ALMOST A CRIME
BY
PENNY VINCENZI
Tom and Octavia Fleming have the perfect power marriage: he
is a spin-doctor and she runs a consultancy to the charity
industry. They are attractive, rich, successful … Then Octavia
discovers Tom is having an affair and not only the discovery but
the affair itself have consequences that are potentially fatal both
to the marriage and its power. For this is no ordinary affair,
but one that leads to terror and danger, threatening other
people, damaging other lives. Nothing and no one in the
charmed circle in which the Flemings move can escape: not their
children, not their friends, not even the one thing that seemed
beyond reach — their own professional success.
‘Cleverly plotted twists and revelations’ Daily MAIL
‘Another absorbing page-turner, packed with believable
characters and satisfying’ extreme villains, eccentrics and
manipulators’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
‘Penny Vincenzi writes with such flair and
gusto that I defy any reader, once
they’ve taken the smallest nibble, not to
gobble it all down …Without doubt yet
another megaseller for Vincenzi’ Sunday Express
Also by Penny Vincenzi
Old Sins
Wicked Pleasures
An Outrageous Affair
Another Woman
Forbidden Places
The Dilemma
The Glimpses (short stories)
Windfall
Penny Vincenzi began her career as a junior
secretary for Vogue and Tatler. She later worked as
Fashion and Beauty Editor on magazines such as Woman’s Own, Nova and Honey, before becoming a contributing editor for Cosmopolitan. She is
the author of two humorous books and seven previous novels, Old Sins, Wicked Pleasures, An Outrageous Affair, Another Woman, Forbidden
Places, The Dilemma and Windfall. Penny Vincenzi is married with four children.
An Orion paperback
First published in Great Britain by Orion in 1999
This paperback edition published in 2000
by Orion Books Ltd,
Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EA
Copyright Š Penny Vincenzi 1999
The right of Penny Vincenzi to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the copyright owner.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: o 75283 401 o
Printed and bound in Australia by
Griffin Press Pty Ltd, Netley, South Australia
For my family. Almost a dynasty
With lots of love
Almost a Crime has been even more of a learning curve than
usual; even more than usual therefore, I owe a great deal to
my teachers, who have been required to be even more
patient and long-suffering than usual. I would like to thank
the following people who gave of their time, expertise and
seemingly bottomless well of knowledge: the roll call in no
particular order, alphabetical or otherwise, includes Lorraine
Lindsay-Gale, Frances Sparkes, Diana de Grunwald,
Roger Freeman, Pete Frost, Chris Phillipsbom, Penny
Rossi, Julia Kaufmann, Virginia Fisher, Martin Le Jeune,
Jane Reed, Alison Clark, Fraser Kemp MP and Carol Reay.
I would like to thank Nicola Foulston for allowing me such
full access to Brands Hatch and its environs, and also Tim
Jones of Brands Hatch for his kindness; Henry Talbot for an
absolutely marvellous tour of the House of Commons; Sue
Stapely (yet again) for a specially wide-ranging contribution
and set of contacts, and Georgina and Christopher Bailey
for their hospitality and generosity in Barbados.
I have to thank, as always, Orion for yet more brilliant
publishing, most notably Rosie de Courcy for her editing
which is tactful, patient and inspired in equal and equally
important measures. Other Orion luminaries include Dallas
[
Manderson who sells the books with such determination
and skill, Lucie Stericker who made Almost a Crime look
beautiful, Susan Lamb for her own particular brand of clearsighted
input and Camilla Stoddart who put the nuts and
bolts in place. Others who should certainly not go
unthanked are Kati Nicholl who worked such a miracle in
cutting out thousands of words from the book without me
ever noticing it, Emma Draude from Midas PR who has
seen that the entire world knows about it, and Trevor
Leighton who took yet another dazzling cover photograph.
And of course Desmond Elliott, my agent, who not only
does all the usual agent-like things, but makes me laugh and
tells me wonderful stories I can incorporate in the books.
And on the home front, I’d like to thank dear Carol
Osborne who so tirelessly sees that the front of the home
does indeed remain orderly, makes the best puddings in the
world and even walks the dogs when the deadlines don’t
permit me to do it.
A large and heartfelt thank you to my four daughters,
Polly, Sophie, Emily and Claudia, so frequently, inescapably and patiently on the receiving end of my wails of panic that the book will never be finished/get published/be read by
anyone at all; and most of all and once again my husband,
Paul, who continues to soothe my anguish, steady my
nerves, even at three in the morning, pour me endless
glasses of Chardonnay when all else fails and most
importantly never proffers advice or opinion until I
absolutely drag them out of him (when both are invariably
of five-star quality). As always, looking back, it was the best
fun …
The main characters
Octavia Fleming, beautiful and talented partner in a
charities advisory firm and a ‘power marriage’.
Tom, her charming, clothes-conscious, workaholic
lobbyist husband.
Poppy, Gideon and Minty, their children. Felix Miller, Octavia’s dynamic, possessive father.
