‘But not her phone?’ she asked, bending to pick up her gardening tools. Tugging a baby wipe from the pack still on the table, she used it to wipe the mud from her trowel.
‘No,’ Adam said uncertainly. ‘She must have been carrying it.’
Cassie noted the furrow in his brow as she glanced at him. ‘Well that was lucky, wasn’t it?’ She gave him a short smile. ‘That she had your number to hand, I mean. And that you were able to drop everything and ride like Sir Galahad to her rescue.’
‘What in God’s name are you talking about, Cassie?’ He looked angry. But she was also angry. Fed up with being treated as if she were a fool, as if she were mentally unstable. No doubt the growing rift between them would suit Kim, whom Cassie was beginning to think wouldn’t hesitate to step into her shoes.
‘Nothing,’ she said lightly, and turned her attention to wiping her secateurs. ‘Just that I’m not as naïve as I may seem, that’s all.’
‘Jesus,’ Adam muttered, and glanced skywards. ‘Would you like to tell me what’s going on here, Cassie?’ he asked, an edge to his tone, ‘because I really have no idea.’
Cassie ignored him in favour of removing a particularly stubborn chunk of mud.
‘Cassie!’ Adam snapped. ‘For God’s sake, will you stop that!’
‘Stop what?’ She blinked at him, perplexed. Was she inconveniencing him in some way, she wondered. By breathing, possibly? She swallowed back the tears building inside her.
‘Talking in riddles. Cleaning everything in sight! What thehellis wrong with you?’
She ignored that, too. Plucking a fresh wipe from the pack, she channelled her energies into cleaning the tabletop vigorously instead.
‘She was attacked!’ Adam raised his voice.
Samuel stirred in his pram. Cassie stopped wiping.
‘Some pervert was following her across the playing fields.’ Seeing he had her attention, Adam went on more quietly. ‘Naturally she would call me, knowing you were here with Samuel.’
Cassie took a minute to assimilate what he was saying. ‘Did he catch her?’ she asked, trying to dissect her emotions. Why didn’t she feel anything? Horror? Sympathy? She did feel something: disbelief. She didn’t believe Kim, though Adam clearly did. Cassie was struck by an overwhelming sadness as she considered that.
Adam eyed her, confused. ‘I’ve just said.’
‘So you did.’ Tilting her head to one side, Cassie looked him over. He was clearly working to restrain himself, but still his fury was tangible. Outrage for Kim, rage directed ather. Why? Her heart twisted with hurt. She took a long breath. ‘Has she reported it to the police?’
‘No.’ Adam sighed. ‘She doesn’t want to. I can’t say I blame her, given what she’ll have to go through. I was hoping you might persuade her.’
Cassie paused to take stock. ‘I could try,’ she said. ‘I can see why she would be reluctant, though, considering what she was wearing.’
Adam squinted at her. ‘What?’
‘The clothes she was wearing,’ she repeated calmly. ‘They’re designed to attract attention after all, aren’t they?’
Adam baulked. ‘You have to be joking.’
Cassie didn’t answer. Walking across to Samuel, who was fretting, she rocked his pram, shushing him gently.
Adam shook his head. ‘Are you telling me you think shedeservedto be attacked?’
Cassie answered with an enigmatic smile. He really couldn’t see it, could he? That the girl was playing him like a fiddle? ‘That’s not what I said, Adam,’ she replied evenly. ‘I merely observed that she was aiming to attract attention.’
He laughed incredulously. ‘I don’t fucking believe this.’
Cassie turned to face him, her anger bubbling to the surface. ‘Yourattention, Adam, quite obviously. And she has it. Doesn’tshe?’
He stared at her, a long, penetrating gaze. ‘You’re insane,’ he muttered, and turned to walk away.
Cassie swallowed back the hard lump in her throat. ‘I know what you’re doing!’ she yelled after him.
Adam stopped and ran a hand agitatedly through his hair. ‘Which is what, exactly?’ he asked, his tone weary, which only added to her humiliation.
