in the car because you Vaiew I'd spot the obvious.'
Tony took a couple of steps towards her. 'I haven't a clue what you're talking about, Frances.'
'Don't play games with me. You're in love with her. Christ, I only had to be in your company for five minutes to work that one out.'
'No,' he said. 'You're wrong.'
Tm right. And I've got far too much self-respect to put up with having my nose rubbed in it.'
'Look, Carol is a former colleague, a friend. How can you be jealous of someone I've never even slept with?'
'Well, more fool you. You should have tried the little blue pills a bit sooner, shouldn't you? Because she's obviously gagging for it.'
Her words hit like a slap to the cheek. 'Leave Carol out of this. Whatever you've got into your head, it's between you and me.'
'That's the trouble, Tony. It's not between you and me. It's always been between you and Carol, only you never let me see that before. You kept it hidden away, pretending you wanted to be with me when the truth is she's the one you want.'
'You're so wrong, Frances. There's no future for me and Carol. All there is between us is a very difficult past. I'm with you because I want to be.'
Suddenly Frances picked up a small crystal vase from the window sill and hurled it at him. 'You lying bastard,' she shouted as he dodged to one side. It crashed into the wall with an incongruous tinkle of smashed glass. Tm not a masochist, Tony,' she panted, anger stealing her breath. 'Life is too damn short to fritter away my emotions on a man who's desperate for somebody else. So get the hell out.'
There was nothing he could think of to say. It surprised him how little he cared that it was clearly over. He turned and headed for the door.
'Leave your keys on the hall table on the way out,' Frances shouted at his retreating back.
Tony carried on walking. To his surprise, the prevailing emotion he felt was relief. Relief and a sudden surge of hope. He hadn't felt this optimistic in years.
Sometimes, Petra wished Marijke van Hasselt didn't live so far away. Tonight, it would have been good to settle down with a bottle of wine and discuss the day's events with someone who didn't have anything at stake but who understood the intricacies of police work. At least tonight Marijke was on-line too, she saw with a lightening of her spirits. They moved into a private chat room and Petra went straight to the question that interested her most. Anything to take her mind off the dead ends of the Kamal/Marlene inquiry.
P: so, how's the murder going?
M: A lot of work and not much progress. I spent today at the university interviewing his colleagues and students, but we didn't get a single lead worth pursuing.
P: what, you finally found a victim everybody loves?
M: Plenty of people didn't like de Groot, but nobody with anything that looks remotely like a motive. You don't kill somebody just because he failed your thesis or blocked your promotion.
P: god, you dutch are so civilized...
M: What's even more annoying is that we didn't find an appointments diary. Apparently he had one of those Palm Pilots that he always carried. But no sign of it.
P: the killer probably took it with him to cover his tracks.
*M: So, did you manage to track down what it was I that jogged your memory when I told you about de I Groot?
P: i've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities, but i haven't heard back from either of them, you I know what these provincials are like, no sense of urgency.
i M: FWIW, there's nothing in our records anywhere
in Holland that corresponds to the de Groot murder.
&
P: so, you're running round in the dark? nothing from ; forensics?
M: Not so far. It's all been very frustrating, going through the motions without any sense of what we should be looking for.
P: there's nothing harder to work than this kind of killing.
M: I know. Take my mind off it. Tell me about your day.
P: frustrating, i'm trying to prove a negative - a woman who claims she was the lover of a man who is now dead, but i don't think they even knew each other, i think there's a chance we could use this as a lever to lift the lid on a major figure in organized crime, this guy has always kept his hands