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Back I Know What I Saw
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for I Know What I Saw
  3. By the Same Author
  4. Dedication Page
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  54. Now read on for a preview
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  59. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My heart skips at this. ‘Did you hear a woman’s voice?’

She stops mid-step and looks in the air as if searching in it for something.

‘I couldn’t say, my dear, to be perfectly honest. There’s always noise coming from there. If it’s not a party it’s the television set.’

‘What about the next day? Did you see him then, Ebadi?’

‘No, I don’t think so. I’ve tried to get the environmental people on to it but they don’t seem to be interested enough to do anything about it.’

‘Okay,’ I say, disappointed a little. She doesn’t catch my eye but is still groping around in the air for something more.

‘Wait. Now you say it, I think I did notice something in the morning. It was very early, mind you, around six or so. I heard some voices outside, and a van. That was what woke me, you see. So I looked out of the window, but it was just some men moving some belongings out of the flat. People have no consideration for others. Fancy. Six in the morning!’

I can’t pull my eyes off her as I digest what I have just heard. He came back. With help.

He must have had her body moved. That’s why the police didn’t find anything.

‘Did you see him?’ I say.

‘I don’t think I did. Just the removal men. I don’t believe that he’s the kind to get his hands dirty. Young men don’t these days, I find. Now my husband, he used happily to—’

Before she can finish the sentence, I have thanked her and run off down the road with this news expanding in my head.

16

Saturday

By the time I reach south-east London, it is around midday. Even though the world is immense and for all intents and purposes boundless, we find ourselves locked into an orbit of just a few miles. Familiarity draws us in, a home for our troubles. I need it, the familiarity, to concentrate without being distracted by my environment. That’s why I’m here, in Dulwich Park, with the beginning of a headache but a clear mind, to think.

It was always Grace, this place. A memory crashes around me, or a dream. There’s a bench and I’m digging with my hands. The earth gives way and then nothing more.

We could have made it work. I still believe that.