Heartbreaker (32 page)

‘That’s not what you said on the phone. You said you wanted to discuss how to present certain things.’

‘Well, once we know what the right story is, we can discuss how to present it.’

‘Why should I tell you anything?’

‘You want to know what’s being written about you, don’t you?’

‘What is it you want to know?’ Nicci was cagey, suspicion written all over her.

‘I want to know what you know about Tom Watson’s death.’

‘What? I don’t know anything about Tom Watson’s death. Tom was just one of the guys in Johnny’s band.’

‘Come on, Nicci, we both know that isn’t true. You and he were lovers for years.’ Alex let the fact that she knew this sink in, then, as Nicci prepared to deny it, added: ‘And then, of course, there’s Rebecca.’

‘Johnny has been busy, hasn’t he,’ she spat. ‘Spilled his guts to you, did he? Told you all about how his wicked wife slept with his best friend? Is that the sob story he used to get you in the sack?’ she added nastily. ‘Either that or one of his bloody songs, I’ll bet.’

Alex kept her cool. ‘Johnny didn’t tell me. Gemma Carson did.’ Nicci was silenced by that one. ‘But Johnny has spoken of it since, after I let him know what I’d found out.’ Nicci said nothing. Alex waited a moment before continuing. ‘You know that Johnny went to see Tom the night he died. Did he tell you that he thought Jackie Price was there too?’

‘That’s nonsense,’ Nicci replied, a little too quickly.

‘Johnny doesn’t think so.’

‘Johnny was on another planet.’

‘Not then. And he’s sure Jackie Price was there.’

‘Did he see her?’

‘You know he didn’t.’

‘Did Tom tell him she was there?’

‘No.’

‘Well, then.’ Nicci sat back and folded her arms.

‘Johnny saw her car.’

‘He was mistaken.’

‘I don’t think so. You’re holding out on me, Nicci. I want to know what you know.’

Nicci examined her nails. ‘I don’t know anything about Jackie.’

‘Do you know why she disappeared after Tom’s death?’

‘I’ve told you, I don’t know anything about Jackie.’ Nicci pursed her lips and stared at Alex.

Alex stood up and walked over to her. She didn’t raise her voice when she said: ‘You’re a fucking liar.’ She put her hands through her hair, paced the room. ‘You betrayed Johnny with Tom, you walked out on him when he needed help, and you’ve let him believe for years that he was responsible for his friend’s death. Just what kind of a person are you?’

‘I told him he didn’t mean to kill Tom. I told him that.’

‘He didn’t kill Tom,’ said Alex, exasperated. ‘Everything you said and did was aimed at keeping Johnny quiet. He was consumed by guilt about Tom Watson’s death and you knew it. You didn’t give a damn about him.’

Nicci was on her feet now, too. ‘I couldn’t fucking cope with him. You didn’t see the state he was in.’

‘You haven’t any staying power, have you? You bailed on him whenever he needed you the most. Is that how come you’ve got through so many husbands since? Because you quit whenever you need a backbone for something?’

‘Don’t you dare to judge me. What about him? One bimbo after another … not just since we split up either. When the band was away they were all the same. He’d fuck a warm scarf if it had a sniff of perfume on it.’

‘You know more than you’re letting on. Tell me what it is.’

‘All I know is that Johnny was hell to live with. He was a drunk, he was a junkie. That’s no environment to bring kids up in.’

‘Especially when they’re not his.’

‘You fucking bitch. Get out. Get out!’

Alex sat back down in the chair. ‘Not until you tell me what you’re holding back.’

Nicci was furious. She grabbed Alex’s arms, tried to pull her out of the chair. Alex sat tight. Then, her mouth close to Nicci’s ear, she said: ‘I’ll tell Becky who her father really is.’ It was a cheap shot and she didn’t know if she would actually do it, but it was effective as a threat. Nicci stopped tugging at her, sat down suddenly on the sofa.

‘You wouldn’t.’

‘Try me. She has a right to know.’

‘She’d never forgive me for lying to her. She’d hate me.’

‘So tell me what you know.’

‘Is this all for Johnny? You’re doing all this for him? You’d hurt me and Becky for him?’ Alex kept her face straight. ‘He’s really got to you, hasn’t he?’ Nicci knew that Johnny could be a powerful addiction, knew also when she was beaten. ‘Okay.’ She dropped her gaze. ‘But I need a drink.’

‘What do you want and where is it?’

