‘Right…’ said the man warily. ‘That’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’
‘Sorry,’ Will said again, turning and pacing away in the opposite direction.
‘What the hell am I doing?’ he muttered to himself as he walked away, his face flushed with embarrassment.
He only stopped walking once he had put enough distance between himself and the man – there was no way he wanted to run into him again. He leant against a wall and put a hand to his head.
Why did this have to happen?
He thought back to how the man had looked at him. Like he was some kind of maniac, ready to pull out a knife and attack him.
My God, he was really cracking up.
Then his thoughts turned to Emma and not for the first time he felt intense, painful shame. She thought he was the perfect brother, the one who had supported her through everything. And he had revelled in playing that part.
‘You’re a bloody impostor,’ he shouted, just as a family with two young toddlers walked around the corner. The father shot him a reprimanding glance.
‘Come on kids,’ he said, shepherding them away from Will. ‘Let’s go over to the zoo.’
‘Yes, Daddy!’ the little girl shouted excitedly, tugging at her father’s trousers. ‘Can we see the monkeys?’
‘Sure we can,’ he said, ruffling her hair.
‘Yes!’ she said, jumping up and down on the spot. ‘I love monkeys!’
Will watched them as they walked away, the two children leading from the front, unable to curb their enthusiasm. The man and woman held hands just behind. Faced with a scene of such love, Will felt lonelier than he had ever felt in his entire life.
But worst of all, he realised with disgust that he was beginning to empathise with the man who had caused all these problems.
‘Please,’ he said, looking up into the deep blue sky, ‘don’t let me become like him.’
***
‘Emma?’ the man at the door said.
Emma nodded.
‘Detective Inspector Mark Gasnier,’ he continued, holding out a hand and flashing a surprisingly white, movie-star smile.
‘Hi.’ Emma took his hand and met his firm but fair grip. The guy certainly wasn’t what she had expected. He was a towering figure; his hair was gypsy black and his skin summer-tanned. She’d expected someone scruffy, even hangdog, but this guy was wearing a designer suit.
‘This is Detective Sergeant Christian Davies,’ added Gasnier, nodding towards his companion.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Davies, also shaking hands. He was at least a foot shorter than his partner; they looked like quite an odd pairing.
Emma smiled and waited.
‘So can we come in?’ asked Gasnier, smiling again. This time it seemed more businesslike than friendly.
‘Oh, sure, yes, come on in,’ Emma said, forgetting herself.
She led them into the lounge, where Lizzy was waiting nervously on the sofa.
‘Hi,’ Lizzy said, getting up to welcome them. ‘Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee?’
‘It’s okay,’ Gasnier replied, sitting down without invitation. ‘We’ve just had one back at the station. And we won’t be here for long, you’ll be glad to hear.’
Lizzy smiled nervously. She’d never been involved with the police before; she’d never even as much as spoken to a policeman in her life. But now she had two detectives from the Met sitting in her apartment. It was just too crazy.
Emma joined Lizzy on the sofa, facing the two officers. Gasnier, with his ample frame, made the sofa look as if it was toy-size.
‘This must be a really difficult time,’ began Gasnier, looking across at Emma. She stared straight back at him, noticing that his eyes were an unusually pale blue, as if someone had inserted two marbles into the place where his eyes should have been. ‘I hear that you’re due to be married in a week or so.’
She was surprised by the start of the discussion, and could only manage a nod.
Gasnier looked down at his notebook.
‘We’ve got a lot of details here from the preliminary questioning. I hope the Police Constable treated you well?’
‘Yes, he was very nice,’ Emma replied.
‘Good to hear it,’ he quipped, ‘because that was my nephew.’
‘Oh, right.’
‘I tried to persuade him not to go into the force, but he wouldn’t listen. He’ll learn, though.’
Davies bit back a smile, but Gasnier’s comment seemed more like an accidentally voiced internal thought than a genuine attempt at humour.
‘You said that you last saw Dan when?’ asked Gasnier, getting back to the questioning.
‘It was about seven. Seven o’clock on Friday, just before I went out.’
‘To –?’
‘To my hen party. Well, we were going to have a night out in London – me and some friends.’
‘And when did you notice that something was wrong?’
‘I got a call from my brother, Will. He said that Dan hadn’t turned up for the stag party. So we all went back to the flat to see if we could find him.’
‘All?’ Gasnier said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Lizzy and me.’ Emma gestured to the silent Lizzy. ‘Will was already there, waiting for us.’
‘Your brother was already at the flat?’
‘Yes.’
‘Talk me through what happened next.’ Gasnier sat back and folded his arms.
‘Well,’ began Emma. ‘We went into the apartments and we could hear music playing from upstairs. When we got to the top we realised it was coming from my flat, so we went in looking for Dan. And that’s when we found Richard, in the bathroom. We thought he was dead at first, but Will did some first aid on him until the ambulance arrived.’
Gasnier paused, looking unblinkingly at Emma. It was as if he was trying to read her, deciding whether she was telling the truth.
