‘There’s a back room at the gallery,’ he says slowly. ‘That’s where we need to look. Sabine said something once about that room being full of secrets. I thought she was just being Sabine. I mean she was a bit out there. Maybe she was trying to tell me something. Fuck. I can’t believe this.’

I think of the fob in that top desk drawer. The one the mousy-haired girl put in there that day I went past the gallery. Then of the files and the shelving I saw in Sabine’s video of that room. Then the back door. The code I saw him trace that night… a cross.

I could probably get into the gallery one way or another…

‘Do you know the alarm code?’ I ask, thinking of the sensors blinking red from the upper corners of the gallery.

‘Our wedding anniversary,’ he says beneath his breath.

I wait for him to elaborate and pull out my phone to note down the details. But he says nothing.

‘Which is?’ I ask, looking up at him.

He’s frowning now. ‘You don’t think I’m letting you go alone, do you?’ he asks.

‘You’re going to come along and protect me, are you?’ I ask, eyebrows raised.

‘No, of course not.’ He gives the slightest hint of a smile. ‘I’m going to come along and make sure you don’t fuck anything up.’

Chapitre Trente

Chapitre trente

So here we are, full circle. It’s a Saturday morning and I’m back on my sofa, the rain tapping on the roof, the smell of Noah in my hair while I sip coffee and think about Agnès Bisset. Except this time the door is double bolted and there’s no guilt pulsing through me. This time she’s not the victim. This time she can’t hide behind some pristine public image. This time I see her for what she is: the woman who had Sabine killed; the woman who deals in stolen art; the woman who is having me followed.

The woman whose gallery I will be breaking into tomorrow night.

Which would be why, right now, I’m feeling around the bottom of my bag for a couple of bobby pins.

I pull them into the light and adjust them so they look just like the ones on the screen.

I’m watching a YouTube video with corporate music in the background as a well-manicured hand demonstrates how to break into a desk drawer with just two bobby pins. Yes, these videos exist. I’ve already watched it once, but now that I have my tools at the ready I plan on rewatching it a couple more times so I’m ready when the time comes. I just need to somehow get the baubles off the ends of the bobby pins… Maybe a knife? Some pliers? My phone screen lights up from the sofa beside me with a message.