The One You Love (5 page)

‘It can’t be,’ he mouthed.

He stared across at the figure, which still seemed to be staring back. But it was just too far away to make out the man’s face, and the sun distorted the view somewhat. Will’s first reaction was to turn and run, or at the very least pretend he hadn’t noticed the attention. But then he was overcome by anger. Anger at what had happened to Richard, and to Emma.

He stood up and began striding towards the man, dodging kids as they weaved across his path. His heart rate picked up rapidly.

By the time he reached the man, the guy had his back to him, sitting on the grass, leaning on his hands.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Will demanded. ‘Are you following me?’

And then the man turned.

‘Excuse me?’ He looked puzzled, shielding his eyes against the sun. ‘Do I know you?’

It wasn’t him.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ said Will, holding up his hands and stepping back a couple of paces. ‘I thought you were a friend,’ he said, trying to explain.

‘Right…’ said the man warily. ‘That’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’

‘Sorry,’ Will said again, turning and pacing away in the opposite direction.

‘What the hell am I doing?’ he muttered to himself as he walked away, his face flushed with embarrassment.

He only stopped walking once he had put enough distance between himself and the man – there was no way he wanted to run into him again. He leant against a wall and put a hand to his head.

Why did this have to happen?

He thought back to how the man had looked at him. Like he was some kind of maniac, ready to pull out a knife and attack him.

My God, he was really cracking up.

Then his thoughts turned to Emma and not for the first time he felt intense, painful shame. She thought he was the perfect brother, the one who had supported her through everything. And he had revelled in playing that part.

‘You’re a bloody impostor,’ he shouted, just as a family with two young toddlers walked around the corner. The father shot him a reprimanding glance.

‘Come on kids,’ he said, shepherding them away from Will. ‘Let’s go over to the zoo.’

‘Yes, Daddy!’ the little girl shouted excitedly, tugging at her father’s trousers. ‘Can we see the monkeys?’

‘Sure we can,’ he said, ruffling her hair.

‘Yes!’ she said, jumping up and down on the spot. ‘I love monkeys!’

Will watched them as they walked away, the two children leading from the front, unable to curb their enthusiasm. The man and woman held hands just behind. Faced with a scene of such love, Will felt lonelier than he had ever felt in his entire life.

But worst of all, he realised with disgust that he was beginning to empathise with the man who had caused all these problems.

‘Please,’ he said, looking up into the deep blue sky, ‘don’t let me become like him.’

***

‘Emma?’ the man at the door said.

Emma nodded.

‘Detective Inspector Mark Gasnier,’ he continued, holding out a hand and flashing a surprisingly white, movie-star smile.

‘Hi.’ Emma took his hand and met his firm but fair grip. The guy certainly wasn’t what she had expected. He was a towering figure; his hair was gypsy black and his skin summer-tanned. She’d expected someone scruffy, even hangdog, but this guy was wearing a designer suit.

‘This is Detective Sergeant Christian Davies,’ added Gasnier, nodding towards his companion.

‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Davies, also shaking hands. He was at least a foot shorter than his partner; they looked like quite an odd pairing.

Emma smiled and waited.

‘So can we come in?’ asked Gasnier, smiling again. This time it seemed more businesslike than friendly.

‘Oh, sure, yes, come on in,’ Emma said, forgetting herself.

She led them into the lounge, where Lizzy was waiting nervously on the sofa.

‘Hi,’ Lizzy said, getting up to welcome them. ‘Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee?’

‘It’s okay,’ Gasnier replied, sitting down without invitation. ‘We’ve just had one back at the station. And we won’t be here for long, you’ll be glad to hear.’

Lizzy smiled nervously. She’d never been involved with the police before; she’d never even as much as spoken to a policeman in her life. But now she had two detectives from the Met sitting in her apartment. It was just too crazy.

Emma joined Lizzy on the sofa, facing the two officers. Gasnier, with his ample frame, made the sofa look as if it was toy-size.

‘This must be a really difficult time,’ began Gasnier, looking across at Emma. She stared straight back at him, noticing that his eyes were an unusually pale blue, as if someone had inserted two marbles into the place where his eyes should have been. ‘I hear that you’re due to be married in a week or so.’

She was surprised by the start of the discussion, and could only manage a nod.

Gasnier looked down at his notebook.

‘We’ve got a lot of details here from the preliminary questioning. I hope the Police Constable treated you well?’

‘Yes, he was very nice,’ Emma replied.

‘Good to hear it,’ he quipped, ‘because that was my nephew.’

‘Oh, right.’

‘I tried to persuade him not to go into the force, but he wouldn’t listen. He’ll learn, though.’

Davies bit back a smile, but Gasnier’s comment seemed more like an accidentally voiced internal thought than a genuine attempt at humour.

‘You said that you last saw Dan when?’ asked Gasnier, getting back to the questioning.

‘It was about seven. Seven o’clock on Friday, just before I went out.’

‘To –?’

‘To my hen party. Well, we were going to have a night out in London – me and some friends.’

‘And when did you notice that something was wrong?’

‘I got a call from my brother, Will. He said that Dan hadn’t turned up for the stag party. So we all went back to the flat to see if we could find him.’

‘All?’ Gasnier said, raising an eyebrow.

‘Lizzy and me.’ Emma gestured to the silent Lizzy. ‘Will was already there, waiting for us.’

‘Your brother was already at the flat?’

