Page 24 of The Last One to See Him

‘This is awkward,’ Sam says. ‘I actually haven’t spoken to Jamie for about a year now.’ His words echo around the room.

Harper’s chest tightens and she struggles to catch her breath. She thinks of all the times Jamie has said he’s meeting up with Sam, all the times he’s been glued to his phone, messaging his closest friend. They’re in contact daily. See each other every week, at least. ‘But…I don’t understand. He met up with you last week.’

There’s a deep exhalation before Sam speaks. ‘Look, I don’t know what he’s been telling you, but Jamie and I haven’t communicated at all over the past year. Our friendship…let’s just say there hasn’t been one for a long time. I’m sorry.’

Harper’s breath catches in her throat; she can’t find any words, despite a thousand thoughts stampeding through her head.

‘I need to go now,’ Sam says.

‘Wait! What happened?’

‘I really think you need to talk to Jamie about that,’ he says.

‘I’m eight months pregnant!’ she shrieks. But it’s too late, Sam has already ended the call.

An intense burst of pain erupts in her body. She clutches her stomach, groaning, as a gush of liquid trickles down her legs. She looks down, and finds herself staring at a river of blood.

Harper opens her eyes, and for a brief moment she doesn’t know where she is. And then, with sickening clarity, it all comes back to her.

Beneath the crisp hospital sheet, she feels her stomach – flatter now, devoid of life. And then she turns to see Jamie sitting by her bed, his eyes red and swollen.

‘The baby,’ Harper says, though she already knows from the aching emptiness in her body.

Jamie shakes his head. ‘She’s…she’s gone, Harper.’ And then his tears come thick and fast.

Watching him, it all floods back to Harper. How she couldn’t find Jamie. The lies he’s sold her. ‘How long was I there before they found me?’

Jamie hangs his head. ‘I don’t know. They think not long. I got back around two and found you. But they said even if I’d been at home and could have got you to the hospital sooner, she wouldn’t have survived the birth.

Harper shakes her head. ‘No!’ she screams. ‘I don’t believe that. She would have been fine! You did this!’

And in that moment, she knows she will never forgive Jamie for their daughter’s death.

TWELVE

MONDAY 27 JANUARY

The weekend has crawled past, and Kate feels as though she’s been holding her breath, waiting for something else to happen. The calendar entry has unsettled her. She had no idea when Jamie’s birthday was, and she would never have written it on the calendar. It has to be Harper’s doing.

Kate has expected Harper to message her, but her phone has been eerily silent. Even Aleena hasn’t responded, despite Kate sending a message to apologise for letting her down again. All of this makes Kate even more uneasy.

And she still hasn’t heard back from the one person she needs to speak to. She tries again now, but again it goes to voicemail. ‘We really need to talk. Now. I’ll keep calling until you answer me. I don’t have any choice.’

After walking Thomas to school, stepping into the surgery feels unfamiliar this morning, as if Kate no longer belongs there. She thinks about Brighton, where her mother moved them after Graham White, and part of her aches for it. Her safe place, away from everything that’s happened to her. She should never have come back to London – it was insanity to think that coming back here in her twenties could heal her, that she could confront the city where something so heinous had begun. And now it’s happening all over again.

She and Thomas could start a new life by the coast, away from all of this. Before it’s too late.

She switches on the lights, bathing the reception area in a warm, golden glow. Her eyes are drawn to the photos of pets adorning the walls, the adverts for pet food and the insurance the surgery offers, the reminders for pet owners to keep up to date with their inoculations. A flood of defiance surges through her. This is her surgery – hers and her business partner David’s – and she won’t let anything drive her away.

The cleaners have already been, leaving behind the faint odour of bleach and gleaming floors that will be patterned with muddy paw prints by the end of the day.

Alone in the surgery – it will be an hour before Lara the receptionist arrives – Kate makes green tea and takes it to her office at the back of the building, turning on the computer to check today’s bookings. There are no surgeries, but a long list of consultations in the morning.

Kate looks up to see David standing in the doorway. ‘Hey,’ he says. ‘You okay? Are you sure you don’t need to take some time off?’

Last Monday she’d let David believe that if she didn’t seem herself, it was because of her impending divorce. Nothing to do with her sleeping with a man one night only to find him dead the next day.

‘I really don’t need to take time off,’ Kate says. ‘I’m fine. Being here is good for me.’

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