Page 25 of Between the Lies

Oh God!Nina scratched her forehead. ‘There seems to have been a mistake. I thought this was a law office.’

The letting agent – that’s what she must be – clicked her fingers. ‘Oh, I see what you mean. Aye, this used to be a law office. But they gave their notice a while ago and have since moved away.’

That wasn’t helpful at all. And what sort of law office moved away without letting its clients know? Not that she was a client. Maybe she could look them up online…

‘Do you have a forwarding address for them?’ Nina asked.

The letting agent shook her head. ‘Sorry, I don’t.’

Five minutes later, when the letting agent’s potential tenant arrived, Nina left. She walked back towards George Square, her mind a whirl.

Maybe if she looked them up online, she could get their new location. After that nightmare this morning, she really needed this to work.

Coffee – a coffee would whip her back into shape. A lot could happen over coffee.

Huffing out a breath, Nina lugged herself to the nearest café. She found a seat, opened up her laptop and took the first sip of her drink.

As the coffee disappeared, which was quickly replaced with another, Nina’s research drilled deeper and deeper. She revisited the websites she’d browsed before when doing her usual background checks on the lawyers, trying to search them out using all possible angles, and found nothing. The lawyers had vanished under an invisibility cloak it seemed.

Two hours after she’d started, Nina sank back in her chair and came to terms with what had happened. She’d been completely and utterly duped.

CHAPTERTWELVE

‘For God’s sake!’ Robert muttered, urging his legs to go faster. His heart thundered in his chest, ready to either stutter to a stop or jump out of his throat.

Ever since Anne had died, occasional meals and a chair had been his best pals. He hadn’t gone for a walk and certainly hadn’t gone running.

He almost stumbled over a pile of bins scattered across the pavement – thrown there by the man he was after.

Robert muttered a few choice words that had the couple arguing on the street stop and stare at him. Ignoring them, he skidded into a side alley and emerged onto a busy pedestrian street.

What was it about this woman? Everything he needed from her or about her was always a chase away.

Except when they’d actually met face to face for the first time, and he’d been stupid enough to let her go.

Robert spotted the man. He was almost a block away. Damn it! Glasgow’s grid-like city centre was helpful when navigating or trying to locate a person. But it also showed you how far you were from where you needed to be.

‘Excuse me! Coming through!’ Robert shouted and wove through the groups of people out for some shopping or socialising, meandering down the road.

Robert burst past them like a fast train next to a slow one. Many leaped away from him, hurling curses his way. But most of them didn’t move, too busy in their own world.

He was getting nowhere at this pace.

Robert pulled up a map of the city centre in his head, ignoring once again his impending heart attack. If he headed right and cut across some side alleys, he might get the bastard.

But if the man went left, Robert would miss him.

‘Fuck this!’ Robert stopped, stared at the alley he could take then shook his head. That man was another rat who would return for his cheese.

Robert turned round and made his way back up the hill. He’d be sore tomorrow from all this physical exertion. But he would get that bloody address.

It took him twice as long running uphill as it had downhill. But the café he’d begun this mindless chase from still sat there, in the basement on a quieter street. Luckily for him, it meant the place wasn’t busy.

Robert nipped back in and waved at the barista, who shot him a ‘what the hell?’ look before turning back to the coffee machine. What had he done to spook her?

Robert ran a hand through his hair.

Finn had asked Robert to meet him in the café. He’d also told Robert to take the table farthest away from the door. Thirty minutes ago, Robert had walked in, noticed the solitary man sitting by the door and ignored him. But when Robert’s butt had hit the chair on the other side of the room, the man by the door had hightailed it out of the café as if his arse was on fire.

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