‘What about you?’
Marcus made no reply as he cut up his steak.
‘You and he had an ongoing thing, so have you been tested?’ Grant persisted.
‘No, and we were not active for years, but I’ll have myself tested as it can be dormant for Christ knows how long.’
‘Yeah, I know, but I also know if he was fully aware then he should have bloody well come clean with me. If there is no cash coming my way I’ll fucking sue his legal team that are being so protective about who’s getting what.’
‘How much is this place worth?’ Marcus asked as he finished his steak.
‘I dunno, but there’s his yacht, the Bahamas villa, his car, the sale of this place and the Mayfair flat, so he must have been rolling in cash. This has got to be four to six million what with how much land it’s on, and with the waterfront.’
‘Yeah, I guess so – old Simon was never short, and he was always very generous to me, but right now I don’t have a pot to piss in. He suddenly withdrew finances for my divorce lawyer and kicked me out of the Green Street flat virtually overnight.’
‘Yeah, he could get these whims, one minute chucking cash around, the next querying a grocery bill, but he was generous and I got a wardrobe of great gear from him,’ Grant replied. ‘What I was thinking was maybe going through his cupboards and packing up stuff that I’d like. I don’t know how long they’ll allow me to stay on here, unless he has made arrangements for me – do you think he would have done?’
Marcus shrugged, thinking that if he personally had been left money he would go through with the divorce and then go abroad.
‘What about your daughter?’ Grant suddenly asked.
It threw Marcus; somehow he had shut out the emotional turmoil of her disappearance, as not allowing himself to think about her made it easier to cope with what had just happened to Simon.
‘I mean, what do you think happened to her?’ Grant persisted.
Suddenly the impact of Amy vanishing hit Marcus all over again and he gasped for breath, as if his chest would burst.
‘I don’t know, I don’t know, but I have started to believe she will never be found. I can’t sleep at night thinking about where she could be, or what could have happened to her. My worst fear, that I may eventually have to live with, is that she could be dead.’
‘What about your wife?’
Marcus rubbed his eyes, and then picked up the napkin and wiped his face. ‘We broke up two years before Amy disappeared. I had to get away from Lena – I mean, Amy knew how I felt because she would feel the same pressure from her. She’s like a ticking time bomb, and you never know when she will explode or fly off the handle. In reality I should have had the guts to leave her a long time ago, but I stayed for the sake of Amy.’
‘But you must have loved her once.’
‘Yes of course I did, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, and I had no indication that she had problems.’
‘What problems?’
Marcus sighed. ‘I don’t really want to get into this. Just leave it, because if I have to think about it I get to feel guilty. She just has major problems, and I am probably one of them because she won’t let me go, she’s obsessive, but I believed we could work it out – we couldn’t, we can’t and now all I want is to walk away from her.’
‘Does she know you and Simon were at it?’ Grant asked regardless.
‘At it? For Christ’s sake, don’t make it sound so crass, and any sexual activity I had with Simon was a long time ago.’ He got up from the table to take his dirty plate to the sink and almost tripped over a large tin dog bowl. He looked down and picked it up as Grant joined him with his dinner plate.
‘I should chuck that out as it was Wally’s – I meant to do it days ago.’
Marcus ran the water into the sink and went back to the table to pick up his wine glass; he refilled it as Grant put the dog bowl into a bin.
‘What did he die of?’
‘Wally? It was hideous, what with him being such a huge dog vomiting all over the place; the vet came out a few times but we reckoned it was rat poison from the barns out back – they have horses and with the hay and stuff it’s always got mice and rats.’
‘Rat poison, is that what the vet said?’
‘Yeah, Wally would eat anything but he was almost catatonic by the time he died.’
‘Did you feed him?’
‘Simon was off his food, hardly kept anything down, and I would fill up a bowl outside with anything he’d not finished for Wally.’
Marcus thought about it as he washed the dishes and continued sipping at the wine.
‘You ever take food out of the freezer?’
Grant was pouring himself another glass and heading out of the kitchen.
‘Yeah, but like I said, Simon wasn’t eating much.’ He paused in the doorway.
Marcus drained his wine, and ran the glass under the tap. He didn’t want to even attempt to explain to Grant the reason he’d asked, but he felt unsettled and changed the subject.
‘You know Simon had some very nice gold cufflinks, a couple with emeralds in the centre.’
Grant grinned. ‘Yeah, I know. I’ll maybe go up and have a check over the bedroom.’
Marcus waited until the kitchen was clear before he went into the back kitchen and opened the deep freeze. There were shelves of meats and frozen vegetables, French fries, but no containers of ready-made meals. He made his way back to the main kitchen and banged into the doorframe – he was quite drunk. Could it have been possible that Simon had eaten something containing poison, and then if Grant had fed the leftovers to Wally maybe that was what the dog had died from, and not rat poison?
He was still unable to stop thinking about it as he went upstairs and found Grant in Simon’s bedroom. He had opened lots of the drawers and small leather boxes had been tossed onto the bed. He continued his rummaging as Marcus started to open one box after another, uncovering monogrammed cufflinks and gold studs along with gold chains, medallions and heavy gold bracelets.
‘He liked the bling, did old Simon,’ Grant remarked as he searched through a drawer of silk ties and cravats.
‘Yeah he certainly did. Any money stashed around?’
Grant shook his head, but Marcus was sure he would have already searched and pocketed much of what he wanted. He crossed to the massive old Victorian wardrobe, opening both carved doors to reveal rows and rows of suits and jackets, all expensive and tailored for Simon. Cashmere sweaters lay in stacks on the open-shelved unit above racks of trousers.
‘Like a men’s fashion store in here,’ Marcus said, taking out some of the items to check their labels, as he caught the distinct cologne worn by Simon, a musky lime perfume.
‘You staying over?’ Grant asked nonchalantly.
‘Well I’ve had too much to drink to drive back to London.’
Grant came to stand beside him and put his hand on the small of his neck.
‘Maybe not sleep in here – let’s take this stuff down and open up the rest of the boxes with a nice glass of wine.’
Marcus cringed slightly and then smiled. ‘Yeah, why not?’
Grant returned to collect the boxes from the bed and tossed one to Marcus but as he tried to catch it, he stumbled and dropped it. The large leather case sprang open to reveal a diamond necklace.
‘Christ almighty, look at this – are they real diamonds?’
Grant bent down and scooped it up, grinning. ‘I’d say they’re the real thing, and worth a packet.’
Marcus watched as Grant stuffed the necklace into his pocket.
‘Hey, I thought we’d share stuff…’
‘Don’t worry, I’m just putting it in my pocket to take downstairs. You never know, it might be part of a really valuable set that we can share out,’ Grant said and, with his hands full of the smaller items, he walked out.