Mike closed the door behind him, his face turning serious. ‘I wanted to tell you something. It’s probably nothing, but, well, I thought I’d let you know, just in case.’
‘What is it?’ A couple of thoughts flashed up: had Perry been here with someone else? Had Larissa changed the wedding plans?
‘A man’s been in. A couple of nights ago. I noticed him because he isn’t a member, and was here by himself.’
The hairs rose on the back of my neck. A strange man out here, alone, at any time seemed weird. The week before Christmas? In the past, my first thought would have been that he was scoping the place out for a crime of some sort.
Now? The sudden clenching in my gut told me I knew full well who that man was and why he had been here.
‘He asked if a red-haired woman in her twenties worked here.’
I slid into the wooden chair next to me, suddenly very aware my body consisted of 60 per cent water.
‘I told him no, and asked him to leave. Watched him drive away.’
‘Could he have spoken to anyone else?’
Mike frowned. ‘Maybe. Before he came into the bar. But he didn’t look like the kind of man most members would stop to chat with, if you know what I mean.’
‘Can you describe him to me?’
‘I can do better than that. Here.’
Mike took out his phone, scrolled to the right picture, and handed it to me. I looked at the blurred face of the man on thescreen, and to my surprise felt nothing, no flash of recognition or trigger of emotion. This middle-aged, overweight man with a blank expression behind wire-framed glasses could have been anyone.
But it wasn’t just anyone.
It was him.
And he was here. Looking for me.
I handed Mike his phone back. ‘If you see him again, will you call me?’
‘Yeah, sure. Do you need me to do anything else?’
‘A double whisky would be nice.’
I squared my shoulders, took in a few deep breaths of courage and calm, and went back to eat Christmas pudding and brandy sauce with the least of my worries.
Perry took a bunch of clients on a no-expense-spared, please-do-business-with-us ski trip over New Year. I spent most days up to and including New Year’s Eve working as hard as I could, trying to exhaust myself to a point where my head might stop whirring.
I failed, miserably, and after another night getting twisted up in the bedcovers, I started the new year wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, blinking at the dazzle of the rising sun on freshly fallen snow.
My phone rang, and I fumbled for it in my dressing gown pocket, sure it must be Sam. I hadn’t yet decided whether to tell him about Kane being at the club. I didn’t know for sure it even was Kane, and first I wanted to speak to Gwynne, currently on holiday, to have all the facts. Sam was hanging on in there. I had spotted flickers of hope that he might avoid a total crash, that hisabstinence might last awhile this time. In summary: I couldn’t risk the consequences of telling him.
I stared at the dial, displaying unknown caller, for a few rings before jerking my finger across the green answer button. If Kane had somehow got my number, I might as well get it over with.
‘Hello?’ My voice was a whimper.
‘Hello. Is that Faith? It’s Dylan.’
Is it possible for a human heart to slow down and accelerate all in the same instant?
‘Dylan. Hi.’ I released a sigh of relief.
‘Marilyn gave me your number. Happy New Year. Did I wake you up? I know it’s pretty early for the morning after.’
‘No. It’s fine. I’ve been awake for ages. I worked last night.’
