needed to walk it off. Then I remembered my manners.
‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘It’s been a really, really mad couple of days. I’m just waiting for a taxi but I think it would have been quicker to walk.’
‘I’ll give you a lift,’ I said, before I could help myself. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Just back into town,’ he said. ‘Keats Road.’
‘I don’t know where that is. You’ll have to direct me,’ I said, walking back towards the car park.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I’m really glad you ran into me now.’
I was trying not to hobble.
‘Are you OK? You’re limping.’
‘I’m fine,’ I said, gritting my teeth. ‘Really. I just turned my ankle a bit.’
‘Here,’ he said, offering me his arm.
‘Really, I’m fine.’
He gave me a ‘suit yourself’ shrug and shoved his hands back into his jacket pockets. I could see the car park ahead, full of cars driving around slowly waiting for someone to come out of a space so they could nip into it before someone else did.
I found my keys and opened the door, easing myself into the driver’s seat. It was chilly inside. I reached across and unlocked the other side. Other than my mother, nobody had sat in the passenger seat until now.
I started the engine and put the heaters on full blast to try and get the windscreen cleared enough for me to drive off.
‘So,’ he said, ‘did Andrew Frost tell you what happened to me yesterday?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘what happened?’
‘I had a phone call at work yesterday, just when I was about to go home. It was a woman’s voice, but she sounded odd – distant – I don’t know. Anyway, she told me there was another body, and then she gave me the address.’
‘What did you do?’
‘I checked it out.’
‘And?’
‘Then I called your lot.’
‘You found someone?’
‘Yes. Well – I got to the house, had a look through the window, and then rang the police. I’ve just spent the last three hours at the hospital trying to get information out of the mortuary team, but the person I usually speak to happens to be on holiday. So they’re understaffed in there and none of them is that keen to talk to a reporter, of course… so I’m none the wiser.’
‘What did you see? When you looked through the window?’
‘Not much. I could see what looked like a leg, sticking out from behind a chair. Actually I only realised it was a leg because it had a slipper on it. It was a funny colour. The leg was, I mean. The slipper was… dark red… with a kind of white snowflake pattern…’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘you’d make an excellent witness, anyway. I’m sure they’ll be asking you what the slipper looked like.’
Sam laughed, briefly. ‘I was trying not to look at the leg.’
The thought of it must have made the corners of my mouth turn up, just a little, because Sam said, ‘You should smile more often.’
My face dropped, then. I shouldn’t be smiling at all. What was I thinking? And what did he mean, exactly? It felt as if I was being flirted with, and the not knowing – I could never tell these things – made me uncomfortable.
He must have seen my reaction, and he fell silent. The windscreen was clearer now, so I turned on the lights and reversed out of the parking space.
‘Thank you for the lift,’ he said at last. ‘My car’s in for its MOT. I was going to get a courtesy car but that didn’t happen, and since I was supposed to be in the office all day I didn’t think it would matter. I got a taxi down here.’
I wasn’t really listening to him. We were at the traffic lights, waiting to turn on to the main road back to town.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Hm? Nothing.’
‘You seem distracted.’
‘I’m just tired. I’ve been at the hospital all night.’
‘It sounds serious.’
‘Yes, I think it is. I’m just going home to feed the cat and get a change of clothes, then I’ll be coming back.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that, Annabel. You know, you really don’t need to bother with the lift, I can always wait for the taxi…’
‘No, it’s fine. Don’t worry. It’s nice to have someone to talk to.’
‘Having contacts makes such a difference,’ he said. ‘I’ve got some really good mates now through this job, you know – it’s not all about getting the story, it’s about building relationships with people so they trust you. People are suspicious when