“Hey,” Romeo murmured, nudging Chad’s temple with his nose.“It’s Josh.You might want to take it,” he looked at the room again.“To make sure he’s not on his way.”
Chad leaned back and took the phone.He collapsed against Romeo’s chest again with the phone to his ear.
“Did you get my texts?”Josh blurted.“About Keeley?”
“What about her?”Chad croaked.
“She was the link between you and Alexandra.She was your therapist.She was Thomas’s too.Six of her clients have committed suicide in the last three years.So I dug a little deeper to see where she was before she moved to Bardhum.She lived in Preston for three years, eight of her patients committed suicide and before that, she practiced in Leicester.I haven’t begun investigating there yet.”
Chad leaned back.“Where are you right now?”
“I’m in the car.I’m on the way to yours.”
Chad looked wide-eyed at Romeo.“Why?”
“So we can work this thing out—”
“I’m not a detective anymore, Josh.You have others at the station now.”
“But ...but this about you.I want to run it by you.I want ...I want the chance to say sorry.”
Chad shook his head.“You don’t need to say sorry—”
“You told me something wasn’t right, and I didn’t listen.I only looked into it because Ally asked me to.Keeley, fucking Keeley.And I don’t know how it relates to what happened on the bridge that day, but I know it’s got something to do with her.It’s something to do with those drugs.They messed you up.”
“How far away are you?”
“About fifteen minutes.”
Romeo steadied Chad as he got to his feet.“I’ll see you soon.”
He hung up and tossed his phone onto the sofa.
“Fifteen minutes,” he repeated.
Romeo nodded, grabbing his jeans.He tugged them on as Chad was pulling up his own trousers.
“We need to get the car in the outhouse,” Chad said, glancing back at Keeley crumpled on the floor.“And her.”
Romeo nodded.“You make yourself presentable and clear up the mess.I’ll sort Keeley.”
He yanked on his t-shirt, then stepped past Chad to get to Keeley.He grabbed her limp wrists and hauled her up onto his shoulder in a fireman’s lift.
Chad pushed the armchair back into position before turning his attention to the coffee table.
Romeo left with Keeley over his back, trudging his way to the outhouse.He dropped her to the concrete, then turned to head back to the house.
Chad dropped to his knees to sweep the shards of porcelain, sugar, and brownie pieces into a dustpan.The table was up again, and Chad had managed to find one of the coasters that had gone flying.
Romeo snatched Keeley’s keys from the edge of the sofa cushion and strode back outside to hide the car.He parked it in the outhouse, threw the cover over it, then pinned it to the floor with bricks by the wheels.
When he returned to the house, Chad was upstairs cleaning himself up in the bathroom.
“Okay?”Romeo asked from the doorway.
Chad linked eyes with him in the mirror.“I’m okay.You?”
Romeo nodded.
