Page 37 of The Girlfriend’s Secret

Scott is dangerous.

I realised it the first time I met him…

TWENTY-FIVE

HAVEN

THE FUNERAL

Meeting somebody important for the first time is a big deal, so it’s best if the conditions are as perfect as they can be for it. The meeting should take place in a simple, stress-free setting, so both people are free and able to be themselves and present their best version to the other. There are lots of good places for this meeting to potentially occur. In a pleasant home. In a café or restaurant. Or in a park, perhaps. One place nobody really wants to meet for the first time is at a funeral. That’s not perfect. It’s as far from it as can be.

But a funeral is where I am meeting my boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

Having already met Joel’s parents at the airport, one potentially awkward encounter is already over with. But I can’t relax until I have met the other member of my partner’s family and, so far, I have not been face to face with Scott yet. He was apparently too busy to call by the family home when Joel and I got back, simply texting his brother to say that he would see him here, at this church where everyone is wearing black and looking glum. Or almost everyone is wearing black. Shamefully, I am wearing dark blue, but it’s only because I couldn’t find anything black that was suitable to wear for this. I don’t want to come across as disrespectful to the deceased and I hope my attire is not suggesting that I am. I push those worries from my mind and think about Joel’s brother again.

Maybe it shouldn’t matter to me too much where and when I meet Scott, only that I do meet him at some point and that the meeting goes well. But it’s not as simple as that. Not when I am extremely nervous about meeting him.

Not when I have my suspicions about him.

Not when I am afraid that he might be the reason this funeral is happening today.

As my eyes scan the sea of mourners here, I am anxiously looking out for the sight of the tall man who I have a bad feeling about. The tall man I have looked at in so many photos on social media once I knew he was Joel’s brother and especially once I feared he was someone I had to be wary of. Even though I haven’t met him yet, I will recognise him easily due to all the research I’ve done into him online, the hours I’ve spent scouring his social media pages to see if there are any clues that could confirm or erase the terrifying thoughts I am having about him.

The thoughts that he is capable of murder.

So far, I haven’t seen anything extra to confirm them.

But I haven’t seen anything to erase them either.

I’ve been worrying about Scott ever since Valerie sent me a message to say that her eldest grandson was due to visit her. That didn’t seem troublesome in itself, but what happened next did. Joel got a call from his father, and when I saw my boyfriend’s face fall, I knew it was bad news. It was. Joel’s grandmother was dead, found at the bottom of her staircase after suffering a fall. She had succumbed to her injuries. She was gone.

In the initial aftermath of that nauseating newsflash from the UK, all I could think about was consoling Joel. But as the hours went by and we began making our plans to fly back to England, I found myself re-reading Valerie’s message. Maybe it was slightly morbid of me, but I found it surreal that I had only recently been in contact with someone who had since passed away. It was while I was reading those messages that I was reminded of Scott’s visit to see Valerie on the day she died.

Coincidence? Harmless? Insignificant?

Or everything?

I’ve always been one to trust my gut instinct, a part of me that was honed during an unsettled childhood where I realised I could trust myself far more than I could trust other people. Barring my brother, nothing has steered me straighter in life than trusting my instincts, which was why I couldn’t shake the horrible thought that Scott might have had something to do with his grandmother’s death. If it felt crazy to think a person was capable of murder without even meeting them, I was hoping that finally meeting Scott today at this funeral would dispel those fears and make me realise how silly they had been. And then I see him approaching me outside this church with his hand outstretched towards me.

Now it’s time.

‘You must be Haven. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,’ Scott says as he shakes my hand and smiles. ‘I would say I’ve heard lots about you, but my brother is hardly the chattiest person when it comes to his love life.’

‘Nice to meet you too,’ I say, shaking Scott’s hand and wondering if a simple handshake can indicate if the person giving it is capable of murder. As far as the handshake itself goes, it is a firm one, and Scott looks big and strong enough to hurt someone if he wanted to. Especially a woman in her seventies who would have no reason not to trust him until it was far too late.

Scott is wearing a smart black suit, and the smile he showed when he met me has been replaced by an expression that is a reminder of the sombre occasion we find ourselves at. I can’t expect this man to be all smiles, not at his grandmother’s funeral, but I also can’t expect my concerns to just go away either.

‘You both look so well,’ Scott says to me, and to Joel, who has rejoined me after momentarily stepping away to thank a couple of his grandmother’s friends for attending today. ‘Must be all that Aussie sun, hey? Maybe I’ll have to get myself out there one day.’

‘But who will fix all the cars here if you do that?’ Joel replies, a slightly sarcastic response that shows sibling affection between these two.

‘That’s true,’ Scott says. ‘It’s not easy being the best mechanic in town, but somebody has to do it.’

I’d already heard that Scott was a mechanic – Joel told me back in Australia when we were discussing family, or rather, my lack of it. By the sounds of it, Scott has made a big success of himself, running his own business and getting to spend all day doing something he has a passion for. Thinking that makes me wonder what possible motive he could have had for hurting his grandmother. There’s the inheritance that Joel mentioned to me when we were flying home the other day, but does Scott even need that if he is doing well already?

Then again, nobody would turn down free money, would they?

Frederik, the friendly father of the two men I am standing with, appears then to tell his sons that it is time to get ready for their pallbearing duties. I make sure to give Joel a big hug then, because I know how much he has been dreading this part of the day, before I go inside the church to find a seat amongst the mourners who have already gathered on the pews.