meet my eyes. ‘It upset you.’
‘Yeah, it did.’ I folded my arms. ‘Just to be clear, are you actually going to apologise or is this your way of making sure your recollection of events matches mine?’
He looked at me as if I was insane. ‘I’m not here to apologise.’
‘Of course not. Why would you?’ So far, so normal. ‘What do you want?’
‘Do you like him?’ The question was abrupt.
‘Yes. Of course I do. He’s my boyfriend.’
‘I don’t trust him.’
My face was hot. ‘I don’t remember asking for your opinion.’
‘You’re getting it anyway. I think he’s trying too hard.’
‘Trying too hard,’ I repeated. ‘You’re right, I should dump him.’
‘Dump him or don’t. I don’t care. But pay attention to what he’s doing.’
‘And what’s that exactly?’
‘He’s taken over your life. You had decided what you were going to do the other night but as soon as he turned up, you changed your plans. You left your friends to spend the evening with him.’
‘The reason that happened was because your behaviour was inexcusable. It was nothing to do with Seth.’
‘No?’ he said unpleasantly. ‘That’s how you saw it, is it?’
‘That’s how it was.’
‘When was the last time you went out without him? Or with friends?’
I opened my mouth to tell him, then shut it again. I couldn’t remember, off-hand. He pressed home his advantage.
‘You’ve changed since you’ve been seeing him. Everyone’s noticed it. The way you eat. The things you do in your spare time. The way you are.’
‘You’ve been talking to Liv,’ I said accusingly.
‘So what? We both noticed it.’
‘You’re being ridiculous. This is what happens when you’re in a relationship – you spend time with your boyfriend and you start doing things differently. You make room for the other person in your life and your friends and family may have to shuffle over too. I’m sure I have changed, and I’m glad about it. Let’s face it, the main difference between how I was before Seth and how I am now is that I’m happy.’
He dropped the hostility from one second to the next, his eyes softening in that way I found so disarming. ‘If you’re happy, that’s all that matters.’
‘Well, I am,’ I said, still suspicious because I knew him too well to relax.
‘It’s just that he’s making you into a different person.’
‘So?’
‘I liked the old one.’ He walked off without waiting for me to respond and I sat at my desk stewing, thinking of a hundred different things I could have replied if I’d been quick enough to keep him from having the last word.
It was Liv’s turn to stop beside my desk a few minutes later. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Absolutely fine,’ I said, deciding on the spot that I could do without another conversation about my current relationship. ‘I’m trying to work out where I’ve gone wrong with the Paige Hargreaves case.’
She borrowed a chair from the next desk and sat down with a wince, leaning back to make space for her bump. ‘What makes you think you’ve gone wrong? You’ve been doing a great job.’
‘I’ve done such a great job that I have no leads and no ideas.’
‘What about the Chiron Club?’
I shook my head. ‘Dead end, as far as I can see. Just because she was working on a story about them that doesn’t mean it connects with her murder. And I have no idea what the story is. I still haven’t found her phone or her laptop. We haven’t identified the fake police officer. We don’t even know how she got into the river.’
‘The club is right on the riverfront, isn’t it? Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?’
‘Sort of, but it doesn’t help. The Marine Unit officers told me there’s no way to tell where her body was dumped from where the pieces turned up, and we still don’t know when they put her in the river. I need a clue, a witness – something to narrow down the time of her death and the window for her body to be disposed of. Then I can call in CCTV from the right area and the right time. If I guess, we’ll find ourselves with hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage to review and no guarantee of spotting anything useful.’
‘We could start with the cameras around Blackfriars Bridge. Given that we have to start somewhere,’ Liv said hesitantly.
‘Covering what period of time?’
‘Before she was reported missing, up to the day before the mudlarker found her hand.’
I sighed. ‘Even if we only have a few cameras, that’ll