Mary had pestered the police until they’d agreed to open an investigation and look into her accusations against her soon-to-be ex-husband. When they learned about the insurance documents they confirmed he had means, motive and opportunity. The fact that his car had been seen at the address by an eagle-eyed neighbour a few hours before the alleged fall was a fact that the police had heavily relied on in court.
Despite all the circumstantial evidence, Ben didn’t once change his story. O’Neill and Mary hadn’t gone into too much detail about what had happened at court, other than Ben had pled not guilty and been found as such by a unanimous verdict.
‘Are you sure you want to go home?’ O’Neill asked as they passed the ‘Welcome to Chilworth’ sign. ‘I could drop you at a friend’s for the night while you make a decision about your next steps.’
She glared at him. ‘Why wouldn’t I want to go home to the man I love?’
O’Neill didn’t reply, but the contempt was written all over his face.
‘You’d better drop me at the pub; I don’t want Ben to see us together.’
‘Very well,’ he said, indicating as the pub appeared around the bend. ‘But if you change your mind, or if you decide you need to get away in a hurry, I want you to call me. Okay? I know you don’t want to believe what we told you, but at some point you’ll see that we’re right. When that happens, I want you to call. Day or night – anytime.’
She still had his business card in her purse, not that she intended to use it.
He pulled into the car park at the rear of the pub and Alice climbed out, slamming the door as she did. Once he’d pulled away, she made her way slowly back along the road towards the house.
As she drew closer, she was surprised to see the shaved head of a man in a skintight black top and combat trousers staring back at her from the other side of the gates.
‘What’s your business here?’ he demanded.
His eyes were cold and dark and his tone sent an instant shiver down her spine.
‘I-I-I live here,’ she stuttered.
‘Name?’
‘Alice Goodman. Where’s Ben? Where’s my husband?’
He held up a finger and whispered into the compact radio hanging from a clip just below his shoulder. He waited for a response before nodding and using the remote to open the electrified gate.
‘Sorry, ma’am,’ he offered with little sincerity or emotion. ‘Can’t be too careful. Mr Goodman is waiting for you up at the property. Mind how you go.’
It was like a small army had invaded. More men, more shaved heads, and more skintight black tops occupied the inner perimeter of the property, some bearing large German Shepherd dogs.
‘Ben, what the hell is going on?’ she asked, as the front door opened.
He didn’t reply immediately, instead rushing forward and wrapping two warm arms around her shoulders. ‘Oh thank God, I’ve been worried sick. Where have you been?’
She was about to respond when one of the patrolling guards came near them.
‘How about we go inside and talk?’ she suggested, and Ben led the way, closing and locking the door behind them.
Alice hadn’t noticed Ben’s parents’ car in the driveway, but she instantly recognized the smell of his mum’s perfume and Ray’s embossed jacket hanging on the back of the door. It was no surprise that Ray had come running when Ben had phoned. He poked his head around the door of the living room and nodded in Alice’s direction before scampering back to update his wife that Alice was back.
‘I didn’t know what to do,’ Ben said. ‘You just vanished. I tried calling you, but you left your phone here. I was so worried. Dad and I were about to drive around and search for you.’ He paused as his eyes fell on the fresh scabs on her legs. ‘What happened?’
‘I fell,’ she said, waving away his concern. ‘I’m fine now, but I was running, and it was wet, and … silly really.’
‘You raced out of here more than two hours ago, Alice. I’ve been worried sick. I was terrified the person leaving the notes had abducted you or something. I’ve even had that DC Hazelton on the phone to report you missing.’
Alice blushed. ‘What did she say?’
‘She told me you wouldn’t be considered a missing person until you’d been gone for more than twenty-four hours, but agreed to pass your description to the uniform patrol. I’d better let her know you’re back. Where did you go? Where have you been?’
Alice moved past him and into the living room. The hushed conversation between Ben’s parents stopped instantly. She wouldn’t have chosen to confront Ben in front of his parents, but he’d be less likely to lie with them there, and she needed answers.
Dropping onto the sofa, she took a deep breath. ‘I was putting your clothes away earlier,’ she began, ‘and I accidentally knocked an old shoebox to the floor. It contained a ton of old photographs.’
Ben didn’t look bothered by her admission. ‘And?’
‘I wondered why you’ve never shown them to me before.’
Ben pulled a face. ‘They’re just old photos. I don’t know why I’ve never shown them to you. There’s no reason really. What’s this all about?’
Alice looked from her in-laws to Ben. ‘The photographs all appear to be from before the two of us met. It just struck me as odd that you hadn’t shown them to me, and that you kept them hidden away in a dusty old shoebox.’
‘I told you: there’s no reason. They’re just some stupid photographs from a time in my life I’d prefer to forget, that’s all. I’m sure I haven’t seen every photograph you’ve ever been in.’ He considered her for a moment, before his eyes lit up with realization. ‘This is about her, isn’t it? You looked at the photos, I take it?’
She nodded.
