Cut You Dead (Dr. Samantha Willerby Mystery #4) - A J Waines Page 0,84
issue here?’
‘Yes and no. It’s tricky.’
‘Oh, wait a minute.’ Terry’s voice took on a hoity-toity tone I’d rarely heard before. ‘Do you and Ralph have history?’
It was my turn to laugh. ‘No way! Well… not in the way you think.’
‘You do have history!’ There was joviality in his voice, but not enough to hide the starchy undertone.
I didn’t answer.
He went on. ‘Did you know him before he and Miranda got together?’
I hesitated.
‘It’s a simple question.’
‘I… he…’
‘You did know him. It doesn’t matter. I mean your previous relationships aren’t anything to do with me, but I can’t see why you’re hiding it.’
‘I’m not.’
‘You are. You just admitted you have history with this guy, but you’re also telling me you don’t.’
‘We were never in that kind of relationship.’
‘What then?’
‘I can’t say.’
His voice shot up in register. ‘You can’t say. Sam, I’m… how can I put it? I’m disappointed. I thought you of all people would value honesty above everything. I thought it would be a given between us. I’d hoped we wouldn’t keep secrets or bend the truth.’ I could feel him slipping away from me. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘Think about it,’ I said, my voice clear and strong. ‘How might I know Ralph in a different way?’
There was a prickly silence. Awkwardness. I was about to make things clearer when he spoke again with conviction. ‘Listen, I’ve got to work again at the weekend, so that film we talked about… we’ll need to give it a miss. Sorry.’
With that the phone went dead.
62
I ran to the common at full pelt, brimming with rage. The misunderstanding with Terry was totally unfounded. He’d got the wrong end of the stick entirely and now we’d fallen out. It was stupid. Pointless. And I’d let it happen.
I skirted a group of tall trees and ploughed across the wet grass. I hadn’t done any stretches and just as I reached the playground, my ankle tweaked. With the next step I was forced to pull up.
Now I was furious with myself for not doing what I was supposed to do. ‘You must warm up before you run,’ Emily always said. ‘Every time.’
I hobbled to the nearest bench and sank down. The rain on the soggy wood bled through to my skin in seconds. Shit!
I felt for my phone in my anorak pocket and called Fenway. Perhaps he might get things moving with Ralph. I was still jittery about something happening to Miranda; every moment she was with him she could be at risk. I kept revisiting the creepy way he’d glared at Emily’s hair too.
‘Is that all you’ve got? This one text,’ Fenway exclaimed, an almost-exact repeat of Terry’s response.
‘There’s more, but it could compromise my job.’
‘Oh – that confidentiality business, you mean.’
‘Exactly. Ralph was a patient.’ There, I’d finally said it.
‘If you were in a court case, any therapist would be required by law to hand over all relevant patient files.’
‘I know, but we’re nowhere near that, are we?’
‘You might as well come clean now. Save all the pussyfooting around. You see my point?’ That little phrase of his was starting to annoy me.
‘Okay, but if you find something incriminating about this guy, he mustn’t know the tip-off came from me. It could cost me my job. Can you agree to that? Can you promise me?’
For once I heard a glimmer of empathy. ‘I realise you’re treading a fine line on this secondment. Half-psychologist, half-investigator. I’ll do my best.’
I only hoped his best was good enough.
‘So, what’s he done?’ Fenway asked.
I explained how Ralph had come to me for therapy regarding his sexual practices. ‘He likes three in a bed, but he doesn’t make this clear at all at the start,’ I said, ‘and he’s also a sadist.’
The DI seemed to find it amusing. ‘What you’ve told me is not exactly a big deal. Some women like that kind of thing. It’s up to individuals to come forward if he’s assaulted them.’
‘But it’s not straightforward rape or assault. It starts as consensual sex, then turns abusive.’
‘Maybe it’s some kind of S&M thing. The stats say one in ten people experiment with it. That includes women too.’
‘I’m not being na?ve here,’ I snapped. ‘S&M is totally acceptable and plays a valid part in some relationships – when the couple trust each other. That’s the key thing. Trust. That’s not how it goes with Ralph’s little operation. That’s why he’s always on the prowl for his next victim.’
Fenway sounded intrigued. ‘What does he do exactly?’