Kathryn too, before she ran.’
He sits back down heavily in the armchair. ‘I see.’
‘When Kathryn got off the train on Tuesday, when she left Mia with me, do you know if someone intercepted her at Seer Green? All this time I was thinking it was Dominic Church, but do you think it might have been DS Holt?’
Gilbourne shakes his head. ‘We’ve still not got a clear line on what happened to her when she got off that train. The pathologist thinks she died on Tuesday, between 4 p.m. and midnight, which leaves us a lot of time still unaccounted for.’
‘What about CCTV at the station?’
‘There’s one camera up there but it’s not worked for years. Not really a lot of call for CCTV at these little country stations.’ He sits forward in his chair. ‘Listen, are you sure it was Nathan following you today?’
‘He had a baseball cap and sunglasses on but I’m pretty sure, yes.’ I nod, slowly. ‘He was driving a dark coloured Ford Focus, grey or black.’
‘Standard issue pool car for use by MIT detectives.’ He sighs, looks at me, looks away. He takes a pack of cigarettes from his jacket, flips it open with his thumb, closes it again and replaces it in his pocket. Finally his eyes come back to mine. ‘I shouldn’t be telling tales out of school, but . . . ah, Christ.’
I let the silence spool out for a few moments but he seems reluctant to fill it.
‘What is it, Stuart?’
‘Nathan’s been . . . strange these last couple of weeks. Jumpy. On edge. I really don’t know what’s going on with him.’
‘How long have you worked together?’
‘A couple of months. He was seconded in from the human exploitation task force.’
‘Exploitation as in street prostitution?’
Gilbourne glances up at me, then looks away. ‘Amongst other things, yes.’
With an unpleasant sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I remember the news articles I read this morning.
‘All three victims of the Ghost were linked to street prostitution, two sex workers and Zoe Clifton, who was an outreach worker with a charity that tries to help women get off the streets and put their lives back on track.’
He doesn’t acknowledge me.
‘Ellen, can you do me a favour?’ He reaches out to me and his fingertips come to rest lightly on my forearm. ‘If Nathan—’ He stops himself, his voice suddenly thick with emotion. ‘If DS Holt contacts you, follows you, turns up at your door, you need to let me know straight away. Promise me you will?’
‘OK,’ I say quietly. I feel safe for the first time in days. ‘I will.’
Gilbourne still looks shell-shocked, all the colour drained from his face.
‘You know what?’ he says, eyeing the half-empty wine bottle. ‘Maybe I will have that drink. Just one glass.’
‘Afraid I haven’t got glasses, just plastic beakers.’ I fetch another clear plastic cup from the bathroom and fill it with the Grenache.
He shrugs. ‘I don’t suppose it makes much difference, really.’ He taps his beaker gently against mine. ‘Cheers, Ellen Devlin.’
We both take a drink.
‘I’m not going to get you in trouble with your boss, am I?’
‘To be honest,’ he says, blowing out a breath, ‘I’m past caring what my boss thinks.’
60
We sit in silence for a moment, me on the bed and him by the window in the armchair. The TV is on mute and it suddenly feels very quiet in this little hotel room, the two of us together with an open bottle of wine on the bedside table. Gilbourne shifts in his seat, putting his beaker on the floor.
‘So tell me about you, Ellen,’ he says, his head cocked slightly. ‘You’re a bit of an enigma.’
‘Not much to tell, really.’
‘Why do you care about Mia so much? You could have walked away, but you didn’t. That’s a rare thing.’
‘Is it?’
‘Believe me, I’ve been around the block enough times to know more than I ever wanted to about human nature. Most people would have handed that baby over at the first opportunity and never looked back, been glad to get away. Or they wouldn’t even have volunteered to help in the first place. But not you.’
‘Just trying to do the right thing, that’s all.’
He studies me, eyes locked on mine as if he can see right into my soul, until a frown creases his forehead.
‘There’s more to it than that though, isn’t there? Don’t tell me there isn’t.’
I take a breath. I realise I’m about to open myself up in a way I haven’t