Free Deep Blue Sea by Tasmina Perry Page A

could share their grief together. In fact she felt envious of all Julian’s friends around her. Today they would be sad. Today they might even cry. But tomorrow they would all go back to their normal lives, and that was something Diana could never do.
    Why are we here? She almost wanted to ask everyone the question out loud. Why was he taken away from us?
    Behind Patty she could see a face she didn’t recognise, but one that stood out because of its obvious beauty. Blond hair, fine-boned features.
    Someone knows something  . . .
    The phrase was going over and over in her mind as the casket was finally lowered into the ground and the vicar said a few last words.
    Charlie led her away, although the walk to the car was slow. Everyone wanted to stop and offer their condolences, but Diana just wanted to get out of view. As Charlie moved away to talk to Adam, she began to feel dizzy and undid the top button on her silk blouse, which had started to claw at her neck.
    The Mercedes was in sight when a tall blonde woman approached her. Diana saw immediately that it was the woman who had been standing behind Patty. Up close she was quite beautiful, although she was doing what she could to disguise her looks. Her pale hair was tied back and her face looked free of make-up, not that anyone with such remarkable bone structure needed war paint. Diana did not know the woman, but she recognised the look in her eyes: grief.
    ‘I’m sorry to approach you like this. I don’t think we’ve met before.’
    ‘We haven’t.’
    ‘I’m Victoria Pearson. I’m so sorry . . .’
    She’d heard the words a hundred times in the past ten minutes. The last thing she wanted was to hear them again, but she knew the woman was just being polite.
    ‘I’m an old school friend of Julian’s,’ Victoria continued quickly.
    ‘I thought Harrow was an all-boys school,’ replied Diana. It came out more curtly than she’d intended, but she felt suddenly threatened.
    ‘A turn of phrase,’ the other woman said awkwardly. ‘We go back a long way. Twenty years, which makes me feel rather old.’
    Diana did the sums in her head. Julian had left Harrow twenty-three years ago, which didn’t make them school friends.
    She felt on heightened alert. Her mind searched the photographs she had spent hours and hours going through. Had this woman featured in any of them? She couldn’t be certain.
    ‘Had you seen each other recently?’ She offered the question as casually as she could, but her stomach had begun to turn over.
    ‘Not in a year or so.’
    ‘Strange we haven’t met.’
    ‘He was a wonderful man.’
    Diana’s heart was thudding. Who was this woman? How well had she known Julian? Suddenly she had to know everything. She began to feel faint. The sun was directly overhead and seemed to be burning her head. She held an arm out to steady herself. The world seemed to spin, and like a dull noise travelling through water she heard a voice calling for help. Her knees started to buckle, but before she hit the ground she felt two arms catch her.
    Without looking up, she began to sob, deep gulps of breath and noise so loud they didn’t sound as if they came from her fragile body.
    ‘Easy, easy, easy.’ The familiar voice was soothing and the arms around her felt strong.
    ‘Take me out of here,’ she whispered, as Adam helped her to her feet. She knew that people would be watching her like some stricken caged animal.
    ‘It’s okay. The car is just here,’ he reassured her, guiding her into the Mercedes.
    She sank back into the leather seat, glad that the blacked-out windows had shut out the world. Adam followed her and slammed the car door behind them.
    ‘What happened back there?’
    Her eyes were like two thin slits, barely open wide enough to see him.
    ‘Who was that? Who was that woman?’ she stuttered.
    Adam looked confused. ‘Victoria. A family friend. What the hell did she say?’
    ‘Nothing, nothing at all.’ She screwed her eyes