For Your Own Protection(46)

‘That was the plan. As soon as the guy blew my cover in the pub, I decided that was it. I called things off.’

‘And you cleared out of your flat. Very quickly.’

‘Yes. I made a big mistake with you a few weeks ago.’

‘You took me back to the flat.’

She nodded. ‘It was just after that lovely night out, in town, and we were both a bit tipsy. I kind of forgot what this was all about. We’d been spending so much time together, it surprised me how much I’d started to care for you and Charlie. I really didn’t plan for it to happen like that, believe me.’

Matt was still processing the earlier revelations. ‘So, you decided to clear out of the flat, because you knew I’d probably come looking and asking questions.’

‘Partly.’ She hesitated. ‘I really regretted accepting this job. Even before what happened in the pub, I was torn about whether to just back out. I’m not used to dealing with this kind of thing.’

‘What kind of thing?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Danger. I started freaking out about what I’d got myself into. I thought there might be people hanging around outside the flat. One night there was a guy sitting across the road, looking up at my window. Or at least it looked like he was. It really spooked me.’

‘So you moved out because of that?’

‘That was a large part of the reason. I wanted to make a fresh start.’

‘But you didn’t.’

‘No. I tried, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t walk away. I was genuinely worried about you.’

‘So you kept following me.’

‘Yes. It’s obviously become more difficult, now we aren’t seeing one another.’

‘Are you still being paid to do this?’

‘No. They cancelled the job.’

‘So you’re still involved because you’re worried about me. And yet you won’t tell me who asked you to do this.’

‘I told you, I don’t know who was paying me.’

‘You know what I mean. Your friend, the go-between – you won’t reveal their identity, even if it might help me to work out what the hell is going on.’

‘I’m sorry, Matt.’

Matt felt like smacking the arm of the bench in frustration. ‘What happened at the swimming pool?’

‘I’d been following you since early morning – tailed you to Beth’s. And then on to the leisure centre.’

‘You were in the pool when Charlie went missing? Where exactly were you?’

‘On the far side of the pool. I’d been watching you at the slide.’

‘How did you come to find Charlie?’

‘I was watching when he went around to the slide and then got out of the pool.’

‘And you followed him?’

She was already reddening. ‘Yes. I wanted to make sure he was okay.’

‘But you could have come and told me.’

‘Yes, I could have.’

Matt blinked as the anger bubbled within. ‘Those few minutes, when I’d lost Charlie, they were the most frightening minutes of my whole life.’

Natalie looked away. ‘I can imagine.’

Matt shook his head. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to be in that situation, do you?’

‘Look, Matt, I can totally understand how angry you must be feeling. Anger at me. I can totally see that. But I didn’t want to let Charlie out of my sight. If I’d gone to tell you, then we’d both have lost him. I couldn’t risk that.’

‘What happened then?’

‘I got out of the pool as quickly as I could, just in time to see Charlie turn towards the toilets. I didn’t want to scare him, so I didn’t call out or anything. When I saw him push open the door to the ladies, I followed him inside. He’d entered one of the cubicles and was trying to lock the door. There was no one else in there at the time, so I waited until he came back out. He recognised me straight away, so I helped him to wash his hands and then took him outside to the first member of staff I could find.’

‘That’s what the woman at the playground told me. She said she saw you walking out of the toilets with him and taking him to the lifeguard.’

‘I only wanted to make sure he was safe. After I’d got him to the lifeguard, I changed quickly and left.’

‘You told Charlie not to tell me about you being there?’

‘Yes. Did Charlie tell you that?’ She closed her eyes briefly. ‘I didn’t want to jeopardise my being able to keep following you.’

Matt looked off towards the lake. The sun was blazing down on its surface as a couple of swans glided past. ‘So what’s changed? What’s changed between now and then?’

‘I don’t understand what you mean.’

‘At the swimming pool, you didn’t want me to know you were still following. And just after that, at the playground, you chose to walk away rather than tell me what was going on. But now you contact me and want to explain things. What’s changed?’

‘This has changed.’ She handed her phone to Matt.

Matt stared at the image on the screen. It was of a well-built man, white, with short hair. Muscles rippled underneath his dark T-shirt. He was moving, not looking at the camera. The image was pretty good, but not perfect. There was a slight graininess about it. It seemed like a still from . . .