Page 45 of A Simple Mistake
Rachel didn’t argue.“You haven’t said that in a long time, Daniel, honey.Do you know what spooked you?”
Daniel shook his head.“I feel as if… as if someone’s watching me.But when I check, there’s nobody there.”
“Do you want me to call Gareth?”
“No.He’s at work.I don’t want to distract him.”
“I’m sure he’d rather know if something bothers you.”
Rachel put an arm around his shoulders, and Daniel didn’t shrug her off.She’d always been the touchy kind, convinced he and Nico needed hugs.
“Gareth will come if you need him.”
“I know.I just—” He had no evidence, not even an illegal video like Nico had taken of Manville.All he had was… dread.“No.”
“You’re off camping, aren’t you?”
“Friday, yes.It’s Gareth’s birthday tomorrow.”And Jack was still in Japan.
“Then why don’t you go home now and take tomorrow off?I’ll call you a taxi.Peter will get you tomorrow, so you have fresh ingredients for the birthday dinner.Or you can text me, and I’ll pack it up for you.”She lowered the phone she’d just lifted to her ear.“You arehavinga birthday dinner, right?”
Daniel stared at her, mind whirling.“Of course, I’ll cook.But I can’t just run out on you.I said I’m going to help and—”
“Daniel, honey, you’ve been working your socks off here every weekend.You’re coming in every time I’m shorthanded.You can totally take a day off, okay?”She pulled him close, picked up her phone, and called a cab.
And Daniel was too shaken to argue.
The crunch of tyres on gravel drew Nico from his desk and down the stairs.Instead of the doorbell, keys turned in the lock, and then Daniel blew in as if he had someone on his tail.
Nico rushed to meet him, wrapped his arms around him, and held tight.“What’s wrong?”
“Someone was watching me.At the deli,” Daniel said.“I didn’t see who.Not a customer in the shop, I don’t think.But I knew.”
Nico believed him.Their radar for danger had stayed sharp, even living with Gareth and Jack.He let go just long enough to lock the front door and set the alarm.“How did you get home?”
“Rachel called a taxi for me, and I watched, but nobody followed.”
“That’s good.Come on.You’re shaking.You need a hot drink and then we’ll hide upstairs.”He pushed Daniel towards the kitchen where—to Nico’s relief—Daniel switched on the kettle and reached for the tin of expensive Spanish hot chocolate.He mixed their biggest mugs, heaping his own with extra sugar, then a crown of vanilla cream.Over-the-top extravagant, but it soothed them both.
Safe in their workroom behind another locked door, Daniel slumped into his chair like a puppet with its strings cut.“That was… shit!I don’t need this.”He buried his face in his mug.
“Could it have been Manville?”Nico asked.“He lives just outside Richmond, I think.He could have been passing, and hewouldgive you the creeps.”
“If it was him, I didn’t see him.Nobody looked familiar.”He took another sip of hot chocolate.“Rachel’s given me tomorrow off.Her husband will pick us up at lunchtime, so we can get stuff for Gareth’s birthday dinner.”
“I do like Rachel.She gets it, even if I don’t know how.”
“Yeah.”Daniel set his mug down and shook out his hands.“What have you been doing all day?More of Aidan’s job?”
“Yeah.I’m on her social media now.If you want to help, she had a Pinterest account.”
“Oh?”Daniel moved to his desk and booted up his laptop.“What’s her page?”
Nico grinned.They were both cagey with social media, using alias accounts Jack had set up for them.They didn’t post, but Nico kept watch on their friends’ and schoolmates’ posts, and Daniel liked to browse Pinterest when he was tired.Asking him to explore Margot McTavish’s account would be a soothing distraction.
He went back to his own search—and his own hot chocolate—when Daniel had settled into scrolling through the Pinterest feed.Making note of every person who’d interacted with any of Mrs McTavish’s posts was tedious work, but now and then he found a name that wasn’t her husband or niece.He was thinking about adding the names he already had to the spreadsheet Daniel had started at the weekend, when Daniel stirred.
“Nico…” Daniel’s voice was higher than Nico had ever heard it.
