‘What you looking at?’ Ray asked.
Alice quickly locked the screen, her mind racing with one question. ‘Nothing really.’
‘Are you able to direct me to your mum’s house? You can punch the postcode into the satnav if that’s easier.’
The road before them was dark and narrow, with only the Range Rover’s headlights to keep them from drifting into a ditch. Surrounded by shadowy fields, there were no street lights in the vicinity.
Alice typed the postcode into the small screen on the dashboard, and was relieved when it confirmed they were less than ten minutes away.
Holding the phone tightly in her lap, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it sooner. In an age when everybody was taking selfies and updating social media with filtered pictures of themselves, she hadn’t realized that with the exception of the photo in the taxi, each of the pictures Dave had sent to Ben had been taken by someone missing from the images. While it was possible the group had taken it in turns to be photographer, in the large group shot, all ten men were in the image. That meant they’d either asked a stranger to take it, or there was another guest at the party she’d failed to account for.
‘Ben tells me the two of you are planning to start a family soon,’ Ray said warmly.
Alice’s head snapped around, her cheeks flushing. ‘Did he?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Ray said quickly, sensing her discomfort, ‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I think he’s just so excited by the idea of becoming a dad. He deserves to be happy – you both do – and you are going to be an amazing mother. The way you are with Ben, and how you looked after Isabella when Faye was … well, you know, it just shows how kind a person you are.’
Alice frowned. ‘How did you know about Faye?’
‘Ben phoned last night. You know what he’s like, we talk all the time. Don’t be offended, we don’t talk about things between you and him, he just likes to use me as a sounding board from time to time.’
Something stirred in Alice’s head. ‘So what else do the two of you talk about? Did he tell you what happened in Bournemouth? What really happened, I mean.’
The road ahead widened, and a street light appeared, casting Ray in an orange glow. He gave her a curious look. ‘I know about what happened with your stepbrother and Dave if that’s what you mean?’
‘No,’ she said firmly, ‘I mean what happened after that – when Ben was tied to the lamppost. Did he tell you who attacked Kerry Valentine?’
Ray’s focus returned to the road. ‘I know what you know: he was tied up when she was killed.’
Alice heard the uncertainty in his tone, and decided to press home her advantage. If Ben wouldn’t give her the truth, she was sure Ray would break with gentle pushing. Unlocking the phone again, she flicked back to the large group shot of the ten men.
‘Did Ben show you these?’ she asked, raising the phone above the satnav.
Ray glanced at the group shot. ‘Are these from that night? No, he didn’t show me, but he did mention some pictures he was going to show the police to prove he couldn’t have murdered Kerry.’
The images of Kerry dancing flashed across the screen as Alice flicked to the image of Ben at the lamppost. ‘I didn’t spot it at first, but in this first image, Ben’s sleeves are down and his shirt doesn’t have a breast pocket …’ she flicked to the final shot, ‘in this one his sleeves are rolled up and his shirt suddenly has a pocket.’
The car jerked as Ray’s hands slipped on the wheel, but he quickly regained control. ‘Are you sure? It’s probably just the way he’s sitting in the first shot that means you can’t see the pocket.’
‘No, I’ve checked and in the earlier images his shirt doesn’t have a pocket either. It’s the most incredible thing – despite him being tied to that post, he manages to change his shirt and roll up the sleeves. How do you explain that?’
There was a brief pause. ‘Have you asked Ben about this? Perhaps we should turn around and ask him directly.’
‘No, I don’t want him to lie to me again. I’m sick of everyone lying to me all the time. Please, Ray, don’t be like your son. Tell me the truth.’
Ray slowed and brought the car to a stop, removing a handkerchief from his trouser pocket and wiping his forehead.
The next street light was a good thirty yards away, so they were in virtual darkness, save for the glow from the phone’s screen.
‘Can I have a look at the pictures?’ Ray asked, his voice shaking.
