The Worst Lie

by Shauna Bickley

  After that news, Helen lost her appetite and just ordered a takeaway coffee. On an impulse she bought one for Laurence as well. He might be up by now. As she walked back to the hotel she couldn’t rid herself of the image of a young girl hurled through the air by the impact of a car, or a motorbike, and barely noticed the trees and stone circles.

  When she arrived at the hotel, Laurence was examining his bike.

  She handed him the coffee. ‘How’s your bike? Is there any damage?’

  ‘Thanks for the drink. There’s no damage that I can see, but when I finish this, I’ll give it a turn round the village to check it’s running okay.’

  Helen sat on the stone wall, turning to feel the warmth of the sun on her back. At least the motorbike hadn’t been involved. From where she sat, she couldn’t see Mitch’s car, or Spike’s.

  ‘You came down with Gareth and Madelaine, didn’t you?’ asked Laurence.

  ‘Yes. I had a text from Gareth earlier. They’re back in London. He didn’t say why they left so suddenly.’ Was Madelaine involved with the accident?

  ‘I guess that means there’s a strong chance we won’t be staying until tomorrow. I can give you a lift to the nearest railway station if you want.’

  ‘That would be wonderful.’ One problem solved.

  ‘I’ll take the bike out for a quick spin to check it.’

  Helen packed her small bag and left it next to a chair in the reception area. There was still no sign of the others so she went outside again. As she’d noted before, there was no sign of Spike’s car or Mitch’s in the hotel’s main car park. She walked around the building and found Mitch’s vehicle parked by a tall brick wall. It was so close to the corner of the wall she couldn’t see the passenger side or front, but the driver’s door didn’t have any damage. What was wrong with her that she immediately suspected one of her friends might be involved in the hit and run? It was the middle of summer and there were heaps of tourists in the area.

  Just then, the Harley roared back along the road to the hotel. She was being overly dramatic after the scene last night. She hurried round to where Laurence was getting off his bike.

  ‘Hey,’ he said when he noticed her. ‘If we do leave today, it seems a waste of a long weekend for me to go back to Cardiff when there’s still the rest of today and tomorrow off work. I thought I’d catch up with a couple of friends in London. They’ll let me crash on their sofa tonight, so I can drop you off at your flat. That’s if you want to go back.’

  After the histrionics of the previous evening, returning to the peace of her flat seemed like the best idea.

  ‘Thanks, a lift back to London would be great. I’ve already packed my stuff, but I’ll check to see if any of the others are around.’

  The hotel still resembled the Marie Celeste. Helen wrote a quick note and left it on Mitch’s door to let them know she and Laurence were leaving.

  The traffic back to London was busy and it was too noisy on the bike for conversation so Helen was left to her own thoughts for the trip. She was the only one who hadn’t been out in a vehicle the previous evening. Madelaine had driven off from the hotel in a state about something. Gareth had followed her on the Harley and they’d driven back to London after returning Laurence’s bike to the hotel. Spike and Eden had driven off in Spike’s car, closely followed by Mitch on what he’d termed “a mad car chase”. Any of them could have been involved in a crash. Surely Laurence would have said something this morning if they’d hit a young girl on a bicycle. But Mitch and Renelle had gone out later to pay the bill and they’d been away longer than it took to drive to the village.

  Her head swam with all the implications. Was one of her friends capable of leaving a young girl to die in the middle of a road? When Laurence dropped her off, he said no to her offer of a cold drink and Helen couldn’t bring herself to raise her suspicions while they stood on the street outside her flat.

  At the hotel in Little Stillford, she’d longed for the calm of her flat, but after she finished unpacking, it felt oppressive. They were supposed to be away for the entire long weekend so she had no other plans. For lack of something else to do, Helen walked around the local streets and into the park, ending up at a newsagents where she bought several newspapers. Back at her flat, she read about the latest Big Brother punch-up and some EU crisis but she couldn’t stop thinking about the teenage girl who’d been killed.

