Prime Deception (12 page)

He had a contact – most politicians did – who ran on the other side of the law. Charles’ man was an ex-policeman who had been stricken off for nearly beating to death a man accused of raping a ten-year-old girl. Charles could still remember the case and sympathised with the man in question, for he was only doing what felt natural. It was everyone else who suppressed their urges and somehow treated a monster civilly. It was out of this empathy that a clandestine friendship was born. The contact now lived his life beyond the law; having turned his back on a system which he felt had failed. But occasionally he assisted in certain matters, for a fee.

Charles placed the document in his fax machine and typed in the familiar number. No cover note was required; the recipient would immediately know what was asked of him. All Charles would receive in response would be a coded response and an invoice. The only time the two men met socially was when Charles visited Switzerland, where his contact now resided. His life and his money were untouched by the government he felt had left him down. Since becoming Deputy Prime Minister, Charles rarely found the time to make the visit, but their contact remained.

As he pressed send, Charles tried to suppress the niggling feeling of doubt which clung to the nape of his neck. He needed answers and there was no other way of getting them. It felt almost dirty to use this route for Lorna, who was so pure. But Charles was determined to uncover the truth, even if he had to use the back door to get there.

Removing the file from the fax machine, Charles knew he had to share its content with one last person.

‘Faye,’ he picked up his internal telephone and addressed his assistant. ‘Can you please send Miss Thomas in?’

Faye rolled her eyes at the instruction and shook her head. Even though she knew she should be obedient and follow orders, she couldn’t fight the urge to intervene.

‘What do you need her for?’ she asked the Deputy Prime Minister through the receiver, blatantly challenging his motives, aware that this subtle act of deviance could easily cost her her career but unwillingly to stand idly by whilst the man conducted yet another affair.

‘I need some help on the project Simon was working on, just basic filing. I’d ask you to do it, Faye, but I’m sure you have more pressing tasks to deal with.’ The response came automatically to Charles. He reconciled himself with the fact that it was only a half-lie. If he was annoyed by Faye’s behaviour, it wasn’t evident in his tone.

‘Right, I’ll send her in then,’ Faye scowled in annoyance as she hung up the receiver.

‘He wants to see you,’ she informed Laurie who was still typing at the other computer.

‘Oh, okay.’ Laurie stood up and smoothed down the pencil skirt she was wearing which felt tight and obstructed her movement in a way she wasn’t accustomed to. She missed the freedom her favourite pair of jeans gave her. The concept of dressing up for work bemused Laurie as it was hardly a cause for any sort of celebration. In her mind, comfort mattered more than aesthetics. But Lorna adored fashion and tolerated all the discomfort that came with it and so Laurie felt obliged to currently abide by her dead twin’s rules.

Of the entire outfit, Laurie’s least favourite article was the black stiletto shoes which had almost landed her a ride in an ambulance that morning. She precariously placed one foot in front of the other, trying to not let the veil of gracefulness she had so carefully applied slip.

Faye pitied Laurie. Not only had she lost her sister but now she was voluntarily walking straight into the lion’s den.

‘Do yourself a favour,’ Faye called to Laurie as she about to enter the Deputy Prime Minister’s office, ‘and don’t be as stupid as your sister.’

Whilst Faye’s words were unnecessarily harsh the meaning was not lost on Laurie. She nodded solemnly in acknowledgment and opened the door.

For a moment, Charles had to remind himself the Lorna was dead and buried, for had he not known this, he would have believed that she was now standing in his office. Laurie had completely morphed into her deceased twin. From the smart shoes, to the tailored clothes and the blonde hair neatly stacked in to a tight bun on the back of her head, Laurie was every inch Lorna. Even her mannerisms now mimicked her sister more, like the way her head titled to the side in awkward embarrassment as Charles looked her over.

‘I’m sorry,’ Charles tried to gather his senses, remembering that he should be behaving with more decorum. ‘It’s just, you look so much like her, even more than normal!’

‘Yeah, I know. It’s freaking me out too.’ Laurie shifted uncomfortably in her heels. She didn’t like how all her life she had tried to create an identity of her own, and yet here she was in this costume, becoming Lorna. It all felt so false and wrong.

