Lulu walked out of the GMP building. An Uber was waiting for them, a dark blue Volkswagen. ‘So that’s it?’ said Conrad. He was wrapped around her neck like a scarf. ‘Our work here is done? Back to London?’
‘Parker has landed in Malaga and been arrested,’ said Lulu. ‘Phil can handle the London end from here on in, so I’m pretty much surplus to requirements. I thought we might visit Bath. There’s a friend I haven’t seen for a long time. But first there’s something I have to do.’
‘Jane?’
‘Yes, Jane. I have to tell her what I’ve found out.’
‘How do you think she’ll handle it?’
Lulu shook her head slowly. ‘I’m really not sure.’
‘Nobody likes being lied to.’
‘That’s certainly true.’
The Uber dropped them close to the Wharf. Jane was sitting at the same outside table she had been at the first time that Lulu had met her there. She spotted Lulu and Conrad as they walked up the path, and waved. She was wearing a fluffy white cardigan over a canary yellow dress, and had clipped her hair back. There was an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne on the table in front of her. Lulu sat down opposite her. Conrad jumped down off Lulu’s shoulders and curled up under her chair.
‘Champagne?’ said Lulu.
‘Well, I figure I’ll either be celebrating or drowning my sorrows. Either way, champagne fits the bill.’ Jane pulled the bottle from the ice bucket and poured champagne into an empty glass.
Lulu sipped it and smiled. ‘Oh, yes, that’s lovely.’
‘I assume it’s bad news,’ said Jane as she put the bottle back into the ice bucket. ‘That’s why you wanted to see me in person.’
‘Well, it’s good news, bad news, really.’
Jane wrinkled her nose. ‘I knew he was too good to be true. Tell me the worst.’ She took a big gulp of champagne and then held the glass with both hands.
‘Okay, well, the bad news is that his name isn’t Jeremy Connolly. It’s Jeremy Collins.’
‘That’s close, I suppose. But it’s still a lie.’
‘Connolly is his mother’s maiden name. He was born in Beckenham, south London. His mother was Irish and he has a British passport and an Irish passport, both in the name of Jeremy Collins.’
‘And his parents are alive and well and living in Beckenham?’
‘No, what he told you about his family is accurate enough. His parents did die at an early age, and he and his siblings lived with their grandmother. And his siblings did move to Australia.’
‘But no wife?’
‘I’m afraid he did lie about that, too. He was married, about twenty years ago.’
‘Oh my goodness, and he killed her?’
Lulu laughed and held up a hand. ‘Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Jane. No, they divorced after a year. She remarried and is alive and well and living in Edinburgh.’
‘And he took most of her money in the divorce?’
‘No, quite the opposite, in fact. The thing is, Jane, Jeremy is rich. Very rich. Richer than anyone I know, probably, and I’ve met a lot of wealthy people in my time.’
‘Rich, how?’
‘Well, again, much of what Jeremy told you was the truth. He started in construction, he moved into property development, and he has investments in Ireland. But what he didn’t tell you is that his investments there include a castle in Galway, several large industrial estates, and prime buildings in Dublin, Galway and Belfast.’
‘Oh, my . . .’
‘That’s just a fraction of what he owns. He has a huge London property portfolio, and properties in Paris, Milan and Barcelona. Most of his money is tied up in high-tech companies in the US. He got into Facebook very early, and Google, Tesla, Netflix, all the household names. He’s what they call an angel investor and owns several incredibly successful venture capital companies.’
‘So he’s a multimillionaire?’
Lulu shook her head. ‘He’s much, much more than that, Jane. He’s a billionaire several times over.’
‘Well, why did he lie?’
Lulu took a drink of her champagne. ‘When he divorced, almost twenty years ago, he pretty much lost everything he owned at the time. He didn’t really contest the divorce, even though it was his wife who was unfaithful. I’m guessing that he’s worried about gold diggers.’
‘So he lied about his name? Who does that?’
‘Well, a billionaire using a dating app, probably. Remember what he said? He was with a pal of his when he saw your profile and wanted to connect with you. Now you know who, or what, he is, would you expect him to use his real name?’
‘I suppose not.’
‘And it is his mother’s maiden name, along with his real first name. So it’s not a huge lie. More just being careful about his identity.’
‘But now that we know each other, why hasn’t he come clean?’