  They’d all drunk a lot. She hadn’t driven, but neither had she said to the others that they shouldn’t be driving. Yet again, she picked up her phone and scrolled through to Gareth’s number, but put the phone down without ringing him. Madelaine had been upset during dinner, but none of the others appeared to be enjoying the reunion either. Gareth and Laurence had tried to keep the conversation on easy topics, but Spike always had to stir things up. Then the incident when Madelaine rushed off.

  No one rang her on Sunday or the holiday Monday. Helen kept checking to make sure her phone was fully charged and that she hadn’t missed a call, even though the phone was always in reach. How could she ask any of them if they’d knocked down and killed a teenage girl?

  She didn’t hear from anyone until Tuesday evening. Eden’s voice was a dull monotone, weighed down with her message.

  ‘Please don’t interrupt me or I won’t manage this. I’ve got some awful news.’ Eden took an audible breath and choked down a cry before speaking again. ‘Madelaine’s dead.’

  7

  Lexie Wyatt

  Nettleford, Dorset

  2018

  Helen looked pale, a waxy sheen on her face, as if she’d just received the news Madelaine was dead rather than it happening years before.

  ‘Are you feeling okay?’ asked Lexie. ‘You look as though you’re going to faint. Have you eaten anything this morning?’ Helen shook her head. ‘I’ll go and get us some food. That might help.’

  The group at the next table had boxed Lexie in so she moved the garden centre trolley stacked with her plants to get out. She retrieved her bag from the back of the chair and strode over to the queue at the counter. As she waited, she thought over the things her friend had shared. Helen had detailed some parts of the weekend, but there were a few things that she’d said that didn’t quite add up, times she’d hesitated, started to say something and then not quite finished. Anyone who didn’t know Helen might not have noticed, but Lexie thought Helen had left out some things. She mentioned standing in the restaurant gardens but the time lapse didn’t add up for other events. Sure, all this happened eleven or so years ago and Lexie couldn’t remember everything she’d done back then, but she felt there were deliberate gaps.

  Listening to Helen talk about Madelaine, and especially that final weekend, personalised the woman behind the actress in a way the websites never did. At the time Madelaine died, The Legacy of Time hadn’t been released and she was still a relative unknown so there was little to find on the internet from that time about her death. The website mentions of her came long afterwards once the film had gained a kind of cult status, and from Spike’s continued success.

  Lexie picked up the tray with their filled croissants and drinks but as she turned around to go back to the table she noticed Raewyn, another school mum, in the queue. Damn. She liked Raewyn but hoped she wouldn’t join them as she wanted to keep the conversation going with Helen, plus Helen wasn’t in any fit state for a chatty conversation with Raewyn.

  ‘Hi Raewyn, how are you?’

  ‘Not bad. I’m here with my mum.’ Raewyn nodded in the general direction of the café tables. ‘She’s been ages choosing plants and after this I’m taking her grocery shopping.’ Raewyn pulled a pained expression. ‘That’s most of my day gone.’

  Thank goodness for that. Lexie gave her an understanding smile. ‘Need to get back to the table before I drop the tray. See you later.’

  Helen had gained a little more colour, and they ate quietly for a few minutes.

  ‘It must have been an awful shock finding out about Madelaine. S
he was so young. Even now, I don’t expect to hear about people my age dying.’

  Helen made a mumbled sound that Lexie took to be agreement.

  ‘Who found her?’ asked Lexie when they’d finished eating.

  ‘Gareth.’

  ‘When he woke up?’

  ‘No. He stayed with a friend that night.’ Helen played around with the flakes of pastry on her plate as she spoke. ‘Gareth tried ringing her during the evening but she didn’t answer. He knew Eden was visiting her so thought they were out together. When she didn’t answer the following morning, he went round to the flat. She was in their bedroom. Gareth said he knew she was already dead, but he rang emergency services and tried CPR. He called Eden when the medics turned up. She arrived at the flat just before the police.’

  ‘What was up with Madelaine during that evening at Little Stillford? Did you ever discover why she ran off?’

