Alice’s eyes remained firmly fixed to the image on the screen.
‘I didn’t want to be the one to break your heart, but you see it now, don’t you?’ Andrew sighed.
It was impossible, wasn’t it? Since he’d been released on bail on Sunday morning, Ben had sworn blindly that he’d spent at least an hour tied to that lamppost while Kerry Valentine was being murdered; a story echoed by Dave and the others, even under police interrogation. How many in the group knew that Ben hadn’t been tied to that lamppost? In fact, had the whole thing been staged for her and the police’s benefit?
If he wasn’t tied up where they’d said, where had he been and why had it resulted in the need to change his shirt?
‘I can stay with you,’ Andrew offered. ‘If you want, that is.’
Before she could even consider the offer, the front door burst open and Ben strode in. ‘The police are on their way. I explained that this creep was trespassing on our property and is the same man responsible for the criminal damage to our security cameras.’
Andrew ignored the jibe and focused his attention on Alice. ‘I don’t have to go.’
Ben clearly didn’t like the implication and shoved Andrew up and out of the chair. ‘I feel sick just breathing the same air as scum like you,’ he said, dragging Andrew away from the table.
‘Alice? Alice?’ Andrew called out.
‘Don’t hurt him,’ Alice called out, as Ben pushed Andrew towards the front door.
Suddenly alone in the kitchen, Alice was finally able to suck in a deep breath. None of the conclusions her mind was racing to made any sense, yet for the first time it felt like her eyes were truly open.
Still, she tried to find an innocent explanation. The two images she’d taken from Dave’s phone – the before and after shots – didn’t prove that Ben had been involved in what had happened to Kerry. Wasn’t it possible that the angle of the image could have made it appear like Ben’s shirt hadn’t had the pocket, when actually it had been there all along? Was she now seeing things because it fit a predetermined outcome?
There was only one way to know for certain. Moving to the counter, she typed the PIN into Ben’s phone and unlocked the screen. She wouldn’t have long – the moment he opened the front door, he’d see her with his phone.
Opening the images app, she scrolled through to the folder of received images, and looked for what Dave had sent over to him on Sunday, the ‘evidence’ they planned to share with the police.
Working backwards, she found the two images she’d been looking at on her own phone, and zoomed in on both shirts. The second shirt definitely had a breast pocket, but the angle of Ben’s arm in the first made it difficult to tell. So she continued to scroll backwards, through the images of a naked Ben tied to the chair, covered in cream. Kerry gyrated around him, yet Alice felt no animosity towards her; she’d been doing her job.
Finally she came to the group shots, but in most Ben was either turned to the side, or had somebody standing in front of him. All the group had been wearing white shirts and dark trousers, looking like gangsters from the twenties.
Then she found it: a selfie snapped by Dave of him and Ben, presumably just before they reached Bournemouth, taken in the back of the taxi. Dave’s shirt had a breast pocket, Ben’s didn’t. She shuddered as the evidence stared back at her. Yet despite what she could see, something continued to niggle somewhere at the back of her mind, something she still couldn’t quite glimpse. Forwarding the images to her own phone, she froze as she heard keys jangling in the front door. Locking the phone, Alice darted back to the table, desperately hoping Ben hadn’t seen what she was doing. He walked into the kitchen and leaned in to kiss her cheek. Her skin crawled as he did.
‘Are there any more crazy stalkers at your school I should know about?’ he asked, searching the fridge for a snack.
She didn’t respond, still disappointed that even Andrew had been keeping things from her.
He closed the fridge door, having failed to find anything to eat. ‘Are you okay? You look pale as a sheet.’
‘Mum phoned,’ she quickly lied. ‘She’s had a fall – not a major one – but I said I’d go round there.’
‘Oh no, not again, is she okay?’
‘She’ll be fine, she’s just a bit shaken up I think. I guess with everything that’s going on with Scott, and her rattling about the place alone … I shouldn’t be too long.’
‘You’re going now? My parents are due any minute. Dad phoned and said Mum’s feeling guilty about keeping the divorce from you. I think she wants to explain why she agreed not to say anything, and to tell you what Mary was really like. Mum was never keen on her, and neither was Dad. They could see her for what she was, and I blindly ignored them to my detriment.’
The last thing Alice wanted was to hear whatever excuses Ben had enticed his parents to come and share. ‘I’m sorry, but Mum needs me.’
‘How about I drive you over there, and we bring her back to stay with us? We’ve got the room, and it would give our mums the chance to get to know each other better.’
