‘Is he the guy you told me about? The one who drove you and Kate to the bar?’
I nod. Rob pulls back to stare at me, giving me a look like I’m crazy. ‘So how do you know he’s not involved in her disappearance? For God’s sake, Orla!’
I’m shocked by his tone and glance around. The shopkeeper over the road is staring at us and a couple walking past glance back over their shoulders.
‘Look,’ I say in a quiet voice. ‘I need to tell you something.’
Rob’s face darkens and I wonder what he thinks I’m about to say. Judging from his expression he’s anticipating an admission of cheating or even murder. I purse my lips, annoyed that he’s leaping to conclusions. ‘Let’s find somewhere to go and talk.’
*
We end up at a restaurant a little way down the street, a cave-like place serving bar food and cheap wine in rattan-covered carafes. It doesn’t look particularly nice but it will do. Rob orders a beer and I order a glass of wine, needing something to soothe my nerves and my anxiety. I wait for it to arrive and drink several gulps before setting the glass down.
‘So are you going to tell me what’s going on?’ Rob asks. He’s been quiet since we got here and he seems anxious, judging from the way his foot is tapping beneath the table. Rob’s a patient guy. It takes a lot to stir him up, but when the fuse is lit he can lose his temper. It’s a rare occurrence and usually only involves him yelling, though once, in our twenties, he did punch a wall and break a bone in his hand after we got in a stupid fight. I, on the other hand, am much more volatile. I have huge swings, can go from laughter to tears in the space of five minutes, and lose my temper quite easily, something that’s only got worse since I had Marlow. I’m so tired all the time that my patience wears thin.
‘I didn’t tell you the whole story before,’ I begin. ‘It was complicated and I didn’t want to explain over the phone.’
Rob’s frown deepens, a crease forming between his eyes. He runs a hand through his thick dark hair and I think of how Marlow takes after him with her furrowed expression when she doesn’t get her way.
‘I don’t want you to be mad at me,’ I say, watching him carefully. ‘Because I didn’t know.’
‘Didn’t know what?’ he asks, sitting back in his chair as though readying himself to receive bad news from a doctor.
I take another deep breath. ‘What I didn’t tell you is that the night Kate went missing we brought two men back to the apartment.’
Rob takes a few seconds to absorb that. ‘What?’ he asks plainly.
‘I know, it sounds bad. But it wasn’t my decision. Kate invited them.’
‘But there were two of them,’ Rob hits back, colour flooding his face.
‘Yes, but I didn’t want them to come back with us,’ I explain. ‘I told Kate not to invite them but she ignored me.’
‘Where did you meet them?’
‘At a bar,’ I admit. ‘But, here’s the crazy thing: it turns out that Kate hired them.’
‘What do you mean she hired them?’
‘They were escorts. Kate paid for their services.’
Rob’s mouth hinges open. ‘Prostitutes?’
I nod. I let him absorb that for a few seconds. ‘Before you ask, I don’t know why. She didn’t tell me. I found out about it after she went missing.’
Rob shuts his eyes, still trying to wrap his head around it. I understand what he’s going through, having not so long ago gone through it myself.
‘I think I was drugged,’ I continue when I think he’s had enough time to process. ‘I don’t know for sure. I was so drunk I passed out. But I think it was more than alcohol. I felt weird. There was this bitter taste in my mouth when I woke up and I couldn’t remember anything about the night before, or not much. I blacked out. There’s huge pieces of my memory that are missing.’
‘Did you go to the hospital?’ he asks, real concern crossing his face.
I shake my head.
‘Did …?’ He swallows hard, his jaw tensing. I know what he wants to know. He wants to know if anything happened to me, if I was assaulted.
‘No,’ I interject fast, setting his mind at rest. ‘Nothing happened.’
He reaches across the table and takes my hand and I start to relax. He’s taken it very well, considering.
‘But Kate slept with one of them,’ I continue. ‘I found a condom in the bin. Two actually.’
I think about the wrapper I found in my bed. I still have no idea why Kate put it there, except perhaps she wanted to play a practical joke on me when I woke up, so I decide not to mention it to Rob as he’ll only suspect the worst.