  If Helen heard her question, she didn’t answer but carried on with her memories. Some of what she said Lexie already knew, but she didn’t interrupt.

  ‘The toxicology report said she died of an overdose of pills and alcohol. The police asked us all about her state of mind and if she’d ever talked about suicide. Eden was adamant Madelaine would never kill herself.’

  ‘Did anyone find a note?’

  ‘No. The police kept on at Gareth until he admitted that he’d broken up with Madelaine the day before.’ Helen pushed a strand of hair off her cheek. ‘That’s why he was at a mate’s place. He blamed himself for not being at the flat.’

  ‘That’s awful for him.’

  Helen nodded before pulling out a tissue and blowing her nose. ‘He was distraught thinking Madelaine killed herself because he finished with her. We all kept reassuring him it wasn’t his fault. I was worried about him and what he might do.’

  ‘Did you ever talk to the others about the hit and run?’

  Helen shook her head. ‘The first couple of days after Madelaine died, everything else went out of my head. When the police discovered we’d spent the weekend at Little Stillford, they asked us if we’d driven that night or been involved in an accident.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Madelaine had an accident after she left the hotel. She told Gareth something in the road startled her, a fox or cat, and she swerved and went into a fence. That’s where he found her. He said she was crying and upset, but she never mentioned anything about the girl.’

  ‘Did the police believe that? I guess it was difficult as Gareth was repeating a conversation he’d had with Madelaine that they couldn’t confirm. What did they think?’

  ‘The police suspected that she staged the collision to cover up damage from the hit and run.’

  ‘And killed herself because of the accident and the potential consequences when she found out the girl was dead.’ Lexie muttered her thoughts more to herself than to Helen. She gazed out across the bright colours of the plants in the garden centre. ‘Did the police find any evidence that she was involved in the hit and run?’

  ‘Not that I’m aware of, other than the car was damaged. Everything was such a mess. We were all upset over Madelaine’s death, and none of us knew what to expect with all the legal processes for a suspicious death.’

  ‘Did the police keep searching for the driver in the hit and run?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘What did you think?’ asked Lexie. ‘You knew her. Was she the type of person who’d drive off after an accident and then lie about it? Did you think Madelaine killed herself?’

  Helen took her time before answering. ‘Before that weekend…’ She picked up a serviette and dabbed at her lips. ‘Gareth didn’t believe Madelaine had anything to do with the hit and run. He said that she didn’t lie to him, and she swore that her version of the accident was the truth. He was depressed for months, believing that she killed herself because they’d split up. Nothing helped.’

  Lexie hadn’t asked what Gareth thought, she’d asked what Helen believed about that weekend. ‘So Gareth didn’t think she was involved in the accident, but he did think she’d killed herself. How about you?’

  ‘I didn’t see Madelaine as someone who’d take her own life, but if she was involved in the hit and run, the consequences of that might change her thinking. I was never certain.’

  They sat in the café until Lexie was sure Helen could drive home safely. Lexie paid for her plants and they walked back to their cars.

  ‘Do you still want to go away with us for the weekend after hearing all of this?’

  ‘Definitely.’ More than ever, Lexie wanted to meet these people. Eden had an agenda which linked to Madelaine and the possible cover-up of her death, and now there was also the hit and run incident.

  ‘Are you sure? I thought you might not want to go anywhere near them.’

  Lexie patted Helen’s shoulder. ‘It’s not the same for me as it is for you. I’m not emotionally involved with what happened, other than how it’s affecting you. It must be hard to talk about, digging up all those buried feelings.’

  ‘It is, even though it happened years ago. Gareth and I never speak about it, but I guess with Eden being here, it all seems so much more recent. I don’t think I could cope with this proposed weekend if you and Nathan weren’t coming.’

  ‘I’ll be honest with you; I’m fascinated to meet them.’

  Lexie pressed the zapper to unlock her car. ‘Eden and Mitch were an item back then, but presumably they haven’t been together for a while.’

