‘Oh, those guys.’ He picks up a sheet of paper off the desk, making out it’s entertaining him more than I am. ‘They were just doing house calls, wanting to know if anyone saw anything the night that young woman was killed.’ He puts the page down. ‘Anything else?’ he says. ‘How are you doing? All set for the baby shower, I hope.’

I’m not buying that. He’s brushing me off, trying to change the subject.

‘And did you see anything?’

‘Did I see anything where?’

‘In Treehill, in the park, the night the—’

‘Becca, stop. I saw nothing and told them so.’

Danny should be asking me why I’m so interested, why I came all the way out here to find out what the cops wanted.

‘Did they ask about me? And what did they take in the bag?’

‘What bag?’

‘Joanna said they took something away with them, was it something belonging to you?’

‘Why would they ask about you, Becca?’

The sound from the TV in the other room can no longer be heard. Joanna must have her ear to the wall. I’m anxious now. Danny is staring at me.

‘Why would they ask about you?’ he repeats, hands clenched, leaning on the desk, ignoring the question about what was in the bag.

Should I say I’m a suspect? I don’t know.

‘No reason,’ I say. ‘I was just wondering.’ Looking down at my feet, I can feel his eyes drilling holes in my head.

‘Becca.’

‘Yes?’ Lifting my head to look at him I sense fear – not mine, his. It’s like he doesn’t know whether to say what he’s about to say.

‘Becca,’ he says, moving out from behind the desk. He puts a hand on my shoulder. ‘Stay away from it, Becca.’

‘Stay away from what?’ I say, unable to decode his warning.

‘Katie Collins. Stay away from anything to do with her.’

Danny is pleading with me, telling me to leave it alone, to walk away. But why?

‘Why?’

Without answering, he walks out of the office. After a few minutes I realize he’s not coming back, so I follow.

Joanna comes into the hall and tries to defuse the atmosphere, expressing mixed feelings about the upcoming baby shower, telling me what she’s worried about, hoping she’s still here for it. Apparently the doctors told her she could go early. I see her lips move, her words fall on me, bursting into nothing when they land. What is Danny hiding?

Chapter Thirty-One

I wasn’t expecting to find myself knocking on Bert’s door. But the thought of driving all the way back into the city with my head filled with fear, holding my concentration at gunpoint, is not a good idea. I’ll take a break, call in on Bert and have a coffee, see if that calms me down a bit.