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Cara is silent as Deakin takes the key out from the fake rock in the plant pot.
“I told her this wasn’t safe,” he says. “Ironic, huh? The helpless little things we try and do, when in the end someone guns you down in the mud.”
Cara puts a hand on his shoulder. “You weren’t to know. It wasn’t your fault.”
He shrugs her off, putting the key in the lock. “I was a shit when it ended between us,” he mutters. “That was my fault.”
They push open the door, then stand in the entrance, pulling on plastic overshoes and gloves. They go inside, and Cara is struck by how tidy the place is. The kitchen is clean, surfaces bare. The cushions are arranged neatly. In the bedroom, the bed is made, and there are no clothes left on the chair.
She turns back to Deakin. “Was it always like this?” she asks, and he nods.
“Always. She joked that she was a bit obsessive, but I guess that’s what made her good at her job. That attention to detail, the liking for order and routine.”
Cara sees her laptop on the side in the living room. She opens the top, and a password screen flashes up. She looks at Noah.
“No idea,” he says.
Cara puts it in an evidence bag and labels it. “Any sign of her phone?” she asks.
Deakin pulls his own mobile out of his pocket and taps on the screen. After a pause, they hear a bright tone from the hallway.
He turns and Cara follows him, watching as he digs around in the coats hung up there. He pulls a phone from one of the pockets and shows it to her.
“Why did she leave it behind?” Cara says. “That’s odd, even for Libby. Can you get in?”
“Not without the passcode. Or her fingerprint.”
Cara pauses. She knows where they’ll need to go to get it.
“I’ll go,” Deakin says, reading her mind, but Cara shakes her head.
“No. We owe it to Libby to get this sorted as soon as possible. We’ll both go. We need to see where Ross has got to with the PMs, anyway.” They go to leave, Cara bringing the laptop with her. “Let’s get SOCO in here, just in case,” she says. “I don’t want anything missed. This guy might have been here before.”
Cara goes out of the house, Deakin following her. She watches as he stops in the doorway.
“I really liked her,” he says, looking back inside. “I just couldn’t … I don’t know …” He closes the front door softly. “It wasn’t Libby. It was all me.”
“I’m sure she knew that, Noah.”
He shakes his head. “No, she didn’t. And that’s something I’m going to have to live with now. Something else to live with for the rest of my life.”
CHAPTER
42
THE PHONE WAKES them both with its ominous trill. Jess has come to associate the noise with bad news, and sure enough, she can tell it’s Griffin’s sister by the tone of his voice.
He hangs up and gets back into bed, pulling her over to steal some of her warmth. He rests his cold feet on her legs.
“I’ve got to go to the apartment again. Pick up some evidence.”
Jess nods, disappointed. Another day by herself, alone. But today she has a plan. Not a sensible one, not a logical one, but something she’s been thinking about since that night in the street when she first followed Griffin.
“Could you drop me at my house?”
He looks at her, as if weighing up the options.
