Cassie’s hand strayed self-consciously to the bare nape of her neck. It was small consolation that at least one person had realised she had no need of hair straighteners, unless it was to sell them on eBay.
‘Obviously.’ Adam sighed, glancing from the solicitor to Cassie. He managed a small smile, but that was little consolation. Even from here, she could still see the bewildered disbelief in his eyes. He’d been through so much with her, because of her. Too much.
‘They don’t have adequate CCTV footage,’ the woman went on. ‘That’s key, but—’
‘Assuming she did take the item,’ Adam cut in, his agitation made obvious by the hand he was dragging across the back of his neck.
‘Quite,’ the woman said, her smile short and professional. ‘Nevertheless, it is a plus. Taking into account the information you supplied regarding the recent tragic loss of your son, she’ll probably get no more than a fixed penalty fine despite the previous incident.’
‘Right.’ Sucking in a breath, Adam glanced upwards. ‘And will this also form part of a criminal record?’ he asked, causing Cassie’s heart to sink to the pit of her stomach. She was a common criminal. She would never be able to go into that shop again. Never be able to hold her head up. God knew, she’d struggled to do that anyway after what had happened with Josh, the guilt she carried like a stone in her chest, but now… People who might judge her kindly would imagine she’d been driven mad by grief. Had she? The whole episode was still foggy in her mind, her recollection of her time in the shop fractured and incomplete. It was as if she were floating through another nightmare, unable to grasp onto anything tangible.
‘I’ll be pushing the extenuating circumstances,’ the solicitor answered with an uncertain shrug. ‘At least she’s not looking at a prison sentence.’
Cassie felt nausea swill inside her. She almost wished she could hide away in prison, where she wouldn’t see fingers pointing, the disillusionment that was bound to be in Adam’s eyes.
‘I’ll go and check the paperwork is under way,’ the woman said, pressing a hand lightly to Adam’s arm. Even that simple gesture of reassurance sent a ripple of jealousy through Cassie. If she’d thought she might lose him before, she was growing certain of it now.
‘You’ll probably need to wait in reception, but it shouldn’t be too long and then you can get Mrs Colby back home.’ The solicitor nodded towards what Cassie assumed was the desk area. She’d been so dazed when they’d brought her here, she hadn’t noticed her surroundings. She was still utterly disorientated, as if her life were disjointed, coming apart at the seams. How had this happened?
Closing her eyes, she wiped a hand over her wet cheeks and then looked back to Adam. What was he thinking? she wondered as he finally fixed his gaze in her direction. Imagining what was going through his mind, Cassie felt a cold chill prickle her skin. And then a brief moment of relief when his face relaxed into a small smile. ‘Hang in there,’ he said, giving her a determined nod before turning to go after the solicitor.
They didn’t chat much while the police were going through the formalities of her release. Cassie guessed Adam didn’t know what to say to her. She wished he would make proper eye contact. His gaze had skimmed her a few times, but she couldn’t read what was there.
They were driving away from the station when he spoke. ‘Okay?’ he asked, glancing in her direction. His voice was still choked, his hands gripping the steering wheel.
Cassie nodded. She couldn’t trust herself to speak.
‘I’ll run you a hot bath when we get home,’ he offered. He was trying to make her feel better, to fix things. He was a fixer by nature. It should beherfixing things, not him, but she didn’t know how, when their lives were so broken. When she obviously was.
‘Do you remember taking them, Cassie?’ he asked, after an interminably long minute.
‘No.’ Twisting to look at him, Cassie repeated what she’d insisted since the security guard had appeared to blow what was left of her world apart. ‘I’ve already said, someone must have put them…’ She stopped, her throat thick with emotion.
Hadshe taken the straighteners? Inadvertently dropped them into her bag? Fear twisting inside her, she tried hard to think back. She’d been so distracted, as she had been the last time. She’d been shopping for Josh then, for his birthday, needing to distract herself. She’d walked out with one of the leather bags on her arm with her own. She could see how she’d done that. But this? She still couldn’t imagine taking the straighteners, even unconsciously.
Adam didn’t mention it, the ‘previous incident’, as the solicitor had referred to it, falling silent instead.
‘I didn’t realise you’d changed your name,’ he said eventually. ‘The maiden name on the paperwork, it wasn’t Tyler.’
Cassie’s stomach lurched. ‘No.’ She thought fast. ‘I wanted something zappier. Professionally, I mean. Smith was hardly that, so I changed it to Tyler.’
Adam drew in a breath, nodded tersely.
‘And then you came along and saved me. Cassie Colby is certainly zappy, you have to admit.’ She laughed, a strangled, desperate sound.
Adam said nothing. Kept his gaze fixed forward.
Cassie looked at him. He would have cracked a joke once, saidAt your serviceor something. But his shoulders were stiff, his jaw taut. He wouldn’t save her now. He didn’t believe her.
She watched him take a hand from the wheel and knead his forehead, heard his sigh. He would be wondering who could have put the stolen item into her bag. Why anyone would want to. And Cassie had no answer to give him. It could only have been the woman who was texting her, but to tell him that, she would have to tell him everything. And she couldn’t bear to imagine what she would see in his eyes then.
Eighteen
Kimberley
‘Hi.’ Kim smiled tentatively when Adam pulled his front door open. Looking him over, she was shocked. He looked dreadful, as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He probably felt that he was. Kim’s heart went out to him. He’d done nothing to deserve any of the awful things that were happening in his life. The poor man must wonder what had hit him.
‘I’ve been shopping,’ she said, realising it was probably best not to probe. He didn’t know her that well, after all, and men didn’t easily share what was troubling them. Her mind went back to Josh, his evasive answers when she’d asked him what was wrong. She’d known he was hurting because of other people. He and Adam might not have been blood relations, but they were so similar in nature, easy-going and caring, they could have been father and son.
