Those Who Lie: the gripping new thriller you won’t be able to stop talking about. Diane Jeffrey

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СКАЧАТЬ You decided to shoot him instead?’

      ‘Something like that, I suppose. I wasn’t really thinking clearly.’

      ‘And you shot him with his own gun?’

      ‘Mmmm.’ There was a short silence during which both Emily and Will were lost in their thoughts.

      ‘What gun? Not with his clay pigeon shotgun, surely? You couldn’t have… Wasn’t your father…? How did you—?’

      ‘There’s a lot I don’t remember about that night.’

      She’d used the same answer several times when she was being interrogated by the police a few months ago. That put an end to their conversation. Emily told Will nothing about that night after all.

      Suddenly, her tummy tightened painfully. Maybe it was hunger. She’d deliberately made herself sick after lunch. But Emily wondered if it could be a contraction, even though that only made six months.

      ‘I think you should go now,’ she said to Will. She resolved not to reply to his letters from now on.

Chapter Seven

      ~

      Oxford, September 2014

      Amanda’s face turns red. ‘He told you he’d had an affair? The bastard!’

      Emily is touched by her sister’s reaction. Even now, Amanda is protective towards her. Always the big sister. Pippa looks suitably impressed at Amanda’s term of abuse.

      They’re sitting around the table in the window of The Grapes. The pub is conveniently situated a stone’s throw away from both The New Theatre and the hall where Amanda and Pippa have been rehearsing that evening with their Amateur Dramatic Society. They are both regulars here.

      ‘Hi, am I interrupting?’ A tall, smartly dressed man in his thirties with a rotund face beams at the group. It takes Emily a few seconds to place him.

      ‘No, not at all,’ says Pippa, in a tone that implies the exact opposite. ‘Have a seat. Matt, this is Richard. Emily, you’ve met Richard, haven’t you? He’s performing as Tim in this year’s play.’

      ‘Oh, I forgot to ask what the play was this year,’ says Emily, as Richard sets his pint down on the table, wriggles out of his waterproof coat and then sits on a stool next to Pippa. He fixes his eyes on Amanda. Emily smiles tightly at Richard, remembering the day he turned up on her doorstep. It was a long time ago now, she tells herself, and that incident is best forgotten. Best to move on.

      ‘It’s The Sugar Syndrome by Lucy Prebble,’ Pippa says.

      ‘I don’t know why the director chose that one. It’s not very recent, and there are only really four parts,’ Amanda says. Emily hears the whine in her sister’s voice.

      Emily examines Richard. He hasn't stopped staring at Amanda. He is clearly still besotted with her although their brief relationship ended – badly – seven or eight years ago now. He meets Emily’s eyes and she turns away and looks out of the window. It is dismal and grey outside, and the rain is running down the panes. Emily is distracted by this and tunes out of the conversation a little.

      ‘What part are you playing, Mandy?’ asks Matt.

      ‘I’m Pippa’s understudy,’ Amanda replies huffily.

      Matt splutters into his lager. ‘You’re only satisfied if you get to play the role of a murderess anyway,’ he teases. ‘What was the name of the villain you played last year? Gonorrhoea?’

      Everyone laughs except Emily. She’s starting to feel disconnected, as though she is removed from the scene. She’s thinking about Greg’s Facebook messages, of course. She can’t get them out of her mind.

      ‘Goneril, you philistine! I did enjoy portraying that character,’ Amanda admits, ‘even though I had to kill Regan.’ She touches Pippa’s arm and looks at her apologetically.

      ‘Your own sister,’ Pippa jokes. ‘Yes, indeed, no sororicide for you this year.’ Seeing Matt knit his eyebrows, she explains: ‘It’s from the Latin. It means killing your own sister.’ Matt shrugs. Emily remembers he had dozed off during the performance before Amanda poisoned Pippa.

      ‘That was a good play,’ says Amanda. ‘How did we go from a Shakespearean tragedy to a debut play that was written over ten years ago?’

      ‘There were far fewer actors available this year,’ Pippa says. ‘But it’s a good script. It raises important issues. Anyway, you may well get to do it if the baby’s late.’ She rubs her round tummy.

      Emily forces herself to turn away from the window and participate in the conversation. ‘What’s the play about?’ she asks. She thinks Amanda looks a little uncomfortable at her question.

      ‘I’m not sure you’d like it,’ Amanda says dismissively. She picks up her glass to sip the wine, but there’s none left. Frowning, she puts the glass back down on the table.

      It’s Pippa who outlines the plot. ‘It’s about a seventeen-year-old girl who pretends to be a young boy in an Internet chat room. She ends up befriending a thirty-year-old who is struggling against his paedophiliac tendencies.’

      ‘That’s me,’ Richard says proudly.

      ‘You’re not supposed to be the seventeen-year-old girl, are you?’ Matt asks Pippa. Richard chuckles at this.

      ‘No, of course not! I’m her mother, Jan.’

      ‘So they become friends because the paedophile thinks he’s talking to a young boy?’ Matt asks Richard.

      ‘Well, initially, perhaps, but they can relate to each other. You see, Dani, the teenage girl, has spent some time in a clinic because of her eating disorders and Tim has done time in prison. Tim knows his urges are wrong, but he’s taken in by Dani’s lies, so he becomes a victim, too.’

      Emily fights to hide her growing unease. Amanda’s right, she thinks. I wouldn’t like the play.

      ‘It’s a dangerous world, the Internet,’ Matt says. ‘Lots of people pretend to be someone they aren’t.’ He drinks the dregs of his beer.

      Emily can feel Matt’s eyes on her, but she’s looking at Richard. She notices that he repeatedly scratches the back of his neck when he talks. She wonders if his shirt collar is irritating his skin. Or maybe being around Amanda makes him tense.

      ‘It sounds very harrowing,’ Emily says.

      ‘Oi, Richard, it’s your round, mate.’ Emily looks over her shoulder and sees a man standing at the bar waving his empty pint glass.

      ‘Excuse me, please. That’s my cue.’ Laughing at his own joke, Richard gets up and goes to join his friends.

      Once Richard has left the table, Pippa loses no time in getting back to the original topic of conversation. ‘So, start at the beginning,’ she says to Emily. ‘What did the second message say?’

      ‘It СКАЧАТЬ