Rob takes that in quietly, then he looks up at me, frowning. ‘But she hired them to sleep with both of you?’ he asks.
I nod. ‘Yes. I have no idea why though. And there’s no way I would ever have …’
‘I know,’ Rob says, squeezing my hand.
‘You do?’ I say, letting out the breath I’ve unwittingly been holding. ‘I was so worried you wouldn’t believe me, that you’d think I was in on it.’
Rob shakes his head, staring off into the middle distance. ‘This is so fucked up,’ he mutters. ‘Why would Kate do that?’
I nod, joining my other hand to his. ‘I know. I don’t know what she was thinking.’
Rob doesn’t speak for a while. He’s lost in thought. Finally he turns back to me. ‘But you think these two guys might have something to do with her going missing?’
I chew my lip, thinking back to the confrontation with Joaquim – how completely genuine he seemed when he professed his innocence. That look, you couldn’t fake the surprise when he heard Kate was missing. ‘They said they didn’t,’ I tell Rob. ‘And I think I believe them.’
Rob stares at me, shaking his head in shock, his blue eyes shining with tears. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me any of this. I thought you were over-reacting when you called me. I thought maybe you’d had a fight or Kate had done a Kate and buggered off on a bender somewhere. It was only when you told me you were going to the police that I realised it was serious.’
Tears spring to my own eyes as well. ‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘I didn’t know what to tell you at first, and then it felt too late to say anything. I wanted to wait until we were face to face, you see. And I kept hoping that she’d show up and I’d only have to call you to tell you I was on my way home.’
Rob nods. ‘You’ve told the police everything?’ he asks.
‘Yes. But they haven’t been very helpful. Konstandin and I found the guys on our own, the two escorts – we tracked them down and questioned them.’ There’s no point in going into too much detail about how Konstandin got the truth out of them. ‘They admitted they stole Kate’s handbag. I got it back. But the police can’t seem to find them now so they can’t question them.’
I can see Rob struggling to wrap his head around all this new information.
‘According to them they left the apartment around three in the morning and didn’t see Kate after that,’ I carry on. ‘I woke up around eleven the next morning and Kate was gone. But she didn’t have her phone or her handbag or her wallet.’ I look at Rob. ‘So where could she possibly have gone to?’
Rob says nothing and I realise I’m holding my breath, waiting for a response that won’t come. I was hoping he’d have an answer, or at least an idea, but just like Reza and Nunes when I posed the question to them, he’s got nothing.
‘I’m so worried,’ I mumble.
Rob squeezes my hand again but doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t try to reassure me or soothe my anxiety. In fact, he looks every bit as worried as me.
Chapter Twenty
‘I have to warn you about the man in the apartment.’
Rob pauses mid-step. ‘What man?’ he asks.
‘The landlord,’ I whisper. ‘Long story. I couldn’t stay in the old place as it was rented out tonight so he offered me his spare room. He lives in the apartment below the one we stayed in. And he’s a bit odd.’<
br />
Rob scowls. ‘You said yes to staying with a complete stranger? Orla!’
‘I didn’t have much choice,’ I tell him, annoyed at how patronising he’s being. ‘And hopefully he won’t mind you staying too. He’s a bit funny about extra guests.’
Rob’s expression morphs from a scowl to befuddlement. We’re talking in hushed whispers, just outside the front door when it opens. Sebastian is standing there, looking between Rob and I wonder if he was standing on the other side of the door, watching us through the little spy hole. Creep.
‘This is my husband Rob,’ I explain, smiling. ‘He flew in without telling me, to help me look for Kate.’
Sebastian shakes Rob’s hand but he isn’t budging from playing Cerberus at the door so I have to bring it up. ‘It’s fine if he stays, isn’t it?’
Sebastian opens his mouth then shuts it again, obviously put out, but what can he do but let us both in? ‘Of course,’ he mumbles, stepping aside, and pushing his glasses nervously up his nose. ‘I will have to charge you extra. I’m sure you understand.’
Rob and I exchange a look. See what I mean? my look says.
God, you’re right, what a weirdo, says Rob’s returned glance.
‘Sure,’ I say, hurrying Rob into the bedroom.
‘What a bloody weirdo,’ Rob says in a whisper as I shut the door.