‘How was Dan in the days, weeks before he disappeared?’
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘A bit on edge really, but we both were, what with the wedding coming up.’
‘Does Dan have any enemies that you know of?’
‘No. At least I don’t think so.’
‘No one with a grudge – an ex-girlfriend, someone who he owed money to?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Have you ever suspected Dan might be having an affair?’
‘No,’ Emma said, sounding a bit too defensive.
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Gasnier said. ‘But I have to ask, you understand. So there’s no reason you know of to explain why he might want to just get up and leave without saying anything to anyone?’
‘No.’ Emma resisted the temptation to say what she had feared: that he had left because he didn’t want to marry her.
‘Are Dan and Richard close?’
‘They’re really good friends. Richard was going to be Dan’s best man.’
‘Was Richard at your flat before you left to go out?’
‘No.’
‘Did you know Richard was coming over to the flat?’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘But he was coming to the stag party?’
‘He had been invited, but he couldn’t make it. He was supposed to be away on business.’
‘So what changed?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Who do you think attacked Richard, Emma?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe someone broke into the flat looking for money. We’ve had some problems around here with druggies.’
‘You don’t believe Dan did it?’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘You do realise that we are treating the attack on Richard as attempted murder?’ Gasnier stated. ‘And if Richard does die, this will become a murder investigation?’
‘I realise that, yes.’
‘So if you know anything, anything at all that might help with this investigation, then you would do well to say so now.’
‘I don’t know anythi
ng else,’ Emma replied. ‘I’ve told you all I know.’
Gasnier waited a beat.
‘A witness has come forward,’ he stated. ‘They saw Dan running away from the apartment, about an hour before you arrived there and found Richard.’
7
He spent some time waiting outside the hospital entrance, watching visitors and patients going in, their faces telling a thousand stories of hope, pain, and anguish.
He knew just how they felt.
When he felt ready, he entered the building and headed for the ward. He knew where Richard was; the nurse had been extremely helpful in that respect. They’d even said he could see Richard outside the official visiting hours. And to think people criticised the NHS for being inflexible.
As he reached the ward the nerves really kicked in.
Would he be challenged?
But he pushed such thoughts aside. He was doing this for the right reasons, and that was enough to dispel any fears he had.
8
‘They think he did it, don’t they?’ Emma said, looking across to Lizzy, who was daydreaming on the other side of the sofa. ‘They really think Dan tried to kill Richard.’
‘It did sound like it. But I suppose if I was in their shoes, and someone had come forward saying they saw Dan running away from the apartments, then I’d probably be thinking the same thing. I don’t think they’ve got anything else to go on, apart from that witness statement. They’re just coming to the most logical conclusion, based on the evidence available. I’m not saying they’re right though.’
‘But he could have been running to get away from someone else.’ Emma was trying to convince herself as much as Lizzy. ‘Like the person who really attacked Richard.’
‘He could have been,’ Lizzy said. ‘The trouble is,’ she said, turning to look at Emma, ‘we just don’t know, do we? Nobody knows what happened, except for Dan. And he’s not contacting us.’
In unison they looked across at Emma’s mobile, which lay silent on the table.
Emma shook her head. ‘I don’t understand why he would try and call, then switch his mobile off.’
‘Me neither.’
‘It just doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Why didn’t you tell the police Dan called?’
‘I don’t know,’ Emma admitted. ‘I guess I thought that it might make them even more convinced that Dan was guilty.’
‘I can understand that.’
‘You think I should have told them?’
‘I think it’s a bit weird that you didn’t.’
‘You’re probably right, but it’s too late now. If I told them, they’d wonder why I’d kept it from them in the first place.’
‘But what if telling the police about Dan’s call might actually help?’
‘How?’
‘I don’t know, maybe they could trace his mobile or something.’
‘But maybe telling the police isn’t the right thing to do?’ Emma responded. ‘Dan must have run for a reason – what if telling the police makes things worse? I mean, they’re not really concerned about Dan’s safety, are they?’
‘You didn’t like that Gasnier guy, did you?’
‘Not really. There was something about him, something that really grated. He just seemed so cocky, sarcastic. The way he made it look like I was protecting Dan.’
‘But you are,’ Lizzy said.
That home truth stopped the conversation dead. They spent a minute or so contemplating the situation in the kind of silence that somehow seems deafeningly loud.
‘I’m getting worried,’ Emma admitted, breaking the stillness. ‘I still don’t think Dan could have done this, but the more I find out, the less sure I’m getting.’
‘It’s understandable.’
‘I mean, I haven’t exactly made the best choice of boyfriends in the past.’
‘You mean Stuart?’ Lizzy ventured.
Emma nodded.
‘You’ve never said much about what happened between you two.’
‘It’s something I want to forget, really. I don’t think it’s healthy to wallow in the past. What happened with Stuart is ancient history.’
‘But you’re afraid of the parallels?’
