Lying Beside You (Cyrus Haven #3)(28)

I read the texts.

Maya typed:

What star sign are you?

Sagittarius

They can be hard to read. How will I know if you’re falling for me?

That’s easy. I’ll trip.

OMG, how cute are you. What do you like to do for fun?

I run. I read. I go skydiving. (Not true, I’m scared of heights) Did you just lie to me?

Last time. CMHAHTD

I am staring at the screen, speechless. Baffled.

‘After the second exchange, Maya suggested you meet. You fobbed her off,’ says Lenny.

‘That didn’t happen.’

‘Which bit?’

‘Any of it. That isn’t my profile. I didn’t set it up.’

‘They’re your photographs.’

‘Yeah, but they could have been lifted from Instagram or Facebook.’

‘Do you use either of those?’

‘No. But it isn’t me. I wouldn’t use a dating app.’

‘You’re saying someone stole your identity,’ says Lenny.

‘Clearly.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know.’

Lenny gets wearily to her feet and walks to the gas fireplace. My mind is racing ahead of her, trying to put the pieces together. I look again at the exchange. The text messages are corny and flirtatious and young. A thought occurs to me. I want to push it away, or erase it completely, but it keeps bobbing back up like a rubber duck in a bath.

Evie took the photograph of me in the garden washing Poppy … and the one of me cooking the barbecue. She has access to my phone … my laptop. She guessed my password within twenty-four hours.

‘Where are you going?’ asks Lenny. I’m halfway across the room.

‘To sort this out.’

‘I need you to give me your phone.’

‘Take it,’ I say, tossing it onto the sofa.

Lenny’s own mobile is chirruping in the back pocket of her jeans. She wants me to wait but I’m already out the door and halfway to my car. She doesn’t follow.

On the drive home, I try to calm down, telling myself that Evie doesn’t understand the rules of friendship or relationships because of what she’s endured. At the same time, I’m tired of making excuses for her. She wants to be treated like an adult, yet she keeps acting like a child.

I’m almost home when I see the flashing lights behind me. A police car. For a moment I wonder if I’ve been speeding or if Lenny has had me arrested for leaving her house without permission.

I pull over opposite Wollaton Park. Blue lights strobe across the iron fence and shrubs and ivy-covered walls. I wait with my hands on the wheel, looking in the mirror. Instead of a uniformed officer, I watch Hoyle get out of the passenger seat, hitch up his trousers and walk towards me, growing bigger in the mirror. I lower the glass. He leans his forearm on the door.

‘Cyrus Haven. I’m arresting you for wasting police time and obstructing a criminal investigation.’





19


Cyrus


A hand protects my head, as I slide onto the back seat of the police car. Handcuffed. Protesting. Ignored. Hoyle maintains his silence on the journey to Radford Road where I am taken through the charge room to the interview suites. A public parade – part of my humiliation. Alone in the spartan room, I wait for Hoyle to return. He must know that I didn’t abduct Maya Kirk, or murder her father, but he will use this as a way of sidelining Lenny or deflecting attention away from his own failings.

My issue is how much I should tell him. Evie has stolen my identity and faked a dating profile. She sent messages to Maya, pretending to be me. If I tell that to Hoyle, he could have her charged with catfishing or identity theft.

The door opens. He enters with Edgar. The two detectives sit opposite me.

‘Do you require the services of a lawyer?’ asks Hoyle.

‘No, sir.’

He names everybody in the room and turns on the recording device.

‘Before you go on, I can explain,’ I say. ‘Somebody stole my identity. I didn’t set up the dating profile. I didn’t communicate with Maya Kirk. I have handed over my phone to Detective Superintendent Parvel and will fully cooperate.’

‘Where were you last Sunday evening?’

‘At home.’

‘Alone?’

‘I have a housemate. She was with me.’

Hoyle consults his notes. ‘Evie Cormac?’

‘Yes.’

‘She’s a bit of a mystery, isn’t she? I couldn’t find any details about Miss Cormac. No birth certificate. No passport. No previous school records.’

‘She was a ward of the court.’

‘But she’s no longer a child.’

‘The protection order is ongoing.’

‘Why?’

‘That would rather defeat the purpose of the protection order,’ I say. ‘People aren’t supposed to know her background.’

‘Does DSU Parvel know?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Then you can tell me.’

‘No, sir.’

This seems to light a fire under Hoyle, but he keeps it under control.

I hear Lenny’s voice before she arrives. She enters the room like an acorn and spreads like an oak. Suddenly everything seems smaller. I think she’s here to rescue me, or launch a spirited defence, but she doesn’t bother to make eye contact. ‘A farmer has found a body near Newstead Abbey. Early indications are it’s Maya Kirk.’