me. Over the top of it I can hear Nunes saying something. It sounds like he’s pleading, begging or maybe even crying.
He’s beside me, or rather behind me. I can’t see. My eyes are filled with tears and the room is getting darker. I want to fill my lungs and scream but it’s impossible. I struggle against the cuffs, the pain in my chest expanding. With what little breath is left in my lungs I try to shout but it comes out as a grunting groan. A hand slams over my mouth. His hand. It’s hot and he presses down hard over my mouth and nose.
‘Be quiet!’ he urges. ‘Please, be quiet!’ He sounds hysterical and angry at the same time. A million lights burst in my field of vision. A firework display goes off inside my head, the lights fading quickly to embers.
The darkness descends like a velvet cowl, wrapping me completely in its warmth and softness. Marlow, I think to myself, as tears spring from my eyes.
I won’t get to see her grow up.
Chapter Forty
Tuesday
‘Orla. Orla, can you hear me?’
Someone is calling me from far away, but I’m buried in darkness so complete I can’t figure out which direction it’s coming from. But then I feel a pair of warm, strong hands, pulling me forwards, leading me out of the dark and back into the light.
‘Orla!’
It’s a new voice. A voice I recognise – gruff but smooth as water rushing over gravel. I open my eyes. It’s Konstandin. He’s leaning over me. It takes me a few seconds to remember what happened and then I panic and glance around but I don’t recognise the room I’m in. It’s not the police cell. It looks like a hospital room. What am I doing here? Am I still under arrest?
‘It’s OK. You’re OK,’ Konstandin reassures me, squeezing my hand. ‘You’re at the hospital.’
My eyes widen in panic. Konstandin shouldn’t be here! What if the police see him?
He smiles at me. ‘They arrested Nunes,’ he says.
Nunes. Now I remember what happened. Oh God. He killed Kate. But why? I have a million questions that need answers. I look at Konstandin, hoping he can read all the questions in my eyes because I can’t speak them out loud, my throat is too sore and when I try to speak I can only manage a croak.
‘I used my contacts,’ Konstandin says. ‘My associates. They know people in the police. They had them look into it. They found out Nunes was on duty that night. I raised the alarm.’
I give a weak smile of thanks.
‘I’m sorry I ran off,’ Konstandin says. ‘I thought that it was better that I stayed free and kept trying to find out what happened.’
I nod. The words don’t come; my throat is so tightly closed. My hand goes to my neck, which feels swollen and sore.
Konstandin scowls as he sees me wince. ‘He hit you hard,’ he says to me. ‘It’s going to take some time for the bruising to go down.’
I close my eyes, the memory of the assault bursting into bloom against the back of my eyelids. Nunes’s hand smothering my mouth. The desperate terror I felt at not being able to breathe. The realisation I was going to die and never see Marlow again. Who saved me?
‘A detective, Reza is her name, she came back into the room, just in time. You were lucky. He almost killed you.’
Tears flow down my cheeks. Does that mean Konstandin and I are both in the clear? And Rob too? What about Sebastian, I wonder? Will they let me off for that? Or am I still in trouble? I wonder if they found the cameras in his apartment, if Reza now believes me about him spying. I have to assume she does, and that I’m not going to be charged with anything, as I’m not handcuffed to the bed and Konstandin is sitting here beside me, also a free man.
But it doesn’t explain why he killed Kate. I frown at Konstandin and he intuits the question and shrugs. ‘He won’t say. He’s refusing to talk. And he lawyered up immediately. But my contacts dug into him. They say Nunes had a previous corruption charge against him dropped. He allegedly forced two prostitutes to give him oral sex in exchange for being let off a solicitation charge. Internal affairs investigated but the women wouldn’t testify. They were probably afraid to. So in the end they had to let Nunes return to