Gagged & Bound by Natasha Cooper Page B

truth.’
    Stephanie took out her tissue again and sat shredding the edge. ‘I mean the whole idea was preposterous. John Crayley, of all people. The best copper and best mate any of us had ever known.’ She drank some more, looking as though the water tasted vile.
    ‘Did you confront him with these new suspicions, too?’
    ‘In the end. And he just laughed. This time he didn’t even seem angry. He said I ought to see a shrink because I was clearly paranoid, then he asked if I was drinking too much, then he wondered if it was my hormones.’
    ‘What a sod!’ Caro couldn’t restrain a comment on the all-too familiar insult.
    ‘After that he started to get very patient and treated me as if I was ill. I was so angry I watched him even more closely. One day he said I was getting on his nerves and he needed space. Then only about a week later, Lulu came round to tell me he’d moved in with her.’
    Caro waited a moment, then said, ‘Are you sure their relationship wasn’t at the root of everything he’d been doing?’
    ‘Yes.’ The single word was as uncompromising as anything Stephanie had ever said. It reminded Caro that she was a tough political operator as well as a woman betrayed by the one man she’d ever loved. ‘I’ve come to wonder since then whether it was a way of making sure I’d never be believed if I talked.’
    Stephanie’s eyes filled with tears, which she dashed away as if she despised them. Caro wanted to offer comfort, but there wasn’t anything she could say.
    ‘Lulu started babbling about how neither of them had meant to hurt me,’ Stephanie went on, ‘but they were so in love they couldn’t resist. Then she quoted some of the things he’d said to her – you know, to show me how much he loved her.’ More tears overflowed. ‘He’d said them to me first. Every one of them. Obviously none of them had meant anything. He’d never …’ She shrugged, unable to say it.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Caro said again, thinking: I’m not surprised you haven’t had much luck getting anyone to listen to you. And if that’s what John Crayley set out to achieve, he’s the cruellest manipulator I’ve ever heard of, and the most brilliant conman. Could it be true?
    Stephanie dried her tears as Caro watched, and her voice was much harder when she said, ‘But that’s not as important as what he’s doing. If he’s taking money from the Slabbs, he’s the kind of bent copper I hate more than anything.’
    ‘Me too.’
    ‘I know. That’s another reason why I came to you. I was sure you’d listen. You will help, won’t you?’
    ‘I’ll do whatever I can,’ Caro said with enough deliberation to make Stephanie pause. ‘But we must be realistic. There are reasons why people might not listen to me either. The only way to get past that is to give them incontrovertible evidence.’
    ‘That might be possible,’ Stephanie said very quietly.
    ‘How?’
    ‘There is a piece of physical evidence that ties him in with them.’
    ‘Where? What?’
    ‘I can’t tell you that until you’ve promised you’ll use whatever I give you and take it all the way, never letting anyone know where you got it, and never giving up. Ever. Whatever happens.
Whatever threats they make to you or anyone you love. That’s the deal. And it’s not negotiable.’
    Caro felt frustration churning inside her, along with the respect Stephanie deserved. They made an uncomfortable mixture. She couldn’t take this kind of risk without warning her partner, Jess, but that would be a risk too. Jess would never deliberately betray a secret, but she was such a talker she could sometimes let things slip out by mistake. Caro could see Stephanie was irritated by her silence, but she wasn’t going to rush into any decision as important as this.
    ‘Think about it and phone me when you’ve decided,’ Stephanie said, pulling the hat further down over her ears and putting on the big dark glasses again. Caro watched her move away from the