I looked away. At least I hadn’t slept with him.
‘Do you mind if we take some details down now?’ he asked, picking up the pen.
‘No, of course not.’
He started filling in a form with my personal details and then the door opened and the tall, dark-haired man I’d seen talking to him in the street earlier appeared. He smiled at me and took the seat next to Anthony. They proceeded to ask me most of the questions Anthony had asked last night. It was worse here, though, in this little room, with two of them watching me, judging me. In the months since I’d split from Patrick, I’d come to realise and accept that I’d never really known him, and the questions they were asking me only confirmed this. I felt stupid and clueless and almost wished I had had some idea about Patrick’s illegal dealings, if only to prove I wasn’t a complete idiot. To their credit, neither Anthony nor his colleague were looking particularly judgemental. They just looked a bit disappointed I wouldn’t be able to help them find Patrick. They’d been looking for him for more than a month now and, although they had arrested his associates, he seemed to have disappeared completely.
‘So, you don’t have his phone number any more? Do you have the same phone?’
‘No, I changed it.’ I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. ‘It’s in a drawer at home, actually. But I doubt it will do you any good. It’s a bit broken.’ I winced slightly, not liking to admit that I’d thrown it against the wall and stamped on it in a fit of anger.
‘Is the sim card still in it?’ Anthony suddenly looked interested.
‘Yes.’
‘Excellent! Can we have it to see if we can retrieve any useful information?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why do you still have it?’ DC Harper looked at me curiously.
‘I wasn’t sure what to do with it, really. You can’t just put them in the bin, can you? You have to recycle them and I just hadn’t got round to thinking about it. So, I just put it in a drawer and forgot about it.’
‘Would I be able to look at the engagement ring, too?’
‘If you like. Why? Do you think it’s stolen?’ I felt flat and emotionless all of a sudden, like my life was splayed out on the table we were sitting at for them to forensically examine.
‘Did you exchange any emails with Patrick?’
I shook my head. ‘No, it was always phone and text. I might have an email address for him somewhere but I doubt it’s anything you wouldn’t already have. It’s on a business card, I think.’
‘Have you got anything of his that he left behind?’
‘Not really. I have some tickets from places we went to.’ I sighed, not really wanting to own up to it, but seeing I didn’t have much choice. It seemed overly sentimental keeping such things, but for some reason, this seemed to interest them immensely.
‘You do? Could we see them? If we have a timeline of where he was and what he was doing, that might help us pin him down.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s a bit of a sporadic timeline, I’m afraid, but yes, you can have them. I might be able to make a list of dates of the weekends we spent together if that’s any use to you?’
‘Yes, definitely. How soon can you do that?’
‘I’m not sure. Tomorrow?’
‘Brilliant.’ Anthony sat back in his seat and smiled at me. ‘I think that’s all for now.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. ‘Here’s my number if you think of anything else that might help.’
‘Okay.’ I took the card without looking at it, careful not to touch his fingers as I did so. To my shame, my hand was shaking. ‘Can I go now?’
‘Yes. Thank you so much for your time, Miss Jones. We really appreciate it.’
‘You’re welcome.’ I nodded politely and left the room, feeling physically and emotionally drained.
‘So, let me get this straight,’ Elena said from the other end of the telephone. ‘Your parents’ sexy new tenant, the man you went out with last night and described as completely amazing, is actually a detective looking for Patrick?’
‘Yes.’ Lying back in the bath, I popped a bubble with my big toe and closed my eyes. Despite the warm water and flickering glow of scented candles, I was feeling far from relaxed. ‘It was a bit of a shock. To think I was so excited this morning. I thought he really liked me and instead he was just pumping me for information. I feel such an idiot, Elena.’
‘I’m sure he liked you, too. How could he not? I mean, he kissed you, didn’t he?’
I grunted miserably. The fact that I’d kissed him first had been playing on my mind rather a lot. Although he had kissed me back quite enthusiastically. ‘He wants my old phone and the engagement ring and I’m trying to make a timeline of weekends I spent with Patrick.’
‘Huh! That won’t take you long then.’
‘I know.’
‘So, what’s Patrick done?’
‘Fraud, apparently. I don’t know any more than that. I should have asked more questions, I suppose, but I’m not sure I really want to know. Patrick belongs in the past. I really don’t want to waste any more time on him. He made enough of a fool of me when we were together; I can’t believe it’s still going on four months after we split up.’
‘Did you ever suspect he might be dodgy?’
‘Not at all. Why would I?’
‘Well, I thought he sounded dodgy from what you told me.’
‘You thought he sounded married.’
‘That too. But didn’t your dad think he was a gangster?’
‘Only because of the size of the engagement ring,’ I scoffed. ‘Besides, no one’s saying he’s a gangster. At least, I hope they’re not! I think it’s probably dodgy business deals. Embezzlement and what have you.’
‘So, he’s not a bank robber or anything?’
‘I bloody well hope not.’ I sat up, sploshing water, and sighed unhappily.
‘Are you in the bath?’
‘Yes. What are you doing?’
‘Just waiting for Daniel to pick me up and take me to the house. It’s still like a building site but I love seeing it and imagining what all the rooms are going to be when it’s finished. Daniel’s been working so hard on it.’
‘When do you think you’ll be able to move in?’
‘In the summer, hopefully.’
‘Ooh, exciting!’
‘I know. I can’t wait. Oh, that’s him now. I’d better go.’
‘Okay. Bye.’
I climbed out of the bath and wrapped myself in a warm, fluffy towel before padding through to my bedroom. Sitting down on my bed, I reached for a pad of paper from my bedside table and started to write a list of places I’d been with Patrick.