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He makes his way around the side of the Manor. You could hide anywhere here, he thinks. Almost every tree trunk in the woods could conceal a man behind it, and in the moonlight the gnarled fruit trees in the orchard create pools of deep shadow where a man could easily crouch, unseen.
Hal walks quietly, torchlight swinging. His migraine has gone, but in the aftermath everything feels heightened to him. He’s hyperaware. His breathing seems too loud. All his senses are on overdrive. A feeling of failure is creeping up on him and he tries to shake it off, but his brain nags at him. You’re the guy who colleagues don’t always back, but who prides himself on being ahead of an investigation, of approaching things in smart ways, of coming through when he needs to and having the energy and the mental and physical agility to give it everything, but you’re failing. This investigation is too much. Another suspect has got away.
He listens hard for the sound of someone else nearby. Where the hell are you, Olly Palmer? Olly is a man who Hal had a lot of contempt for before he considered him a suspect. He didn’t think he had this in him, not even after Anna Creed’s accusations. He should have believed her. If Olly gets away, or hurts someone else, he won’t forgive himself for that. He has no doubt that Olly’s guilty. Nobody runs unless they have something to hide.
He stops at the far end of the orchard, trying to orient himself. He imagines what he would do if he was Olly. He would try to get off the peninsula. Perhaps before the search teams arrive, their time is better spent trying to help his officers cover the places where Olly might emerge onto the road. He is doubting himself and struggling to make a decision when he hears a scream.
80
FRIDAY
Nicole
When she shuts the door behind Hal, Nicole wants to double-check that every door and window is locked as he told her to. She thinks they are, but she was dumb enough to leave the pool doors open earlier. She’s spooked, too scared to walk around the whole building in the dark, even with Anna beside her. She wonders if she can use the app on her phone to do it.
She pulls up the app and taps the menu labelled ‘Security’. She taps on ‘Outside Doors’. It offers her a variety of options, not all of which she understands, but she selects ‘Lock All’ and taps that. She does the same for the windows. Both show on-screen as ‘Locked’.
‘There,’ she says to Anna. ‘We’re secure.’ Anna is very pale. ‘Thank goodness you’re here,’ Nicole says.
‘Can I see?’ Anna asks, pointing to the phone. Nicole shows her. ‘What’s that?’ she asks. ‘Does it show you a plan of the whole house?’
Nicole taps the button named ‘Plan’ and then selects ‘Downstairs’.
A plan of the ground floor of the Barn appears on-screen, and within it she sees two flashing dots. ‘I think that’s us,’ she says. ‘Look. We’re in the living area. It knows I’m here because of facial recognition and it can trace you because of your pin.’
Anna uses two fingers to move the plan across the screen so that they can see more of the rooms. ‘That’s very cool,’ she says. ‘How clever.’ Nicole hands her the phone. ‘Play with it,’ she says. ‘But don’t unlock the doors.’ It’s a grim joke. Neither of them laughs.
Anna looks at the plan closely. ‘It’s so detailed,’ she says. She frowns. ‘But if we’re in here, then who’s that?’
She shows Nicole another flashing dot on the screen, in the fitness suite.
‘Oh my God,’ Nicole says. ‘I forgot to ask the detectives to get Patrick’s pin off him when he left. I didn’t even think of it. I could have tried to disable it if I’d remembered after he’d gone but I didn’t think of that either. Not even when we were doing your pin. How could I have been so dumb?’ She feels cold at the thought of it. The sheer stupidity. The danger she might have put them in.
‘Could he have dropped it here before he left?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nicole whispers. She glances towards the glass corridor that leads to the fitness suite.
‘What do we do?’ Anna asks.
Nicole tries to think. Maybe Patrick did leave the pin here. According to her phone, it’s in the changing area by the gym and it’s not moving. If he has snuck back into the house, is he a threat? Instinctually she thinks he is, based on what happened last week, but there’s new information to process. If it’s Ollywho harmed Tom, then Patrick isn’t an immediate danger even if he has crept into the Barn. If he’s skint, perhaps he had nowhere else to stay. She wonders if he really did buy a flat, like he told her, or if he squandered the money and carried on sofa surfing the way he used to.
‘I’m going to go and see,’ she says. ‘You stay. If you hear trouble, call the detective.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘He didn’t hurt Tom,’ Nicole says. ‘Olly did.’ Patrick needs to know this, and she realises that this could be a good thing. Having him here is safer for her and Anna.
She doesn’t want to alarm him by calling out to him. He might run. He doesn’t know what’s happening. With her phone in her hand, she walks towards the dot that indicates where Patrick is.
As she steps into the glass corridor, she sees in its walls a reflection of movement at the other end of it, somebody passing swiftly from one side of the fitness suite to the other, the dim, floor-level lights briefly flashing on and following him as he moves. He’s trying to stay concealed, but he must have forgotten that there are default lighting settings for guests.
She covers her mouth. It’s not Patrick. This man has a completely different shape. The lights are only on for a second and, right before they go out, she sees who it is.
As silently as she can, her heart thudding, she moves back to the living area and whispers in Anna’s ear: ‘It’s not Patrick. It’s Olly.’
She shows Anna her phone. The dot has moved. Olly has shut himself in the sauna.
81
