Friend of the Family

‘I spoke to someone else,’ he said after another moment.

Amy frowned. His tone of voice had become more serious. ‘Who?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘An officer with Thames Valley Police. He says they’re looking further into the abandoned vehicle on the train tracks.’

Amy waved a finger at him. ‘You know, I was just having a nice night back then. Let’s not talk about this any more. I want to forget about it all. For now, anyway.’

But David wasn’t going to let it drop.

‘They think it’s strange that an old banger would be left like that on such a desolate stretch. They want to find out why.’

‘Why?’ said Amy, sitting straighter in her seat. ‘How can you rationalise anything that punks, joyriders or criminals do? They do it because they think it’s a laugh. They probably stole it, were drunk or high and just left it there for a laugh, without thinking of the consequences of what might happen.’

‘Apparently there’s a CCTV camera right by that crossing. The night of the party, it wasn’t working, but it had been fine the day before.’

‘So what are you saying? That it was vandalised the day of the party?’

David nodded. ‘Sounds a bit convenient to me.’

Amy sipped her own sake thoughtfully. ‘People have been calling me paranoid for weeks,’ she said, lowering her voice to barely a whisper. ‘Now you’re suggesting this was some sort of sabotage? This is serious stuff. If that train had derailed, dozens of people could have been killed.’

‘It’s not a stretch of the imagination that Josie might have known some lowlife who could arrange for a car to be put on the track,’ David persisted.

‘She wouldn’t do that,’ Amy said, thinking of the girl lying in the hospital bed.

David looked at her, confused. She didn’t entirely blame him.

‘I’m not saying she had thought through the consequences; simply that it’s possible. She wanted to bring you down so badly, she might have gone to any lengths to do it.’

‘I don’t want to discuss this any more,’ Amy said, looking down at the table and then back up. ‘It’s gone, over. I have my life back. I have you back. That’s all I care about now.’

He stretched his hand across the tiny table. ‘I don’t think you know how much I love you.’

Amy let her shoulders relax.

‘Why didn’t we just get together in Oxford?’ he continued. ‘Just think, Tilly would be twenty-one herself now. We’d be empty-nesters. We could do this every night.’

‘Would we, though? Or would we be working till nine, ten every evening, reading proofs or closing a deal? Don’t you think we have enough money, enough status? You’ve said it before, David. We can’t keep chasing it, because we’ll never be happy.’

Her husband smiled affectionately at her. ‘One afternoon with Pog and already you’re ready to drop out of the rat race.’ He lifted her hand and kissed it. ‘Let’s go home.’

They’d barely been in the restaurant an hour, and although she was grateful that David had planned this delicious dinner, right then she wanted nothing more than to curl up in front of the TV with him in her cosiest pyjamas.

They paid the bill, and she tucked her arm though his as they walked towards the car. As she climbed into the passenger seat, her phone beeped to indicate an incoming message. She was tempted to leave it, but old habits died hard.

It was a text from Janice.

Juliet? Unbelievable: call ASAP!!!!

Amy sat in silence for a moment.

‘Is everything all right?’ said David, sliding into the seat beside her.

She wanted to put her phone back in her bag and just forget about it, but she had an unmistakable sense of foreboding. Her finger hovered over the screen, then she brought up Janice’s number.

‘Amy!’ The fashion director’s voice was excitable over a background of music and chatter.

‘Where are you?’ said Amy, simultaneously working out that she must be in Milan, at the shows.