Nothing.
‘Holly? Are you home?’
Nothing.
‘Can I come in, please, Kate? Just for two seconds. I really need to talk to him.’ He doesn’t wait for an answer. He moves right past me and points to the stairs. ‘Bedroom’s up there, I assume?’ To my horror, he just about jogs up the stairs without waiting for an answer.
‘Stop!’
He turns around mid-flight. ‘What?’
‘You can’t go up there.’
‘I just need to talk to him, Kate. We’re about to lose the Zurich account. He hasn’t briefed anyone. There are other clients that he hasn’t briefed anyone about. I’m tearing my hair out. So I’m just going to ask him a few questions, that’s all. Look—’ he pulls out his phone from his pocket ‘—I’ve got them right here. It’s going to take two minutes.’ He turns around and jogs up another couple of stairs.
‘He’s not there.’
He turns around again. ‘What do you mean he’s not there? Where is he?’
I bite my bottom lip. ‘I didn’t want to tell anyone.’
‘What, Kate?’
This is not good. I am not ready for this. I put my hand on the wall to steady myself. ‘He’s left me.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘We had a fight. He left me. I don’t know where he is. He said he needed to clear his head.’
He frowns. ‘He needed to clear his head?’
‘Yes. He said he would be back when he was ready.’
‘But…what about Sterling? The Zurich account?’
I don’t know what to do. I tug at my hair, twirling a lock around my finger. It’s all happening too fast. I was supposed to tell that story after he’d been found at the bottom of a gully after speeding.
‘I don’t know actually, Jonathan. I just don’t know.’ Then I add, ‘But I’m really worried about him.’
He walks back down the stairs, scratching his head. ‘Okay, this is really confusing. Didn’t you tell Amanda that he was sick, like bedridden?’
‘I know.’ I wring my hands together. ‘I thought he would call you. He said he wanted to clear his head and that he would be back when he was ready.’ Didn’t I just say that? I can’t remember.
‘I just can’t believe it.’ He rakes a hand through his hair. ‘When was the last time you heard from him?’
‘Erm…’ I tap my finger on my chin. ‘The day he left.’
He frowns. ‘When was that?’
I swallow. ‘Last Sunday. No wait. The Sunday before.’
‘And you haven’t heard from him since?’ he blurts, eyes wide.
‘I know it sounds bad, but we’ve been through this once before?—’
‘You have?’
‘Yes. He came back eventually. So I thought… I’ve left messages, but I haven’t heard back. As I said, we went through this before. I was actually about to call Sterling to check if you’dheard anything. No, wait, actually I was about to call the police to report a missing person.’
