Page 76 of Perfect Wives
I perch on the edge, too tense to sit back. I rest my hand on the swell of my belly, my heart racing. This is it – the moment everything changes for all three of us. My two best friends. We’ve stuck together through this. Clung to each other even when the rest of our community has fractured. Our strength and loyalty has brought us to this moment.
‘Keira,’ Sató begins, still with that infuriating calm, ‘can you walk me through what happened today? Specifically, how you came to be in possession of Georgie, Beth and Tasha’s children?’
An amused smirk pulls at the corners of Keira’s lips. ‘Possession? That’s a bit dramatic. It was a playdate. We arranged it after school the other day.’
‘No, we didn’t,’ Georgie cuts in, earning a sharp look from Sató.
Keira lifts a brow. ‘I picked them up, as agreed after you messaged me, Georgie, and I brought them back here. They’ve been playing in the garden. As you saw.’
‘I didn’t message you,’ Georgie says.
Keira shrugs. ‘Someone did then, and they said they were you.’
‘She’s lying.’ Tasha’s voice is brittle. ‘Alistair came to collect them and you weren’t here.’
‘Maybe we were at the bottom of the garden. It’s a long one. Look, I get it – you’re all stressed – but there’s clearly been a misunderstanding. The children are fine. You’ve seen that. If you want to take them home, be my guest. There’s no crisis here.’
Sató leans forward. ‘This isn’t just about the children, Keira. This is a murder investigation. Do you know a man named Jonathan Wilson? Known as Jonny.’
Keira shoots us a look, and I think I see suspicion in her gaze. ‘I know he lived on Magnolia Close and that he was murdered. I read the news. But I’ve never met him, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘Can you tell me your whereabouts on the night of Tuesday the seventh of October between eightp.m. and elevenp.m.?’
Keira taps a finger to her top lip for a moment before replying. ‘The night of the PTA quiz? I was home. My mum was out visiting a friend. Rowan had chicken pox and was too itchy to sleep, so we stayed up watching cartoons.’
‘I’m sorry, but that means you don’t have an alibi,’ Tasha says under her breath.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Keira replies. ‘I didn’t even know the man. Why would I kill him?’
‘That’s not true,’ Tasha cries. ‘You do know him. We saw the photo of you and Jonny together.’
‘What photo?’ Keira looks confused as her gaze moves between the detectives.
Sató taps her phone and shows Keira a photo of the original we found in Jonny’s house. Lines appear on Keira’s brow. ‘I’ve never seen this photo before. It’s a fake.’
‘We’re having the image analysed now,’ Sató replies.
Tension ripples in the air. Suddenly, the decision to confess this morning, the hours stuck in that interview room, the drivehere and everything I’ve done before today has been leading to this.
Sató speaks with the same calm confidence she’s maintained throughout the investigation. ‘Earlier today, Beth, Georgie and Tasha confessed to the murder of Jonny Wilson. They did so with full knowledge of the method, the weapon and the motive.’
The words hang in the air, and suddenly it all seems too much, too hard, too impossible. Not one confession. But three. Each of us saying we killed Jonny. Acted alone. Hearing it out loud, it sounds like madness.
I watch Keira’s face, expecting anger or outrage. But all I see is surprise, like she can’t believe what we did any more than I can.
Sató doesn’t pause for long. She presses on, voice steady. ‘They now claim they only confessed because you blackmailed them. They’re claiming you took their children and told them they’d never see them again if they didn’t confess to a murder they claim you committed.’
Silence.
No one speaks.
Outside, the children laugh and shout. Inside, it feels like our lives hang in the balance. Panic descends – a storm coming, heavy and fast. Tasha with her tear-stained face and Georgie devoid of her mantras. All three of us wait.
Keira’s assessing gaze flicks between us. And then she does the one thing I don’t see coming. She throws her head back and laughs. A loud, sharp cackle that ricochets off the walls and seems to rattle inside my skull. It’s so sudden, so jarring, that I flinch.
When the laughter dies, Keira looks at each of us in turn again before quirking an eyebrow at Sató as she speaks.
‘I have no idea what any of you are talking about.’
