The Therapist by B.A. Paris

Twenty-Three

Thomas arrives at precisely two o’clock. I was expecting him to ring on the intercom, so it’s a shock to find him at the front door.

‘I thought I’d check if the entry code had been changed. It hasn’t,’ he says, by way of explanation. He sounds disapproving.

‘I’ll speak to someone about it.’ I close the door on the cold wind that followed him in and lead him through to the sitting room. It feels rude not to offer him a coffee but I want to get rid of him as quickly as possible. Even though I managed to get through the night unscathed, I still don’t want to be here. The only thing I’m hesitating about is whether to go to Ginny’s, or to Debbie’s in Harlestone.

‘I don’t have very long, I’m afraid,’ he says, as if he’s read my mind and is putting me at ease.

‘Yes, of course.’ I wait until he’s sitting down, his phone on the table beside him. ‘How is Oliver’s sister?’

‘Health-wise, not so good. But it’s done wonders for her morale knowing that we might be able to make some progress in clearing Oliver’s name. She’s very grateful to you, Alice.’

I frown. ‘As I said on the phone yesterday, I don’t think I’m going to be telling you anything you don’t already know. I’d hate for you, or Oliver’s sister, to have false hope.’

‘Believe me, false hope is the last thing I want to give Helen.’

I tell him quickly about my visit to Lorna.

‘Did Helen – Oliver’s sister – know that Nina was having an affair?’ I ask.

‘Not until my police source told me about your neighbours’ testimony.’

‘Was she aware there were problems in the marriage?’

‘No, but she said that Oliver probably wouldn’t have told her if there had been.’

‘My neighbour was adamant that she saw Oliver go into the house,’ I say. ‘But what if he went in, then went out again? Maybe he heard Nina breaking things off with the man she was having an affair with, and decided to leave them to it. And then, while he was in the square, that person killed her.’

‘You don’t know how much I’d like that to be true. But if that was the case, wouldn’t Oliver have said as much to the police? He maintained that he didn’t go into the house at all, even when his lawyer suggested to him that it might have been the case.’

‘What do you think happened?’ I ask.

‘I believe Oliver, because he had no need to lie. But I also believe your next-door neighbour – Mrs Beaumont.’ He leans forward, fixing me with his eyes. ‘Think about it for a minute; she sees Oliver arrive, she sees him getting out of the car. At that moment, someone sneaks past the car and goes into the house. Oliver, about to head to the square, doesn’t see that person because he’s going in the other direction. Your neighbour, thinking that she’s seen Oliver go inside, has stopped watching because she’s anxious that he and Nina might start arguing again. It’s why she doesn’t see Oliver walk into the square. And as nobody else came forward to say that they saw him there – well, in the police’s eyes, without an alibi, he has to be lying.’

I nod slowly, realising that what Thomas said is not possibly what happened, but probably what happened. I like that he believes both Oliver and Lorna.

‘So, what we need to find out is who could have sneaked past Oliver into the house.’ I flush, realising I said ‘we’ and not ‘you’. ‘The person Nina might have been having an affair with.’

‘Exactly.’

‘What I don’t understand is why everyone was so quick to condemn Oliver, and why nobody wants to believe that someone else could have killed her. Do you think they’re protecting somebody?’

‘Yes,’ he says softly. ‘I do.’

‘Someone from here – from The Circle?’

‘Why else would they close ranks?’

‘It’s true that they don’t seem to like me asking questions about Nina,’ I say. ‘Tamsin especially. She was Nina’s best friend and she really didn’t like me going to see Lorna.’ I stop, realising I’ve said too much.

‘It’s understandable, if she was Nina’s best friend. Does Tamsin have red hair, by any chance?’

‘Yes, how do you know?’

‘Because Nina often spoke about her to Helen, but Helen couldn’t remember her name and I wasn’t sure which one of Nina’s friends she was.’ He consults his phone. ‘There was another friend who used to go to yoga with them.’

‘That would be Eve, my immediate neighbour.’

He nods. ‘Eve Jackman. Does she have a partner?’

‘Yes, her husband, Will.’

‘I’ve got here that they moved in about five months before Nina was murdered.’

‘That’s right.’

He looks up. ‘There’s another friend then, someone Nina had known for longer.’

