‘Sure.’
‘My sister’s boyfriend, George, came with me on Saturday. He’s as desperate as me to piece it all together. Make sense of it. We showed Daisy’s photo around, to see if we could learn anything new.’
‘Any progress?’ she asks.
I shake my head. ‘Not really. Anyway, enough of my problems. This is your time.’
‘My time is your time. We’re a team,’ she says generously.
‘Something didn’t sit right with me.’
‘Carry on.’
‘One of the stallholders recognised my sister’s photo.’
She swipes her towel from the arm of the treadmill. ‘Go on.’
‘Apparently she was really excited because she was going to one of the bonus workshops held at the end of the day with the owner, Marcus Aurelius.’
She presses the End Session button. ‘Stop! Stop this thing.’
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask.
She swings her feet either side of the treadmill belt and picks up her phone. ‘I have something to show you.’ She swipes through her photo app and pulls up a photo of Marcus Aurelius. ‘This guy, yes?’
‘That’s right,’ I say.
‘Yes, my friend dragged me along to his session. What an utter bore. Two hours of my life I’ll never get back. A real sleazebag.’
‘Funny you should say that. It’s what I thought. That’s not his real name, you know. I looked him up. His real name is Justin.’
She arches an eyebrow. ‘Doesn’t surprise me. These creeps hide behind masks and false aliases.’
‘His offices are near here.’
‘Where?’
‘Along Regent’s Park Road. They’ve got a shop front called The Therapy Rooms.’
‘I know where you mean.’ Her eyebrows crease together. ‘I’ve heard that place is expensive. I know someone who sees a counsellor there.’
‘It’s the registered address ofA Meeting of Minds. At the end of his talk on Saturday, a group of girls raced to the stage to talk to him. I wanted to as well, but by the time I got there, he was gone.’
‘The same happened at the one I went to,’ she says. ‘There was a harem of girls hanging off his every word. And, let’s put it this way. He wasn’t trying to discourage it. They were about your age. Hence, what I was saying… sleazebag. I’ve met men like him before. He reminds me of someone I used to work with.’
‘And get this. When I was walking back to the station after it ended, I saw him driving with one of the girls from the stage in the passenger seat. It gave me goosebumps.’
‘I’m telling you. Sleazebag.’
‘But he must’ve been giving her a lift to the station, because I saw her on the platform when I got there.’
She shakes her head. ‘I wouldn’t trust his type one bit.’
20
BETH
Justin’s eyes won’t meet mine. He swans across the room and drops his keys in the porcelain dish on the centre island. ‘Won’t it be great to have the extra help? We don’t need to take Mum to your hospital appointment now. It’s a win-win for us all.’
