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I reach into my bag and pull out the photographs, spreading them out on the worktop. Then I watch his face as he slowly realises what they are.
‘What is this?’ he says.
‘I found them in Alice’s flat. Hidden in her wardrobe.’
He screws up his face. ‘What? How did?—?’
‘Molly was trying to get hold of you, to ask if you’d go with her to Alice’s place. I just happened to go round there to see if she knew where you were, and I offered to go with her.’
Taylor stares at me as his brain scrambles to keep up. ‘That must have felt weird.’
‘It did. But I’m so desperate for answers, I didn’t think about anything else. Like the possibility that Max might have spent time there with her.’
He studies the photos again. ‘And you found these in her wardrobe?’
A shiver of shame runs through me. ‘I was just looking at her clothes. I was curious. Clothes can tell us a lot about someone. The envelope was taped to the back of the wardrobe, hidden.’
Taylor smiles. ‘She did like clothes. Probably never even wore half of them.’ The smile quickly fades. ‘I don’t get what it means.’
‘Neither do I. Except that she must have been following me. I have no idea why, though.’
‘She never told me she was doing that. Why wouldn’t she tell me?’
‘You said she was distancing herself from people in those last few months. Only Alice knew what was going on in her life.’
‘And your husband. He knows.’
‘Didknow,’ I say. Then I remember I haven’t told Taylor about the flat I followed Max to just now. And the fact that Max admitted he’s been lying about losing his memory.
Taylor listens while I recount every detail of what happened with Max just now. And while I speak, his forehead is a maze of lines.
‘There’s one way we can find out about the flat. Come with me.’
In the living room, Taylor opens his laptop. ‘What’s the address?’
I tell him and he taps on the keys, staring at the screen the whole time. ‘There. Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward.’
‘What?’ I stare at the estate agent’s website.
‘Look. Here’s the flat. And it’s showing as still available to rent.’
‘Max said he found the keys in his desk drawer…’
Without a word, Taylor grabs his phone and dials a number. Seconds tick by. ‘Hi, I’ve just seen a two-bed property I’minterested in renting on your website. 10A Denmark Road. Is it still available?’
More seconds pass. ‘Right…Okay…Thanks.’ He hangs up and lets out a deep sigh. ‘That property’s literally just been taken. Apparently, the person picked up the keys yesterday.’ He shakes his head.
‘So Max was lying again. He’s just rented that place. But why?’
Taylor is silent for a moment. ‘I don’t know.’
And then it dawns on me, as clearly as if it were written on paper in front of me. ‘Because he’s leaving. And he wants to take Poppy with him.’ Saying this, my heart feels as though it’s being wrenched from my body. ‘But if he wanted me dead, he and Poppy would be free to have the house. It doesn’t make sense.’And he’d been different last night, more open somehow.
‘You’re right,’ Taylor says. ‘It doesn’t add up.’
‘Unless…Think about it. Max loves Poppy. He’ll want her far away from memories of me. He wants to get her away from the house to protect her.’
Taylor considers this silently for a moment. ‘Unless he’s changed his plan. There are other ways to get someone out of your life.’
