How could she laugh? Who is this person? I never really knew her, I think to myself.
‘I’m going to take a shower,’ she says, walking to the door, ‘be gone by the time I’m done.’
Emanuel watches her go, shaking his head at her retreating back.
Sebastian switches the camera back to Kate’s room. We watch her enter and cross into the bathroom, stripping as she goes.
‘I don’t want to see,’ I tell him.
‘You’ll want to see this,’ he answers. ‘Wait until you see what they did while she was in the shower.’
‘I know. They stole her bag,’ I tell him, furious that he was sitting on all this information when the police could have used it, while I was out there running around, desperately trying to find out what had happened to her.
Sebastian seems annoyed that I already know and stays silent as the scene plays out on the monitor. We watch Emanuel sneak into the room when Kate’s in the shower. He picks up her bag and then he’s out of the room, quick as lightning.
The camera switches to the one in the living room, which I’m guessing is hidden on the mantelpiece. Emanuel’s grabbing Joaquim, who’s still sitting on the sofa, watching something on his phone. He says something to him and the two of them grab their jackets and make for the door.
Sebastian switches back to Kate’s room. ‘Look,’ he says.
The bathroom door opens and Kate walks out, wearing only a towel. She stops, pausing and looking around, aware that something’s out of place in the room. She twigs it’s her bag. She scours the room for it, then screams: ‘Son of a bitch!’
The breath flies out of my chest. Oh my God! That’s it! That’s the memory. I must have heard her scream. I was passed out in my room but the word ‘bitch!’ must have penetrated through the dark of my unconsciousness. It’s why I couldn’t ever see her, only hear her. I draw in a huge breath, relief flooding through me. This whole time I’ve been harbouring a deep-seated fear that maybe … no. I shake the idea off. It was so absurd and yet for a time … I actually thought I might have done something to Kate.
‘Are you watching?’ Sebastian snaps.
I turn my attention back to the screen. There’s Kate, darting out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Within seconds she’s back, grabbing her dress from the bedroom floor, accidentally knocking over a glass of wine in the process, ignoring the spill as she tosses sheets and pillows aside, looking for something, maybe her phone, before she gives up and slides on some sandals. She’s out the door in seconds, pulling the dress on as she goes.
‘She chased after them,’ I say, feeling a sudden urge to sit down. It’s so damn obvious, how did I not see it? Of course, Kate ran after them. She didn’t leave the apartment to buy drugs or to go clubbing or to meet Rob or because Konstandin had lured her there on Toby’s orders, or for any other mysterious reason. She ran after Joaquim and Emanuel because they stole her fifteen-thousand-pound Birkin bag and she wanted it back.
Sebastian freeze-frames the screen on Kate dashing out the door at 3.06 a.m.
‘You knew!’ I say, furiously rounding on him. ‘You bloody knew and you didn’t say a word! You arsehole!’
He opens his mouth as though to argue with me but I cut him off. ‘I spent days walking around wondering why she’d left, where she was … You could have told me. You could have told the police, but you were more interested in saving yourself.’
Sebastian scowls at me, cheeks turning pink. He doesn’t like being confronted with the ugly truth. He turns suddenly and hits a button on the screen.
‘What are you doing?’ I say as a dialog box pops up.
He hits delete.
‘No!’ I say, but it’s too late. The screen goes blank.
He quickly navigates to another box and taps out a few more commands.
‘Stop it!’ I say grabbing for his arm.
He shakes me off, intent on deleting any evidence. ‘You promised you wouldn’t go to the police,’ he cries. ‘You were lying. I know you’re going to tell them.’
I take hold of his arm again and drag him away from the computer. He yelps and turns to me. Too late I see he’s holding one of the textbooks from the desk in his free hand. He smashes it into