Nicci pointed to the sideboard. ‘Whisky. Glasses are in the cabinet.’ Alex poured for her from the decanter and got a glass of water from the kitchen for herself. She sat down and waited to hear what Nicci could tell her.

Chapter 89

1986

About a week after Tom and Andy died, Nicci took a phone call from Jackie Price. It was the first time she had picked the phone up for ages, and she suddenly understood the hang-up calls Johnny and the housekeeper had taken recently. Jackie only wanted to speak to Nicci. She didn’t want anyone else to know she had been in touch. Jackie wanted them to meet.

At first, Nicci didn’t want to see her. She had enough on her plate with Johnny, and she was upset at Andy’s death and heartbroken over Tom’s. She had still, despite everything, entertained hopes that she and Tom could make a life together. Johnny had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with her and even now, eaten up with guilt and grief, he hadn’t turned to her for comfort. She was desperate, didn’t know what to do: Johnny was hell bent on divorcing her and getting custody of the girls, and when he was as determined as that, he couldn’t usually be stopped. With the deaths of his friends, however, he had started to come apart. He still wanted divorce and custody, he just no longer looked capable of achieving it. He was drinking heavily and Nicci thought he was using something. She didn’t know much about drugs, had smoked the odd joint, but she had seen Johnny a couple of times lately when his eyes were glassy and unfocused and he simply wasn’t there.

Jackie sounded as desperate as Nicci felt; eventually she agreed to meet her the next day. Nicci made some excuse to Johnny and headed off in the morning. She could have told Johnny anything; he clearly didn’t care where she went or what she did. Nicci had the feeling that he was somehow disconnecting. She and Dan, mainly Dan, had managed to persuade him not to go to the police and tell them he’d been in Tom’s house the night he died, much less confess to killing Tom, but for all he had agreed, he had not believed he was blameless. Nicci was happy about that: if it gave her room to breathe, a chance to wrong-foot Johnny and keep her girls, she reckoned his guilt and misery were a small price to pay. Besides, she really did blame him for Tom’s death and she wanted to hurt him. Wanted to see him suffer as much as she was suffering. He’d lost his best friend, now he was going to lose his family, too, along with a substantial amount of money. She’d make sure of it.

Jackie Price had a flat in London and they were meeting there. It was Nicci’s first visit; unsurprisingly, she and Jackie had never been close. For all she continued to sleep with Johnny, she had hated the fact that Tom slept with Jackie as well as her.

Nicci was shocked at the state of Jackie when she saw her. She was normally immaculately groomed and fashionably dressed; today, she was red-eyed and scruffy looking. Her hair needed brushing, she wore no make-up, and she had on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that looked like they had been slept in.

Jackie pulled Nicci into the flat when she answered the door. ‘I know about you and Tom and Becky,’ she said, then burst into tears.

Nicci was shocked. ‘What is it you think you know, Jackie?’ she asked, keeping her voice even.

Jackie pulled herself together, wiped her nose on the bottom of her t-shirt. Nicci tried not to show disgust, determined to keep it together until she knew what she was dealing with.

‘I know,’ Jackie said, staring intently at Nicci. Jackie sat down on the edge of the settee. Nicci perched on the arm of a chair. ‘I know that you and Tom had an affair. I know that Rebecca is Tom’s daughter. I know that Johnny was with Tom the night he died.’

Nicci was alarmed, but took pains not to show it. ‘How do you know all this? Supposing any of it is true, of course.’

‘Of course it’s true. I was there. I heard Johnny and Tom arguing. They had a fight and Johnny left him unconscious on the floor. I heard what they said, though.’ A sob hiccuped out of her, but she didn’t start crying again.

Nicci’s head was reeling. Johnny was right, Jackie had been there. She tried to work out how to keep a lid on things, how to minimise damage. What she couldn’t understand was what Jackie might want out of this. ‘What were you doing there?’ she asked her. ‘Did Tom know you were in his house that night?’

Jackie shook her head. ‘He went out. I slipped in so I could surprise him when he got back. He came back in with Johnny, though, and they were arguing.’

‘Have you told anyone about this?’

Jackie shook her head again. ‘I haven’t seen anybody. I’ve hardly been out.’

That’s something at least
, thought Nicci. She narrowed her eyes. ‘How come Tom and Johnny didn’t see you?’

‘I was in the bedroom.’ She sniffed wetly, stifled a sob. ‘I had a surprise for Tom.’

