This wasn’t the Tim she’d been head over heels in love with; this was Matthew, an unknown quantity, a man she had yet to meet but one she already hated. She fumbled around in her jacket pocket for Andrei’s panic alarm.
‘I know about the alarm and feel free to alert the giant to my presence if you like. I’m not going to stop you.’
Ellie turned to leave and press the button, but Matthew spoke again:
‘But if you do, you’ll never find out why I went to all this trouble to fuck with you.’
She stopped in her tracks, and remained with her back to him.
‘And as a scientist who has spent her life figuring out problems, I bet you’re just dying to know why.’
Ellie turned towards the drinks cabinet and mixed herself a gin and tonic. She straightened her skirt, sat down on one of the two sofas, crossed her legs and waited for Tim to join her on the sofa opposite. Her initial bewilderment at finding him there had been replaced by a sudden steely resolve. If he wanted to talk, he would have to come to her. She would not pander to any man.
‘How did your meeting at the Soho Hotel go?’ he asked as he walked over. His knowledge of her whereabouts took her by surprise but she refused to let it show. ‘You should get a better password for your cloud account. I always know where you are and where you’ve really been when you’ve been telling me you’re at work.’
‘Likewise, you shouldn’t have left your account open on my iPad.’
‘You think that was by accident? There are no accidents, Ellie. Only carefully constructed plans.’
‘Do you want to get to your point, Matthew?’ she asked calmly.
‘Ahh, it’s the first time you’ve called me that. I think I like it, Ells. Do you know why I picked the name Timothy, by the way? It’s biblical, apparently. It means “honouring God”. And that’s who you think you are, isn’t it? Some God-like figure who should be honoured?’
Ellie raised her eyebrows and he paused for a reaction before continuing.
‘Discovering your little gene, telling people who they should be spending the rest of their lives with … it certainly appears that you have a God complex.’
‘This kind of accusation is nothing new.’ Ellie sighed dramatically. ‘So let’s not waste any more time. What do you want from me? There has to be a point to all this and money is the obvious motive. You’re probably expecting me to pay you off or you’ll threaten to sell your story to the papers.’
Matthew took another sip of his drink. ‘Nope. I’m not the kiss-and-tell type. Try again.’
‘I have no idea what “type” you are.’
‘No you don’t, so let me tell you. I, my darling bride-to-be, am the type of person who is about to change your life in a way you never dreamed possible.’ He gave her a grin and held his glass aloft, like he was offering her a toast.
‘And how will you do that?’
‘We’ll get to that in good time. But first I have to say, I wish I’d been there to see the look on your face when you recognised my mum in that photograph.’
‘I don’t actually remember her very well,’ Ellie lied. ‘She was only a junior member of staff. Quite insignificant and nondescript, if I’m being honest.’
‘She was one of the first to take your test, wasn’t she? I’d have thought that would’ve made her a little more memorable, especially as she didn’t know she’d taken it.’
Ellie shot him a glance. She knew exactly what he was referring to.
‘I see you’re not jumping in to correct me,’ he continued.
‘There were some people whose DNA I … borrowed … to build up the database in the early days,’ she conceded.
‘Some? One of your old colleagues told me you were nicknamed “Oscar the Grouch” because you spent so much time ferreting around the bins looking for used plastic cups and forks. By all accounts you’d be sneaking them out and swiping their DNA to add to your collection without their permission.’
Inside, Ellie seethed. She’d been assured that those in her inner circle had been paid generously to remain silent about those murkier early days. ‘And?’ she asked. ‘Hardly the crime of the century, is it?’
‘Not only is it illegal, but it’s also unethical.’
Ellie laughed. ‘You are about to give me a lecture on ethics? Come on now, Matthew, you can do better than that.’
‘OK, shall we discuss how later, once you had a bit of money behind you, you hired a team to bribe government employees into allowing you access to records from the National DNA Database? Or how they paid off staff in clinics, hospitals and mortuaries for samples?’
‘I can’t be held responsible for the methods of a third party.’
‘You took the DNA of the dead, the dying, sick people and criminals to bolster up your numbers in order to get more financial backing and expand your business. I found the details of known paedophiles, sex offenders and killers buried deep in your files, some of whom you actually found Matches for. And when I trawled a little deeper, you had the DNA of the severely mentally handicapped and even dead children on your database. Dead children, Ellie! How the fuck can you justify that?’
‘Show me one successful global company that hasn’t blurred the lines in its early days to get a foot on the ladder.’
Ellie looked away, refusing to feel shame for what she’d turned a blind eye to. ‘The end justified the means,’ she replied. ‘My discovery changed the world, so what harm did it do?’
‘Do you recall what the results of my mum’s Match Your DNA were?’
‘Of course not – it was very early on, so I can only presume that she had no confirmed Match back then.’
‘And what about my dad?’
‘Your dad? I didn’t even know he existed until two hours ago.’
‘My dad was also one of your early test subjects. He was working for the government when you stole his details. Then when you made the test available to the public, a woman got in touch with him after discovering she was his Match. At a time when my parents should have been thinking ahead to their retirement, he was packing his bags to move to Scotland with a complete stranger.’
‘Matthew, I am not responsible for—’
‘I’m not interested in hearing you toe the corporate line or your usual bullshit about how you’re not to blame for destroying people’s lives. I’m here to tell you how I’m about to destroy yours. Now, do you mind if I help myself to another drink?’
Chapter 81
MANDY
Mandy was relieved to find Pat’s house empty when she returned from visiting Richard at the nursing home.
She needed space to formulate a plan before she was ready to confront Pat and Chloe about why they’d lied about Richard’s death. But first she needed to get out of Pat’s house. She made her way upstairs to her bedroom – his bedroom – and fought the urge to cry again. She was concerned about the effect her afternoon of stress might be having on her baby.
What had begun as an ordinary day with so much to look forward to had taken more twists and turns than a James Patterson novel. She was exhausted, and couldn’t wait to return to the safety of her own home and its familiar surroundings. Once there, she’d lock the doors, slip into a deep, soapy bath and begin to come to terms with everything she had learned. And then, in a couple of days when the dust had settled, she’d visit her mum and sisters in the hope of making amends. It had been the best part of a year since she’d seen them properly and she needed her real family now more than she could’ve ever imagined.
She grabbed her clothes from around the room, and threw them into two suitcases. Everything baby related she left where Pat had hung it, alongside bags of toys, nappies and a stroller. She could buy these things for herself, later.