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But it was Shirley herself who explained. ‘Yes, Nash has had a bag of your belongings at his place for ages – well, since you left – and once he found out where you were living, I kept saying he should return them to you.’ She smiled. ‘So he did. Better late than never, I suppose.’
‘A bag of my stuff?’ I turned to Nash. ‘How did you find out where I was living? When I was at Milo’s, I mean?’
He grinned. ‘Bit complicated. I spoke to your Auntie Christine and explained I still had some of your stuff and she said you were staying with a guy called Milo who ran a roastery-style coffee shop in Sunnybrook. She wouldn’t tell me any more. I think she regretted even telling me that. But it was easy enough, once I found out Milo’s surname in the café, to find his address on the electoral roll.’
‘So those nights you came to Milo’s looking for me, it was to return my stuff?’ I frowned, not quite sure I believed this.
He nodded. ‘And I wanted to make sure you were okay as well. You ran off into the night and I felt bad that we never got to say goodbye properly. I don’t think you were in the first time I called at Milo’s and when I went back the second time, the woman there – Jaz, I think her name was? – seemed to think you’d moved to Cornwall. She didn’t have an address for you, so I didn’t think there was much point leaving the bag with her.’ He shrugged. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I mentioned your name to a business contact of mine in passing –’
‘Kurt.’
‘Yes, Kurt. Nice fella. He told me he lived in Sunnybrook and I said I knew someone who’d recently moved there but I hadn’t been able to track her down. And obviously he knew you were in the flat above the café. I told him we’d been really good friends, you and I, and I was desperate to get back in touch with you.’ He gave a guilty grin. ‘I left out the fact that you were my ex. He probably wouldn’t have been quite so forthcoming with the information if I’d told him that.’
‘Right.’ I shook my head at his cheek. ‘Very sly.’
‘Got results, though,’ he said cheerfully.
‘So where’s my bag of stuff now?’
‘You didn’t get it?’
‘Nope.’
‘But I dropped it at Janey’s.’
‘At Janey’s? When?’
‘Same night I went to your flat and you weren’t in.’
I stared at him. Janey had never mentioned Nash dropping off a bag for me, and I’d seen her a few times at art classes since that night. Had she forgotten about it? It seemed unlikely. Maybe Nash was lying. I really wouldn’t put it past him, pretending to be all nice and friendly and obliging with my stuff in front of his new girlfriend!
‘Right, well, I’ll ask Janey next time I see her.’
Nash nodded. ‘Good. Well, we’d better go. Shirl’s promised to cook steak tonight as a reward for me getting through another scary counselling session.’
Shirley smiled at me. ‘He’s just joking. He’s actually fully committed to the sessions. Even quite enjoys them, don’t you?’ She punched him playfully on the arm and Nash pretended to be wounded, then wrapped his arm around her. It was all quite sickening, really, and I couldn’t wait to get away.
Shirley seemed nice, though. And I found myself hoping she had a better time of being with Nash than I did.
But as for thinking it was Nash doing all those weird stalker things... lurking in the garden and leaving a single hellebore on the doormat, following me in the dark on the way back from the railway station, and sending me a creepy bouquet with no message?
It was fairly obvious after that astonishing encounter that it wasn’t Nash at all. He’d moved on with his life. He was having counselling. He seemed happy with his new girlfriend.
But if it wasn’t him, who the hell was doing all these creepy things?
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Why would Janey hold onto my bag?
The question kept me awake that night. Was it possible thatshecould be my stalker? But it didn’t make sense. Why would Janey want to scare and unsettle me? When Lance had suggested she was jealous when Nash started seeing me, she’d been uncharacteristically abrupt in her denial, I’d thought. But maybe that was it. Maybe Janey had never really got over Nash and had resented me for taking her place in his life?
Was she doing all these things to freak me out and get her own back because I’d ‘stolen’ Nash from her?
I decided to give her a quick call and ask her about the bag...
*****
‘Bag? What bag?’ was her puzzled response.
