Double Blind by Carrie Bedford Page A

how we met?”
    I shrugged.
    “He’s a friend of my sister’s. I met him ages ago when my sister was trying her hand at match-making. That was a big waste of time. The men she thought I’d be interested in, oh my God. Anyway, Colin was one of them and we liked each other well enough, I suppose, but not like that. I hadn’t seen him for years before the scandal erupted. Then he turned up and offered to write my side of the story. I think my sister begged him to do it.”
    “The scandal being the issue with the vaccination?”
    Eliza sighed. “Yes, of course. That scandal.”
    She poured tea and milk into a couple of beige earthenware mugs and handed me one. “Let’s go sit down,” she said.
    I sat on the dusty couch, while she settled into a brown velour armchair that looked like a dog with mange, mottled with worn shiny patches and unidentifiable stains.
    “Do you mind?” I asked, putting my mobile on top of a book on the coffee table. “If I can record our conversation, I won’t need to take notes.”
    She shrugged. “Okay.” She was tapping a fingernail against her mug. I thought she seemed nervous, so I tried to ease into a conversation.
    “You have a lot of books. You must collect them.”
    “Obviously.”
    “Any particular genre?”
    “Not really. A lot of them are medical books, boring as hell.” She pointed to the bookshelf. “But those are my favorites; poetry, novels, short stories. I can’t stand watching television, so I read instead.”
    I nodded. “I don’t like television either.”
    She didn’t respond. Eager to begin the interview, I checked the recorder was working and leaned back against the lumpy sofa cushion.
    “Why don’t we just start with what it is that you wanted to tell Colin Butler?”
    “There are some things about Simon Scott,” she said. “Things that people should know before they decide to vote for him.”
    I waited but she didn’t say anything else.
    “Can you tell me about them?”
    “Of course. That’s why I invited you to come. But you will publish what I tell you, won’t you? I want this to be in the paper so everyone can read it.”
    Although she had the impression that I worked for Colin’s newspaper, this didn’t seem like the time to clarify the situation. “All I can do is take notes,” I said. “The editor decides if and when to publish. But I have a question for you. Why aren’t you talking to the tabloids? They’d love to get their hands on rumors about Scott. You’d be sure of widespread coverage that way.”
    “I’m not telling you rumors,” Eliza snapped. “I’m telling you the absolute truth. And I hate the tabloids, almost as much as I detest Simon Scott. You know what they did to me.”
    “I saw the stories from a couple of years ago, yes,” I said.
    “So you must see why I don’t want to talk to any of those scumbags.” She drank some tea and grimaced. I sipped at mine and it tasted fine.
    “Why don’t you give me a quick rundown on everything leading up to this moment?” I asked. “It’s best if I hear it from you directly.”
    She sighed. She seemed to do that a lot. “Let’s start at the beginning then, as it will make more sense that way. Scott and I were at Cambridge together, medical students. Scott was one of those golden boys, good-looking, smart, popular. You know the type.” She paused and peered at me. “Or maybe you don’t. You’re not Oxbridge, are you. Let me guess. One of the modern places in the Home Counties?”
    Stung, I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. “University College London, actually.”
    “Oh, well, good for you,” she replied. I was stunned at the way she threw her prejudices around so casually, but she either didn’t notice my reaction or didn’t care.
    “Anyway,” she continued. “Simon was one of those. Everyone liked him. I wasn’t in his league in terms of looks and popularity, but we were in the same classes and became friends. Turned out that our fathers knew each