‘I told you. I thought maybe he was keeping Kate locked in this room he has with soundproofed walls. It’s got no door handle.’ I giggle.
Rob looks aghast.
‘How do you know he isn’t?’ Rob asks, his eyes widening. He isn’t joking. ‘Why does he have a soundproofed room?’
‘It’s a recording studio. And I caught a glimpse. It was empty.’
Rob suddenly reaches out and pulls me into his arms. I wrap my arms around him and squeeze hard. It feels so good, such a relief to be held. The tight knot in my stomach relaxes a little and I can breathe more easily. When you’ve been with someone as long as Rob and I have been together, sixteen years, it’s like having a limb returned to you when you hug them. The only thing that’s missing is Marlow between us. I wish Rob could have brought her but I suppose it wouldn’t have been practical. I hope she’s OK with Denise. I squeeze my eyes shut to stop the tears springing out. I just want to go home so much. When is this nightmare going to be over?
Rob kisses my neck. I love the comforting feeling of his lips and the warmth they infuse through my body, but at the same time it’s not the moment for it. I push him gently away and step back.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asks, wounded.
‘Nothing,’ I say. ‘I just, I can’t right now. I’m so worried.’ I start to pace the room. ‘I thought tomorrow I’d call the embassy. It’s too late now; they’ll be shut. And then the English newspapers. What about that friend of yours, the guy you work with whose wife works at the BBC – do you think she might be able to help?’
‘Help with what?’ Rob asks.
‘With getting it on the news,’ I answer impatiently. ‘We need to get the media involved.’
Rob walks over to the window. ‘Right,’ he says. ‘Yes, sure, I can talk to him tomorrow. See what she says.’ He looks out onto the darkened street.
‘Someone must have seen something,’ I say, rubbing my hands over my face, trying to push away the exhaustion. ‘We should make some posters too and put them up around the neighbourhood,’ I say.
‘Good idea,’ Rob murmurs.
I walk up behind him and link my arms around his waist, pressing my forehead to his back and closing my eyes.
‘What do you think has happened to her?’ Rob finally says under his breath, as though scared to say it too loudly.
‘I don’t know,’ I say.
We stay like that for a few moments. ‘Do you think Kate would ever do something like this for a laugh? Or for attention?’ I blurt. I hadn’t wanted to give the idea serious weight. It seemed somehow disloyal, which is ridiculous given that Kate probably drugged me and tried to get me to sleep with an escort. But I need to bounce the idea off someone and Rob’s the only person who knows Kate almost as well as me.
Rob turns to look at me over his shoulder. ‘Are you serious?’ he asks.
I shrug, already feeling bad for having suggested it. ‘I don’t know. I’m just running through all the scenarios. It’s all I’ve been doing for days. Her mum and Toby both suggested she might be faking it.’
Rob takes a deep breath and lets it out in a rush. ‘God, I don’t know. Why though?’ he asks. ‘Fuck,’ he says rubbing his face with his hand. ‘Maybe.’
‘Maybe?’ I respond loudly, surprised that he’s giving weight to my suggestion. I only raised it because I wanted him to dismiss it out of hand and tell me it was a stupid idea. That way I could put it finally to bed.
‘It is Kate we’re talking about,’ he replies with a shrug. ‘When you said she was missing my first thought was that she’d fucked off on her own.’
‘But that’s different to faking your own disappearance.’
‘Yes, but if anyone was going to fake their disappearance it would be Kate.’
‘But why?’ I ask, repeating his first question. ‘It’s too far, even for her. She might do it for a joke, but she wouldn’t let it go on this long. She’d know how worried I’d be.’
‘Did you fight?’ Rob asks.
I shake my head. ‘No … I don’t think so. The problem is I don’t remember too much about that night. I did wonder if maybe we argued and she went off in a mood. But she’d have to have planned this, leaving her passport and her wallet and things, and that doesn’t make sense.’ I sink down on the bed, head in my hands.
‘Look, why don’t you lie down?’ Rob asks, resting his hand gently on my shoulder. ‘You’re exhausted.’
‘I can’t sleep,’ I say. ‘I’m too anxious.’ It feels as if there’s an anthill in my head.
