‘Cycled,’ Gerry said immediately. ‘Always came in carrying a bike helmet.’
My heart was racing again. It was Danny, it had to be. But how could I prove it?
‘Look, you said he paid for a weekly pass. Did he use a credit card, a bank card, anything like that? I can’t really explain, but I need some sort of proof that he was here, that he’d been coming here for the past few weeks. Do you have anything like that?’
Gerry was frowning, shaking his head.
‘As far as I can recall he always paid cash,’ he said. ‘I always work Mondays and that’s when we renew the weekly passes, and I remember him pulling out a wad of notes each time. I remember thinking he must be loaded, to carry that much cash. Made him even sexier. Oh shit, sorry.’
He slapped himself on the forehead, and I smiled.
‘It’s fine, honestly. OK, so no credit card receipt …’
I looked around, eyes searching for cameras. Yes! Two of them, one angled towards the gym’s front door, the other pointing at the desk we were standing at.
‘But you have CCTV, right?’
I pointed at the closest camera, and Gerry nodded.
‘Just here in reception though. We’re a small, friendly place. Nobody wants to be watched when they’re working out or getting changed, so there aren’t any in the gym or exercise areas.’
‘The café?’ I asked.
Gerry shook his head.
‘Never felt the need. We’re well-staffed so if there’s ever any trouble or anyone gets injured on one of the machines or collapses or anything, there’s always someone around to deal with it. We only have cameras here, where we take the money, just in case, you know?’
‘OK. But if Dann … er this Patrick guy, was coming in here every day he’d be captured by these cameras here, right?’
‘Sure. We don’t keep the footage for long though. Gets wiped after two weeks if we don’t need it. Want me to look?’
‘Yes! Yes please.’ I thought quickly. Today was Monday, the eleventh of March. Two weeks would take us back to Monday, the twenty-fifth of February.
‘Can you look at the week of the twenty-fifth of last month?’
‘Sure,’ he said again. ‘I can get it up on this screen here. You’ll have to come round for a minute.’
I made my way behind the reception desk and watched as he tapped various keys, suddenly feeling excited.
‘OK, so he usually came in quite early, around seven,’ Gerry was muttering. ‘So if I start it here …’ He moved the mouse a couple of times, then stood back. ‘There. That’s Patrick. I’ve zoomed in and frozen the image.’
I leaned forwards. On the screen a man was standing at the front of the reception desk I was now behind. He was wearing, as Gerry had described earlier, a dark beanie hat and small round glasses, the outline of his jaw obscured by a fluffy beard. His jacket was dark, anonymous. But Danny had a black jacket, simple like this one. His shoulders were broad, like this man’s. If only I could see his face more clearly. I leaned even closer, squinting, but the picture just wasn’t clear enough. Was it him? I didn’t know. I just couldn’t tell.
‘I don’t know if it’s him,’ I said. ‘Can you let it play for a minute? Maybe if I see a bit more …’
Gerry had already hit ‘play’. The man on screen was moving now, pulling something from his pocket – cash? – and as he lifted his arm again I saw a flash on his wrist.
A watch.
I stared at it, then gasped.
‘Can you zoom in? On his wrist, there?’
I jabbed at the screen, and Gerry obliged. The picture froze, and I stared. Stared at the now surprisingly clear image of a square-faced, steel-cased watch with a bright red seconds hand. A sleek, elegant, very distinctive watch. The watch I’d bought Danny as a gift on our wedding day. The watch that had cost me the equivalent of a month’s salary but which I knew had been worth every penny when I’d seen the delight on his face when he opened the box and slipped it onto his wrist. That was Danny’s watch. That was Danny.
Chapter 20
‘I bloody hate Mondays. I’ve always bloody hated Mondays, but today has been The. Shittiest. In. A. Long. Time.’
Helena punctuated the words by throwing a small rubber ball hard at the wall. She caught it for the sixth time then flung it onto her