say, biting my nails as I stare down at Sebastian’s supine body. Even though he’s lying unconscious and his face is blood-splattered and bruised, it’s hard to summon any sympathy.
‘He’s breathing,’ Konstandin says. ‘He’ll have concussion but I don’t think anything is broken, other than his nose.’ He says it with a scowl, as though he wishes there was more damage.
‘He was chasing me,’ I explain again, anxiety welling up. ‘He tried to lock me in his room.’ I wring my hands and am aware of my voice rising in pitch so I sound on the verge of hysteria. ‘I ran. He came after me. He grabbed my arm. I pushed him off … he must have fallen.’
‘He hit his head,’ says Konstandin pointing to the edge of the table.
There’s blood on the edge of it. My stomach heaves at the sight.
‘We should call an ambulance,’ I mumble.
‘The paramedics will want to know what happened,’ he says. ‘The police will probably come.’
He’s right. And now Sebastian has deleted all the tapes I don’t have evidence. The police already think I hired Konstandin to kill Kate. God knows what they’ll make of this little scene. They’ll leap to conclusions. They’ll think Konstandin and I tried to kill Sebastian to shut him up or something. They might even think I was the one who deleted the videos.
Sebastian groans at our feet. I still need to call an ambulance.
‘You should go,’ I tell Konstandin, pulling out my phone to dial 112. ‘It’s best they don’t find you here.’
Konstandin nods, absently, then turns to me, his eyes sharp. ‘What did you mean, he was spying?’ he asks.
I point at the room down the hallway, the door still hanging open. ‘I got into Sebastian’s secret room,’ I tell him. ‘I was suspicious. He was acting funny. He knew things he couldn’t have known unless he’d been listening in to conversations. He’s the one who told the police about you by the way, and about Rob and Kate having the affair. He’s been spying on me this whole time.’
Konstandin glowers but I can see he’s still confused.
‘He’s got all these video feeds,’ I explain. ‘Hidden cameras in the bedrooms and the bathrooms of all his apartments. They’re everywhere! I saw all the footage of the night Kate disappeared. He had it all on tape.’
Konstandin’s eyes go wide. ‘Show me,’ he orders.
I shake my head. ‘I can’t. He deleted everything. He knew I was going to go to the police. He didn’t want to get arrested. He was trying to stop me from leaving …’ I tail off, glancing down at Sebastian.
Konstandin rubs his jaw, thinking. ‘What was on the video? Did you see anything?’
‘Yes,’ I say, nodding. ‘Kate ran after Joaquim and Emanuel. She was trying to get her bag back.’
Konstandin takes that in, shaking his head in frustration at the obviousness of it. I want to nod and tell him I felt the same way when I saw it. I could have kicked myself. It was staring us in the face – the reason she left the apartment – and we never figured it out.
‘It was less than a minute,’ I find myself blurting out. ‘Forty seconds between them leaving and her following them. I saw it all.’
‘But she didn’t catch up with them outside?’ Konstandin asks.
I shrug. ‘There are no cameras outside so I don’t know, but the police said that Joaquim and Emanuel got a taxi back to their place. The driver was an alibi for them.’
Konstandin nods. ‘OK, so what if Kate ran outside after them and saw them getting into the Uber?’
‘She would have tried to follow,’ I say, imagining Kate running after them. She wouldn’t have quit and come back inside. That’s not Kate.
‘She could have got a taxi,’ Konstandin says.
I nod. That makes sense.
‘Taxis pass by all the time on this road. Say she managed to jump in one and chase after them …’
I look at Konstandin. He’s right. There are dozens of licensed taxis in the neighbourhood. I’ve seen them crawling along, trying to pick up tourists who’ve had enough of the hills. ‘Yes,’ I say, nodding. ‘It’s possible. But how would we find out?’ My excitement vanishes. ‘It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.’
‘Let’s go,’ he says, already moving for the door.
I don’t move. I stare down at Sebastian, still passed out on the ground at my feet, blood bubbling on his lip every time he breathes in.