‘I can’t . . . hormones!’ I shrugged and walked into Megan’s house without looking back.
She yelled after me, something about embarrassing the Emsworth family, but I forced myself to carry on.
Once inside, I sunk against the door and keyed a quick message to Kate.
Put Frances back on your mailing list! C x
Chapter Twenty
Knowing James would be at work, I went home. If James had accepted bribes, there must be some record of the money somewhere and the office was a good place to start. I scoured his computer, the filing cabinets, and all of the desk drawers but there was nothing. I’d already checked our joint account and there were no suspicious payments of any sort and I was beginning to think we’d put two and two together and got five when I had an idea.
The walk-in wardrobe was a state, but an even worse sight was the bra (not mine) on the floor I’d had to step over to it in the first place. My clothes still hung there, untouched. It was odd seeing them in their home because the place no longer felt like my home. It was cold and uninviting, ostentatious and almost repulsive after staying in Megan’s modest, cosy house. The designer clothes I’d once cherished seemed pointless and shallow. It was ridiculous to think some of them cost thousands of pounds and I’d bought them whilst being convinced that spending weeks raising five hundred quid for charity was a good deed.
It became so clear to me that buying nice things was a way to feel a connection with something. If I paid a lot for a handbag or shoes, they felt special and that gave me the warm, fuzzy feeling that I was supposed to get from a human bond. That I’d come to experience with my baby, with Megan, Sam and Kate and with Andrew.
I knelt down to level myself with his secret in-closet drawer, the one that matched mine. It was unlocked so I slid it open. The last time I’d rummaged through there, looking for a novelty corkscrew for Megan, I’d noticed documents but at the time I’d been too distracted by the receipt I’d found for my bracelet to look at them. The Breitling box was in there, taunting me, so I pushed it aside and rummaged through the assortment of crap to the paperwork underneath. There was a brown paper folder, just like the one from the office. I slid it out and sat comfortably on the floor before opening it.
The first page was details of a new bank account but it wasn’t set up in James’s name. It was in mine. I gasped and read it again. It was an account in my name and the deposits made seemed to match the money that had left the offshore account. I swallowed hard and read it again. With trembling fingers, I tapped out a message to the WhatsApp group.
Cancel everything. Meet me now at Megan’s house. NOW.
I ignored the instant beeps of response and stuffed the phone into my back pocket, collected the papers, and left. When I arrived at Megan’s house, everyone was already sat around the dining table.
‘Don’t you lot have anything better to do during the day?’ I joked but my heart wasn’t in it.
‘What is it, Charlotte?
‘This.’ I threw the file on the table and Kate took it and started leafing through.
‘It’s details of a bank account in Charlotte’s name,’ Kate said, lifting her head from the papers. ‘James has put the bribery money in your name hasn’t he?’
I nodded. ‘It looks that way. The amounts and dates tie up.’
Megan gasped. ‘Wow. Just when you think a man can’t sink any lower?’
‘On the bright side, it’s a nice lump sum – you could use it for your house,’ Sam said.
‘Yes!’ Kate agreed. ‘One hundred grand would wallop a chunk off your mortgage.’
‘Not a chance. And besides, I won’t have a mortgage.’
‘Why not?’ Kate said.
‘Because I don’t have a job so no bank in their right mind would give me a mortgage. Fortunately, I have enough money to buy it without.’
‘I meant, why won’t you take the money?’
‘Er, I don’t know,’ I said sarcastically. ‘Perhaps because it was acquired illegally!’
‘Well nobody has found it yet.’
‘Kate, I don’t need the money and I certainly don’t want it.’
‘Well, it scuppers our plan!’ she replied. ‘It’s enough to tide James over until he finds a new job. We’ll basically be giving him a paid sabbatical.’
She was right of course – I hadn’t thought of it like that. ‘What about if we make him give the money away and resign?’
‘You mean blackmail him?’ Sam asked.
‘I suppose so. I have a list of charities as long as my arm the money could go to and if we threaten to go public with our findings unless he turns over the evidence and resigns – he’ll have no choice.’
Everyone sat deep in thought for a moment before Megan nodded. ‘I like it. It seems more . . . moral.’
Sam slowly nodded in agreement. ‘Yes.’
‘Sam, Samantha could be involved in this too,’ I said gently.
‘I know, she’s a lot of things but I don’t think she’s a criminal. We’ll see.’
‘It’s a bit snowflakey, and you’ll waive your right to anonymity,’ Kate said.
‘It doesn’t matter. What exactly do I have to hide from James? He’s the one in the wrong and I said all along I didn’t want revenge. I just want to teach him a lesson and what better lesson is there than “Don’t break the law?”’
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Okay – it’s your gig.’
***
A few days later, I came into the kitchen to a note on the table from Megan. It basically said that we were all going out for dinner because we had spent enough time moping around her house and that, quite frankly, she was starting to see
