“I would never have done anything to hurt Phillip,” Nicole protested.
“Except sleep with other men,” Liam taunted.
Nicole glared at him. “It wasn’t other men, it was just you, and that was back when you were charming and doing everything you could to convince me that life with you would be exciting and fun all the time.”
“Life with me has been a lot more fun than it would have been with Phillip,” Liam replied. “All you ever did when you were with me was complain about how boring he was, in and out of bed.”
It felt to Bessie as if everyone in the room inhaled sharply at Liam’s words.
“I think that’s quite enough,” John Rockwell said. He took a few steps towards Nicole.
“I don’t think it’s nearly enough,” Liam said loudly. “Everyone here is talking about how much they’re going to miss Phillip and what a wonderful man he was, but considering he snuck back onto the island and was hiding out in an empty cottage, he clearly had something to hide.”
“Maybe he’d arranged to meet Nicole,” someone suggested. “Maybe you found out about it and went in her place.”
“What are you implying?” Liam demanded.
“I believe he’s implying that you killed Phillip,” Madison said tartly.
Liam took a deep breath and then curled his hands into fists. He moved his feet into something like a fighting stance and then glanced around the room. “Anyone here man enough to say that to my face?” he asked.
“I think it’s time for you to leave,” John said to Liam. He crossed to his side and said a few words in a low voice.
Liam shook his head. “I’m not leaving without Nicole,” he said.
“I’m not leaving until I feel as if I’ve mourned properly,” Nicole shot back. “I have so many things that I want to say. Phillip was the most special man I ever met.”
“Stop it!” Madison shouted. “You have no right to talk about him, not after what you did to him. Dad was right. His death was your fault.”
Nicole stared at her for a minute and then laughed. “You can’t possibly blame me for Phillip’s death. I didn’t even know he was on the island.”
“No one seems to have known,” Madison said. “Except someone did. Someone who wanted Phillip dead. Maybe you did know, and maybe you didn’t tell Liam. Maybe, instead, you met Phillip at that empty house. I can almost picture it, you trying to persuade Phillip to forgive you, him refusing. You must have been incredibly angry.”
“Now you’re suggesting that I killed Phillip, which is simply impossible,” Nicole protested.
“Someone killed him. If it wasn’t you, maybe it was Liam,” Madison replied.
“Come over here and say that,” Liam snarled.
Madison looked defiantly at him. “You would have killed him, if Nicole told you she was going back to him, wouldn’t you? Your fragile ego wouldn’t have survived if your wife left you for a man you’d deemed boring.”
“Nicole wasn’t going back to Phillip,” Liam laughed. “I’m much better at meeting her needs, all of her needs.”
“But you’ve been having problems,” Peter said. “You’ve even moved out of the marital home.”
Liam stared at him for a moment. “The marital home? Who says that? Anyway, I haven’t moved out of anywhere. I’ve simply taken a flat in Douglas so that when the gym is open late I can crash there instead of having to drive all the way to Foxdale. Nicole even stays with me in the flat once in a while.”
“I’ve stayed there once,” Nicole said flatly. “I don’t have a key, either.”
“I can get you a key, if you want one,” Liam said.
“He brings other women back there,” Nicole told Madison. “That’s why he wanted the flat, so that he’d have somewhere to take his girlfriends.”
“Why would you put up with that?” Madison asked.
Nicole shrugged. “I’m thinking about getting a divorce. I probably would have already filed if I’d been able to reach Phillip. If he’d have agreed to give me another chance, I was going to leave Liam and move across to be with him.”
“You were trying to contact Phillip?” John asked, reaching into a pocket for his notebook.
“I was,” Nicole replied. “He’d changed his mobile number, and the person who has that number now claimed he’d never heard of Phillip. I rang Harry, but he never rang me back. I rang Oliver, too. We even met for dinner to talk about Phillip, but after dinner he refused to give me Phillip’s new number.”
“I told you that I’d let Phillip know that you wanted to speak to him,” Oliver said.
“Yes, but it would have been much easier if you’d simply given me the number. I really wanted to talk to him myself,” Nicole said with a sigh.
“Did you pass along Ms. Carr’s message, then?” John asked Oliver.
He hesitated and then shook his head. “I didn’t speak to Phillip very often. He used to ring once in a while, just to see how we were doing, but that had tapered off a lot in the past few months. I think the last time I spoke to him was in October.”
“You were really considering going back to that man?” Liam asked, his tone incredulous. “After all the things you’d told me about him?”
“He was kind and caring and he never would have cheated on me,” Nicole replied. “We’d have been happy together.”
“He would never have forgiven you,” Madison said. “He never would have trusted you again.”
“I could have changed his mind,” Nicole laughed. “I can be very persuasive when I want to be.”
“This is pointless,” Liam said. “Nicole, let’s go.”
“I’m not leaving with you,” she snapped.
“Well, I’m leaving,” he replied. He turned and headed for the door as people scrambled to get out of his way. When he reached the exit, he turned back to Nicole. “I’ll just go back to the house and pack my things. By the time you get home, I should be long gone. If you want to discuss anything with me, you can contact me through my advocate.”