Ben’s cheeks reddened for the first time. ‘Please tell me you’re not jealous of some woman I dated long before you were ever on the scene. We both had other partners before we hooked up, and I thought we were both happy to leave those things in the past.’
‘I was. I mean, I am, but you never told me you’d been married before. I find it odd that you would hide something like that from me.’ She glanced over to Ben’s parents and saw his mum look away.
Ben’s eyes narrowed. ‘Who said we were married?’
Alice froze. Had there been a photograph of Ben and Mary from their wedding day, or was it because Mary had told her they’d been married?
Ben was now looking closer at her, the lines on his face forming into a suspicious frown. ‘What’s going on here, Alice? There’s something you’re not telling me. Where have you really been?’
There was no point in keeping the truth to herself any more. He deserved to know what Mary and O’Neill had said, and she needed to give him a chance to share his side of the story.
‘We’re going to need a drink.’
FORTY-THREE
Lowering the dusty shoebox to the dining table, Ben lifted the lid on the past he’d so desperately tried to bury. Alice slid a tumbler of vodka across the table to him, the ice cubes clinking. Ray and Hermione had hurriedly left, telling them they needed space and promising to call round in the morning.
‘I always wondered if she’d come out of the woodwork again one day,’ he said, lifting out the picture of Mary wearing the necklace. ‘Part of me wanted to keep tabs on her after what happened, but I guess as the years rolled by I thought less and less about her and the nightmare she forced me to endure. Did she look well?’
When Alice had told him about meeting Mary and O’Neill, she’d expected anger, but his reaction had surprised her. He’d looked crestfallen, like she’d uncovered some deep, dark secret he was too ashamed to admit. While she’d poured the drinks, he’d told her he would tell her everything.
‘I wouldn’t say the years have been kind,’ Alice said, recalling the heavy bags beneath Mary’s pale eyes.
‘You know, I thought it was odd when Liam O’Neill suddenly appeared at our table at lunchtime. It was such a bizarre encounter that it
just didn’t sit well with me. My guess is he’s the one who left the letters stuck to our gates. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had something to do with the police interrupting the wedding too – vindictive bastard!’
‘He didn’t admit to it, but I suspect the same,’ she agreed, feeling numb.
‘Will you tell me what she said?’ he asked, taking a seat and resting his hands on the table.
Alice thought back to Mary’s account. ‘She said you met at a music festival, had a fling and married soon after. She thinks you only married her to get at her inheritance.’
‘I presume she told you that I murdered her mother too?’ he ground out sarcastically.
Alice nodded. ‘She said many things.’
‘And I presume it was all my fault when things didn’t work out, right?’
Alice remained silent, waiting for him to elaborate.
‘Did she also mention she seduced Dave to get back at me?’
‘She did.’
He looked surprised. ‘It’s easier to fool someone into believing your lies when you feed them a little truth, I suppose. Anyway, where would you like me to start?’
‘How about at the beginning?’
He stared down at his hands. ‘I met Mary when I was barely eighteen. Dave and I were determined to have a summer to remember. We were young and naive back then, and we knew we’d have to do some major growing up if we were to make it through university. We planned this summer of gigs, drinks and girls – a summer we would remember forever as our last blow-out before embarking on our adult lives. I knew I hadn’t performed as well in my exams as I could have done and that my grades probably wouldn’t be good enough to get into my first or second choice universities. So I applied late for a gap year, figuring I could take a year to get my head straight, work out what I wanted to do with my life or find a job and bin off uni.
‘Dave wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, and had no intention of going to university. Even back then he was dipping his fingers into many pies and making deals left, right and centre. He was a proper little entrepreneur even then. That’s how he managed to score us entry to so many gigs and festivals over that period.
‘It was on our second night at Glastonbury that I first laid eyes on Mary. She was pretty wasted, and from what I could see she was on her own. Dave and I had been sharing a tiny tent, so when she asked if I wanted to spend the night with her, it seemed like a great idea. I knew she was older then, though I had no idea just how big the age gap was until weeks later.
‘She came across as someone desperately trying to hang onto what little youth she had remaining – not exactly counting the days until death, but certainly not able to ignore the ticking clock. I don’t remember a whole lot about that first night, but I remember her catching me trying to sneak out of her tent in the early hours of the morning. She was insatiable, and she dragged me back to bed. When I next awoke it was daylight and Dave was looking for me. Mary and I agreed to swap numbers and then she packed up and left. I thought that would be the end of it, but to my amazement she tracked me down in Southampton and begged me to hook up again. I know that sounds big-headed but she was really into me. Bear in mind this was back before social media, and when mobile phones were still a luxury rather than an accessory.
‘What can I say, we had fun. She had a great sense of humour and was so generous that I allowed myself to become a bit of a kept man.’
Alice turned up her nose in disgust.
‘I know it sounds crass,’ Ben explained, ‘but put yourself in my shoes: eighteen, no responsibilities and an attractive woman offering to put a roof over your head and food on the table. I think we both kind of got swept up in the relationship. She loved having someone young in her life to cling to, and I liked being able to enjoy myself without having to find a job.
