The Girl I Used to Be(48)

“You made the right choice promoting her,” said Lucy. “She’s a good worker, isn’t she? Picks things up really quickly.”

“And calm, too,” I said. We watched Sophie hurry across the road to the office. She was ten minutes late back from lunch. There was no need for us to say a word.



* * *



*

GLOBE STREET WAS very narrow with only residents’ parking, so I parked in a small car park off the nearby main road and walked around the corner to the apartment. At the entrance to the street there were road diggers repairing a pothole, but apart from them there was nobody else about. There were six apartments in the block, two on each floor. Zoe lived upstairs on the same side of the building as Rachel. I remembered Rachel coming back to the office with Brian after he’d shown her around; her face lit up with happiness and relief. In that afternoon she’d got herself a job and an apartment nearby, and she looked a different woman from the nervous one who’d turned up to the interview.

“Did you like it?” I’d asked.

“I love it!” she said. “I was expecting something like student accommodation, but it’s great.”

“The landlady for that building is really good,” I said. “She takes excellent care of it, but if you have any problems, you must let Brian know and he’ll get it sorted. We’re the managing agent, so everything comes through us.”

“And I can move in straightaway?”

“Yes,” said Brian. “It’s empty now. Move in whenever you like and we’ll start the tenancy from there. And if you go to work somewhere else,” he added, “then of course that won’t affect your tenancy at all, though you’ll still have to come through us if there are any problems.”

“I hope that won’t be for a while!” I said.

“Me too.”

She’d been in the apartment for several months now and seemed happy there. As far as I was aware she hadn’t complained about anything at all; I knew Brian would have told me if she had. Her living room faced the front garden and the street, and I could see she had photo frames and vases on the deep windowsill there. There were blinds at all the windows in the block, and hers were half drawn.

I stopped at the entrance to the building. There were six bells on the wall and an intercom grille next to them. I rang the bell for Zoe’s apartment, but there was no answer. I guessed she was taking her things to her new home, so I used the keys I’d brought with me and let myself in. Inside, the staircase and hallway were carpeted with a warm, thick pile carpet and the only furniture was a small table with a flowering azalea on it. The landlady paid for the shared area to be cleaned every week and I could smell polish in the air; presumably the cleaners had been in that day.

I ran upstairs to Zoe’s apartment and knocked at the door. When there was no answer, I opened it. I called, “Hello,” just in case she was in the bathroom, but there was no reply. In the living room were a couple of suitcases and a pair of bedside lamps and, apart from a few boxes in the kitchen, nothing else was left there. She’d clearly been busy all day. I moved one of the suitcases to wedge the door open, so that she wouldn’t panic if she heard someone in her apartment when she returned.

The inventory she’d signed when she moved in was on my clipboard and I searched for a pen in my bag. Just then I heard the sound of the front door downstairs opening. For a moment I heard the dull roar of the road drill outside, and then the door clicked shut and all was quiet again. I went out onto the landing and was just about to call out Zoe’s name, when I heard a man cough. I leaned forward to look through the banisters into the hallway below and froze.

A man stood outside the door to Rachel’s apartment. In his arms were several carrier bags. He put his key in the lock and pushed the door to her apartment open.

I held my breath.

I heard him dump the bags on the floor, and then he went back to the front door and opened the mailbox with a key.

Just then a mobile phone rang downstairs, making me jump almost through the ceiling. Instinctively I scrabbled in my pocket to find my own phone and muted it.

“Hey, babe,” he said, and in that instant my head started to buzz. I took a step back from the banisters. “Everything okay?” There was silence while he listened to the caller, and then he said, “Yeah, I’ve just got home.” He laughed. “No, just going to get changed, then I’m off out.” Silence again. I couldn’t breathe. “Not sure. No, of course I won’t. I’m meeting Danny in Liverpool.” More silence, and then he said, “Hold on, just let me get in and you can tell me all about it.” He laughed and I heard him walk into her apartment. He slammed the door shut.

For a moment after he’d gone into the apartment, I stood like a fool, unable to believe what I’d heard.

Why was David in Rachel’s apartment?





PART 2





THIRTY-SIX


    RACHEL


Friday, August 11

IT WAS SO good to be sitting in a bar in Amsterdam with my old friends from university that first afternoon. We’d had lunch and then it started to rain, so we’d found the nearest cocktail bar and were steadily making our way through the menu. I was a lightweight compared to them, though, and had to alternate cocktails with soft drinks so that I didn’t make a fool of myself.