فصل 32

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Ed

“Sometimes, Gemma said, glancing behind her at the puce screaming child, arching its back at the next table, “I think the worst sort of parenting is not actually witnessed by social workers but by baristas. She stirred her coffee briskly, as if biting back a natural urge to say something.

The mother, her blond corkscrew curls cascading stylishly over her back, continued to ask the child in soothing tones to stop and drink its babycino. It ignored her.

“I dont see why we couldnt go to the pub, Ed said.

“At eleven fifteen in the morning? Jesus, why doesnt she just tell him to stop? Or take him out? Does nobody know how to distract a child anymore?

The child screamed louder. Eds head had begun to hurt. “We could go.

“Go where?

“The pub. It would be quieter.

She stared at him, and then she ran a speculative finger across his chin. “Ed, how much did you drink last night?

He had emerged from the police station spent. They had met his barrister afterward—Ed had already forgotten his name—with Paul Wilkes and two other solicitors, one of whom specialized in insider-trading cases. They sat around the mahogany table and spoke as if choreographed, laying out the prosecution case baldly so that Ed was in no doubt about what lay ahead. Against him the e-mail trail, Deanna Lewiss testimony, her brothers phone calls, the FSAs new determination to clamp down on perpetrators of insider trading. His own check, complete with signature.

Deanna had sworn that she had not known what she was doing was wrong. She said Ed had pressed the money on her. She said that had she known what he was suggesting was illegal, she would never have done it. Nor would she have told her brother.

The evidence for him that he had plainly not gained a cent from the transaction. His legal team said—in his opinion, a little too cheerfully—that they would stress his ignorance, his ineptitude, that he was new to money, the ramifications and responsibilities of directorship. They would claim that Deanna Lewis knew very well what she was doing that his and Deannas short relationship was actually evidence of her and her brothers entrapment. The investigating team had been all over Eds accounts and found them gratifyingly unrewarding. He paid the full whack of tax every year. He had no investments. He had always liked things simple.

And the check was not addressed to her. It was in her possession, but her name was in her own writing. They would assert that she had taken a blank check from his home at some point during the relationship, they said.

“But she didnt, he said.

Nobody seemed to hear.

It could go either way with the prison sentence, they told him, but whatever happened, Ed was undoubtedly looking at a hefty fine. And obviously the end of his time with Mayfly. He would be banned from holding a directorship, possibly for some considerable time. Ed needed to be prepared for all these things. They began to confer among themselves.

And then he had said it “I want to plead guilty.

“What?

The room fell silent.

“I did tell her to do it. I didnt think about it being illegal. I just wanted her to go away, so I told her how she could make some money.

They stared at each other.

“Ed— his sister began.

“I want to tell the truth.

One of the solicitors leaned forward. “We actually have quite a strong defense, Mr. Nicholls. I think that given the lack of your handwriting on the check—their only substantive piece of evidence—we can successfully claim that Ms. Lewis used your account for her own ends.

“But I did give her the check.

Paul Wilkes leaned forward. “Ed, you need to be clear about this. If you plead guilty, you substantially increase your chance of a custodial sentence.

“I dont care.

“You will care for your own safety when youre doing twenty-three hours in solitary in Winchester, Gemma said.

He barely heard her. “I just want to tell the truth. Thats how it was.

“Ed, his sister grabbed at his arm, “the truth has no place in a courtroom. Youre going to make things worse.

But he shook his head and sat back in his chair. And then he didnt say anything more.

He knew they thought he was insane, but he didnt care. He couldnt bring himself to look exercised by any of it. He sat there, numb, his sister asking most of the questions. He heard Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 blah blah blah. He heard open prison and punitive fines and Criminal Justice Act 1993 blah blah blah. He honestly couldnt make himself care about any of it. So he was going to prison for a bit? So what? He had lost everything anyway, twice over.

“Ed? Did you hear what I said?

“Sorry.

Sorry. Its all he seemed to say these days. Sorry, I didnt hear you. Sorry, I wasnt listening. Sorry, I fucked it all up. Sorry, I was stupid enough to fall in love with someone who actually believed I was an idiot.