He sits beside me and puts an arm around my shoulders. ‘It’ll be OK,’ he says, kissing my temple. I lean into him and feel the tears start to well once more. As they start to flow the doorbell buzzes. I pull away, wiping my tears, and look at Rob.
It’s late – past eleven. Who could be knocking on the door at this time of night? It could be guests I suppose, checking in upstairs or with a query about how to work the hot tub. I wait, listening to Sebastian’s footsteps as he heads towards the front door, and then to the sound of him unlocking it. Rob and I both crane to hear the conversation that comes next. It’s a woman speaking. At first my hopes rise that it’s Kate, but no, the woman is speaking Portuguese. A few moments later, there’s a knock on my bedroom door. It opens before we can get to it and Sebastian’s face peers in. He looks pale, pushing his glasses up his nose in that nervous habit he has. ‘There’s someone here to see you,’ he says to me.
‘Who?’ I ask, alarmed.
‘The police.’
I look at Rob. What are the police doing here this late at night? It can’t be good, that’s for sure.
‘Orla?’ Rob says, jolting me out of my stasis.
He’s already on his feet, looking down at me.
I stand up on shaking legs and take a step towards the door, reaching for Rob’s hand as I pass, not sure I can do this alone. It’s like walking to the gallows. Maybe it isn’t bad news, I tell myself; maybe they’ve found her and have come to tell me she’s in hospital.
Detective Reza stands in the doorway with Detective Nunes. Both of their expressions are blank and impossible to read though Nunes’s gaze is fixed on me, his eyes burrowing into me as though he wants to dig into my mind.
My insides pull tight, cinching into a knot. The whole world seems to shrink in on me so it’s just this narrow hallway and Reza and Nunes standing at the end of it.
‘What is it?’ I hear myself ask, my voice barely a whisper.
‘Can we come in?’ Reza asks.
‘Please, just tell me,’ I say.
Reza pauses. ‘We’ve found a body.’
Chapte
r Twenty-One
Somehow I find myself sitting on the sofa in Sebastian’s surgically neat living room, Rob beside me with his arm around my shoulders, and Sebastian leaning over me with a glass of water, which I can’t take because my hand is trembling too hard. He sets it on a coaster on the table in front of me instead.
Reza sits opposite me. Her expression has softened slightly but Nunes stands behind her like a sentry, his gaze lasering me.
‘Is it definitely Kate?’ Rob asks, his voice breaking.
‘We need a formal identification before we can confirm it,’ Reza says. ‘But, the body matches the description.’
I look up. ‘So, you aren’t sure then?’ I ask. ‘It might not be her?’ I can hear the desperate hope in my voice, the anxious pleading tone. Please don’t let it be her. Please let it be a mistake. Kate can’t possibly be dead.
Reza bites her lip and hesitates before carrying on. ‘We’re fairly certain that it is your friend,’ she says to me.
‘How did she die?’ Rob asks, his face mirroring my own shock.
Reza turns to look at him. ‘There needs to be an autopsy so we can establish that for certain, but it looks like she drowned.’
I draw in a sharp, stabbing breath as though I’m breathing through cracked ribs. ‘Where?’ I ask. ‘How?’
‘In the river.’
‘But what was she doing there?’
Reza shakes her head and shrugs. ‘The body was pulled from the water near the docks but we don’t know where she fell in exactly. We’re looking at tide times and trying to establish that.’
I clutch at Rob’s hand. I think I’m going to be sick. This can’t be happening. ‘But it doesn’t make sense,’ I hear myself say. ‘What was she doing by the river? It can’t be her. You must be wrong.’
‘That’s why we’re here actually,’ Nunes says. ‘We need you to come and identify the body.’
‘Oh my God,’ I whisper, clutching Rob’s hand.
Reza makes to stand up.
‘You mean, right now?’ I ask, dumbfounded.
She nods. ‘Yes.’
It takes me a moment to collect myself. ‘OK,’ I say and stand up. It’s like I’m floating all of a sudden above myself, looking down on the room, seeing Rob standing beside me, holding my arm like I’m an invalid, and Sebastian, lurking in the corner like a gargoyle, watching.
The Weekend Away Page 16