‘Yes.’

‘Talk me through what happened next.’ Gasnier sat back and folded his arms.

‘Well,’ began Emma. ‘We went into the apartments and we could hear music playing from upstairs. When we got to the top we realised it was coming from my flat, so we went in looking for Dan. And that’s when we found Richard, in the bathroom. We thought he was dead at first, but Will did some first aid on him until the ambulance arrived.’

Gasnier paused, looking unblinkingly at Emma. It was as if he was trying to read her, deciding whether she was telling the truth.

‘How was Dan in the days, weeks before he disappeared?’

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘A bit on edge really, but we both were, what with the wedding coming up.’

‘Does Dan have any enemies that you know of?’

‘No. At least I don’t think so.’

‘No one with a grudge – an ex-girlfriend, someone who he owed money to?’

‘Not that I know of.’

‘Have you ever suspected Dan might be having an affair?’

‘No,’ Emma said, sounding a bit too defensive.

‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Gasnier said. ‘But I have to ask, you understand. So there’s no reason you know of to explain why he might want to just get up and leave without saying anything to anyone?’

‘No.’ Emma resisted the temptation to say what she had feared: that he had left because he didn’t want to marry her.

‘Are Dan and Richard close?’

‘They’re really good friends. Richard was going to be Dan’s best man.’

‘Was Richard at your flat before you left to go out?’

‘No.’

‘Did you know Richard was coming over to the flat?’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘But he was coming to the stag party?’

‘He had been invited, but he couldn’t make it. He was supposed to be away on business.’

‘So what changed?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Who do you think attacked Richard, Emma?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe someone broke into the flat looking for money. We’ve had some problems around here with druggies.’

‘You don’t believe Dan did it?’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘You do realise that we are treating the attack on Richard as attempted murder?’ Gasnier stated. ‘And if Richard does die, this will become a murder investigation?’

‘I realise that, yes.’

‘So if you know anything, anything at all that might help with this investigation, then you would do well to say so now.’

‘I don’t know anything else,’ Emma replied. ‘I’ve told you all I know.’

Gasnier waited a beat.

‘A witness has come forward,’ he stated. ‘They saw Dan running away from the apartment, about an hour before you arrived there and found Richard.’

7

He spent some time waiting outside the hospital entrance, watching visitors and patients going in, their faces telling a thousand stories of hope, pain, and anguish.

He knew just how they felt.

When he felt ready, he entered the building and headed for the ward. He knew where Richard was; the nurse had been extremely helpful in that respect. They’d even said he could see Richard outside the official visiting hours. And to think people criticised the NHS for being inflexible.

As he reached the ward the nerves really kicked in.

Would he be challenged?

But he pushed such thoughts aside. He was doing this for the right reasons, and that was enough to dispel any fears he had.

8

‘They think he did it, don’t they?’ Emma said, looking across to Lizzy, who was daydreaming on the other side of the sofa. ‘They really think Dan tried to kill Richard.’

‘It did sound like it. But I suppose if I was in their shoes, and someone had come forward saying they saw Dan running away from the apartments, then I’d probably be thinking the same thing. I don’t think they’ve got anything else to go on, apart from that witness statement. They’re just coming to the most logical conclusion, based on the evidence available. I’m not saying they’re right though.’

‘But he could have been running to get away from someone else.’ Emma was trying to convince herself as much as Lizzy. ‘Like the person who really attacked Richard.’

‘He could have been,’ Lizzy said. ‘The trouble is,’ she said, turning to look at Emma, ‘we just don’t know, do we? Nobody knows what happened, except for Dan. And he’s not contacting us.’

In unison they looked across at Emma’s mobile, which lay silent on the table.

Emma shook her head. ‘I don’t understand why he would try and call, then switch his mobile off.’

‘Me neither.’

‘It just doesn’t make any sense.’

‘Why didn’t you tell the police Dan called?’

‘I don’t know,’ Emma admitted. ‘I guess I thought that it might make them even more convinced that Dan was guilty.’

‘I can understand that.’

‘You think I should have told them?’

‘I think it’s a bit weird that you didn’t.’

‘You’re probably right, but it’s too late now. If I told them, they’d wonder why I’d kept it from them in the first place.’

‘But what if telling the police about Dan’s call might actually help?’

‘How?’

‘I don’t know, maybe they could trace his mobile or something.’

‘But maybe telling the police isn’t the right thing to do?’ Emma responded. ‘Dan must have run for a reason – what if telling the police makes things worse? I mean, they’re not really concerned about Dan’s safety, are they?’

‘You didn’t like that Gasnier guy, did you?’

‘Not really. There was something about him, something that really grated. He just seemed so cocky, sarcastic. The way he made it look like I was protecting Dan.’

‘But you are,’ Lizzy said.

That home truth stopped the conversation dead. They spent a minute or so contemplating the situation in the kind of silence that somehow seems deafeningly loud.

‘I’m getting worried,’ Emma admitted, breaking the stillness. ‘I still don’t think Dan could have done this, but the more I find out, the less sure I’m getting.’

‘It’s understandable.’

‘I mean, I haven’t exactly made the best choice of boyfriends in the past.’

‘You mean Stuart?’ Lizzy ventured.

Emma nodded.

‘You’ve never said much about what happened between you two.’

‘It’s something I want to forget, really. I don’t think it’s healthy to wallow in the past. What happened with Stuart is ancient history.’