He moves towards her, puts a hand on her arm. ‘It’ll be fine, whatever it is. I’m sure we’re safe.’ He picks up his bag, his coat, his scarf. ‘I will see you later. I’ll try and get back early tonight. Maybe we could even do something.’
She forces a smile. ‘Yes,’ she says. And then, before he disappears from view, she says, ‘Roan? Who’s Molly?’
He stops. Then he turns and looks at her. ‘Molly?’
‘Yes. I kept meaning to say. You got a card from her. Valentine’s day. Georgia opened it by mistake and I put it awaybecause I knew you’d be cross about her opening your stuff. Then I forgot about it.’ She goes to the drawer and pulls it out. ‘Here,’ she says. ‘Sorry.’
Roan walks towards her and takes the card from her hand. She watches him open it and read it. He smiles. ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘Molly!Yes. I know Molly. She’s a patient. Or at least, she was. I don’t see her any more.’
‘And she has your address?’ She shows him the envelope.
He looks slightly confused. ‘She does appear to, yes.’
‘How?’
He takes the envelope from her hand and stares at it for a moment. ‘I literally have no idea,’ he says. ‘I mean, maybe it was in my office, on a letter or something?’
Cate takes the card from him and puts it back in the drawer. ‘Well,’ she says, ‘you should be more careful.’
He gives her a strange look. ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘You’re right.’
He kisses her briefly on the cheek and then he goes.
She grips the back of a chair, feeling her heart racing in her chest, the sickening rush of adrenaline caused by the confrontation. She hears the front door slam, but almost immediately she hears it open again. She hears Roan’s voice in the hallway and then a female voice.
The door to the apartment opens and Roan walks back in, with DI Angela Currie following behind.
‘No problem,’ he’s saying to her. ‘No problem at all.’ He catches Cate’s eye. ‘This is DI Currie. She just wants to ask us a few questions.’
Cate touches her collarbone. ‘Me too?’
‘Yes, please. If you have the time?’ says the detective.
‘Sure. Yes. Can I get you anything? A tea? Coffee?’
DI Currie taps a plastic bottle of water in her hand and says, ‘Thanks, but I’m fine.’
Roan leads her into the living room. She sits on the armchair. Cate and Roan sit side by side on the sofa.
‘So,’ DI Currie begins, ‘sorry to bother you this early in the morning, but it literally just came to our attention, and I have to be honest, I don’t really know how we missed this before, but having interviewed you both separately regarding this missing person case – Mrs Fours as a potential witness and Dr Fours as someone who worked closely with Saffyre – it has only just come to our attention that you both live here. And obviously that throws a very different complexion on things; opens up a whole new angle. So I hope you don’t mind if I ask you both a few more questions?’ She smiles and then she looks upwards and says, ‘Bloody helicopters. I’m so sorry. It must be a nightmare. But we’re nearly done now. They’ll be gone soon. I promise.’
She pulls a ballpoint pen and notebook from her shoulder bag.
‘Mr Fours, we spoke a couple of days ago about Saffyre coming under your care for a while and you confirmed that you stopped your sessions with her roughly a year ago?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And you didn’t see her again after that?’
‘No. Or, as I told you yesterday, I saw her around the area a couple of times, but not to stop and talk to.’
‘So after you signed her off from treatment, that was the end of your relationship with her?’
‘Yes. That’s correct.’
‘Great,’ says DI Currie, ‘thank you for clarifying that for me. And then, on the night of February the fourteenth, Valentine’s night, it was the two of you that had dinner together, in the village?’
They both nod.
