‘You stayed because of Jonathon?’
She nodded. ‘I met Melissa on the night I arrived and she invited me to a party on board Pandora. Then Jonathon invited me out for dinner. That was it.’
‘But you didn’t move to Monaco full-time?’
‘No. Jonathon liked his space. I knew from the start that he wasn’t going to ask me to move onto the Pandora. It was his workplace.’
As Josie talked, Lara quickly realised that, despite being his girlfriend, Josie hadn’t spent much time with Jonathon Meyer. In October, the yachting season in the Mediterranean ports wound down with the charter boat crowd and the party scene that came with it moving on to the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Meyer used the time for business trips to New York, Singapore and Beijing, only meeting up with Josie when he flew into London. The remote nature of Meyer’s relationship didn’t surprise Lara – for men like Jonathon Meyer it was about following the money, not your heart. They stopped near the stone lions beneath Nelson’s column.
‘Why did you want to see me, Josie?’ asked Lara.
‘Melissa called me. She said you’d spoken and that you thought Jonathon’s death was suspicious.’
‘I told her that was one theory I was investigating.’
A group of Spanish students jostled past them, shouting and laughing, and Lara saw Josie flinch, glancing around.
‘I think I might be in danger too,’ said Josie.
‘Why do you say that?’
The girl seemed to be looking at something over Lara’s shoulder. She turned: a middle-aged man wearing an overcoat was striding towards them. As Lara watched, the man took a selfie with the fountains in the background, checked it, then apparently satisfied, walked off towards the National Gallery. Josie shivered. She was skittish, something had clearly rattled her.
‘Look,’ said Lara, pointing to a brightly lit cafe on the other side of the square. ‘Why don’t we get out of these crowds? We can sit there and you’ll still be able to see anyone coming – and we can talk more easily?’
The girl looked dubious, as if being cornered was worse than being attacked in the open.
‘Please, Josie,’ said Lara. ‘I want to help you.’
The girl reluctantly nodded and followed Lara across the road into the cafe. Once they were settled at a table, Lara jumped straight into the question that had been on her lips.
‘Jonathon had an inner circle of friends. Did you ever meet them?’
She told her the names of his investment syndicate that Jago had mentioned.
‘I met lots of people in passing,’ she said. ‘But Jonathon tended to keep his business associates to himself.’
‘Josie, you’re scared,’ said Lara quietly. ‘Tell me why.’
Josie paused, looking away as if she wasn’t sure whether to say it.
‘Jon had an apartment in town but we mostly stayed on the yacht. His stateroom was on the top deck which was out of bounds during parties. There was a passcode to get in but I had it. The night of the party, I felt terrible, pounding head and aching body. I kept smiling, drinking, hoping I would feel better, but small talk is exhausting when you’re ill. By ten o’clock, I ducked out and went to Jonathon’s cabin. No-one was going to miss me.’
Josie looked down at her hands and Lara saw that while the rest of Josie Bourne was super-groomed, her fingernails were chewed to the quick.
‘So I was lying in the dark and the window was open: I heard Jon outside talking to another man. It sounded like business chat, like they’d come up to get some privacy away from the party. But then they started talking about a woman. The other guy? He told Jon he needed to get rid of her.’
‘Get rid of her? In what context?’
‘At first, I assumed they were talking about someone who was underperforming at work. But then the other guy said we need to “shut her up”. Like, once and for all. And he wanted Jon’s help to do it.’
Lara looked at her, her heart thumping. Was it Sandrine they had been talking about?
‘Did they say what this woman had done?’
‘No. It sounded like something they both already knew about, something they’d been discussing before.’
‘So what did Jonathon say?’