‘Of course we do! We don’t need to see photos of them kissing as proof. The only place Alexa went regularly was that meeting. That’s got to have been where she met “S”.’
My mouth twists. ‘You need more proof than that before going to Otis with this. Simon is married. His wife was at the meeting.She’s really nice, Gabby. You can’t throw an accusation like this out there with no proof.’
‘Fine,’ Gabby says. ‘Tomorrow, Alexa and “S” usually meet. We’ll go to their little café, and we’ll see if Simon walks through the door.’
I blink. ‘You want to confront him?’
‘I want answers, Janine, and right now talking to Simon feels like the only way I’m going to get them. Are you free? Will you come with me?’
My grip tightens around the steering wheel. ‘I don’t know, Gabby. I didn’t even want to go tonight.’
‘But you did, and look how much you’ve learned! Besides, you talked to Simon. He knows you now. If I go to the café, I can’t just start talking to him. Hell, I don’t even know what he looks like! But you do.’
I squirm, unable to ignore Gabby’s logic. ‘Fine,’ I say wearily. ‘But this is the last thing I do for you, okay? I’m serious. This is getting out of control.’
‘Last spy mission, I promise,’ Gabby jokes tightly, but I can’t even muster a smile.
After making plans to meet Gabby tomorrow at Café Marco, I hang up. It’s only when the call ends that I realise Gabby hasn’t told me a single thing about how the police search went.
When I pull into my driveway, I check my phone to see if she’s messaged with an update, but there’s no such message waiting. There are a bunch of notifications about the search from my writing group, though. Katherine and Natalya don’t know much about the results of it, but Katherine knows enough detail to have me chilled.
The police were there for over three hours. Franny Henderson said she saw Otis standing in the garden with them. She said he lookedguilty as sin. And apparently, people who helped with the search got asked if Alexa had ever mentioned moving back to Denmark. I wonder what that could mean?
And then the most startling message of all, sent from Natalya.
Random question, Janine, but were you with Otis’s friend today? Margie said she saw you but I said that can’t be right, Janine doesn’t know Otis or Alexa? x
My teeth rake over my lower lip, wondering how I could even begin to explain what I was doing with Gabby without admitting to the last few days of secrecy and lies. Sighing, I close the message thread without saying a word and head into the house.
‘I’m home,’ I call out while removing my shoes.
‘In here,’ comes Kamal’s reply. I wander through to the living room, where I find him watching TV while continuing his latest knitting project. A scarf for my Christmas present, although judging by the current length of it, most of my neck will be chilly.
‘Friendsagain?’ I ask, flopping onto the sofa opposite him. ‘Surely by now you can quote it backwards?’
‘So?Friendsis comfort food, only it’s comfort food for the soul,’ Kamal replies, pausing the episode. ‘How was your night?’
‘Wilder than yours, by the looks of things.’
‘Knitting is wild, okay? You’ve not experienced the stress of dropping a stitch to say otherwise,’ Kamal jokes. ‘Everything okay with Beth and the girls?’
‘Everything’s great,’ I reply, reaching for a book to shut down any further questions.
Kamal hovers, wondering if he should try engaging me in conversation again, but then he decides better of it. As I watch him reachfor the remote, I think back to Sharon’s words about grief and how you learn to live around it. Suddenly, Kamal’s actions are performed in a new light. Watching repeats of shows he loves because the brain power it would take to absorb something new is being used to process what’s happened to us. Staying late at work because that’s the only place in his life with certainty and routine. Leaving me alone rather than pressuring me to see family because he knows I need space.
‘Kamal?’
My husband looks at me, his expression clueless.
‘I love you.’ The ferocity of my words scares me, but I don’t take them back.
From across the room, Kamal’s face breaks into a grin. ‘I love you, too,’ he replies, putting his knitting to one side. He leans forward, debating whether or not to cross the room and come to me. I make the decision for him. Standing, I walk to my husband and slot under his arm. Curled together, we watch Ross and Rachel argue about whether they were on a break until our yawns tell us it’s time for bed.
Before we sleep, I check my phone one last time for a message from Gabby. I don’t find one, but my group chat has been a hive of activity since I last saw it. My eyes widen when I open it and a list of links to articles from various media outlets fills my screen.
I scroll back to the first message, sent by Katherine.
Have you seen that the press has caught wind of what’s happened with Alexa? It’s a small article on a regional news site, but an article, nonetheless.