‘You’ll have to ask him that. I’m assuming that at some point before the wedding he’ll tell you.’
‘He’s testing me, isn’t he? He wants to know if it’s him I want, or his money.’
‘Someone as rich as he is must be approached by women all the time. And he was badly burned when he was younger, and back then he had much less to lose.’
‘How do you know all this?’
‘His car was the clue. The Audi. It was leased through one of his subsidiary companies. Even as Jeremy Collins he has a very small internet presence, and he’s rarely photographed. But the company that owns the subsidiary is listed on the UK Stock Exchange and that company’s website has his photograph. It took some digging to get the details of his divorce settlement, but it’s all there in the public record.’
Jane sat back in her chair. ‘I’ve been such a fool,’ she said.
‘No, you’ve been careful. And he was lying to you. Small white lies, and with a good reason, but lying is lying. You picked up on it. And it explains his aura.’
Jane frowned. ‘His aura?’
Lulu kept smiling, but her mind began to race. She could hardly tell Jane that Conrad had spotted anomalies in Jeremy’s aura. ‘I’ve been studying auras recently, and Jeremy’s aura definitely suggested that he was being less than honest.’
‘You see auras?’
Lulu continued to smile, but her heart fell at the way she was lying to her friend. Jeremy had lied, and Lulu had caught him out. Now she herself was lying to Jane, and it didn’t feel good. But what was the alternative? To explain that Conrad spoke to her, that she shared her life with a talking cat? That wasn’t a conversation that would end well. ‘I’m a mere student. It takes a lot of practice, and squinting.’
‘What does my aura look like now?’ asked Jane.
Lulu pretended to squint at her over the top of her champagne glass. ‘It’s a jumble of colours, which I think shows that you’re confused.’
‘You can say that again. What am I going to do, Lulu?’
‘That’s your call, obviously.’
‘Have I ruined it, do you think?’
Lulu smiled. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘But it shows that I didn’t trust him. That’s no way to start a relationship, is it?’
‘To be fair, Jeremy started it by not being truthful with you.’
‘Yes, but like you said, he was doing it for the right reasons. Asking you to check up on him shows a lack of trust, and how can we go into a marriage on that basis? Lies and mistrust. It’s hardly a foundation for a successful relationship, is it?’
‘Well, you’re not married yet, are you? There’s plenty of time to clear the air and start afresh.’
‘You think I should still marry him?’
‘Do you love him?’
Jane nodded. ‘I do, yes.’
‘And do you want to marry him?’
‘I’ve always wanted to marry him, pretty much from the first time we met.’
‘Then that answers your question, doesn’t it!’
Jane sighed. ‘So what do I do? Pretend that I don’t know what I know?’
‘Can you do that?’
‘Maybe. I suppose so. But then I’m lying by omission, aren’t I? He’s lied to me about who he is, and I’m lying by not telling him that I know. He’s pretending to be something he’s not, and I’m letting him do it.’
‘Then confront him with it.’
Jane shook her head. ‘I can’t do that. I’d have to tell him that I’ve been spying on him. How’s he going to react to that?’
‘You were responding to red flags – there’s nothing wrong with that. If he’d been completely honest with you, you wouldn’t have raised it with me.’
‘He might not see it that way, Lulu. He doesn’t trust people, that’s why he hid his true identity. He needs to know that he’s loved because of who he is, not because of what he has.’
‘And you’ve shown that, Jane. He knows you fell for him without knowing how rich he is.’
‘But now I do know. So I’ve spoiled it.’
‘No, you haven’t. You just keep your peace. He’s asked you to marry him, you can say yes, knowing that he’s not going to murder you in your sleep. At some point he’ll tell you the truth. He has to, obviously. He’ll tell you who he is, then you’ll be straight.’
‘And what do I do, Lulu. Express surprise? Tell him I’d never have guessed?’
‘That would work, I suppose.’
‘Then I’d be lying, wouldn’t I?’ She gritted her teeth. ‘I hate this, I hate the fact that he lied to me and I’m going to have to lie to him.’
‘A lie told for the right reasons isn’t really a lie,’ said Lulu quietly.
‘Do you believe that?’
Lulu nodded. ‘I do, yes.’
Conrad meowed from under the table.
‘Conrad says he does, too.’
Jane smiled and picked up her glass. ‘Well if Conrad says so, then it must be true.’