He raised his eyebrows. Carol's smile grew ever wider.
"I didn't think we had a lot in common."
"Aside from the two most important women in both your lives?"
He had to concede that.
"Ade knew how good you were with Sapphire. He used to beat himself up for his own failings, made worse by how natural you made it look."
Tom was stunned. He always had Adrian down as akin to a deadbeat father, always letting his daughter down and appearing disinterested.
"You see, my brother tried. It might not look like it from a distance," she saw Tom's micro expression. "Or from up close, perhaps. But he did care. He so wanted to be a good dad… and a great husband. I just think he went about it all the wrong way. The story of his life from infant to adult, if you like. He grew up with a strong sense of justice instilled in him by our father, who was a human rights lawyer by trade. A good one too. I remember when I was eleven or twelve, Ade must have been eighteen, nineteen, something like that, and he was obsessed with the inequality in the world. He seemed to want to take it on, like it was some kind of divine cause only he was destined for. Had he been born a century or two earlier, I dare say he would have ended up a missionary somewhere in Africa. Ultimately, he put that mission ahead of his family. Ahead of Alice and Sapphire."
"How do you mean?"
"Ade wasn't one to back down. He threw himself at anything he thought was a just cause, no matter what it took. He was out to save the world one investigation at a time. That brought… trouble his way," she said glumly, bobbing her head in agreement with herself it seemed. "He's taken a few beatings over the years. It's an occupational hazard when you're an investigative journalist wading knee-deep in human garbage. But when he married Alice, and particularly when Sapphire came along, things changed for him."
"They do when you have kids—"
"No, that's not what I mean," she said, shaking her head. "Going about his work as Ade used to, both Alice and Sapphire became targets in their own right."
Tom exhaled. He was seeing Adrian in a different light, one he'd never imagined possible – caring and responsible. Secretly, he didn't like it having spent so long disliking the man. Carol continued.
"Alice never really understood how he sought to keep his professional world separate from his family. He had to, to keep them safe. He's such… was such a poor communicator, I don't blame Alice for getting sick of him. From experience, I can tell you he's a bugger to live with at times. In the end I wasn't surprised when they split. Only that it was Ade who walked out."
"Because of the arguing?" Tom asked. He hadn't heard any of this before. Alice and he had never really discussed their respective failed marriages. It was an unwritten rule they held to.
"No. He felt he had to in order to keep them safe. The more distant he was from them, the less likely anyone would seek to hurt them to get to him. That was his logic anyway. Although, I believe he came to regret it in the end. That's why he was doing what he was doing."
"Which was?" Tom asked, his head spinning at the amount of information currently shattering his perception of the man.
"One last case. One final scoop that would make the nationals… and then he was done with it."
"With the job?"
"With all of it," she said. "He wanted out. He'd had enough, but with one last hurrah he could land a desk job somewhere, perhaps editing. Who knows? But he wanted to make changes, try to undo the damage he'd done. Make amends and put things right."
Tom took a deep breath. "And Alice?"
Carol met his eye, her lips pursed. She seemed pained at having to say so. "He wanted Alice back. To be part of her’s and Sapphire's life again. To be a family like they should have been for the last eight years."
Tom felt his stomach turn, but he held firm.
"And what did Alice have to say about this?"
Carol shook her head. "That I don't know. But knowing Ade… he is persistent… and could be manipulative when it came to getting what he wanted. He was a good guy, my brother, and I loved him very much, but at the same time he could be a shit. Your presence wouldn't have stopped him from trying to get them back. Not for a second."
Tom found himself harbouring a weird sensation. On the one hand he was angry, fearful of what may have been going on without his knowledge, and, at the same time, feeling relieved that it had come to an end. Gage was no longer a threat to his relationship with Alice. A relationship? That thought risked spiralling out of control in his mind. He pushed it aside.
"If he wanted her back," Tom said, "and would go to great lengths to achieve it. I see no reason for Alice to have… to have killed him. Do you?"
"She shrugged. "No. I agree with you."
"So why are you here?"
She reached into her jacket pocket, producing a folded-up piece of paper. She handed it to him, indicating with her eyes for him to open it. It was folded into quarters. Opening it up, it was a handwritten note. He looked at Carol, asking a question with his eyes. She confirmed it with a nod.
"It's Ade's handwriting."
Tom looked at it. It simply said: If anything happens give this to Tom Janssen. Tom frowned, flipping the paper over and looking at the reverse. It was blank. The paper was A6 in size and appeared to have been torn from a pad where the sheets were glued at the top. A blue band ran the full width
