‘But now?’
‘I could keep my trap shut when it was just Jason on the hook. But you? You really don’t deserve it. When I saw those stories in the newspapers, I felt like scum. I’d rather go down myself than let you go down for me.’
‘Jason doesn’t deserve it either,’ Jenna said, still angry, but moved by Kayley’s open and sincere confession. ‘He has a life to live, and an amazing talent to give the world. You nearly deprived us of that.’
‘I know. Believe me, I can’t feel any worse than I do. If I could turn back the clock—’
‘I know, I know. Everyone has regrets, but these are serious ones.’
‘I had no idea you and he …’ She gave Jenna a quizzical look.
‘I found him in my attic. Can you believe that?’
‘I can’t believe you didn’t scream the place down, then call the police.’ Kayley smiled, weakly.
‘I almost did. I’m very glad I didn’t.’
‘So is there, like, you know, you and him …?’
Jenna bit her lip and nodded slowly.
‘Wow. That’s romantic. Like a story.’
‘It’s romantic, right up to the point where he gets arrested for a crime he didn’t commit.’
‘And that’s where I come in,’ said Kayley, drawing a deep breath. She stood and went to the door. ‘Shall we?’
Jenna could only wait in reception while Kayley was taken to an interview room. Time dragged, and stretched, and did everything it could to elongate itself. Jenna drank three cups of vending machine coffee, before realising that it wasn’t really helping.
Her idea of looking at the news sites on her mobile phone proved to be unwise – in the hurly-burly, she had forgotten that she, herself, was front page news. She was shocked to see a headline ROUGH DIAMOND with a picture of herself and Jason, in the front garden, at the time of his arrest.
She wondered how supportive Deano would be feeling now.
She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
A text came through and, seeing that it was from him, she didn’t ignore it, as she had been doing all the others.
She opened it.
‘U were shaggin him!’
Oh, dear. Outrage. She sighed, and deleted it unanswered.
A door opened somewhere in the hinterland behind the front desk. She pricked up her ears. Kayley?
She came to the front desk, winked at Jenna, then had to go through a number of forms with the sergeant before she could speak to her.
‘What’s happening?’ asked Jenna breathlessly.
‘I’ve been arrested and charged,’ she said, as cheerfully as if she’d been telling her about a holiday booking. ‘I should be devastated, but I feel really like a weight’s been lifted. I feel good.’
‘I knew that you would, babe.’ Jenna quoted the old song, smiling back at her. ‘So, what’s the score now, with Jason?’
‘They’ve got to look into it, of course. For all they know, I could be lying to save someone else’s skin. And they need to get hold of Harville and Mia.’
‘What have you been charged with?’
‘Perversion,’ she said grinning. ‘It sounds so bad, doesn’t it?’