Marianne, his mistress, mother of adolescents Zoe and Romilly.
Nico Cadogan, rich, charismatic hotel-owner, once
Felix’s friend, now Tom’s client.
Michael Carlton, another of Tom’s clients, an
unscrupulous developer.
Louise Trelawney, Octavia’s childhood friend, a former
model, wife to dependable ex-army husband Sandy and
mother of Dickon.
Anna Madison, Louise’s mother and Octavia’s
confidante, and her husband Charles.
Gabriel Bingham, a Blair-intake MP with a chip.
Pattie David, a client of Octavia’s, and her daughter Megan.
Melanie Faulks, Octavia’s feisty, unconventional
partner.
Lauren Bartlett, a predatory family friend of the
Flemings, and her complacent husband Drew.
The first time Octavia Fleming was asked if she and her
husband would appear in a feature in a glossy magazine
about power marriages she had laughed aloud; of course she
and Tom weren’t powerful, she said, they were just two
rather overworked professional people and what was a
power marriage anyway? It was a marriage, the editor had
said carefully, that was mutually supportive professionally as
well as personally: ‘and, we feel, one of the major
sociological icons of the ‘nineties’. Octavia had said that
neither she nor Tom had any idea they were sociologically
interesting.
‘Well,’ the editor had said, ‘there you are, you in the
charity business, your husband in public affairs; there must
be so many occasions when your paths cross, when you can
help one another with contacts, or by discussing things
together, by being aware of the same sort of situations. One
of our other interviewees,’ she finished, ‘defined it as a
marriage whose sum was greater than its parts.’
‘You mean the opposite of divide and rule?’ said Octavia,
and the editor said yes, she supposed she did and that would
be a good quote too.
Octavia had said she’d think about and discuss it with
Tom; rather to her surprise he agreed, providing he could
approve the text. He said his consultancy could do with the
publicity; Octavia had supposed that rather proved the editor’s point.
The article about five such marriages as theirs appeared
three months later and was entitled ‘Combine and Rule’.
The feature was illustrated with some rather nice photographs
— Octavia with her intense dark beauty, Tom with
his slightly gaunt elegance, both of them inevitably over
glamorised. That, together with what had then been a new
and rather attractive concept — the power marriage — had
raised their profiles considerably.
Other articles followed: in glossy magazines or the
women’s pages in national and Sunday newspapers. Tom
and Octavia became used to being recognised in the sort of
places where the chattering classes gathered; people would
pause with their forkfuls of rocket salad raised to their lips in
smart restaurants and point them out to one another, would
hurry across the room at receptions to claim a greater
acquaintance with them than they actually had. And they
would receive invitations to parties to launch products or
meet people whom they had never heard of or hardly
knew, their very presence, vaguely famous, helping to lend
the right connotations of gloss and glamour to a gathering.
They didn’t mind, rather the reverse (although the quote
from one ‘friend’, that she would practically pay them to
have them at a dinner party, had made Octavia squirm), and
there was no doubt that both their professional lives
benefited.
What it did for the marriage itself, Octavia was rather less
sure …
JUNE 1997
‘Octavia, I’ve got Tom on the line. He says can you
possibly fit in drinks with him this evening? Six in the
American Bar at the Savoy. He says it won’t take more than
an hour because then he’s got to go on to a dinner. I said I
didn’t think you could, but—’
Octavia sometimes thought that Sarah Jane Carstairs, her
awesomely efficient secretary, would make a much better
job of being Mrs Tom Fleming. She would never double
book herself, over-extend her energies, spread herself too
thin. If Sarah Jane thought she couldn’t be at the Savoy by
six this evening, then she couldn’t.
‘I don’t think I can either. I’ve got the meeting with a
possible sponsor for Cultivate coming in at four thirty,
haven’t I?’
Sarah Jane smiled at her approvingly. ‘I’ll tell him. Now
you’d better start winding up for lunch, Octavia. The cab’s
just phoned, be here in five minutes.’
‘Yes, okay. Where am I going?’
‘Daphne’s.’
‘Fine. Have you got the notes?’
‘Yes. I’ll just get them …’
She reappeared with a thick, rather battered file. ‘Tom’s
rung again. He says if he makes it six thirty could you
manage it? He’d really like you there.’
‘Can I do that?’
‘I should think so. Yes. Yes, I’ll tell him. Now, I’ve put everything in here. Mrs Piper is always impressed by volume.
The fact half the things in there are years old doesn’t really
matter. Oh, by the way, Tom also wants to know when
Gideon’s sports day is. I did tell him, but he’s obviously
forgotten.’
‘July tenth.’
‘Fine. I’ll fax it, I think.’
And that conversation, thought Octavia, really did sum
up her whole life. And how absurd a life it was, where she
and Tom communicated through their secretaries, tried
(and failed) to make appointments with one another,
struggled to find the time to have a conversation together
about quite ordinary things.
We must have a talk about the holiday, he would say, or
we really should discuss Gideon’s extra coaching, she would