Something in her tone made Nicci’s skin prickle. ‘What was your surprise?’

Jackie looked up with frightened eyes. Her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘I’m pregnant.’

Nicci lost it. ‘Fucking marvellous. You silly little tart. Were you trying to trap him, is that it?’ She paced the room.

Jackie cringed away from Nicci’s anger, then found some courage of her own. ‘It wasn’t planned, if that’s what you’re implying. I didn’t do it on purpose.’ She met Nicci’s gaze. ‘Did you, with Becky?’

‘No, of course not.’ Nicci sat down again suddenly. Looked perhaps for the first time at the frightened woman before her. Jackie would be … what? Twenty-four? Twenty-five? Something like that. She had lost the man she loved, the man whose child she was carrying, having found out first that he had cheated on her from day one. She sat next to Jackie on the settee, put an arm around her shoulders. ‘It’ll be all right,’ she said.

Jackie cuddled in to her. ‘How?’ She sounded bewildered, childlike.

‘I don’t know yet, but it will.’ Jackie clung to her while she sobbed, grief and misery pouring out of her. The dam burst for Nicci, too, and she joined in, both women crying together for Tom Watson.

When the tears stopped, Nicci encouraged Jackie to have a bath and put on some clean clothes. While she was busy, Nicci tidied up the flat. It didn’t take long, it wasn’t a very big place. Then they made a pot of tea and sat down to work out where to go from there.

‘I haven’t any money,’ Jackie told Nicci. ‘Not much, anyway. Tom paid for everything.’

‘When is the rent due on this place?’

‘Next week. I’ve got enough for another month. And the car’s mine, he bought it for me.’

‘Good. At least that’s something. But this place is no good.’ Nicci shook her head. ‘You can’t bring up a baby here. You need fresh air and space for that.’

‘I thought I might go back to my folks when the time gets a bit nearer. They won’t be happy about it, but they’ll look after me. I don’t want to go just yet. It feels like I’m abandoning Tom, you know?’ She gestured hopelessly. ‘I don’t even know how to feel about him. I love him and I miss him, but I hate him for lying to me.’ She laughed, a hollow, desolate sound. ‘I pictured him being delighted about the baby. I saw us in a house like yours and Johnny’s, somewhere in the country. Getting married, having a couple of kids together. I really thought this would be the start of something.’

Nicci nodded. She’d had her own share of dreams just lately. She started to wonder who Tom would have chosen had he lived, then pushed that thought firmly from her mind. There was nothing to be gained by going down that route. She and Jackie should stick together. Nicci would look after her … and in return Jackie would keep her mouth shut.

‘Once I’d got over the shock of finding out I was pregnant, I thought it would turn out to be such a good thing.’ The smile slid from Jackie’s face. ‘Then all this happened.’

Nicci comforted her, marvelled that she could sympathise with Jackie when she had herself loved Tom and lost him. She had lost Johnny too, though, and that left them both on their own. She had to keep Jackie quiet, whatever it took. And she had to keep Jackie and Johnny apart or else the whole, sorry affair would be dragged out in public, Rebecca would find out that the man she called ‘Daddy’ was no relation and the one she called ‘Uncle Tom’ was her father.

Chapter 90

‘So what happened next?’ Alex asked.

‘We took care of the immediate practicalities first. I gave her enough money to get by on for a while. I made her see it could only cause trouble for her if she told anyone she’d been at Tom’s house; I made her agree to keep her mouth shut. Then I set about working on her to persuade her to go to stay with her parents. I really believed she would be better off there with people to look after her, so it was an easy case to make.’

‘Did you ever consider taking her into your own home?’

Nicci snorted. ‘Are you kidding? Risk Johnny finding out that she had been there that night? He would have gone straight to the police and the whole thing would have been blown wide open. I just wanted to keep it quiet, keep
him
quiet.’ She looked down, remembering. ‘I wanted to get her out of the way before the funeral. Somehow, I needed to keep her away from that. It would have been a disaster if she’d said anything to anybody.’

‘It was you that kept Jackie Price away from the service?’ Alex could barely believe what she was hearing. ‘You didn’t let her go to her own lover’s funeral?’

Nicci sipped at her whisky. ‘I persuaded her that it would be dangerous for the baby if she got too emotional. With Tom gone, she wanted the kid more than ever. It had become some sort of consolation prize in the whole, sorry mess.’ Nicci took in Alex’s expression. ‘Don’t you dare to judge me. I had everyone’s best interests at heart.’