And there it was the now familiar clench at the thought of her. How could she have lied to him? How could they have sat side by side in that car for the best part of a week, and she hadnt even begun to let on what she had done?

How could she have talked to him of her financial fears? How could she have talked to him of trust, have collapsed into his arms, all the while knowing that she had stolen money right out of his pocket?

She hadnt even needed to say anything in the end. It was her silence that told him. The fractional delay between her registering the sight of the security card that he held, disbelieving in his hand, and her stuttering attempt to explain it.

I was going to tell you.

Its not what youre thinking. The hand to the mouth.

I wasnt thinking.

Oh, God. Its not—

She was worse than Lara. At least Lara had been honest, in her way, about his attractions. She liked the money. She liked how he looked, once she had shaped him according to what she wanted. He thought they had both understood, deep down, that their marriage was a kind of deal. He had told himself that everybodys marriages were, one way or another.

But Jess? Jess had behaved as if he were the only man she had ever truly wanted. Jess had let him think it was the real him she liked, even when he was puking, even with his bashed-up face, afraid to meet his own parents. She had let him think it was him.

“Ed?

“Sorry? He lifted his head from his hands.

“I know its tough. But you will survive this. His sister reached across and squeezed his hand. Somewhere behind her the child screamed. His head pulsed.

“Sure, he said.

The moment she left he went to the pub.

—

They had fast-tracked the hearing, following his revised plea, and Ed spent the last few days before it took place with his father. It was partly down to choice, partly because he no longer had a flat in London that contained any furniture, everything having been packed for storage, ready for the completion of the sale.

It had sold for the asking price without a single viewing. The estate agent didnt seem to find this surprising. “We have a waiting list for this block, he said, as Ed handed him the spare keys. “Investors, wanting a safe place for their money. To be honest, it will probably just sit there empty for a few years until they feel like selling it.

For three nights Ed stayed at his parents house, sleeping in his childhood room, waking in the small hours and running his fingers across the surface of the textured wallpaper behind his headboard, recalling the sound of his teenage sisters feet thundering up the stairs, the slam of her bedroom door as she digested whatever insult their father had directed her way this time. In the mornings he sat and had breakfast with his mother and slowly grasped that his father was never coming home. That they would never see him there again, flicking his paper irritably into straight corners, reaching without looking for his mug of strong black coffee no sugar. Occasionally she would burst into tears, apologizing and waving Ed away as she pressed a napkin to her eyes. Im fine, Im fine. Really, love. Just ignore me.

In the overheated confines of room three, Victoria Ward, Bob Nicholls spoke less, ate less, did less. Ed didnt need to speak to a doctor to see what was happening. The flesh seemed to be disappearing from him, melting away, leaving his skull pulled into a translucent veil, his eyes great bruised sockets.

They played chess. His father often fell asleep midgame, drifting off during a move, and Ed would sit patiently at his bedside and wait for him to wake. And when his eyes opened, and he took a moment or two to register where he was, his mouth closing, and his eyebrows lowering, Ed would move a piece and act as if it had been a minute, not an hour, that he had been missing from the game.

They talked. Not about the important stuff. Ed wasnt sure either of them was built that way. They talked about cricket and the weather. Eds father talked about the nurse with the dimples who always thought up something funny to tell him. He asked Ed to look after his mother. He worried she was doing too much. He worried that the man who cleared the gutters would overcharge her if he wasnt there. He was annoyed that he had spent lots of money in in the autumn having the moss removed from the lawn and he wouldnt get to see the results. Ed didnt try to argue. It would have seemed patronizing.

“So, wheres the firecracker? he said one evening. He was two moves from checkmate. Ed was trying to work out how to block him.

“The what?

“Your girl.

“Lara? Dad, you know we got—

“Not her. The other one.

Ed took a breath. “Jess? Shes . . . uh . . . shes at home, I think.

“I liked her. She had a way of looking at you. He pushed his castle forward slowly onto a black square. “Im glad you have her. He gave a slight nod. “Trouble, he murmured, almost to himself, and smiled.

Eds strategy went to pieces. His father beat him in three moves.