‘Fenton’s doing very well out of your father’s death, though, isn’t he? He gets a house and a cut of the business. He’ll make money from the houses down there because your father invested. Don’t you see how backward his thinking is? I know everybody’s emotions are running high, but don’t let your thinking get warped.’ He reached a hand out for her, but she just took two steps away from him.
‘Clive never trusted you, did you know that?’
‘What are you saying?’ Brian asked.
‘He told me he wanted to show me something. He knew something nobody else did. He overheard somebody talking about where my grandfather was hidden.’
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘You knew too, didn’t you?’
Brian took another step towards her, holding out a hand for her to take. She took another step away from him.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said, his eyes piercing into hers. The sun was above, bouncing off the sea in the distance. Music from the carnival floated up to them on the hillside. They couldn’t see it, but it could be heard.
‘Clive made a will. He was paranoid after my dad died. Clive said he was murdered, just like Grandfather. How he knew Grandfather was murdered, I don’t know. But he made a will, leaving everything to me if he should die. We all knew what property we were getting, but it was my father’s wish that we only got the keys to the properties at the memorial. Clive said there was method in his madness. He told me not to trust you. You and my brothers. Now I hate you all. I’m going to talk to the police.’
‘Oh, yeah?’ Brian said. ‘And tell them what then?’ He was starting to get pissed-off with her now.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’
‘I would, yes.’ He was sweating now and he took a cotton hanky out of a back pocket and wiped his forehead.
‘Look at you,’ Shona said, her lip curling in disgust.
‘Why did you marry me if I disgust you?’
‘You were a friend of my father’s. The boys would tease me about being left on the shelf. My first marriage didn’t work out. I was lonely. Foolish too, obviously. You were rich, though, or so I thought. Fuck knows I wasn’t attracted to you physically. Little did I know you were mortgaged up to the hilt. You’re all fucking piss and wind. But guess what? This charade is over. We’re getting a divorce. I don’t need you now.’
‘This is insane, Shona. I love you.’ He didn’t want to sound like he was pleading, but it started to come out like that.
‘Oh, fuck off. I don’t love you. Never have. I can’t believe it at times. All my friends said I could do better. Marry somebody younger, they said. I should have listened.’
‘You’re being irrational,’ Brian said, his breath coming in rasps.
‘Jesus, you sound like you’re going to pop your fucking clogs. I hope you do. Old bastard.’
She turned and started walking in the opposite direction from him, back towards their car, and then she felt, rather than heard, him gaining on her. Maybe it was the thumping of his feet on the hard, dry ground or his laboured breathing, but whatever it was, it made her turn round. And the big, steaming hulk of her husband was catching up. Probably because they were heading downhill now. It had to be. The bastard would die if they were going uphill.
She let out a yelp, just for a second, then she composed herself. It was thatmomenthere a woman who was about to be attacked could go in one of two directions: panic and die, or fight and run.
Shona was running. The fight might be avoided. Of course she felt the fear inside. She’d never seen her husband like this before, but the look on his face wasn’t an invitation to have tea.
She was on a direct path down to the building site. The houses would have views of the hill on one side and the new marina on the other, when it was completed.
This was a well-worn path she was on. She’d known it was here as she’d climbed here many times when growing up. Old Huff and Puff knew fuck all about this island, except where to spend money.
Her father’s money!
Bastard.
Although they had come up this way, sometimes when you went somewhere, it looked completely different in reverse. She hoped Brian would get confused and lost.
She kept on running. Aware that Brian could trip and fall and come barrelling down the hill on top of her, she risked a quick look over her shoulder.
He was lagging behind, and the coronary that had his name on it looked like it was coming to collect. His face was beetroot, his arms flailing about like he was about to go head over arse down the hill.
She rounded a corner and was out of his sight. A few minutes later, when she looked back, he was nowhere to be seen. Running wasn’t Brian’s thing. Hopefully, he had given up, realising if he followed her down here, he would have further to walk home. He’d probably turned and gone back, so he could make it down the other side and call for somebody to pick him up.
She took her phone out. There were no bars out this far. They were working on getting a new tower up, but not fast enough, obviously.
Shona came through a line of trees, and a few minutes later she was at the bottom, her boots crunching across a gravel car park, the grey stones spoiling what had once been a lush, green park. ‘Plenty of parks on the islands,’ Brian had said. ‘People need houses, somewhere to sleep. To entertain. To stay while they’re having a good time.’
She ran across the gravel towards their car. Not the flashy new one from back home, but the shitey old Volvo that Brian insisted on driving while
