Page 78 of Carbon

“Still no appetite?” Emmy asked as he walked away.

“Not much of one. Everything’s getting too much—first Angie, then the row with Mother and Gregory, and I’ve got to go to the funeral tomorrow.”

“Do you want to catch a lift with one of us?”

“What, to the funeral? You’re going? But you didn’t even know Angie.”

“Statistics say there’s a good chance a killer will show up at his victim’s funeral, so we’ll be sending a team. The police too.”

Great, even Angie’s last send-off was going to turn into a bloody circus. One last indignity in her life. “Is that necessary? I’m quite sure Beau won’t show up there.”

“Who said anything about Beau?”

“But the police...”

“The police are looking for Beau, but like you said, he’s not that stupid. Blackwood’s keeping an open mind, and that means seeing who else is hanging around.”

A tiny bud of hope formed in my chest. “Really?”

“Client number two is leading the charge on that one.”

“What about my father? Won’t he be angry?”

“I believe his exact words were ‘bring in the man who killed my daughter.’ And we will, whether that was Beau Davies or somebody else. But at this moment, we’ve got little to go on, and finding Beau represents our best chance at unravelling this whole mess.”

Her words made it sound as if they were coming around to the idea of a second culprit, but a part of me still worried about Ben ending up in jail. Like Emmy said, the police weren’t quite so open to new suggestions. When I’d suggested the possibility to the family liaison officer the week before last, she’d all but laughed in my face.

“I hope you find the other man.”

“But not Beau?”

“I’m worried about him.”

Emmy’s phone trilled on the table beside her, and she put it to her ear. I strained my ears to hear the other end of the conversation, but it wasn’t loud enough. All I got was Emmy’s side.

“Really? Interesting... Any idea who she was? ... And they left on a bike? ... Well, ask Luke to get the CCTV footage. I’ll be back in an hour.”

At the mention of a bike, I froze inside, trying desperately to maintain a calm exterior. Were they talking about Ben?

“Looks like you were right to be worried,” Emmy said to me.

Oh, hell. “Why? What’s happened?”

ItwasBen, wasn’t it? Something had happened to Ben.

“A man fitting Beau’s description went into A&E at King’s College the night before last, but he wasn’t alone. The doctors reckoned he and the girl with him had both been in a fight.”

“He had a girl with him? What girl?”

“We don’t know. She had a knife wound to her thigh that nicked her femoral artery, plus a head wound. They wanted to keep her in, but when the nurse asked for her details, she legged it. The pair of them took off on a motorbike that sounds like Beau’s.”

“Was he hurt badly?”

“Not sure. He refused treatment and just asked staff to look after the girl.”

I stood up, even though I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go. And who was the girl? Why was he with another woman? I tamped down the jealousy that welled up inside me.

“We have to help.”

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