Here We Lie (33 page)

Cameron tilts his head to one side. ‘Martin always said you were smarter than you come across on first meeting,’ he says, a thin smile curling across his lips. ‘“That
fragile, doe-eyed thing some straight men go mad for, don’t let it fool you,” Martin told me. “She might be a bit naïve about some things, but she’s cleverer than the
rest of us put together”.’

‘But Martin doesn’t know?’ I need to hear it again. The idea that my brother could be in any way involved in Cameron’s crimes is too appalling to face.

‘Martin has no idea.’ I look into the hard green of his eyes. He’s telling the truth. ‘Before you judge me, I’d like you to listen,’ Cameron goes on.
‘What I do hurts nobody. I buy drugs made to more or less the same specifications as the patented brands and I sell them on to people who can’t get a prescription or . . . or are maybe
just too embarrassed to ask their doctor for them. It’s a necessary service. It’s supply and demand. If
I
wasn’t providing the drugs, someone else would . . . someone who
might not be so scrupulous about their suppliers. With what I’m involved in, no one gets hurt.’

‘What about Dee Dee?’ I demand, a sob rising inside me as I picture her the day she died, all clumsy and affectionate. ‘She saw something, didn’t she . . . like I saw you
and Lish earlier? She found out what you were up to and you killed her to keep her quiet.’

‘No,’ Cameron says. ‘Absolutely not. I’m not in the business of murder, especially not innocent children.’

We stare at each other.

‘Seriously, Emily, that’s not what happened. It’s unthinkable. For a start, Lish may only be nineteen, but he would never have stood by while someone deliberately killed his
own sister. Also Dee Dee was barely in her teens. I think we could have found a way to keep her quiet even if she’d known what we were doing, which she absolutely didn’t.’

‘Lish had access to potassium cyanide over the summer. I
know
he did.’

Cameron frowns. ‘We let him have a tiny amount for some photography students and for a French dealer we’d arranged for him to meet in Calvi, but he got rid of all his drugs as soon
as Dee Dee was found dead.’

‘Don’t you think that’s a bit too much of a coincidence?’ I ask.

‘No,’ Cameron says firmly. ‘I’ve talked it all through with Lish. Firstly Dee Dee had no idea that Lish
had
the cyanide. Secondly, it was hidden in his bag in his
room – neither of which were ever out of his sight and neither of which were in any way disturbed during the night before Dee Dee died, and thirdly – as I already pointed out –
Lish had absolutely no motive for killing her.’

‘Maybe she saw him with the drugs? Suppose she saw you giving Lish the cyanide?’

‘We didn’t “give” it to him. I told him the stocks were in and he took what he needed while the rest of us were on deck eating the sea bream that Rose and I
cooked.’

‘But Dee Dee told me she had a secret that afternoon; it
must
have been to do with her seeing something.’

‘Except that, as I’ve just explained, Lish didn’t
take
the drugs until we were all on the boat that evening, so whatever her secret was, it couldn’t have been to
do with that.’

I shake my head. There’s no point arguing with him. Cameron is never going to admit the truth.

‘Come on, Emily, you know it doesn’t make sense. Think about it. Surely you can see that a lethal chemical mixed with a sachet of painkillers would be the last thing we’d use
to kill anyone. Why on earth would we draw attention to
any
pharmaceuticals? Plus, there was no way either Lish or I could have known Dee Dee would end up taking that ExAche. It was given to
you
, remember? And we had no more reason to kill you than we did Dee Dee.’

All this is true, and yet I am more certain than ever that Dee Dee saw something, recorded it on her phone and was killed as a result.

‘If you’re not in the “business of murder”, as you say, why did you tell me Dan was going to die?’ I ask, my voice trembling. ‘Why is he tied up on your
boat?’

‘I was trying to make you back away from all those bloody questions you were asking, you and Dan Thackeray.’ Cameron slicks back his hair with his fingers. ‘Clearly my threats
didn’t work so it was time to change tack.’

I press my lips together as Cameron sits forward, his face earnest. What is he going to threaten now?

‘Listen, Emily, I’m giving you a choice,’ he says softly. ‘A choice which I wouldn’t give you if you weren’t Martin’s sister. What I want you to do is
call off Dan Thackeray, which means persuading him to leave London and stop looking into what Lish is doing, what I am doing.’ He pauses. ‘And that means you will have to cut all ties
with him.’

Cut all ties.
I gulp.

