there the receipt for petrol from a garage just outside Thirsk.
Jason had moved the folder. Not only that, he’d hidden it. Somewhere he thought I’d never find it. Why?
I spread the contents on the table and did a quick inventory. There were two pieces of paper that I couldn’t remember seeing before. Had I missed them the first time round? Or were they new additions to the file? The first document was a calendar for the year 2010. The year Barney went missing. Various dates were circled in red in the months prior to his disappearance. The second document was an invoice. Dated one month after Barney disappeared, it was for a procedure listed only as ‘Event (general anaesthetic)’ from the Nuffield Hospital for £643.
I heard movement on the floorboards upstairs. Jason was getting ready to come down for dinner. I looked at the papers splayed out in front of me. I had more than enough time to put the folder back together, replace it inside the defibrillator and return it to its usual position on the wall. He’d never know I’d found his new hiding place. But no. I felt a prickle of defiance. I wanted to know what was going on.
I placed the folder neatly on the table and left the open defibrillator case next to it. Then I sat and I waited.
A few minutes later and Jason bounded down the stairs. He came into the kitchen and went straight over to the fridge for a beer. I sat perfectly still. Oblivious to the folder, he came up behind me and kissed my neck. Then, as his eyes travelled over my shoulder and down onto the table, I felt him stiffen.
‘I get why you hid this before,’ I said, as he started to scoop the documents back into a pile. ‘But why hide it again?’
The papers safely back inside the folder, he gathered it up to his chest.
‘It’s hard to explain.’
‘Try.’
An acrid smell began to fill the air. The lasagne had been due to come out of the oven twenty minutes ago.
‘What are the calendar dates about?’
‘Can’t I have some things that are just for me?’ He was indignant. ‘Why do you insist on us sharing everything?’
‘What are you keeping from me?’
‘Keeping from you?’ His face was red. ‘You’re paranoid, do you know that?’ He tapped his finger at the side of his temple.
The burning smell was getting worse. Thin wisps of black smoke started to snake their way through the thin gap at the top of the oven door.
‘Jason, you can tell me anything.’ I softened my voice. ‘I’m your wife. Please, what is going on?’
‘Nothing.’ He retreated back out of the kitchen and up the stairs, the folder clasped to his chest.
I looked at the defibrillator case, abandoned on the table, its cavity exposed.
At that moment the smoke alarm registered the burning lasagne. Its regular high-pitched shrill began to ring out through the house. I turned off the gas and left the ruined lasagne to cool. The smoke alarm continued to pierce the silence. I didn’t cover my ears.
Chapter Thirty-Four
We spent the rest of the evening avoiding each other, and by the time I left for work the following day we still had not spoken.
Early afternoon and I was holding a meeting in the tiny breakout area by reception. Designated for internal, impromptu get-togethers, the space consisted of a square of different coloured carpet, four chairs and a flipchart. And because it was flanked by the receptionist, Hayley, discussions were punctuated by the constantly ringing phone and subsequent ‘Hello-Hayley-speaking-how-can-I-help-you?’s.
‘Let’s go through it one more time,’ I said, pushing the flipchart sheets back over the top of the easel. ‘I’ll open, thank them for coming and then, Stacey, Colin and Nick,’ – I pointed to each of them in turn – ‘you three will take over.’
Stacey and Colin nodded their assent, but Nick kept his head low, focused on doodling in his notebook.
‘Nick, is that clear?’
He continued to scribble for a few more seconds – long swirly lines that spread across the page like leaves – before looking up.
‘Crystal,’ he smirked, raising his pen to his temple.
‘Remember,’ I said, taking care to speak loud enough for them all to hear but not so loud that I disturbed the rest of the office, ‘when it comes to our pricing structure, we don’t want to put them off, but we don’t want to mislead them, either. If we get it right, this has the potential to be a huge