Page 45 of Finding Jacob
“What’s the time?” I asked, swinging my legs from the bed.
“Nearly two in the afternoon.”
“Bloody hell!” I stood and swayed; Nathan caught my arm.
“Don’t rush. I know it’s a Sunday, but we need to get to the office. And I have something to tell you, Anna.”
For the first time, I was aware of the strain in his voice. I stared at him. The frown lines on his forehead had deepened and his skin had a pallid tone.
“What’s happened, Nathan?” I asked slowly.
He sighed and then sat beside me. “Jules was found dead this morning.”
“What!” I screeched. “I only saw her yesterday...what?”
He lowered his head and took my hand in his. “At the moment, it looks like an overdose.”
“What do you mean,it looks like?”
“That’s what the police are saying. Accidental overdose. I don’t believe it.”
I turned to face him. “Nathan, what aren’t you telling me?”
“I had a long chat with her the other day. She was getting clean, dumped the prince, and me and her...well, we sort of had a thing going on.”
I stared at him. Never had he shown any interest in any of our models and, although I didn’t encourage relationships among the team, I could hardly police what they did in their own time.
“A thing?” I asked gently.
“Yeah, it had been going on a while.” He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. “She couldn’t get rid of him. He was stalking her, and she didn’t know what to do. So, she asked me for help. I hooked her up with a security guy I knew and, other than that incident in the club, all seemed okay. The prince stayed away from her, and me and her, we had a couple of meals out, she stayed over one night.”
“Why don’t I know any of this? She was drunk at my sister’s wedding, Nathan,” I said quietly, hoping he hadn’t been sucked into her lies.
Jules had no intention of getting clean, I knew that and was surprised he hadn’t seen through her claims. We’d heard them time and time again.
“I know, but she was off the drugs. She couldn’t do it all at the same time. We didn’t want to worry you; you’d just found out about the baby.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry, Nathan. Does her family know?”
He nodded. It seemed while I’d been in the land of Nod, Jules had been found by her friend early that morning. The police had been called, the body removed, and her family told. I sat quietly. I blinked, allowing the built-up tears to fall.
“Why don’t you believe it?” I asked, looking up at him.
“I just don’t. She was adamant, Anna. She was looking forward to getting back to work, a holiday, she’d even made up with her mum.”
Nathan’s gut instinct had never let him, or me, down. If he believed something was wrong, it generally was.
“What can we do about it?”
“I don’t know yet. In the meantime, the press is going ballistic, so you might need to get that skinny arse of yours in some clothes.” Nathan’s way was to joke, to add some of his dark humour into any situation. I patted his cheek and wiped my own.
“Okay, do you want to put the kettle on?”
Nathan left the bedroom and as I watched him walk away, his shoulders seemed hunched. This wasn’t Nathan at all. He’d hadfuck buddies,as he’d call them, much to my distaste, but he’d never shown much interest in anything more.
I walked to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked haggard, with dark circles surrounding bloodshot eyes. I even spotted a pimple starting to form. I piled my hair on top of my head and washed my face, cleaned my teeth, and then grabbed some clothes from my wardrobe. Leaving my hair in a messy bun, I quickly smoothed a little foundation and bronzer over my skin, flicked some mascara on my lashes, and I was ready to go.
Nathan stood in the kitchen with a coffee for himself and a tea for me.