‘That would be Maria. You know, married to Tim, except that he calls her Mary because she went to a convent school,’ I say dryly.

He gives a slight smile. ‘Ah yes, that Maria. Maria Conway and her husband Tim.’

‘Yes.’

He finishes tapping into his phone and slides it into his pocket. ‘Thank you,’ he says, getting to his feet. ‘And once again, please don’t do anything that you don’t feel comfortable with. The last thing I want is to put pressure on you, so I won’t be contacting you. If anything comes up and you feel able to tell me, you have my mobile.’

I don’t bother telling him that I’m not going to be around much longer. ‘Give my best wishes to Helen,’ I say.

‘I will, thank you.’

I close the door behind him and lean against it, aware that the thought of not seeing him again is bothering me more than it should. There’s something about him that I find reassuring. He’s solid, the sort of person you could rely on if things got tough, and I wonder if his relationship with Oliver’s sister is more than platonic. I go over what I told him, wanting to make sure that I hadn’t said anything to feel guilty about. I hadn’t repeated what Eve told me yesterday, about the falling out between Nina and Tamsin, because I’m not sure why she told me, and with Lorna’s warning stuck in my mind, I prefer to be cautious. I wish I knew if she actually whispered anything. It doesn’t matter, I realise, I’m leaving. But there are still a few personal ends that I want to tie up before I go.

I call Leo. He picks up straightaway.

‘Alice, thank you for phoning.’ His relief whooshes down the line and I remember that I’m meant to be letting him know if he can come home tomorrow. He’s going to be pleased when I tell him that he can – but maybe not so pleased when I tell him that I won’t be here.

‘Why did you jump when I mentioned Nina having an affair?’ I ask.

I can hear his mind adjusting itself away from what he thought I was phoning about, to why I’m actually phoning.

‘Because you insinuated that maybe he was responsible for Nina’s murder.’

‘So?’

‘It’s just that when I played tennis with Paul on Saturday, he told me that Nina used to see quite a few of the men from The Circle.’

I frown. ‘Do you mean in her role as a therapist? Because I don’t think she’d have been able to see them in that capacity, if they were friends or neighbours.’

‘No, not as a therapist. She helped them out with other stuff, Will with his lines, Connor with his whiskies, that sort of thing.’

‘That doesn’t mean she was having an affair with either of them.’

‘I never said she was.’

‘How did you come to have this conversation with Paul, anyway?’

‘I just happened to ask him what Nina and Oliver were like. He said that they were both really nice people, always helping others out. Oliver used to help the older residents with their gardens, do odd jobs for them.’ He pauses. ‘All I’m saying is that a lot of people here were close to Nina, men as well as women, which is why I don’t think you should be going around talking about her having an affair and then saying you think he might have murdered her, like you said to me.’

‘But if it was someone else who murdered her, don’t you think he deserves to be brought to justice?’

‘Well, yes, of course.’

‘Even if it turns out to be someone from The Circle?’

There’s a pause and I can almost see the two deep lines between his eyes that appear whenever he frowns. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’

‘Just that not everyone thinks Oliver is guilty.’

‘What do you mean?’

I’m pacing the floor now, wondering if I should tell him about Thomas, how he’s an investigator and not a reporter, and how he thinks that Oliver is innocent. But if I tell him that he’s a friend of Oliver’s sister, Leo will say he has a vested interest. Besides, if he asks how I met him, I’ll have to tell him he’s the man who gate-crashed our drinks evening, and Thomas’s credibility will be less than zero, private investigator or not. And, I remind myself, it’s no longer my business.

‘I’m finding it hard to reconcile this image of Oliver as a paragon of virtue but also a killer,’ I tell him, coming to a stop by the window. Maria and Tim, on the way into the square with their boys, are chatting to Geoff at the gate. I watch for a moment. Did Nina help Tim and Geoff in some capacity too, as well as Will and Connor?

‘Maybe. But I don’t understand why you’re getting involved.’ Leo interrupts my train of thought. ‘Unless it’s because of your sister. Because if that is the reason, you need to let it go. It isn’t healthy, Alice.’

I hang up before he can say anything more and remind me what my therapist told me – that I can’t live my sister’s life through the lives of other women called Nina.