Emma down?”
“I’ve already let Emma down,” he said. “Emma. You. Lucy.”
And that was the only time he had, directly or indirectly, referred to what happened between them. The only time either of them had.
So to see—to actually meet—Lucy Shelley. No surprise, her heart was thudding heavily in her chest. Her palms were wet, nothing to do with the pool. Should she have felt anything? she wondered. Should she read any significance into the fact that David had sent Lucy here?
No, don’t be ridiculous, Susie. The only thing to read into Lucy being here was that the situation was serious. That’s all there was to it. Now was the time to stop daydreaming about a brief, stolen kiss that happened over a decade ago and time to start getting dressed and doing as Lucy said: getting the hell out of there.
Just then the door to the changing room opened and in came one of the smartly dressed spa staff, a really nice woman who Susie recognized as Judith—she gave great massages.
Behind Judith came a well-dressed woman who wore a pair of dark sunglasses—incongruous, even for Hampstead. Judith was telling her about the benefits of membership, nay, the joys of membership, and the woman was smiling and nodding as though hanging on every word. Even so, Susie got the distinct impression that the woman was less interested in Judith and more interested in her.
Susie stood up, smiling at the two women, and moved over to her locker. She wished she was wearing her contact lenses or spectacles; she always found it difficult to operate the combination locks in the dim light. That was the price you paid for luxury, she supposed. You got ambient lighting complemented by whale noises, but you couldn’t see a thing.
She opened the locker, retrieved her clothes, and turned to where Judith was still rabbiting on about the spa’s benefits, the woman continuing to nod appreciatively. Again, Susie felt that behind her shades, the woman’s eyes were on her.
And now she started to wonder. Was it just coincidence? Was it her mind, or her eyesight, playing tricks? But she had the notion that she knew this woman from somewhere.
Yes, she did. It was like one of those moments when you saw somebody out of context. A waiter you associated with one restaurant suddenly turning up in another. A friendly shop assistant spotted in the street. Something so familiar about her.
But what?
Someone off the telly, perhaps? Or maybe it was just nothing, plain and simple.
Susie getting jumpy. Blame it on Lucy Shelley and her we really have to go business.
Yes, that’s all it is, thought Susie as she let herself into a cubicle, acutely aware that Lucy would be waiting for her in reception.
In her bag was her phone. She fished it out and tried Guy, but there was no answer.
CHAPTER 40
A FEW MOMENTS later Susie had pulled on leggings, a top, and a zip-up hoodie, and laced up her sneakers. Judith and the sunglasses woman had disappeared to another area of the changing facilities, but now they returned, Judith still doing the sales pitch.
Susie smiled as she let herself out of the cubicle.
For the first time, she noticed there was something wrong with the woman’s right arm, which hung in a slightly unusual way. She looked at the woman, trying to be discreet, but then again half hoping their eyes would meet and it would click, how they knew one another.
No such luck. The woman had turned—pointedly? Susie wasn’t sure—and Susie was in danger of looking like a stalker if she hung around gawking for much longer. Then again, they were in a spa, all women together. What hurt could it do to ask?
“Excuse me,” she said, butting in, “but do I know you?”
And then it was as though the woman had been playing a role, the part of “customer being shown around a health spa,” and just for a second her mask slipped, like an actor who accidentally looks into the camera, and she faltered, she definitely faltered. “No, I don’t think so,” she said.
“Are you sure?” pressed Susie. “You’re not from around Ascot way, are you?”
Judith stood by, hands clasped, no doubt delighted that the connection was being made.
“I’m sure,” said the woman, but a steel had crept into her voice, a defensiveness that if anything made Susie even more determined to get to the bottom of this recognition thing that was going on, and so for a moment the two of them simply stared at