and sample one. But on reaching the landing, a faint sobbing emanated from her daughter’s room. Roxi let out a long breath and opened the door.





32


Jeffrey




Jeffrey slipped off his jacket and placed it on a hook on the back of the office door. Notes of oud from Harry’s cologne lingered on the fabric threads.

Adrian, his supervisor, was already seated behind his desk and they exchanged pleasantries as he poured Jeffrey a cup of tea from a pot.

‘It’s nice to see you in person rather than by FaceTime,’ Adrian began. ‘How long has it been?’

‘A couple of years at least?’ Jeffrey replied.

‘I guess it must be, as I’ve been based in New Northampton for almost as long. How are you finding it?’

‘All towns blend into one another after a while, don’t they?’

‘You’re from here, though, aren’t you?’

‘Yes—’ Jeffrey cursed the background checks on his application form ‘—but I’ve not been back in years.’

‘Well, along with a general catch-up, I wanted to update you on the Harry and Tanya Knox house fire investigation,’ Adrian began. ‘The police’s preliminary report suggests that it was a murder-suicide. It appears Mrs Knox stabbed her husband to death, cut her wrists and then set fire to their house.’

Images of the couple, the last pair he’d been assigned to before Noah and Luca, rushed back. Jeffrey pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. For a moment, he thought he could smell burning again.

‘Are you okay? Do you need a moment?’ Adrian continued.

‘No, I’m just trying to process. Their story wasn’t supposed to end like this. I should have foreseen what Tanya was capable of. Maybe I could have saved Harry.’

‘No one here is holding you accountable for anything, Jeffrey. We’ve read through your report so we know their relationship was unstable. As a practising Relationship Responder myself, if I’d been in your shoes, I don’t think there is anything else I’d have done differently to you. You had no choice but to recommend to the courts they divorce.’

‘Thank you,’ Jeffrey said. ‘It means a lot to hear that.’

Adrian picked up his phone when it flashed. ‘I’m so sorry, I need to take this. Can you give me a moment?’ A plus-sized man, Adrian grasped his desk to pull himself up and left the room, closing the door.

Alone, Jeffrey replayed his final moments in Harry and Tanya’s home. He’d had little choice but to start that fire and he’d known that, if staged correctly, it would lead investigators to believe it was the scene of a murder-suicide. On hearing that the flames had destroyed much of the evidence leading to this police report, his decision had been the correct one.

Before he met them, and based on Audite recordings of their drawn-out arguments and passive-aggressive behaviour, they had fascinated Jeffrey enough for him to want to try and salvage their marriage. They’d repeatedly assured him with utmost sincerity that they still loved each other and had begged him to help them get back on track and pass Level Two. However, they hadn’t counted on him listening in to their private conversations through the Audite. He’d heard them openly discuss Jeffrey’s gullibility and their marital affairs. They were only a couple for the financial benefits a Smart Marriage brought.

Naturally, they’d reacted bitterly when he’d announced he was recommending to a Family Court that they should be divorced. Once they had finished hurling insults at him, they’d threatened to report him for attempting to sexually assault Tanya. The incident had been nothing of the sort: she had been the one who had offered him favours in return for a clean bill of marital health. Jeffrey hadn’t laid a finger on her. At least not until she was breathing her last in the bath. He had held her firmly in his grip as the taps had poured and the diagonal slashes he’d inflicted up and down her wrists and forearms muddied the bathwater. He’d remained with her for fifteen minutes until she’d finally bled out, then he’d watched as her lifeless form had disappeared under the surface.

Moments later, her husband Harry’s life had taken less time to end. Harry had been making his way into the kitchen when Jeffrey had silently approached him from behind. Using an electroshock weapon, he’d fired two sharp darts into Harry’s neck, rendering him immobile. Then he’d thrust a screwdriver into the lower portion of his torso half a dozen times, shredding his kidneys, intestines and liver before his victim could even realize he was being attacked. Jeffrey assumed the autopsy had not found the electrocution marks on his charred corpse.

John Marrs's Books