The policeman, I forget his name already – Masters? Marsden? \u2013 reclines in his seat and regards me with a gaze that is probably intended to be intimidating but can only be described as \u2018cute.\u2019 It\u2019s true what they say about the police looking younger as you age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTell me about your conversation with Gina Montrose on Monday,\u201d he says. \u201cYou were overheard talking about Marco Conti.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
I study my steaming cardboard cup. Dare I take a sip? It could buy me some thinking time or cost me a burnt mouth. I leave it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t what it seemed,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to explain the immersive writing exercise that Gina and I have practised for years, that helps us deeply inhabit our characters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day in question, it was Gina\u2019s turn to come in character. We\u2019d arranged to meet in The Mad Hatter\u2019s Caf\u00e9 to work through her protagonist\u2019s lack of motive for a murder in chapter three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I arrived early, making polite conversation with my hairdresser, Melinda, while I stirred too much sugar into my coffee. She was counting out change onto the counter with pink, square-tip nails, struggling to grip each coin and giggling whenever she dropped one. The barista made no attempt to hide his annoyance, but this was lost on Melinda, who was more intent on telling me about Alex being sacked from the hairdresser\u2019s than on noticing the growing queue behind her. Gossip is Melinda\u2019s main source of sustenance, and the reason that I\u2019d not been for a haircut in months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Gina walked in, I excused myself and grabbed our usual table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy are you plotting to kill Marco?\u201d I said, jumping straight in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d come up with the name \u2018Marco\u2019 for her, so-called after my (awful) boss. Coincidentally, the real Marco has since been murdered too, but I wasn\u2019t to know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gina adjusted her fake glasses. Nice touch, I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have a list,\u201d she said. \u201cI was planning to end our affair, but he\u2019s just left his wife!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShit,\u201d I said, taking a sip of coffee and wincing at the sweetness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo,\u201d she continued, \u201c1. I\u2019m stuck with him now. He has two whiney children and he’s not as rich as I thought. 2. My family will disown me when I\u2019m labelled a \u2018homewrecker,\u2019 and I\u2019m relying on that inheritance. 3. If I dump him, he\u2019ll leak my secret. That <\/em>secret. And 4. The guy\u2019s a horrible misogynist. This is the only way out, and he deserves it. Also, I need to do it before he mentions my name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The similarity to the real Marco was uncanny, but that\u2019s beside the point. You can understand how suspicious this must have sounded to Melinda, seated at the adjacent table. You couldn\u2019t write it. Well, you could<\/em>. In fact, once this comical misunderstanding is resolved, it\u2019ll make a great premise for a novel. Gina will probably think the same and do it first, as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s true, officer,\u201d I sigh. \u201cShe confessed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The policeman, I forget his name already – Masters? Marsden? \u2013 reclines in his seat and regards me with a gaze that is probably intended to be intimidating but can only be described as \u2018cute.\u2019 It\u2019s true what they say about the police looking younger as you age. \u201cTell me about your conversation with Gina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1490,1572],"tags":[175,114,1592,7,20,1573,1593,13,1594,12,1595,103,14,11,159],"class_list":["post-2371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-the-list","tag-about","tag-but","tag-gina","tag-her","tag-his","tag-list","tag-marco","tag-me","tag-melinda","tag-my","tag-name","tag-our","tag-she","tag-was","tag-what"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-Cf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}