Nicole stared at him for a minute. “Don’t be silly,” she said eventually. “I don’t want you to go anywhere.”
“What, now that Phillip is gone you want to try to make our marriage work?” Liam asked. “I think it’s probably too late for that.”
“I’m prepared to try, if you’re willing to give up your other women.”
“You know there aren’t any other women. The flat in Douglas is for convenience, not so that I can cheat on you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Liam shrugged. “You know what? Divorce is sounding better and better.” He spun back around and walked out of the building. The room was completely silent as the door swung shut behind him.
“He doesn’t mean that,” Nicole said, her voice shaky. “He’s just angry because he knows how much Phillip meant to me.” Tears began to stream down her face as she spoke.
“No one here cares in the slightest whether Liam meant what he said or not,” Madison told her. “None of us care if he’s cheating on you or if you cry buckets. We all hate you.”
Nicole looked as if she’d been slapped. “You were like a sister to me,” she said after a moment.
“I don’t think you truly appreciate what you did to Phillip,” Madison replied. “You seem to think that he would have forgiven you and you don’t seem to understand how upset we all are.”
“I know I behaved badly,” Nicole said, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand.
“Phillip was getting ready to ask you to marry him,” Madison said as tears began to slide down her cheeks. “He loved you more than he loved me or our parents. You were his entire world. He wanted nothing more than to marry you and have children with you. He saved up for over a year to buy you the perfect ring. I went shopping with him to help him pick out something that I was certain you’d love. The next step was finding just the right time and place to propose.”
Nicole shook her head. “Phillip didn’t want to get married
. He told me that several times. He wasn’t ready yet.”
“He told you that so that the proposal would be a complete surprise. You know that trip you two were planning? The one to Paris? He was going to propose at the top of the Eiffel Tower. He hated heights, he was terrified of them, really, but he was determined to take you up there for a romantic proposal.”
“I don’t believe you,” Nicole snapped.
“I wish I were lying,” Madison replied. “When he found out that you were cheating, he was completely broken. I wish more than anything that he hadn’t really cared so much. He cancelled the trip to Paris and he gave me the ring, then he packed up all of his things and moved to a strange place where he didn’t know a soul, all so that he could avoid seeing anything that reminded him of you.”
“Liam was just a casual fling. It didn’t mean anything,” Nicole said.
“You married him less than a month after Phillip left,” Madison replied.
“I didn’t know what else to do. I felt as if my heart was broken, too, you know. I truly did love Phillip, and he’d left me. I know it was my fault, but he could have given me another chance. Most men would have given me another chance.”
“Phillip wasn’t most men. He was someone very special,” Madison replied sadly.
Nicole nodded. “I really did love him, you know,” she said softly.
“I still hate you,” Madison shot back. “You broke his heart and turned him into someone different. He became someone who wouldn’t visit his own mother, just because he was afraid he might be reminded of you. You ruined his life two years before he was murdered.”
Nicole wiped her tears away again and then inhaled slowly. She opened her mouth and then shut it again. Without saying a word, she turned and headed for the door. The vicar was still standing nearby. He pulled the door open and held it for Nicole. As it swung shut behind her, Bessie blew out a long breath.
“That was horrible,” Rebecca said. “I must see to Madison.” She crossed to her daughter, who was sobbing in Luke’s arms.
“She did very well, Madison, I mean,” Peter said. “She said a lot of the things I’ve been wanting to say to Nicole for two years, and she managed to stay reasonably calm while doing so. I’m proud of her.”
“Nicole shouldn’t have come,” Harry interjected.
“No, she should have known she wouldn’t be welcome,” Peter agreed.
“Liam shouldn’t have come, either,” Harry added.
“He just wanted to catch Nicole saying things she shouldn’t have been saying,” Peter replied.
“And he did just that,” Harry sighed. “Those two deserve each other, really.”
“They certainly don’t seem very happy together,” Bessie remarked.
“I wonder if Liam really is cheating on her,” Harry said.
“Probably,” Peter shrugged. “She’s probably cheating on him, too.”
“What did Phillip ever see in her?” Harry asked.
“She was lovely when they first met,” Madison said as she joined them. “I really liked her, and I was thrilled when Phillip said he was going to propose. She had us all fooled.”
“Is it possible that she asked someone else to contact Phillip on her behalf?” Bessie asked.
Several people exchanged glances. “Anything is possible,” Madison said eventually, “but Phillip was pretty careful not to give his contact information to very many people once he’d moved across.”
“And he didn’t mention Nicole at all the last time you spoke to him?” Bessie wondered.
Madison blinked back tears. “He rang when I was getting ready to go out. Luke was taking me out for a nice meal and I didn’t want to be late for our booking, so I barely said three words to Phillip. I’ll never forgive myself for not taking the time to talk to him properly.”
“You weren’t to know,” Bessie said, “and Phillip would have wanted you to go out and enjoy yourself. I’m sure he would have liked Luke.”
Madison nodded. “He said he’d only rung to say hello, that it wasn’t for anything important. I’m sure he would have said something if he’d heard from Nicole.”