‘Just to be clear:
you
I won’t touch for Martin’s sake, but Thackeray is on his last chance.’ Cameron looks at me, his eyes intense. ‘Do you
understand?’

A shiver shudders through me. I nod slowly. ‘You’ll kill Dan if I don’t get him to stop investigating you.’

‘That’s part of it, but what you also need to remember,’ Cameron continues, ‘is that if you and Dan
don’t
stop and the police become involved, then your
brother will inevitably end up in prison.’

My mouth falls open. ‘But you said he wasn’t part of the whole thing, you said—’

‘Martin is an accessory after the fact,’ Cameron says flatly. ‘He doesn’t know what I do, but I doubt a jury would believe that.’

‘I thought you loved him,’ I say.

‘I do.’ Cameron’s eyes burn into me. ‘Which is why my evidence won’t count for very much . . . that and the fact that no one is likely to believe anything I say.
I’ve been trading in fake pharma for twelve years and Martin has been living with me most of that time.’

He is right. And what’s more, I’m certain that Martin must, at some level, know what’s going on; that, after so much time, if he is truly ignorant, it’s because he has
chosen to turn a blind eye. Whatever. I don’t care. All that matters is this: I must stop Dan from going to the police or writing a story or even carrying on investigating Lish’s drug
deals. If I fail, Dan will die and Martin’s life will be destroyed.

‘You may think what I’m doing is a crime,’ Cameron goes on, his voice like steel, ‘but it’s a victimless one. I make sure what we supply won’t hurt anyone
– there’d be no sense in that anyway. We buy from suppliers who just water down what’s in the brand-name drugs, not even by a huge amount. It works like that,
has
to work
like that. If our product gets a bad reputation, no one will buy it.’

I don’t bother to argue. All I can think is that I am going to have to lie . . . to Martin, to Dan, to the world. To lie and lie and lie again. Despite what Cameron says, I’m certain
that Lish
must
have killed Dee Dee. And I will have to pretend he didn’t in order to protect the people I love.

I stand up. Cameron stands too. I take a deep breath. There is no choice. ‘I won’t say anything to anyone, and I’ll make Dan . . . back off.’

‘Good.’ Cameron takes something out of his pocket and holds it out to me. It’s my phone. ‘I’m going to let you go back to the cabin,’ he says. ‘Dan
hasn’t seen me, but he knows this is where Martin and I live. You need to persuade him that Lish was using our house, that he has let you go . . . is letting both of you go on the
understanding that your investigations end right now. Keep your phone on and in your pocket. I will be listening in, so don’t think about giving my name or trying to trick me in any way.
Remember what will happen to Dan if you put a foot wrong. After you’ve told the lie once, it’ll be easier to keep it going.’

I nod, my throat dry. I can see on the screen of my phone there are loads more missed calls, mostly from Jed. It feels like a million years ago since I spoke to him in the taxi yesterday.
Cameron places a call to my phone. Once the line is open, he slips the handset into my pocket.

‘Go,’ he says.

Bogdan marches me down to the
Maggie May
. Suddenly I’m alone and inside the cabin, a small, sharp knife and the key to Dan’s padlock in my hand. I hurry through to the
bedroom. Dan is still tied up, his eyes wild with fear and fury over the gag around his mouth. I pull it down.

‘Emily, are you okay? What’s happening? Did they hurt you?’ The words tumble out of him.

I hold up the key Cameron gave me. My phone weighs heavily in my pocket. Cameron is listening. Even if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t want Dan to know about his involvement. It’s too
risky. For Dan and for Martin.

‘Hurry, Em,’ Dan urges. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine,’ I say, turning to the wall and fumbling with the padlock. ‘Listen, Dan, it’s Lish . . . he’s involved with these people, he’s just using
Martin’s house.’

I can feel my cheeks reddening. Thank goodness Dan can’t see my face, I’m sure my deceit is written all over it.

‘Who are the people he’s with?’ Dan asks. ‘I only saw that Eastern European guy. Did you see someone else? Someone higher up?’

I shake my head.

‘Did you see anyone? Someone you’d be able to recognize again?’

‘No,’ I say, opening the padlock and sliding the chain through. ‘No. And I’ve promised Lish that I . . . that we . . . that we’ll let the whole thing drop
now.’

‘What?’ Dan shuffles around on the bed to face me. ‘Are you serious?’

I can’t look at him. Instead I focus on the binding around his wrist, slicing through it with my knife, then kneeling to free his ankles.

‘I’m sorry, it’s the safest thing to do.’

