The Lying Game

Kate and Shadow return and go straight to Kate’s room. Isa remembers how Luc felt pressed up against her, and how his closeness with Kate turned to anger. She thinks “everything has changed” (285). Turning on a light, Isa blows a fuse and the power goes out. She finds an email from Owen. Isa hopes it is an apology, but instead, Owen sends a copy of Luc’s extensive police record. Isa is furious that Owen still believes Luc is the reason she returned to Salten. Isa thinks that Owen has destroyed their trust. She’s even tempted to call Owen and tell him that “if he can’t trust me, it’s over” (288), but Isa does not want Freya to grow up without a father. Restless and not wanting to face Kate, Isa goes to the pub. 

Isa acknowledges that she has lied to Owen “since the day I met him” (289), and her lies have made Owen jealous. At the pub, Isa feels like everyone knows who she is. In the bathroom, she sees the old graffiti about Mark Wren, and shamefully realizes that their lies have lasting power. Luc arrives, buys Isa a drink, and apologizes again for his behavior. They talk for hours. Isa admires how natural Luc is with Freya, but Luc says he will never have children and risk passing on his unhappy childhood. They walk back to Tide Mill, and Luc kisses Isa. She feels a powerful desire for him but tells him “no,” saying she is married. Luc comments that he made a mistake and he “should have chosen you” (299). 

Tide Mill is dark, and the tide has submerged the wooden walkway. Luc carries Freya’s pram over the flooded bridge. He calls for Kate but gets no answer. Luc returns and leads Isa across while she carries Freya. Inside, Luc kisses Isa again. Isa returns his kiss, giving in to her desire. Isa feels no guilt because the Tide Mill is a part of her past and she is at last going to be “fucking a man I have wanted […] since I was fifteen, and perhaps still do” (306). The two stop abruptly when Isa sees Kate on the staircase. Kate runs back upstairs, locking herself in her room. Luc tells Isa that she should leave, and that Isa should not trust Kate. Isa promises to leave on the first morning train. Luc departs.

Isa thinks she should return to London and fix things with Owen, but she wants time to sort out her feelings. She decides to visit her father in Scotland, whom she has not visited for six years. Isa feels that she and Kate are to blame for their broken trust. Now, Isa does not know what story to tell the police. Isa starts walking to Salten, but Mary Wren gives her a ride. Mary reiterates that she never believed Ambrose would leave his kids and shares that Ambrose’s autopsy reveals he died from an oral heroin overdose, which Isa thinks makes no sense. Mary agrees, saying she always thought someone murdered Ambrose.

Mary insists that murder makes more sense than suicide, given how much Ambrose loved his kids—even though they did not deserve it. Isa asks why Mary hates Kate so much. Mary smugly suggests that Kate’s—and the other girls’—sexual morals are not that high. She calls Kate a “little slut” (319). Isa is upset Mary would believe rumors that Ambrose abused Kate. Mary tells her Kate was sleeping with Luc. That is what Ambrose knew, and why he was trying to separate them. Mary recounts how she overheard Kate yelling at Ambrose the night before he disappeared. Mary tells her that Kate has blood on her hands, and “not just sheep’s blood, neither” (320). Isa gets out of the car and returns to Tide Mill.

Isa searches Kate’s room while Kate is out to find the suicide note. Isa remembers Ambrose as a loving person, “the father I needed that year” (321). Isa angrily vows to find out the truth for Ambrose. Isa rereads the note. In it, Ambrose apologizes to Kate for leaving her. Ambrose explains he is doing this so “that no one else will have to suffer” (322). He tells Kate he is at peace and he is trying to protect her and Luc. He does not want them to feel imprisoned by guilt and urges Kate to be happy. Isa thinks she understands what Ambrose means. She sends the “I need you” text to Fatima and Thea, asking them to meet her at Hampton’s Lee. 

Thea arrives first and tells Isa that her job fired her because her “mind wasn’t on it” (328). When Fatima joins them, Isa produces the suicide note and tells them everything that has happened: what Mary told her, about her night with Luc when they saw Kate watching, about Kate sleeping with Luc, and the revelation that Ambrose overdosed orally. Fatima says that an oral overdose is a terrible way to commit suicide because it would be hard to get the right dose, would take a very long time, and it is easily reversable. Isa has them reread the note as if they were Ambrose, just poisoned by his child. Thea and Fatima are frightened, and Fatima wonders, “What have we done?” (330). 

The women spend over an hour talking, and Fatima misses her train home. Fatima tells Thea and Isa that they must confront Kate with their suspicions and give her a chance to explain herself: Possibly the letter has other interpretations. Isa points out that the handwriting deteriorates as the letter goes on—a sign of the drug taking effect on Ambrose. Isa believes that in the note, Ambrose is saving Kate, and telling her not to waste his sacrifice.

Kate is surprised to see them. Isa puts Freya to bed in Luc’s room. The women produce the note and ask Kate if she killed Ambrose. Blank-faced and steady-eyed, Kate admits it is true. The girls do not believe her. Kate explains that although Ambrose thought of her and Luc as brother and sister, she did not, and fell in love with him. Kate claims she skipped out of school early on Friday and poured Ambrose’s heroin into his red wine, then went back to school. Kate apologizes for dragging them into everything. She promises to call Mark Wren and confess the next day but leave them out of as much of the story as she can. Kate says she loves them all, and it is time to end everything by making it right.