“He didn’t mention her the last time I spoke to him,” Rebecca interjected. “He rang me just a few days ago, on Thursday. We talked about a dozen different things. He was working hard and looking forward to the holidays.” She stopped and took a deep breath.
Peter put his arm around her. “It’s okay,” he said softly.
“It isn’t, though. We argued. I wanted him to come home for Christmas, but he refused. I said things I shouldn’t have said, tried to make him feel guilty. I’d do anything to take back the things I said to him that day.”
“You made up before the end of the call,” Peter said.
Rebecca nodded. “I didn’t mean to argue with him. I hated arguing with him. I was so upset about Christmas, though. I couldn’t imagine celebrating with him so far away. Now I won’t celebrate at all.”
“Yes, you will,” Peter told her. “We won’t do much, but we’ll still do something to mark the day.”
Rebecca clearly wanted to argue, but she simply shook her head. Madison crossed to her and put an arm around her. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to do,” she told her mother.
“You said you hadn’t talked to Phillip since October?” John asked Oliver.
He shrugged. “I don’t remember when I spoke to him last, actually. I feel as if it was some time ago, but I could be remembering incorrectly. As I said, he used to ring me occasionally, but I rarely rang him.”
“Mr. Collins, did you ever speak to Phillip?” John asked Dylan.
Dylan stared at him for a minute and then shook his head. “When we worked together, sure, but after he left, I don’t think I spoke to him again. Maybe, once in a while, if he rang the office and I answered, I’d chat with him a bit, but usually I just transferred him to Oliver. We didn’t really get on, Phillip and me.”
“Why not?” Madison demanded.
Dylan looked shocked. “Why not? I mean, I don’t know. He was a good guy, but we just have very different personalities, I suppose. I was only working part-time before he left, so we didn’t see much of each other. Maybe we’d have been friends if we’d had a chance to get to know one another.”
The room fell silent and Bessie felt as if everyone was waiting for someone else to speak. After a minute, Luke cleared his throat. “You need some tea,” he said to Madison.
She hugged her mother and then followed Luke to the table with the refreshments. As Luke poured her a cup of tea, she nibbled listlessly on a biscuit. A moment later, Rebecca joined them. Peter followed as whispered conversations began all around the room.
“That was awful,” Doona said to Bessie.
“It was pretty horrible. I can’t believe that Nicole actually came here.”
“She doesn’t seem to realise how badly she hurt Phillip,” John said.
“Maybe because she’s too shallow to have actually cared about him herself,” Doona suggested.
“I’m surprised that Liam came,” Bessie said. “He had to know he wouldn’t be welcome, surely.”
“Obviously he doesn’t trust Nicole,” Doona replied.
“Doesn’t trust her in what way?” Bessie asked. “What could she have done at a memorial service? Did he think she was going to try to chat up one of the other mourners?”
“I suppose he just wanted to hear her declare her undying love for Phillip, which he did,” Doona said.
Bessie sighed. “I think I’ve had enough of all of this for today.”
“Yes, I think it’s time to head home,” Doona agreed.
John gave them each a hug. “I’m going to stay until the end,” he said. “I don’t expect any more fireworks, but I don’t want to risk missing out on any that might happen.”
Bessie found Rebecca in the small crowd. “I’m so very sorry about Phillip,” she said, hugging her tightly.
“Thank you,” Rebecca replied. “Thank y
ou for coming. It’s greatly appreciated.”
“I wish I could do more.”
“Help the police find the killer,” Rebecca told her. “That’s all I want now.”
“I’ll do everything I can,” Bessie promised. She and Doona headed for the door. John stopped her just before they left.
“I’d like to talk to you later about everything that happened here today,” he told her. “If I bring pizza, can we meet around six?”
“Of course. Doona and I will make something for pudding when we get back to my cottage.”
“I’ll invite Hugh, as well, but he may be too busy with the baby to come.”
“As much as I’d like him to be there, I do understand that the baby should come first,” Bessie said.
She and Doona drove back across the island. They discussed pudding as they went, agreeing in the end on American-style chocolate chip cookies. Bessie knew she had the necessary ingredients in her kitchen and she’d made them enough times to know that they were reasonably quick and easy. After the day she’d had, she didn’t feel up to making anything complicated.
Chapter 11
Doona helped mix up the cookie dough and she and Bessie took it in turns getting trays in and out of the oven. When they were finished, there was just time for a short walk on the beach before John was due to arrive.
“I love it down here,” Doona sighed. “I wish I could just buy one of the holiday cottages.”
“Maggie and Thomas might be willing to sell you the last one,” Bessie suggested.
“Any cottage but that one. Two people have been murdered in that cottage. I know someone was murdered in Hugh and Grace’s house and they’ve managed to turn it into a lovely home, but I think too many bad things have happened in that cottage.”
“I don’t believe in curses or anything like that, but I don’t think I’d want to stay in that cottage, myself. I’m not sure I’d want to live in Hugh and Grace’s house, either, but they were able to get much more home for their money than they would have otherwise. It was a wise choice for them, and I’m more than happy to visit them there.”
Aunt Bessie Understands Page 16
