‘And when did he tell you that again?’
‘It was a Saturday – yes, the Saturday before last. He had biscotti from Borough Market – he’d been to buy them that morning.’
‘So you met him in London?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you were already here by that point – looking after the house, I mean.’
Shit. Rowan made herself look him in the eye. ‘Yes.’
‘You made a special trip back to London to see him?’ asked Theo.
Now she felt Adam’s eyes on her and she turned to meet them. ‘After Marianne and I fell out, I lost touch with Turk, too. When I saw him again at the funeral, I realised how much I’d missed him over the years – his friendship. I thought, if we could find anything good in all this . . .’ She reached out and took Adam’s hand.
By the time the police went, it was after ten o’clock. Adam closed the door and, when the car pulled away on to the street, he locked it. Even in the buttery lamplight, his face was drawn. ‘I’m exhausted,’ he said. ‘All this – the shock, the police. And God, having to tell Mum that it might not have been an accident – I can’t even begin to explain how terrible it was, Ro.’
Downstairs, they made tea and sat on Jacqueline’s sofa for a few minutes to drink it. The Johnsons’ window was bright as ever, and Rowan pictured Martin padding around up there, destined for another sleepless night of watching.
‘Are you going to tell your mother about Bryony?’ she said.
‘No, not until I have to. I’m still praying you’ve got your wires crossed and there’s some other explanation, something totally innocent.’
‘I know.’
In bed, skin to skin, Rowan wanted him as much as she ever had but she held back. Adam seemed glad just to have her close and she hugged him for a long time in the dark. Eventually his breathing slowed and she thought he was falling asleep when abruptly, sounding wide awake, he asked her, ‘How did Theo come to tell you about the footprints?’
She hoped he hadn’t felt her jump. ‘Like we said: when we had a drink together just after I came back. I rang him.’
‘I thought you weren’t particularly good friends.’
‘No, but we’ve got friends in common, we know each other well enough to have a drink, especially when I hardly know anyone in Oxford any more.’ She tried to put a smile in her voice. ‘I couldn’t just work.’
Thirty-six
When Theo told them Bryony had confessed, Adam dropped his head into his hands. Rowan closed her eyes and let the relief wash over her. Thank God.
‘As you suspected, Ms Winter,’ said DS Grange, ‘she guessed that Marianne had feelings for Cory, or rather knew – she’d overheard them talking on the phone in the morning. When she and Marianne went up on the roof later the same day to look at the snow, she confronted Marianne who said she couldn’t deny it – apparently she thought it wouldn’t be right to.’
On the sofa next to Rowan, Adam made a sound of despair.
‘So Bryony pushed her?’ Rowan asked.
‘It wasn’t quite as simple as that – there was the fact of Marianne’s vertigo to take into consideration. You were right about that being significant, too.’ Theo tipped his head briefly to Rowan.
‘Your sister was trying to stop Bryony from jumping, Mr Glass,’ said DS Grange.
Adam lifted his head. ‘What?’
‘Bryony said that when Marianne admitted how she felt about Cory, she – Bryony – was desperate. She loved your sister and knew how badly the news would hurt Mr Greenwood.’
‘She said she was trying to make Marianne change her mind.’ Theo’s voice surprised Rowan with its gentleness. She’d expected triumph, a hunter’s delight in the kill, but there was none. ‘If Marianne knew how much it mattered, she said, if she could be made to understand . . .’
‘So Bryony went to the edge of the roof,’ Grange continued, ‘and told your sister she’d jump if Marianne left them. Marianne went after her, tried to pull her back . . .’
‘She slipped?’ Adam said, and Rowan heard a clear note of entreaty.
But Theo shook his head. ‘We hoped so, too.’ He shot a look at Grange, who gave a slight nod. ‘No. Just as Marianne tried to grab her and pull her back from the edge, it sounds like Bryony lost her temper. She was very distressed when we spoke to her, you can imagine, and it’s going to take time to get a complete picture, but basically, as we understand it now, there was a struggle, some back-and-forth, and in the middle of it all, it sounds like Bryony saw red and shoved her over.’
The story settled on them like fall-out, and for several seconds there was silence. Adam spoke first. ‘Did James know?’