I wonder if I should play him on. Perhaps there is a good rhythm for strangulation. Some kind of za-za-za-zah-zaAH frenzy to a crescendo. Then Nicole, gone. And whatever is inside her.
But yes, inside her – wait! If Nicole is gone, where does that leave Luke? Maybe he is better off. Or I am better off. Maybe that closeness is no longer necessary. Maybe book four is redundant, or maybe there’s a better, mutual, sequel to book three. I don’t know what Adam’s motivation is for this act. It could be pro-me. Or it could just be anti-Nicole. I could smash in the window, like last time. Or I could just hide, and wait for a windfall. Again, like last time – a different time.
But suddenly I don’t have a choice. Because Adam sees me.
Maybe I moved. Maybe he was drawn to me. Maybe the violin music belatedly penetrated his psyche. Or maybe Nicole saw me and used her last breath to say he was being witnessed.
Either way, Adam freezes, eyes locked on me. I am a man who finds strangulation arousing, it seems, when combined with eye contact. I imagine Adam could tell, were he looking at my crotch, in these leggings. But his eyes remain, as ever, at head height.
He slackens his hold of Nicole, who at first sags, then begins to struggle away from him. Adam clamps a hand around her shoulder, restraining her. He pulls Nicole with him to the French window and opens it.
‘Who’s there?’ he asks.
And then I realise. Still, after all these years, after all these melodies, he doesn’t know me. I am a stranger. I could be anyone, under the mask, stood out here, in this garden. Seeing him strangle his wife. Perhaps he wouldn’t have stopped on my account, if he knew who I was.
‘It’s me,’ I say, pulling off the mask.
‘Dan!’ shouts Nicole. She breaks free from Adam and runs out into the garden, flinging her arms around my chest, crushing the violin. She thinks I killed her predecessor, yet she comes running to me.
‘Adam?’ I ask.
‘I couldn’t breathe, Dan! I couldn’t breathe!’ Nicole burbles into my shoulder.
‘More horseplay?’ I ask Adam.
Adam shakes his head. ‘No, not horseplay – just unforgiveable behaviour.’ He rushes out into the garden towards Nicole. ‘Nic, honey, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.’
Nicole shrinks even further into my arms, pivoting my body so that I am between her and Adam. I can feel her nails dig into my skin. ‘Don’t touch me!’ she sobs.
Adam continues advancing. ‘Nic, forgive me, I just got carried away. I love you.’ He kneels down on the grass before us. He smoothes his hand over her belly. She jerks away, but her nails withdraw from my skin. ‘I love us,’ he whispers, kissing her stomach. ‘It just made me angry, what you said,’ he explains, looking up at her, the sapphires on full dazzle. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
Nicole is sobbing less now.
I venture taking more of a role than just pillar for battered wives.
‘What did she say?’ I ask.
Adam breathed deeply. ‘She said … she said I didn’t love her. That if I did, I would help her find out who killed Helen. That otherwise, I as good as killed her myself, and all the other innocents the driver will run over.’
I nod. That’s enough to make anyone angry.
‘We were both saying things, it was a silly fight, a marital tiff that got out of hand. Didn’t it, darling?’
Nicole nods and sniffs, but she doesn’t let go of me.
I see Adam have an idea.
‘Look,’ he says, ‘why don’t we call a cab, you can go round to Dan’s, we’ll both calm down, and then I’ll come and pick you up a bit later. Okay?’
Nicole begins to move away from me then. I’ve ceased to be the saviour. I see her notice my naked torso, then the sabre.
Stuck between me and Adam, she looks up at me.
‘It’ll be just like the fair, except more fun,’ I say. I think I see her shudder. ‘And you can get to know me even better.’
How much better, she doesn’t yet know. But even if she suspects, she shouldn’t be able to resist the chance to watch me, find me out, on my own turf for the first time.
‘I can’t promise you lobster,’ I say. ‘But I have fish fingers.’
Nicole smiles. It doesn’t reach her eyes. ‘I can’t eat shellfish anyway.’ She takes a tentative step in my direction.
‘I can even give you a sneak preview of book four, if you like,’ I offer. ‘Sorry. Book three. I meant book three. Getting ahead of myself.’ I mustn’t forget they don’t know what I know. That they can’t be allowed to count the real book three.
Another step towards me. Again, a false smile. This is it. I have lured her in with her desire to know me, what I have done. She has a security blanket, I’m sure she thinks, in Adam turning up. But a lot can happen between now and then.
‘Go on, Nicole,’ presses Adam. ‘Please – for me. I’ll come and pick you up, around ten, when we’re both calm. Let me call a cab.’
Nicole nods slowly and travels the rest of the distance towards me. But her frown, that same old frown, the one that comes with thoughts attached, breaks through her smile.
Adam kisses and hugs Nicole again, before leaving the garden to summon a taxi. Nicole and I stay in the garden. We can see the house that Luke and I viewed, with her, but she doesn’t mention it. She is focused on the now.
‘Why are you here?’ she asks.
‘Fate,’ I say.
She snorts. ‘Why are you here really?’
I decide to be almost truthful. The seduction must start somewhere.
‘I wanted to serenade you,’ I say. ‘With the violin.’
‘And the mask?’
‘Adds excitement.’
‘And the naked torso?’
‘Ditto.’
She snorts again. But I see her look at the torso.
‘Anyway, I thought you weren’t interested in women,’ she says.
‘You also thought I killed Helen,’ I parry.
I expect her to say ‘think’. Or just deny it.
But she doesn’t. She just pulls her cardigan closer to her. And we sit outside and look at the moon, until the taxi arrives.