Reporter: Overnight a man was arrested at his home in St Kilda East in connection with two suspicious fires in the South Yarra area, police say. One fire was at a house in Gilson Terrace earlier this month. The other was at a commercial premises on Toorak Road on Friday evening. The suspect, who is in his forties, is also said to be known to one of the victims.

Chapter Twenty-Two

TWENTY-TWO

GABE AND I are at lunch at the Korean place near the townhouse we lived in before July and Evan were born, when he was still a junior accountant and I was still a case manager. The place has barely changed in eighteen years; the same old man works back in the kitchen and his wife, now with a face full of wrinkles, shuffles about, wiping down table tops grinning and doling out menus. I have the bibimbap, steaming with a gooey fried egg on top. I still haven’t told Gabe about Cormac, and now that Cormac is no longer a client, I’m confident he won’t find out. I don’t think I will ever tell him. There’s no need.

‘So,’ Gabe begins, ‘how’s the new clinic going?’

The only space I could find at short notice was a little further away from the city. I know I’m likely to lose clients but it’s the best I could do for now until the other clinic is repaired.

‘It’s good. A nice Art Deco building. We’ve got a dentist and a physio in the same office so it’s a bit busier. I don’t like using the old furniture, though.’ I’d pulled my furniture out of storage, the same desk and chair I had in my practice a decade ago. Green leather seats that groan when you shift your weight. An old glass coffee table. My phone chimes and instinctively I reach for it. An email. It’s from Adam Limbargo. Curious, I think.

Hello Margot,

I’m sorry to hear about Cormac but I wasn’t paying for him. I wasn’t sure if you were still seeing him or not.

Adam

‘What is it?’ he says.

I’m frowning hard at the phone. I look up, meet his eyes. ‘Just a work email.’

He smiles. ‘You know, that old furniture served you well for years. You could do worse.’

‘They were old when we first got them,’ I say, looking back at the email. I punch out a quick response.

What do you mean, Adam? Who was paying, if you referred him on? The university? Also, you must have known I was still seeing him when he called you?

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