‘No,’ Alice practically shouted, before softening her tone. ‘There’s really no need. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but it doesn’t need two of us to go across there. Besides, if I go on my own, I can use you as an excuse to get away and back here. I’ll be fine.’
He gave her a cursory glance before nodding. ‘Okay, well if you’re sure.’
She forced a thin smile. ‘I’ll try not to be too long.’
Grabbing her keys from the dish on the side, Alice headed for the front door, jumping as her eyes fell on a figure in the doorway.
‘That’s good timing,’ Ray said, smiling, his jacket draped over his arm.
Hermione’s face poked out from behind her husband. ‘You two off out?’
‘Alice’s mum’s had a fall,’ Ben explained, pulling the door wider, allowing them to enter. ‘She just needs to go and visit her.’
Hermione’s face crumpled in concern. ‘Oh I’m so sorry to hear that. Will you send her our best?’
A wave of nausea swept through Alice as her own lie wreaked havoc with her moral compass.
‘Oh, I think I’ve blocked you in,’ Ray said, turning and pointing at the Range Rover he’d abandoned in front of their cars. ‘Why don’t I drive you to your mum’s? It’ll give us a chance to talk.’
‘That’s kind of you,’ Alice said, ‘but I could be a while.’
‘I won’t take no for an answer,’ Ray said warmly, heading towards the vehicle, fishing in his pocket for the keys.
‘Hey wait,’ Ben said, reaching for her arm. ‘Don’t I even get a kiss goodbye?’
As Ben pulled her into him, his lips felt so foreign on hers.
‘I’ll see you later,’ she said, breaking free of the embrace.
The air felt cooler as she stepped outside into the darkness. Three figures still huddled near the gate with Andrew while they waited for the police to arrive.
‘You really don’t need to drive me,’ Alice tried again as Ray reached the passenger door and opened it for her. ‘If you just pull back, I should be able to get my car out.’
Ray didn’t respond, nodding instead to the open door.
Alice reluctantly climbed in, deciding that she could phone DC Hazelton from her mum’s house, and send her the images of the changed shirt. Confronting Ben about it would only lead to more lies, of that she had no doubt.
‘He’s a good lad, our Ben,’ Ray said, starting the engine and pulling to the end of the drive. ‘He’s made mistakes, it’s true, but you shouldn’t ever doubt how he feels about you. I see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice whenever he speaks about you. I’ve known him all his life, and he’s never been as smitten with anyone as much as he is with you. I know I’m biased, but you really could have done a lot worse than Ben.’
The gate slid open, and Alice avoided looking at Andrew’s nervous eyes as they moved through it.
‘This mess with the police,’ Ray continued, ‘really wasn’t his fault. He had no idea that Dave and Scott had arranged for that girl to come and dance for them. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in case you have any lingering doubts, I know that my son isn’t capable of killing anyone. He doesn’t have that kind of hate in his veins.’
Staying silent, Alice removed her phone from her handbag and flicked to the photos she’d sent from Ben’s phone. How had she not noticed the changed shirt sooner? How had the police missed it too? Unless Dave and Ben hadn’t actually provided the police with those images after all. Had Hazelton mentioned seeing them? Alice couldn’t recall. Hazelton had said they hadn’t found any of Kerry’s DNA on the shirt they’d taken from Ben, but he owned several white shirts and could have just as easily given them a different one he knew wouldn’t contain Kerry’s DNA.
Looking back to the initial group shot of the ten men, she tried to piece together the fragments of the timeline she’d been given. Scott had left early to meet the dealer, and had then phoned Dave when things went wrong. By that stage, Ben would have already been tied to the lamppost. Flicking to the picture of Ben at the lamppost, the group were fewer. There was no longer any sign of Gary, Duke, or Michael, but Abdul, James and Pete remained, along with Johnny, Dave and Ben.
Alice shuddered as she saw Johnny’s face. What was she missing? She’d become so convinced that Johnny had to be responsible for killing Kerry because he’d been violent towards Faye, but his shirt in all the images remained consistent. Unlike the others, Johnny’s white shirt had a black collar, making him stand out from the crowd. Did that mean he couldn’t have killed Kerry? Surely there would have been blood spatter on his shirt. If not Johnny, then who did that leave? The police had arrested Abdul; but if he was guilty, had he acted alone, or had the group bound together to help their friend cover up the crime?
Alice skipped back through the images and then forwards again, holding the phone out, allowing her eyes to glaze over, looking for any minute detail she’d missed. Blinking, her brain suddenly shifted into focus, and she realized what had been niggling at the back of her mind.