The Guilty Couple(35)
‘Thanks.’
I hurry across the room, through the door and up the stairs to the loo. I use the toilet and wash my hands then make my way back down the stairs, casting an eye over the photographs that make up a gallery of faces along the stairwell wall. There are lots of photos of two children, presumably Dylan and Elsie, a few shots of Sonia and her late partner, and several of two elderly couples – the grandparents, I imagine. There are photos with friends, at parties and weddings, camping trips and holidays abroad. It’s like their whole life has been catalogued on one stretch of wall. I search the photos for pictures of Jack and find a faded photograph of two curly-haired children – a boy and a girl – in a paddling pool. There’s a framed photograph of a seventieth birthday celebration but I can’t see Jack in the family snap. I make a mental note to ask Sonia about that and then I spot another photograph that makes me gasp. It’s a photo of Jack, and two of his friends, in what looks like a student union or a bar. They’ve got upturned plastic beer glasses on their heads and Jack’s wearing an oversized badge that says ‘21 Today!’ But it’s not Jack’s drunken, smiling face that makes my heart stop, it’s the two other men.
‘Sonia!’ I unhook the photograph from the wall and hurry down the stairs. ‘Sonia, where was this photo taken?’
‘Sorry?’ She gives me a blank look then gets up to take a closer look at the framed photograph in my hands.
‘That’s Manchester, where Jack did his degree. That photo always makes me laugh, it’s the pint hat and the silly look on his face. I took it from Jack’s old room at Mum and Dad’s years ago. Those were his best friends at uni, Ian something on the left, I can’t remember his last name. But I do remember the guy on the right because his name rhymed. Matt Platt.’ She glances at me and her smile slips. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘That there,’ I point to the young man on Jack’s left, ‘is Ian Ritchie as you say. He’s my ex-husband’s best friend. And that,’ I point to the dark-haired guy on Jack’s other side, ‘is Dominic Sutherland, my ex-husband.’
‘No.’ She shakes her head. ‘No, that’s not right.’
I bring up a photo of Dominic from his company website and show it to her. ‘Look, that’s him.’
She looks at the photo for a few seconds then hands my phone back to me.
‘Either they’re different people or your ex-husband has changed his name. That boy,’ she taps the glass of the photograph, ‘was called Matt Platt. I know because I was there, at Jack’s twenty-first birthday party.’
I don’t understand what’s going on. I would put my house – if I had one – on the fact Dominic is the young man with his arm around Jack’s neck. Ian’s there too and Sonia remembered his name. Dom and Ian have been best friends since they met at Manchester Uni in halls. It makes sense that they’re in the same photo, I’ve seen others, in one of Dom’s photo albums. I even recognise the Pet Shop Boys T-shirt he’s wearing.
‘Maybe they were playing a joke on you,’ I say. ‘Getting you to say Matt Platt and laughing at you behind their backs. Or maybe it was someone else’s name and you’ve confused him with Dom?’
‘No.’ She shakes her head again. ‘His name was definitely Matt. I know because I slept with him.’
Chapter 24
DANI
Dani’s phone pings as she’s processing an arrest for a burglary with Jess. Kelly Smith has sent her a text.
She senses someone’s eyes on her – heavy, weighted – and looks up to find Reece Argent watching her from across the room. He looks away sharply, suddenly fascinated by something on his screen, then glances back and meets her gaze. Go on then, she wills him, jaw clenched, say something. Make a little dig about me being at my desk for a change. But Reece doesn’t say a word. Instead, he raises his eyebrows and looks back at his screen. Dick, Dani thinks then turns back to Jess.
‘Back in a sec,’ Dani says, pocketing her phone as she gets up from her desk. Jess grunts, her attention so focused on the sheets of paper in front of her that she doesn’t even glance up as Dani heads out of the office to the loos.
She enters an empty cubicle, locks the door, takes her phone out of her pocket, and sits down on the closed toilet lid.
Smith’s text is a message forwarded from Olivia: Sorry I can’t meet you later but I’m going to see Jack’s sister, Sonia, in Audley End. Long story. Will tell you everything next time I see you.
Interesting. First Olivia breaks into Dom’s house, then she goes to see her ex-lover’s sister. Maybe Olivia thinks the sister’s still in touch with him? Dani feels a prickle of excitement. Intel on Jack Law’s whereabouts could lead to a long overdue arrest, and a nice pat on the back for her. She’d have to fudge where she got the intel, obviously, but that wouldn’t be hard. She opens the Maps app on her phone and calculates the distance between New Scotland Yard to Audley End. It’s only an hour and a half in the car. A quick database search should reveal Sonia’s address, assuming she shares the same surname as her brother. Not the Police National Computer, though, she doesn’t want to leave an audit trail. She looks at her watch. Three more hours of her shift left and then she can take off. She texts Dominic, telling him to meet her in the car park at 10.30 p.m. for an update, then returns her phone to her pocket and strolls back towards the office. As she reaches the stairwell Reece walks towards her. She moves to step around him but he sidesteps in the same direction, cutting her off. He looms over her, six foot three inches of fragile male ego and simmering aggression – the most dangerous kind of man.