Alice couldn’t ignore the pang of guilt as she handed the phone over to him; it wasn’t fair to force Ray to confront the possibility that his son wasn’t the man he believed. But it was too late to turn back now. ‘Can you see what I mean?’ she said, pointing at the pocket. ‘Here it is, but in this one,’ she swiped back, ‘there is no pocket. If you swipe back through the others,’ the images of Kerry flashed across the screen, ‘there’s no pocket there either. Ben changed his shirt in Bournemouth, and what I want to know is when, and why.’
Alice froze as something in one of the images caught her attention. It showed Kerry straddling Ben, his shirt unbuttoned, and Ben looking away as she liberally squirted cream onto his chest. To the far right of the image was a coat stand, cloaked in darkness, but with an unmistakeable jacket hanging from one of the hooks. She had to have seen the image a dozen times, and had never noticed the coat stand, but now she couldn’t pull her eyes from it. The white jacket embossed with military awards couldn’t belong to anyone but the man sweating next to her.
Alice’s hand shot up to her mouth in shock. ‘You were there. In Bournemouth. You saw Kerry dancing in the Merry Berry bar.’
Ray pocketed the phone, wiping his forehead again, and slowly rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. Alice immediately recognized the pattern inside the shirt, and fear flooded her body.
‘Serving in the military,’ he began, his voice now steadier, as if a weight had been lifted from his chest, ‘the one thing they drilled into us was never to leave a man behind. No matter the danger or risk to one’s own life, you never left a fallen comrade. I’ve tried to instil that ethos in Ben since the day he was born.’
He paused and looked over at her. There was no anger or fear in his eyes, nothing but a determination to prove that he hadn’t done anything wrong. ‘I don’t expect you to understand. Until you’ve put your life on the line for your country, you’ll never understand what it means to do what is necessary.’
Saliva pooled in Alice’s throat as she realized what Ray was about to say. ‘It was you. You killed Kerry Valentine.’
Ray’s eyes narrowed. ‘She had a phone, and I saw her discreetly take a picture of Ben while he was still tied up to the chair. I knew what she planned to do with the picture – she was going to use it to blackmail him. Just like Mary, she was going to use him for her own nefarious ends. I went after her and offered to pay her off, but she came at me with a knife, and … I never meant for her to get stabbed, but I was protecting myself, and I was protecting my son.’
Alice choked down the vomit and desperately tried to steady her breathing. Her vision started to blur as tears formed. ‘Ben swapped shirts with you.’
‘After it had happened, I came back to where he was tied up and explained the situation. I untied him and he came with me to where Kerry’s body was, and he said I should go and get Dave to help. I raced to the off-licence where the boys were, but Dave wasn’t around, so I collared Ben’s mate Abdul. I knew he was local to the area and would know where we could stash the body until we were sober enough to work out what to do. That was a bad decision on my part; if I’d known how spineless Abdul was I wouldn’t have taken him back. He nearly threw up on her – can you believe that? I told him to help us move her somewhere or he’d be joining her.
‘We carried her down to the cellar of the Merry Berry, and hurried back to the lamppost so none of the others would realize what had happened. Ben suggested we change shirts as some of her blood had splashed up on his when we’d moved her. With my jacket buttoned up, none of the others would see that I wasn’t wearing a shirt. We got back just before the others returned, and then we went back inside and kept drinking.
‘Abdul scarpered at dawn, before we’d had chance to settle him down. Ben was worried Abdul would go to the police and tell them what had happened, so I paid him a visit at work. For a man with such dark skin, he went so pale when he saw me. I told him we needed to dump the body, and forced him to take me back to the cellar. I took a picture of him with the body, and told him that if he admitted to anyone what he’d seen, I’d tell the police he was the one who’d killed her. I have no idea how his DNA wound up in the scratch on her cheek, but it didn’t surprise me.’
Alice could feel the door’s handle between her fingertips, and quickly yanked on it as Ray once again wiped his forehead. The handle moved but the door remained firm. Turning to study the door, she found it locked.
‘The truth is more difficult to hear than you’d anticipated, isn’t it?’ Ray said, looking over at her, unconcerned by her attempts to escape the car. ‘The question is – what are you going to do now that you know?’