I nodded. At that moment I couldn’t imagine anything I wanted more. To hell with it, I thought – let’s not overthink it. For tonight anyway.

Chapter Seven

A PHONE RANG, slicing through my consciousness. My eyes opened and blearily I looked at the luminous figures on the clock on my bedside table. It was 4.27 a.m. I reached my hand out of bed and felt about for my phone until I registered that what I was hearing wasn’t my ringtone. Seconds later I realized that I wasn’t in my bed in Sarasota either and I wasn’t alone. Molloy was beside me and it was his phone that was ringing.

By the time I’d figured all of this out, he’d already picked up. “Yes? What is it?” His voice was sleepy.

I switched on the light to watch him run his hand through his hair, propping himself up on the pillow, and felt a wave of happiness on seeing him there. We’d fallen asleep with our arms around one another, no conversation, just a weird contentment.

But now, there was a pause and he frowned. I heard a voice on the other end, shouting, I thought. Outside probably, in the rain. I was blearily aware that it was raining again, drops splattering against the bedroom window.

“Where exactly are you?” he said. Another pause. Then, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Molloy put the phone back on the locker and lifted the duvet to climb out of bed. I looked at him quizzically.

“McFadden,” was all he said as he dressed rapidly in the gloom of the bedside lamp.

I sat up. “McFadden what?”

But he shook his head. “I’ll give you a call when I can. Get some sleep.”

And then he was gone. I heard his footsteps on the stairs and the door slam, leaving me wide awake, alone and uneasy. I turned on my phone. It beeped immediately with a text from Maeve, sent two minutes ago. I read it in disbelief.

I know you’re probably asleep, but I’ve just had a body fall onto the jeep. A body! I’m at Mamore Gap. McFadden’s here and he’s just called Molloy. WTF??

I jerked upright in the bed and rang her back straight away, but she didn’t answer. So I got out of bed, pulled on some clothes and a waterproof jacket and ran outside, grabbing, as I left the house, a newspaper that Marina had left in the hall.

I just about managed to catch Molloy. He was on his phone again and starting his car. He must have made some extra calls between my bed and the footpath or he’d have been well gone. I knocked on the window in the rain, the newspaper on my head, and he looked up, worried and exasperated. Expressions I’d seen more than once when he looked at me.