Was she feeling the loss of Luke? Had she tried to get back together with him and been rejected? Or had her parents changed their minds and started pressuring her to leave Avon and marry? What did she mean by saying there are things Nevis doesn’t know? What things and why had she kept them to herself? Didn’t they share everything? Had Nevis done something to kill their friendship? Was that what she was going to tell her when she called her to the bridge?

The coffee trickles into the cup. She adds some water from the kettle, sits down at the tiny table and checks her texts and voicemail inboxes. A couple of messages from Honor. On Satnam’s social, Daniel and a few others have written sentimental or otherwise morbid get-well messages. She finishes her coffee and checks her student email but Dr Ratner has not yet responded to her request for a deadline extension. She’s about to leave the system when she sees another notification. She clicks. An email from Tash Tillotson pops onto the screen.

You know, don’t you?

Her eyes slide across the words. She reads again, desperately searching for another meaning but the words remain the same. She feels herself fall and wobble. In her stomach something bitter churns. She just makes it to the bathroom in time before the sickness rises.

Chapter 10

Cullen

Cullen comes off the call with the Vice Chancellor feeling uneasy. The pain in his head has gone south into his neck. He calls out to Tina in the departmental office to fetch him some ibuprofen and thinks he should probably get a better office chair. The university will never pay for it, of course. Another thing to find money for.

He’s knocking back the pills with a slug of Famous Grouse when Veronica calls.