‘Right.’ I can hear the confusion in Dan’s voice. ‘What . . .
why
, Em? We have real proof now.’

‘No we don’t,’ I say. ‘We still have nothing concrete and we’re in Martin’s house, on his boat. If we go to the police Martin will be dragged into
everything.’ I hesitate. ‘There’s something else, Dan.’

‘What?’ He rubs his wrists then holds me as he stands up. I hug him tightly, feeling the strength and warmth of his body against mine. My phone presses against my side, reminding me
again that Cameron is listening. ‘Lish’s condition for sparing your life . . .
our
lives . . . is that you have to leave London. Right now. We . . . we have to cut all
ties.’

‘No.’ Dan pulls me closer. ‘No, I’m not leaving you.’

I look up, into his eyes. Dan’s gaze in the dim light is fierce. Any hopes I might have held that he would go along with me without a fuss fade away. I’m going to have to force the
issue. ‘It’s what I want,’ I say, meeting his gaze. ‘Even if Lish wasn’t threatening us, I . . . I need some time, some space. Away from you.’

Dan looks at me. I can see he knows I’m holding something back. I reach into my pocket and silently hold up the phone so Dan can see it is on. His eyes widen with understanding as I put my
finger to my lips.

‘Okay,’ Dan says. He takes my hand and we hurry silently through the main cabin, off the
Maggie May
and across the grass. The sliding doors to the kitchen/diner are open,
though the room is still in darkness. I lead Dan through, out into the hall. The front door is locked. Fear rises inside me. I can’t see a key.

Bogdan appears behind us. I shrink away. He glances at the phone in my pocket. Cameron is still listening. Of course he is. And Dan hasn’t given me his word yet that he will back off.

‘You have to promise, Dan,’ I stammer, my throat swollen with emotion. ‘They don’t want to kill us but they will if you don’t leave London.’

‘Leave tonight,’ Bogdan growls.

Dan looks from me to Bogdan, then back again. ‘I will leave tonight,’ he says. ‘To keep you safe, Em.’

Bogdan points to my phone and nods. Then he steps forward and unlocks the door. Dan and I hurry out onto the pavement. As we walk along the road, I switch off the phone call so Cameron can no
longer hear us. Dan puts his arm around me.

‘What the hell is going on, Em?’

I open my mouth to explain everything, then shut it again. There’s no point me telling him about Cameron. It won’t change the need for silence and it brings Martin closer to
danger.

‘I’m just scared for you and for my brother.’ I pause. ‘And for myself.’

‘I get that, but it’s wrong that Lish gets away with dealing, it’s wrong that fake drugs exist. Watering down pharmaceuticals is dangerous, they don’t work properly, they
can be harmful . . . lethal. And it’s wrong that we have to stay apart because of it.’

‘I know, but that’s how it has to be.
Please.
’

Another pause. ‘Okay.’ Dan clears his throat. ‘But I don’t want to leave you. I want to be sure you’re safe.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Where will you go? To Rose’s?’

‘For a while, yes.’ I reach my arm around his back. ‘I don’t want you to go either. But we have to . . . for now at least.’

Dan nods slowly. We make our way back to his car where the alarm is still blaring. As Dan finds his key and switches it off, I gaze up at the stars. In keeping silent, I’m covering up
crimes including – I’m sure – that Cameron is responsible for murdering Dee Dee. I’ve lied to Dan, I must now lie to Martin. I must keep this terrible secret forever.

Dan drops me at Rose’s house at about 10 p.m. I have already called and checked it’s okay for me to stay. I haven’t told her anything else, rebuffing all her
questions over the phone. But I know that now I’m here I will have to deal with her curiosity – and confusion. And yet all my thoughts revolve around Dan and Martin – and keeping
them both safe. Dan said very little on the drive here. We parted with a long, sad kiss. I promised him that I would call him soon. Cameron might be able to monitor Dan’s investigations and
check where he’s living, but he can’t control our conversations. For his part, Dan intends to stay with his daughter and her mothers for a while. ‘Until I get my head around all
this,’ he says.

I’m certain he still senses that I haven’t told him everything. And that he is holding back from pushing me. The knowledge makes me feel worse than ever. I let myself into
Rose’s house to find my sister on the living-room couch – at Dad’s end, as usual – with a bottle of wine and two full glasses of Pinot Noir on the coffee table. She’s
dressed in silk pyjamas and a red satin dressing gown. Her hair is tousled, but her eyes are bright with curiosity.