once again for their phones but fail to unearth them.
After half an hour they stop banging and sit defeated on the floor with their backs against the foot of the bed.
‘Now what?’ says Libby.
‘Let’s give it half an hour and then I’ll try and kick it down.’
‘Why don’t you try and kick it down now?
‘I’m not as strong as I look, you know. I’ve got an old back injury. I have to be careful.’
‘Ten minutes then,’ she says.
‘OK, ten minutes.’
‘What the hell do you think he’s playing at?’ she asks.
‘I have literally no clue.’
‘Do you think he’s going to kill us?’
‘Oh, I doubt it.’
‘Then why has he locked us in here?’
‘By accident, maybe?’
Libby glances at him disbelievingly. ‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ The alarm clock says that it is now 7.37 a.m. She’s still trying to calculate how late she’s going to be for work when they both sit up straight at the sound of a door banging. Then they hear a voice. It’s Phin’s voice and he’s addressing one of the cats. They hear kissy-kissy sounds. They jump to their feet and start to pound on the bedroom door again.
A moment later the door opens and Phin is peering at them.
‘Oh God,’ he says, his hand clamped over his mouth. ‘Oh God. I am so sorry. I have this terrible sleepwalking habit. I’ve walked in on house guests before – actually tried to get into bed with them once. So I locked you in before I went to bed. And then I woke up this morning stupidly early and decided to go for a run. Completely forgot about you two. I am so incredibly sorry. Come on now. Come. Let’s have breakfast.’
‘I can’t have breakfast. I’m late for work.’
‘Oh, just call them up, tell them what happened. I’m sure they’ll understand. Come on. I got fresh orange juice and everything. It’s a beautiful day again. We can eat on the terrace. Please.’
He was doing the thing again, the wheedling thing he’d done the night before. Libby felt trapped.
‘Why didn’t you tell us’, she said, ‘last night? Why didn’t you tell us you were going to lock the door? Or tell us to lock it from the inside?’
‘It was very late,’ he replied, ‘and I was very drunk, and very stupid.’
‘You really freaked us out, you know. I was really scared.’ Libby feels her voice cracking on her words, the tension of the last moments starting to fade.
‘Please forgive me,’ he says. ‘I’m an idiot. I wasn’t thinking. You were asleep and I didn’t want to wake you. I just locked it. Mindlessly. Come on. Come and have something to eat.
She and Miller exchange a glance. She can tell he wants to stay. She nods. ‘OK, then, but just a quick one. And Phin?’
He looks at her sweetly.
‘Where are our phones?’
‘Oh,’ he says. ‘Are they not in your room?’
‘No,’ she replies. ‘Neither of them.’
‘Well, you must have left them out last night. Let’s find them.’
They follow him down the hallway and back into the open-plan living room. ‘Oh,’ he says lightly. ‘Here they are. You left them charging in the kitchen. We must all have been very, very drunk last night to have been that organised. Go,’ he says, ‘go and sit on the terrace. I’ll bring breakfast out to you.’
They sit side by side on the sofa. The sun is shining on the other side of the riverbank now, picking out the windows of the houses on Cheyne Walk.
She feels Miller move closer to her. ‘It doesn’t wash,’ he hisses in her ear. ‘I don’t buy the “I was drunk so I locked you in your bedroom without telling you” story. And I don’t buy the mobile phone thing either. I was drunk last night, but I remember my phone being in my hand when we went to bed. I smell a rat.’
Libby nods her agreement. ‘I know,’ she says. ‘Something doesn’t quite add up.’
She switches on her phone and calls Dido. It goes through to her voicemail. ‘It’s a long story,’ she says. ‘But I’m still in Chelsea. Would you be able to ask Claire to talk to the Morgans when they come in at ten? She has all the details. And the newest quotes are on the system. They just need to be printed off. And I’ll be in way before my next meeting. I promise. I’m so sorry, I’ll explain everything when I see you. And if I’m not in by ten thirty, call