Page 78 of Perfect Wives
Beth glances at the detective. She gives the faintest nod, and Beth taps the screen.
The pause is unbearable. I swear we all hold our breaths. My mind races ahead, expecting nothing. The phone switched off or unanswered. I don’t know what’s going on anymore, but it’s not going to be as simple as an answered phone.
And then it happens – the sharp trill of a ringtone slicing through the silence.
All eyes whip to Keira. She holds up her phone, showing us the blank screen. No incoming call. No ringing.
The noise is coming from somewhere else. Someone else.
A sick feeling curdles in my stomach. I rise to my feet on unsteady legs. Everything I thought I knew – everything I was trying to protect – is slipping away, faster than I can hold on to it.
I am calm. I am in control.
But I’m not. Because as that phone keeps ringing, I realise I’ve been wrong about everything.
FORTY-ONE
GEORGIE
In the next second, we’re all standing. DS Sató moves first, her expression tight and unreadable. In two strides, she plucks up the small leather rucksack from beside the sofa.
‘Not your phone,’ Beth snaps at Keira. ‘Yeah, right.’
‘That’s not my bag,’ Keira replies.
She’s right. It’s not. I know that bag. The worn black leather. The fraying straps from where it’s been overloaded too many times with jumpers and teddies and sun cream and water bottles and snacks and nappies.
‘It’s mine,’ Tasha says quietly, just as the realisation slams into me.
Tasha’s bag. Tasha’s phone. I can’t wrap my head around this. All those threats came from a phone in Tasha’s bag. She did this?
‘Tasha?’ I gasp, blink, stare at the woman I thought I knew as well as myself. A woman I thought was my friend. ‘What have you done?’
Sató’s voice slices through the stunned silence. She’s holding the bag out for Tasha to take. ‘Tasha, please open the bag and remove the phone.’
Tasha hesitates for a heartbeat too long. Her eyes are wide, but I can’t tell if it’s shock or resignation in her expression. She fumbles inside and pulls out the phone – the screen flashing with the incoming call from Beth’s number.
A visible shudder runs through Beth. ‘You killed Jonny,’ she says, her voice breaking. ‘You killed him, Tasha, because you wanted your stupid extension, and then you dragged us into this nightmare, faked this whole thing, to cover it up.’
My brain fights the truth, tries to shove it back, make it make sense. But it won’t. Tasha – sweet Tasha, who will do anything for anyone. A people pleaser. A woman completely overwhelmed by her life – playing us all. Pretending to be Keira. Faking the threats.
No.
And yet even as I struggle to believe it, I remember the day at Beth’s when Tasha slipped out of the room just before the messages we thought were from Keira landed. I remember her anger after the planning permission was denied. All that hate and desperation.
She said her father’s prescription sleeping pills were stolen from her bag that night, but now I think about it, Keira was sat opposite Tasha the entire time. She wouldn’t have had the chance to take them. And the yellow top she said wasn’t hers…she must’ve bought a replacement afterwards to trick us into thinking it really wasn’t.
I couldn’t work out how Keira got into Jonny’s place. How she got a key. The answer seems obvious. She didn’t. Tasha must’ve had one. I remember a message on the Magnolia Close WhatsApp group from Bill. He said he gave Jonny his spare key back because Jonny wanted someone else to have it. Jonny and Marc were good friends. Tasha had access to a key all along.
It feels like everything is falling into place and I’ve been too scared, too wired, too focused on trying to protect my family tosee the truth that now seems so obvious. And yet something nags in the back of my mind. Something about the messages.
Tasha is one of my best friends. My neighbour. We speak every day. Message constantly. No one knows me better than she does. I can’t believe she’s done this. My face is hot, but goosebumps are prickling my arms.
‘You killed Jonny,’ Beth whispers again. She’s as shaken as I am. ‘All this time, it was you? Why did you drag us into this?’ The final word comes in a shuddering sob, and I reach out and take Beth’s hand. We’ve both been betrayed.
Tasha’s lips tremble. ‘Please listen to me?—’
‘I almost killed a man because of you!’ Beth cries. ‘What if I’d gone through with it.’ Her voice cracks, and she covers her mouth with her hands.