‘Dan is different to Stuart,’ Emma replied. ‘I know what you mean – the fact that Stuart and I were going out for a long time and then he just upped and left. But it’s such a different situation, Lizzy. When Stuart left me, it wasn’t a surprise. It was more of a relief really. I could see it coming for months – ever since we moved down to London. Dan is different. He never showed any signs of wanting to end our relationship.’
‘Who do you think it was that saw Dan running away?’ Lizzy asked.
‘Could have been anyone. Maybe it was someone passing by on the street, someone who lives in the apartment, a visitor?’
‘It would be good to know who the witness was, and exactly what they saw, wouldn’t it?’
‘It would,’ Emma said. ‘It would be good to know anything that could help to explain all this. Maybe then I’d be able to start thinking straight. Lizzy, will you come over there with me?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Will you come over to the apartment with me? I think I need to go over there. We might find something to explain what happened.’
‘But haven’t the police already searched the place?’
‘They have, but they might have missed something. There might be something personal that only I know is important.’
‘You sure you’re ready to go back there?’
‘I can’t say I’m looking forward to it,’ Emma admitted, ‘but if it helps to find Dan, and hopefully clear his name, then it’s worth it.’
***
‘This might be harder than I thought,’ Emma said, as they arrived at the apartment. It seemed much longer than two days since they had been standing on the pavement, wondering where Dan was.
‘We don’t have to do this,’ Lizzy said, standing by her side. ‘We can still leave and come back when you feel ready.’
Emma mustered up some courage. ‘No, it’s okay. If I don’t go in there now I’ll regret it later.’ She looked up at her window, and noticed the curtains twitch on the floor below, which was Mr Henderson’s flat.
‘Looks like we’re being watched,’ said Lizzy, who had also noticed.
‘Looks like it,’ Emma agreed, steeling herself for the journey inside.
They made their way up the stairs, memories still fresh in Emma’s mind of how they had run up there two days previously, with music blaring out in the background and adrenalin flowing more than it had ever done in any of her karate competitions. She was so lost in reminiscence that the sight of Mr Henderson waiting on the landing, just like last time, was a real shock.
‘Hello,’ he said, looking noticeably sheepish. He looked down at his battered brown shoes, a small hole visible in the front, before meeting Emma’s gaze. ‘I want to apologise about the other night,’ he continued, clearing his throat nervously, ‘about what I said. It’s just that I was upset, about Edna. I’m not usually so forthright, but it had been a long day – we’d just got some bad news from the specialist, you see. He says that she hasn’t got long left – I don’t really understand everything he told me, but that was the sum of it. She’ll be gone in months, maybe weeks.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Emma said. ‘It must be really difficult.’
Mr Henderson just stood there, biting his lip. For a moment Emma thought he was going to break down, but he seemed to steel himself.
‘I should have done something,’ he said. ‘I jumped to conclusions the other night.’
‘It’s okay,’ Emma said, ‘really.’
‘If I’d thought that something was wrong,’ he lamented, ‘I would have tried to help. I should have known something was wrong. I know it’s not like you to play such loud music. I should have done something when he didn’t answer the door. I just keep wondering if I’d done something sooner, whether it might
have made a difference.’
‘Really,’ Emma said, trying to think how to reassure him, ‘I don’t think there was anything anyone could have done.’
If only she really believed that about herself.
‘Edna only told me what she’d seen last night,’ he said through tear-drenched eyes, ‘while we were watching television. At first I wasn’t sure whether to believe her. Sometimes we can be sitting in front of the TV and she starts telling you stories about what she’s seen or heard that day – but it’s just all part of the TV programme she’d been watching earlier. So when she told me, I thought she’d just seen it on television.’
‘Sorry,’ Emma said, ‘I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.’
‘Sometimes she’s quite lucid,’ he said, continuing his monologue as if he hadn’t heard Emma’s remark. ‘You wouldn’t think anything was wrong with her. She talks about things that happened when she was a child, and about when we first met. All those memories are still fresh for her, you see. When she’s talking about old times I forget about the dementia, and I just enjoy talking to my wife again. I have her back with me. Not just a hollow shell; the real Edna. The woman I fell in love with and married. But then it’s like a light inside her head has been turned off, and she’s gone again, lost in her own world, talking about the television.’
‘What did Edna see?’ Emma said, trying to curb her enthusiasm for answers in the fear that to press harder might scare him away.
But it was already starting to make sense.
‘Did she see Dan?’ she pressed. ‘Did you tell the police that you saw Dan running away from the apartment?’
‘We didn’t tell the police to try and get your boyfriend into trouble,’ he protested. ‘Please believe that. But when Edna told me what she’d seen, we felt we had to tell them everything we knew. I was going to talk to you about it, but I didn’t know how to get in touch with you.’
‘It’s fine. I understand, you had to tell them anything that might be able to help.’
‘I am sorry,’ he said.
The One You Love (Emma Holden suspense mystery trilogy) Page 4
