It was potentially an issue; he knew that and he was going to have to take a lot more precautions.
He’d easily found a photo of the cat on the neighborhood group, and its owner, Frankie. The woman he’d already added to his patient list, the one who had moved into the house on Northcroft Road. Her WhatsApp photo immediately told him what she looked like, and he started to watch her movements.
She hadn’t left the house much since moving, she’d told him in her appointment. And that didn’t appear to change. He’d kept an eye on her on and off since the camera, since her appointment.
But he saw her at the police station, through the tall glass front windows, which was more than a little concerning. But she walked away in the early hours looking disappointed. The good thing about working for the NHS is you can work at a laptop anywhere, at any hour, and as long as you have your lanyard on, the coffee’s discounted and no one bats an eye.
She looked angry when she left the station, and scared, and he’d enjoyed watching her from the safety of the all-night coffee shop.
No one came to his door the next day, no police asking questions. Which made him realize she didn’t know enough yet about Anna or what he was hiding—but she knew something and it might only be a matter of time.
Either way, whatever she had seen clearly wasn’t enough for the police to get involved.
But then she showed up on his video doorbell today, walking oneway and then the other, stopping two doors down with her eyes wired, her features set.
She had somehow now located him—Anna, the room, all of it—and Simon understood what that meant.
Francesca Green must have video footage of the room, of Anna. He wasn’t sure how much, or how telling it might be, but that must be how she’d found them.
He would have to tidy everything up—so while she was out in her car, he slipped up the scaffolding at the back of the empty house beside hers, all the way to the top where a window remained open a crack, and he went in. He took back the meds he had so kindly prescribed her, because that would be the best way to do it. And then he went back home and got ready.
He had to end things with Anna now, of course, he knew that. All evidence needed to disappear. It was a shame; everything had worked so well with Anna down there. The transition from a relationship in the world to down there had been so easy.
Of course, he would be lying if he said he hadn’t considered keeping Frankie, replacing Anna with her.
He wanted Frankie, as much as he’d ever wanted Anna; he’d thought about her almost constantly since he’d taken her pulse in the surgery. It had been hard to keep neutral during her appointment.
Frankie’s freedom, independence, that live spirit, like Lissa’s, was so refreshing after what Anna had become in captivity.
Simon knew, in his heart, he and Anna were over now anyway; it had been slowly dying for a while. The spark, the excitement, gone. They both knew it, if they were honest.
And it got him down, seeing Anna tirelessly trying to keep things alive. Simon had been putting off the inevitable for some time now.
Everyone says it’s hard to end a relationship that’s run its course, but they really have no idea, Simon realizes. His relationships end with a finality that others don’t.
Simon knows it will be painless; Anna won’t even know it is happening.
He made a promise to Melissa, after all, that he wouldn’t hurt anyone else. And he won’t. Given the circumstances, he’s sure that Melissa would understand the urgency required here.
What else was he supposed to do with Anna after she found out about his past? He couldn’t kill her.
The problem was, she was supposed towantto be with him, like she said the night she fell—that was their dream, that washerdream. He had merely facilitated it.
Anna had struggled to come to terms with the restraints of that.
He’d explained, after the fall, that if she didn’t adapt to the flat, then they would have to end the relationship, and he explained in no uncertain terms what that would necessitate.
In her heart, she must have known even then it would never work.
Being a doctor had helped to an extent after the fall, but being a GP wasn’t being a specialist, and Simon was always honest about his capabilities.
He had access to medications that could make things painless, but he couldn’t really fix them.
He had needed to hurt Anna a few times since the fall, too, and while he knew it was not the way he would everwantto do things, the facts stood: she really did only listen to him when he hit her. If she hurthimhe would correct that behavior, if she tried to endanger them both he would need to show her that it was not acceptable. Aggression was the only thing that seemed to get through to her when she got like that.
And that first time he hurt her, the old Anna seemed to return overnight.
She smiled, she let him get close to her again, she let him touch her, be near her, talk to her.
