Page 95 of We Chase Shadows

Felicity takes a deep breath. ‘First of all, thank you for seeing me, I know we’re up to our eyes at the moment.’

‘For seeing you?’ says Steve. ‘We’re mates, aren’t we? We don’t have to make appointments.’

Felicity can’t help but smile again. She works for Steve, certainly, and she’s dating Steve’s best friend, but the idea that the two of them might be ‘mates’ hadn’t occurred to her until now. What a lovely thought.

‘I just … I might need your help,’ says Felicity.

‘Okay,’ says Steve.

He is always unruffled. That’s the word that comes to mind. Solid, calm, kind. It would be nice if Steve could find someone, the way that Felicity has found Tony.

‘It’s … it’s just between you and me though,’ says Felicity. ‘If we understand each other?’

‘No Tony you mean?’ Steve asks.

‘No Tony,’ confirms Felicity.

‘If you’re planning to propose to him, I know he likes diamonds,’ says Steve.

‘Can I show you a picture?’ Felicity asks.

Steve nods. Here goes.

‘Only,’ she begins, ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about the man who attacked Tony.’

‘Me neither,’ says Steve.

‘And what I’d do if I ever saw him again,’ says Felicity.

‘I’ve had those thoughts,’ says Steve.

‘So I thought I would do a bit of digging,’ says Felicity. ‘See if I could get anything on him. And I found this on someone’s doorbell, at the top of the alley where Tony was attacked.’

She hands the picture of the man over to Steve. The woman in the cottage had been very sympathetic. She’d heard a commotion that evening, but had thought nothing more of it. As Felicity had told her the story she had sympathized, and hugged her, and told her everything was going to be okay, and that if she was a betting woman she’d have good money on the attacker being an immigrant, and when Felicity had told her the man had a London accent, she had said that that didn’t really tell you anything these days, and London was a foreign country anyway if you really thought about it, and, anyway, let’s see what we can see on my doorbell app.

What they saw was the man Steve is looking at right now. He is around five feet ten, bleached blond hair, bit of a tattoo showing on his neck and, as even the woman who owned the cottage had had to admit, white.

Steve is looking at the image very intently. ‘So this is the man who attacked Tony?’

‘That’s him,’ Felicity says. ‘That’s the man. I know it’s not much, but I wanted you to see the person I saw that night. I thought you could do something.’

‘So this man works, it turns out, for Connor Brooks,’ says Steve.

Steve goes quiet.

‘What is it?’ Felicity asks.

Steve is shaking his head now. ‘I’ve seen him before.’

‘Seen him?’ says Felicity. ‘Where?’

Steve wrinkles his nose in concentration. ‘It’ll come to me. Somewhere.’

‘I’d like to find him,’ says Felicity.

‘And then what?’ Steve asks.

‘I don’t know,’ says Felicity. ‘Something.’