Gabrielle tongued her lip, fighting the fury rising inside her. She stabbed her finger towards the door where SJ waited. ‘That child is motherless because of you,’ she hissed. ‘My best friend is dead, because of you and God knows how many other lives have been ruined because of you. No, Justin. I don’t want to talk. I don’t ever want to see you again, I hate you and no amount of wine or anything else is going to change that. Do you understand?’
‘Wow. That really was a no.’ Wheeler pushed away from the door and rearranged his rags. ‘Let me know if—’
‘I won’t be changing my mind. I should have said all that a long time ago. Now get out.’
He shrugged and pushed the door open. ‘Suit yourself.’ Snow danced on the breeze as he stepped onto the wide veranda.
Gabrielle hurried over, ready to make sure the wooden catch was in place. Nobody had locks. There was no need. Well, there hadn’t been. She snatched up the bottle of wine by the neck and shoved through the door. Wheeler was already half way up the slope.
SJ stayed Gabrielle’s arm before she could launch the bottle after him. ‘Let’s not do anything rash, Sis,’ she said, raising her eyebrows. ‘Have you got a bottle opener?’
Gabrielle shrugged, rubbed her shoulders and pulled the door shut. ‘I’m sure we can find a way.’
Gabrielle found a bottle opener hiding at the back of one of the cutlery baskets. SJ rinsed a pair of jam jars with water from an earthenware jug. They tiptoed back to the fireside and settled into the chairs.
SJ poured the wine. ‘You’re not going to lecture me on the dangers of drinking while pregnant, are you?’ she said, offering a glass to Gabrielle.
They clinked glasses. ‘Cheers.’
‘Not as long as you just stick to one glass.’ The flavours and warmth of the alcohol filled Gabrielle with a deep warm glow that she would have enjoyed more if she hadn’t known where the wine had come from. ‘My God. I’m glad you stopped me. It would have been a complete travesty to have broken that over Justin’s head,’ she said.
SJ nodded and took a roasted chestnut from a carved wood bowl.
Gabrielle stared into her glass. ‘I thought after the trial and divorce I would be free of him.’
‘You are,’ SJ said, splitting the skin of the nut with her teeth.
Gabrielle tossed the fire poker back into the corner a little more firmly than she’d intended. ‘Didn’t stop him finding me here though, did it?’
‘And you sent him packing. Again.’ SJ picked a slither of chestnut skin from her lip. ‘We can always move on. Find somewhere new if he keeps coming back.’
‘Oh no, I couldn’t do that. Not after everything you and Bo have done for Lauren and me. It wouldn’t be fair. You’re settled here.’ She picked a chestnut from the bowl and weighed it in her hand. ‘You didn’t have these sorts of problems until I turned up.’
‘I think Walt’s constant whining has begun to get inside your head. He didn’t actually say that, Sis.’
‘He didn’t have to.’
‘Look. Don’t waste your time thinking about Walt, Justin or his cronies. We used to have problems with wild boar munching their way through the crops.’ SJ patted Gabrielle’s knee. ‘We found a tasty solution for that problem.’
Gabrielle grimaced. ‘Justin sausages? I don’t think so.’
‘Jesus, Gabrielle, we’re not bloody cannibals. There are other ways of letting people know they’re not welcome.’
Gabrielle pressed her hands together. The flames danced behind the ornate grill of the burner. ‘Justin was meant to be in halo-confinement, in a numbered tube, not wandering around the countryside.’
‘Friends in low places.’ SJ laughed, tossing the nut skins into the fire. ‘Give it a few months and I expect he’ll worm his way back into London.’
‘Not with those things in his carotid arteries. They explode if he gets within five miles of any cardinal city. He asked me if I could get them out.’
‘There’s your solution. If he shows up again, you could offer to give it a shot. Oops, sorry Justin, my bad, they’ve exploded and blown your head off.’
‘Helix would love—’ A shiver ran down Gabrielle’s back as his name left her lips. She pulled the neck of her pullover over her chin.
‘Helix would love to see Justin’s head blown off or would love something else?’
Gabrielle smiled. ‘It’s getting late. Bo will be wondering where you are.’
‘He knows where I am. Are you OK?’
Gabrielle squeezed SJ’s hand. ‘Christ, I wish he was here, SJ.’
‘He could have written. Like I said, it’s not impossible to send or receive letters.’
‘I expect he had a lot going on after the case. Maybe I should have said more in my letter.’
‘It works both ways. No law against sending another letter. Tell him how you feel.’
7
Helix tossed his empty pizza box into the recycling bin he’d dragged in from the underground garage. ‘You need to get yourself a cleaner,’ he said.
‘I’m working on it,’ Ethan said, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth.
‘Right. Come on. I’ve been here for at least 45 minutes. What have we got?’
‘OK. We have the lift logs, access and egress lists, and the video feeds.’
‘Conclusions?’
‘Nothing.’ Ethan chewed another mouthful of pizza. ‘They’re all clean.’
‘Or they’ve been cleaned. Could they have been tampered with?’
Ethan stopped chewing, raised an eyebrow.
‘Sorry, Bruv.’
‘I’ll let you off. I’ll get Sofi to break them down.’
Helix scratched his head. ‘What have Ormandy’s team got so far?’
‘There’s no chatter about it at the moment. They’ll get there eventually. And anyway you’re on suspension.’
Helix clamped his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. ‘I’m not the only one.’
‘They might think they’ve locked me out,’ he replied, relighting his half-smoked joint. ‘But they don’t know about the other three sys admin accounts.’
‘So, there’s no useful video and no access logs,’ Helix said, pulling a stool from
