This Secret We're Keeping Read Free Page A

of diagnostic questions.
    ‘What sort of car was he driving?’
    ‘An expensive one.’
    ‘Was he old? Like, too old to be driving?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Too young?’
    ‘No, no.’ She thought about it. ‘Middling.’
    ‘Any passengers?’
    Jess nodded. ‘Two.’
    ‘What about his registration?’
    ‘The stewards got it.’
    ‘Are you going to press charges?’
    ‘No,’ Jess said quickly, frowning. ‘It’s just bruising.’
    But the two of them had been friends for so long now that they both knew this agitated probing to barely be necessary. All Anna really needed to do was lean back in her chair and look Jess in the eye – so she did. ‘Okay. Why do I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me, Jess?’
    Jess swilled the Merlot gently around the bottom of herglass, admiring its viscosity, watching the wine legs appear. For so many years she had thought that ‘wine legs’ was just another term for pissed (it was Philippe who had eventually, discreetly, put her straight – possibly to prevent Jess from further embarrassment at his distinctly well-to-do wine-tasting evenings).
    Jess exhaled sharply and met Anna’s eye. ‘This has to stay between you and me.’
    Fortunately, Carafe wasn’t the sort of place where people paid too much attention to neighbouring tables – but Jess leaned in anyway, letting her blonde hair create a little screen over one side of her face, as if it would somehow help her to get the words out.
    ‘It was Matthew. Matthew Landley was driving the car.’
    ‘Oh my God.’ Anna put a hand across her mouth and they sat in silence for a moment, the sounds of the bar washing over them like water over someone drowning.
    After a couple of seconds, Anna seemed to remember how to breathe, though she was still gripping the edge of the table with one hand like she was afraid it might be about to take off. ‘But it was … it
was
an accident?’
    ‘Yes … sort of. I mean, it was my fault. I ran out … I was trying to stop him.’
    Anna stared at her. ‘What?’
    ‘I panicked.’
    Anna failed to blink. ‘About what?’
    Given that she was neither police officer, security guard nor stuntwoman, Jess could see that flagging down traffic by throwing herself in front of it was always going to be tough to justify. ‘He was driving away,’ she said lamely. ‘I wanted to stop him.’
    ‘Enough to kill yourself?’
    Jess swigged away the reality of the risk she’d taken withsome more wine. ‘It wasn’t like that. I didn’t even think it through. There was no time – I just … stepped out.’
    ‘How many people saw?’
    ‘Too many,’ Jess said, feeling a small twist of dread in her stomach. ‘And he was with a woman and a little girl. I mean, his wife. He was with his wife and daughter.’
    ‘Jesus fucking Christ.’
    Ordinarily, a man in his forties being married with a daughter could hardly be described as breaking news.
Well, tonight it is
, Jess thought darkly, taking another long swig from her glass.
    ‘And he definitely recognized you?’
    Jess tilted her head at Anna like,
Come on
.
    ‘Sorry,’ Anna said quickly, pausing to remove temptation by sloshing the remainder of the wine from the bottle into Jess’s glass with the sort of vigour that implied she would have quite liked to be necking it herself.
    ‘So what did he say, Jess? When he saw it was you, I mean.’
    ‘Not much. Hardly anything. There were people around … we were both in shock.’ She hesitated. ‘But – his wife kept calling him Will.’
    A flicker of confusion crossed Anna’s face before she caught on. ‘He changed his name,’ she breathed. ‘So that’s how he managed to disappear off the face of the planet.’
    ‘Makes sense,’ Jess mumbled through another mouthful of ripe cheese, deciding to keep to herself for the time being her immense relief on having seen first-hand that Matthew Landley wasn’t dead.
    Anna paused. Her thoughts seemed to be cascading so quickly that Jess