Page 58 of Between Us
‘You think there’s a way to make him confess?’ Gina said.
‘Hah – I don’t think there’s a way to get Joe to do anything. But Hunter’s a detective, right? Why don’t IHunterthe clues I’ve been given? Starting with the smoking scarf.’
Gina paused. ‘Ask them in Sesso if Joe came in two years ago and had sex with one of the waitresses?’
‘No! Well. I guess sort of, yes?’
A silence settled over them.
‘A few questions …’ Meredith said, in the voice of timid officialdom, and they met each other’s eyes and started laughing. ‘Why would a waitress who’s slept with a customer’s boyfriend tell you she had done it? I see lots of downsides, from her perspective,’ Meredith said.
‘She wouldn’t,’ Roisin said, taking a swig of wine. ‘I’ve not got as far as strategy. Give a girl a chance.’
‘Can I ask a stupid question?’ Gina said.
‘It almost certainly isn’t stupid,’ Roisin said.
‘Why would Joe do this? If he is messing around, surely the last thing he’d do is write about it and put it on the TV for all of us to see?’
Meredith nodded. ‘That’s what I can’t get past.’
‘The mad titillation of parading it and hiding it, at the same time?’ Roisin said. ‘Why does anyone go bet their whole monthly earnings at Paddy Power? Much like the sex he’s writing about, the whole high is in the risk of being caught. I mean, the blatant nature of it is the mindfuck here, isn’t it? If you say: “He can’t have done it because he wrote about it”, then you’re also confirming that writing about it is a rock-solid alibi. Which is exactly the kind of trap Joe loves designing.’
‘I see that,’ Meredith said slowly, ‘while still thinking it’s a huge reach that turns Joe into a crazed super villain. I think he has behaved very badly, but the crime isn’t playing away.’
‘Yes. I’ve never got “cheater” from Joe at all,’ Gina said, face propped on palm.
‘Plus, bluntly, before he miraculously pulled you, I never thought of him as very confident with women?’ Meredith said. ‘He was always quite shy at Waterstones.’
‘That’s true,’ Roisin said, remembering the flash of self-assurance in his asking her out. ‘But maybe the reason I never sensed it is because I think of affairs as perfume on his collar, texts to a secretary kind of cliché. An affair with aninterpersonaldimension. If it’s random bangs in bog stalls, how would I know? He’s had years of working from home and teachers have totally inflexible hours.’
‘Wow. I need to clear the plates and get the cheesecake, but I need my mind to stop being blown first,’ Meredith said.
‘I’ll do it, Mer, you cooked. Oh God …’ Gina said, as she stood up. ‘I know how you could find out things about behind the scenes at Sesso.’
‘Do you?’
‘Yeah. What did Joe call Matt? Mr Staff WiFi? Send Matt to talk to the waitresses. You’d probably have the code to the safe by the end of the evening.’
Roisin’s skin tingled. Gina was on to something. Roisin had come out tonight with a gaudy suspicion and no way to implement an investigation. But here was Gina, dropping an obvious first step in her lap.
Also, the spectre of Matt McKenzie had been raised and both Roisin and Meredith fell quiet, deferring to Gina to either continue, or drop it.
In the glittering late twilight, a couple of bats scudded about in the blue-dark above them, and they waited.
Gina abandoned the crockery and sat down again. She sighed heavily, raised her eyes to meet theirs. ‘Do you know there’s a word in Papua New Guinea –Mokita?’
There was a beat of silence, after which Roisin and Meredith howled with laughter.
‘Never, ever change, Gina,’ Meredith said, when she could get her breath back, and Gina looked confused but pleased.
36
‘Mokitameans “a truth we all know but nobody speaks”,’ Gina said. ‘I learned it at work the other day from some international students.’
Meredith and Roisin said nothing.
‘My being in love with Matt ismokita…’ She looked at them both in turn. ‘You don’t have to pretend you didn’t know. Everyone knows, and I know that they know. Being in love with Matt … when I’m feeling strong, it can be liveable with. Even fun, sometimes. When I have a down day, or he starts seeing someone – I worry it’s going to become serious. That I’m going to have to befriendswith her. Those times, it’s like someone is punching me from the inside.’