‘Please, sit down.’ Charles sensed Laurie’s unease and pulled out a chair for her.

‘You don’t have to dress up every day if it makes you uncomfortable,’ he suggested as Laurie settled herself, instantly kicking off the shoes which were already turning her delicate feet red and sore.

‘But then I’ll stick out more. Everyone here dresses like they are attending a wedding, it’s so creepy. This morning, a girl asked me who my shoes were. She’s like, “who are your shoes?” What is that? My shoes are shoes, inanimate objects which protect my feet as I walk!’ As Laurie spoke she became impassioned and flung her hands around, just as Lorna had.

‘She’d have been enquiring after the designer. Some women are really in to that sort of thing. My wife, for example, won’t wear anything that isn’t couture.’

An odd hush fell over the room at the mention of Elaine. Charles had spoken of the elephant which sat between them, making him and Laurie instantly feel awkward in one another’s company.

‘I’m just saying relax, dress how you like,’ Charles backpedalled, hoping they could bypass the mention of his wife without encroaching upon the topic of his marriage. Laurie already resented him, he sensed that, and he did not intend on giving her further reason to hate him.

‘I feel like a monkey in a goddamn suit.’ Laurie tugged at the bun on her head and an instant later her blonde hair fell down her back and shoulders, perfectly framing her beautiful face.

‘Don’t worry; I’ll tie it back up before I leave. Don’t want your assistant getting ideas.’ Charles looked at Laurie in surprise, the thought not having crossed his mind that the removal of her shoes and hair now loose would imply that they’d had relations in his office. For a moment, the image of Lorna sprawled naked upon his desk flashed through his mind. Would Laurie be identical to her twin in the flesh? Charles physically shook the thought from his mind.

‘She knows about Lorna, doesn’t she?’

‘Yes, she does.’

‘Do you think she’ll go to the papers?’ Laurie frowned, scrutinizing Charles’ face.

‘No.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because I trust her.’

‘Like your wife trusts you?’ Laurie said bitterly, her words penetrating Charles like tiny darts.

‘I’ve got Lorna’s police report.’ He slid the file across to Laurie, still reeling from her cruel jibe. Clearly, she held him responsible for Lorna’s death which was why she was so hostile towards him. In helping her see the files, perhaps she would warm to him more. But then that could be dangerous. Even now, Charles could barely take his eyes off her as she picked up the file and began to read through its contents.

As Laurie read through the report her face began to contort from confusion into anger.

‘This is bullshit!’ she declared vehemently on completion, smacking the report down on to the table in protest.

‘I know it isn’t what you were hoping for,’ Charles said gently.

‘My sister would not kill herself! Jesus Christ!’ Laurie threw her arms up in despair, a mixture of rage and anguish coursing through her veins. ‘You know this is bullshit, right? I mean, who drives a car into a tree? It makes no sense. She was fine. Everything was fine. She’d come home for the weekend, we watched a movie that afternoon, she was good. If something was wrong, I’d have known!’ The anger gave way to sadness and Laurie felt the all-too-familiar sensation of tears falling down her cheeks.

A part of her was terrified that perhaps she was wrong, that Lorna had ended her own life and she had just been too stubborn to see it. But she refused to accept, couldn’t accept, that. There had to be another explanation and she was determined to find it.

‘There was no way you could have known,’ Charles said soothingly.

‘The car. Where is the report on the car?’ Laurie ignored the Deputy Prime Minister and began to eagerly leaf through the report once more.

‘There must have been something wrong with the car,’ she theorised aloud.

‘Potentially, I guess,’ Charles agreed, aware that he too was clinging on to that same glimmer of hope. ‘I admit it was odd that the information on the vehicle was missing.’

‘This isn’t Lorna.,’ Laurie smacked the document down and then wiped her hand across her damp eyes, blackening her porcelain cheeks with mascara in the process. ‘Lorna would not have done this. She loved life. She had a million dreams for the future. People who wish to die do not dream. You knew her; you can’t believe she’d do this.’

‘No, I don’t.’ Charles felt relieved to vocalise the admission.

‘The stigma of Lorna having committed suicide is tearing my family apart. My parents blame each other. My mum is a wreck; she can’t handle the thought that she let Lorna down, that she couldn’t take care of her own. I can’t let them go on suffering like this. They need to be at peace, we all do. And the only way we can find respite from all of this is with the truth.’