  ‘No, they broke up soon after the Little Stillford weekend. Mitch and Renelle are married now.’

  That was a surprise, although from what she’d been told, Renelle had always been keen on him. ‘How did Eden take that?’

  ‘I’m not really sure. We haven’t seen her for years, and I don’t think she’s been in touch with them for a long time. This whole thing is beginning to fill me with dread.’

  ‘She does have a much younger guy in tow.’

  ‘True. I think Madelaine’s funeral was the last time we were all together. We visit Mitch and Renelle a couple of times a year and Laurence occasionally, but we haven’t met up with Spike for ages.’

  ‘What are they all doing?’

  ‘Mitch has his own business, some sort of management consultant and Renelle is still in the film make-up game. She’s done really well. Laurence works in IT in London and Spike is famous enough for you to google him.’

  ‘Which I’ve done.’

  Helen managed a weak smile. All this raking up the past certainly wasn’t making her happy.

  Lexie waited in her car until Helen had driven off, and then she pulled out her phone. Once again, she stared at the poster image of Madelaine from The Legacy of Time, where she lay on the horizontal stone at Little Stillford.

  Madelaine remained frozen in time, remembered with the perfection endowed by an untimely death. Not for her the discovery of a first grey hair or the appearance of laughter lines. She was forever young, dewy-skinned, shaking back her long, blonde hair with all the promise of the career to come or lying serene surrounded by the sarsen stone sentinels in an attitude of death that was to overtake her within weeks.

  Lexie put her phone down on the passenger seat, thinking of evenings when she and Nathan went out for dinner with Gareth and Helen, indulging in mid-thirties married chatter about work and children. Listening to Helen talk about the younger Gareth, she barely recognised him as the golden male in the photographs with Madelaine McDonald. Her mind went back to her university days in London – a fresh set of friends and the feeling she could create her own life, with an eternity of time stretching out before her, certain she would never be ordinary, never categorised and boxed like older people. Lexie started the car and drove out of the car park. Only the young could think like that and truly believe it.

  Lexie hadn’t yet mentioned the weekend invitation to Nathan. Before doing that she’d wanted to make sure that Helen didn’t mind them going. Now she’d ascertained that the
next thing was to check with Nathan. After reading the twins the next chapter of Annabelle and the Silver Horse, she popped her head around Tilly’s bedroom door to warn her that she had twenty minutes before her bedtime.

  In the lounge Nathan was flicking through channels on the television. Lexie plopped down beside him on the couch.

  ‘How d’you fancy a weekend away? It’s been ages since we went anywhere without the girls.’

  Nathan muted the television and turned to her, raising his eyebrows. ‘What plans are you hatching now?’

  ‘Why do you always think the worst of me?’

  ‘Just going on past experience.’ He feigned pain as Lexie swatted him on the arm.

  ‘But what do you think?’

  ‘A weekend away would be good, but why now all of a sudden?

  ‘Helen and Gareth’s friends are having a weekend away and they asked us if we’d like to go along.’

  ‘In that case the answer’s no.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Do you really need an answer to that? The meal we had out with them when Eden and Hunter arrived was difficult enough. I can’t imagine it would be any easier with more of them.’

  ‘I thought it might help Helen and Gareth to have us there. Helen actually said it would.’

  ‘That’s nice, but the answer’s still no.’

  He put his arm around her and she cuddled up to him. ‘I thought you might enjoy it because they’re going to Little Stillford. You know, the place with the circles like Stonehenge.’

  The previous year they’d visited Stonehenge and Nathan had shown a great interest in it and had spent a lot longer looking around the exhibition than Tilly, Ruth and Fiona had liked. He was quiet for a while until Lexie chanced a glance at him. He grinned at her.

  ‘Okay, I guess if it’s helping out friends then we should go. You’d better check to see if your parents are free that weekend.’

  Lexie gave him a kiss. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘What, you mean I have a choice? Go on, give your mum a ring before I change my mind.’