The Therapist(41)

Half-an-hour later, I’m on my way, glad to be away from The Circle, from its cloying, claustrophobic atmosphere. It’s the gates, I decide. They make it feel a bit like a prison. If they weren’t there, The Circle would be just another street in London.

The park is glorious in its new autumn colours. I walk for an hour, trying not to think of anything much, then sit down on a bench and watch the world go by. A few people stride along, in a hurry to be somewhere, but most stroll leisurely, especially the mums with young children, or the older couples, some hand in hand. I smile, then feel a pang of melancholy. Will Leo and I ever have children, grow old together? Is it strange that we have never talked about having children? Or was it a conversation we were waiting to have once we’d settled into our new life in London?

‘Alice!’

I look up and see Eve jogging towards me.

‘You’re not still running, are you?’ I ask in pretend alarm. ‘I saw you leave at nine this morning.’

She laughs and sits down on the bench, taking a moment to catch her breath.

‘No, I ran with a friend, then went to hers for lunch. Now I’m jogging back to blog. What about you? Did you have a good weekend? Leo said you were away.’

‘Yes, I went back to Harlestone and caught up with some of my friends there. I felt bad about cancelling on Maria at the last minute, but I needed a change of scene.’

‘Don’t worry, she understood.’

‘Also, I had a bit of a run-in with Tamsin so I thought it better to keep my distance.’

Eve wrinkles her nose. ‘Yes, she told me. If it helps, she’s feeling bad about it.’

‘I know, she came and apologised this morning, which was nice of her. And invited me for coffee on Friday.’

‘Oh, good, she said she was going to. Don’t think too harshly of her, Alice. Nina’s death hit her hard.’

‘It must be dreadful to lose your best friend in such a terrible way,’ I say, watching a little dachshund sniffing around a pile of leaves.

‘It was all the harder for her because – well, there wasn’t a row, or anything like that, but I think that when we moved in next door, Tamsin felt a bit pushed out.’

‘In what way?’

‘The thing is, I only knew that Tamsin and Nina were best friends, or had been best friends, after Nina died, when Tamsin came to see me. She was distraught, she wanted to know if she had upset Nina in any way. I asked her what she meant and she said that until a few months before her death, she and Nina had been best friends, always popping in and out of each other’s houses, having supper together at weekends. Then, suddenly, everything changed. She said she’d go past Nina’s house and see me chatting to her through the window, and wonder why Nina hadn’t invited her to join us. I told her they were usually spur-of-the-moment coffees – you know, Nina would see me coming back from a run and shout “want a coffee?” But there were the suppers too. We went around to Nina and Oliver’s a few times with Maria and Tim, but Tamsin and Connor were never there, which was why I didn’t know she and Nina were supposedly best friends. I asked Maria about it recently, asked if she knew what had happened between them and she said that she didn’t. Nina had stopped coming to yoga too, and Tamsin suspected it was because she didn’t want to see her.’ She pauses. ‘I really liked Nina but it bothered me afterwards, to think that she was being – well, maybe a bit mean.’

I nod slowly. ‘Was it common knowledge that Nina was having an affair?’

‘Who told you that?’

Was there a slight edge to her voice or had I imagined it? ‘Lorna.’

Eve shakes her head. ‘No. We only found out after.’ She turns to look at me. ‘You can understand now why we were able to accept that Oliver killed her.’

Just like that, I want to ask, without question? ‘But why couldn’t it have been the man she was having an affair with who killed her?’ I ask instead.

Eve bends to tie her lace. ‘I’m sure the police looked into it,’ she says, straightening up again. ‘And if they didn’t think there was anything to investigate, well, who were we to argue?’

Oliver’s friends, I want to say. You were Oliver’s friends.

‘You said Tamsin was Nina’s best friend. Did she know about her affair?’

‘No, not back then. Nina never spoke to her about it.’

‘I remember Tamsin saying at lunch last week that Nina had really helped her. Did she see her in a professional capacity?’

‘No, Nina wouldn’t have been allowed to be her therapist, given that they were friends. Tamsin suffers from depression – I don’t think she’ll mind me telling you that – and I think Nina gave her advice on natural remedies, as Tamsin didn’t want to take anti-depressants. Which is why it was doubly hard for her when Nina began distancing herself. Tamsin felt abandoned, and not just physically.’

‘Did Nina work from home?’

‘No, she had an office about twenty minutes from here.’

‘What about Connor, what’s he like?’

‘Connor is Connor. He’s actually alright when you get to know him. But he can be a bit insensitive, especially to Tamsin.’

I don’t want to pry but I’m curious. Luckily, after a drink from her water bottle, she carries on without any prompting.