‘I’ve called a guy; he’s looking into it for me.’

‘A guy?’ Laurie uttered with contempt.

‘He… he’s not in politics, or even with the police force anymore. But he knows his stuff. I use him a lot. He’s got contacts.’ Charles knew that he didn’t need to explain himself but felt compelled to. He yearned for Laurie’s approval with the single-mindedness of a child seeking sweets. She was becoming the centre of his world; the position Lorna had once held.

‘So you believe me? You don’t think that Lorna killed herself?’

‘I don’t know if I don’t believe it or that I don’t want to believe it. Either way, I think it’s worth looking into,’ Charles said cautiously, aware how dangerous it would be to raise Laurie’s hopes only to crush them to dust.

‘Thank you. Knowing that you are on my side, it helps.’ Laurie smiled at him and it was genuine. She looked so hopeless with her makeup smeared and her hair loose and free. Charles felt something stir deep within him as though it were awakening after a period of lying dormant; it was desire.

‘I just … I feel so lost without her,’ Laurie confided, her eyes trained to the floor as she spoke. It was out of character for her to make such a vulnerable admission. Perhaps it was being in the office where Lorna would have been, wearing clothes which she would have chosen, that suddenly made Laurie aware of just how desperately she missed her sister. ‘Until this is resolved I can’t move on. I need to know what happened because a part of me died that day too.’

The compassion Charles felt towards Laurie as she opened up to him welled up inside of him to the point where it felt as though it would come bursting out of his chest.

‘I’m going to look into this as much as I can, I promise you that.’ Charles liked playing the role of the hero. The ability to potentially wade in and rid Laurie of her tears made him feel more powerful and important than his role as Deputy Prime Minister ever had. Her heart was breaking and he was determined to mend it; in his mind there was no greater call to arms.

‘I really do appreciate you helping me.’ Laurie looked up now, locking eyes with Charles, which made his flesh prickle with heat as though his entire body had just caught aflame. ‘I forget that this must be hard for you too.’

As much as Laurie had initially harboured negative feelings towards Charles, he was the only person who was willing to listen to her talk about Lorna. Everyone else, her family, her friends, found it difficult. The resemblance she bore to her deceased sister meant that many people now kept their distance from her, leaving Laurie feeling isolated in her grief. When Charles looked at her, she saw warmth in his eyes, not sadness and pity. Being in his presence was a pleasant respite from the carousel of grief Laurie felt she had been riding upon for the past six months.

‘You just need to be prepared that I might find nothing, that perhaps Lorna did kill herself.’ The words felt bitter, leaving a sour aftertaste in Charles’ mouth, but he felt that he had to say them. He needed to protect Laurie. He felt he had failed one twin, he wasn’t about to do the same thing again.

‘No, you’ll find something. You have to. There is no way Lorna would do something like that. Just no way.’ Even as she spoke, Laurie was aware that she was pinning all her hopes on what was possibly an admin error. Even so, it was hope. And hope was something that Laurie had feared had left her life for good.

Sat across from the Deputy Prime Minister, Laurie began to nervously knit her hands together over and over, the movement distracting her from her own sorrow and from the awkwardness of being in the same room as the man whom her dead sister had indulged in an affair with. Lorna’s weakness had always been men. She had been reluctant to confide in Laurie about the affair, avoiding her twin’s probing questions and lying about her whereabouts.

But Laurie had seen the signs. Lorna was even more cheerful than ever, and would go days without being in touch which was unusual. The only time Lorna was ever not in contact was when she was in the first flushes of love. The real indicator of a man in her life was the designer clothes. Laurie recalled how she had rushed to greet her sister when she had returned home for a weekend from London. She barged into Lorna’s bedroom; the girls had always employed a no-knocking policy, often weaving between one another’s rooms freely, even when the other was away.

Suspicious of a blossoming relationship, Laurie had already scoured Lorna’s room for potential clues but found nothing of note. She felt that she had no choice but to interrogate her sister on a one-to-one basis. There were never any secrets between them; she knew it was only a matter of time before Lorna divulged all the juicy details.