‘Did she mention that she was the one who proposed to me? I bet she left that salient detail out too, didn’t she? She was burying her head in the sand to think that things would remain the same between us.’
He paused and took a long sip of vodka. ‘I wanted someone to take care of me and she was offering what I thought I needed. My only valuable possession in the world was that ring of my grandmother’s and I didn’t want to sell it. Naively, I thought I was in love with Mary and giving it to her as an engagement ring seemed like the right way to pay her back for all her generosity. If I’d realized what a manipulative bitch she was, I’d have slept in a box on the street, rather than stay with her.
‘We married at the registry office less than a fortnight after she proposed. I wore an old school shirt and trousers, and she wore some dress she’d got in a sale. We must have looked a right pair!’
Hearing him confirm what Mary had said about marriage cut Alice deep, but she swallowed down the pain and put her glass to her lips, savouring the cool relief of the ice‑cold liquid.
‘So this was now early September. My grades were slightly better than I’d expected, and with no idea what I wanted to do as a career, I submitted my application for a business course at the University of Bournemouth for the following year. Mary thought it was a great idea and even helped me fill out my application form and apply for a student loan, but once we were married, her attitude to things changed. Suddenly it made her angry when I wanted to go out and see my friends. If I invited Dave round to watch football on the television, she’d kick off at me in front of him. It was embarrassing, and so Dave and I would end up going to the pub to watch matches instead. She was on my case all the time, and by the end of October I realized what a huge mistake I’d made. Shamefully, I stopped caring about how my actions would make her feel.’
He looked down as if trying to come to terms with his poor behaviour. ‘I was a shit to her. I started sleeping around with other girls, closer to my own age. I’d come home at stupid times and when she shouted at me that would only make me do worse things. The marriage was spiralling out of control, and it was around about this time that her mother reached out to me. I’d only met her three times: when we got engaged; at the wedding; and once when we’d invited her round for dinner. I think she must have been quite old when she’d had Mary as she was so much older than us. So, anyway, she phoned me up out of the blue and asked me to come to see her, but swore me to secrecy.
‘When I got there she told me she’d found some lumps and that she didn’t think she had a lot of time left. The strangest thing was, she wasn’t upset by the revelation. She’d had a full life and was ready to go, but she didn’t want to leave Mary empty-handed or saddled with debt. She asked me to help her set up some life cover so that when the cancer took her, she’d be able to leave Mary with a small windfall. I thought it was a good thing for her to do, and of course I agreed. Looking back on it though, I should have told Mary. Maybe if I had she wouldn’t have gone so ballistic when her mum died.
‘I was smart enough to know that nobody would insure Mary’s mother if they knew about the cancer, so when we filled in the application we lied about her current health. She hadn’t been officially diagnosed, so as far as her doctor knew she was perfectly fit and healthy. I knew my actions were fraudulent, but her motives were so pure I figured I could live with the guilt. She was so happy when her policy was confirmed.
‘Of course, Mary knew nothing about it and accused me of seeing other women every time I’d been at her mum’s. That’s when she decided to screw Dave to spite me. She had this perverse look on her face when I found out – like she enjoyed stabbing me in the back. Dave was cut up about it, but he told me what had happened before she had and I appreciated his honesty. Besides, we’ve been through so much together that I don’t think he could ever do anything that would stop me loving him. He’s more than a friend; he’s my brother. You know?’
Alice continued to watch him as he spoke. There was no sign of deceit in anything he was telling her. She couldn’t help but pity him for the situation he’d unwittingly found himself in. She could understand how he would have allowed Mary to take control
of their relationship.
‘Her mum’s sudden death was a shock to all of us,’ Ben continued, draining his drink. ‘After that I knew it was time to end things and get my life back on track. Dave even helped me secure a solicitor to instigate divorce proceedings. I had no idea I would be entitled to any of the life assurance until my solicitor sent the paperwork over. I didn’t want any of it initially, but after she went to the police and had them arrest me, I decided it was the least I was entitled to. Can you believe she actually said I pushed her mum down the stairs? Hand on heart, her mum knew exactly what she was doing when she signed those application forms. She might have been frail, but her mind was as sharp as a tack.
‘It was terrifying standing in that dock, not knowing how a dozen strangers would view our differing accounts, but thankfully they saw through Mary’s lies and insinuations. There was no evidence that I’d had anything to do with her mum’s tragic fall, but that doesn’t mean the relief wasn’t palpable. I’d almost convinced myself the jury would believe Mary, and my life was over. It gave me the impetus to stop messing about and craft the life I wanted to lead.’
‘I believe you,’ Alice eventually sighed.
Ben reached across the table and took her hands in his. ‘I really hope you do, baby. I never meant to keep secrets from you, but how could I tell you that a crazy ex had accused me of murdering her mother and that it had gone to trial? You would have run a mile. I knew very early on that you were the woman I was destined to marry and I didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize that.’
Alice chose her next words carefully. ‘Would you ever have told me about her or what happened if I hadn’t found out?’
Till Death Do Us Part Page 21
