Page 74 of Suzie's Santorini Summer

‘Well, I might just be able to help you there.’

‘Suzie?’ Christos leaned forward in his seat and placed his hand on hers, shaking his head slightly, his eyes wary as they met hers. ‘What are you doing?’

‘It’s okay, Christos.’

‘Are you sure?’

She smiled at him and nodded, grateful for his solicitude. ‘I’m sure.’

So, as they sat there in the rustic little taverna, the fairy lights twinkling in the trees, a posse of local cats drowsing on the kitchen step, and the drone of the night-time insects providing a muted backing track, she told Nathan – and a wide-eyed Heidi – her story. She stuck to the facts, recounting the sequence of the events from the moment she left home that fateful morning to the moment she and Amber caught the train to Devon. She told him what she had seen, what she had heard, and what she had done, unencumbered by the details of her emotional response to what she – and her colleagues – had endured at the time.

When she had finished, she felt drained, but also suffused with a curious sense of buoyancy. Over the last twelve months, every move she’d made, every decision she had taken, had been with reference to what had happened at the store that day, and now that the shackles that had bound her to the incident had been broken, she was free to fly. It was an amazing feeling.

‘Oh my God, Suzie,’ Heidi blurted, her eyes filled with sympathy as she reached out to pull Suzie into her arms and give her an extra-tight hug. ‘Why didn’t you say anything? I can’t believe you’ve been carrying all that trauma around with you and not shared the burden with your friends. Does Kat know?’

‘Yes, Amber told her.’

‘Well, that’s something, I suppose,’ said Heidi, before turning to face Nathan. ‘Okay, so are you going to help Suzie find out who’s responsible for stealing all those expensive watches?’

Suzie laughed. Trust Heidi to get straight to the point.

‘Well, Ididsay I wanted something interesting to get my teeth into, but—’

‘Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to find out who committed the crime, just any evidence that points to the fact that those responsible had a tip-off that Carmen and I were going to be alone in the store that day. You could then publish a report on what you’d found, which might go some way to eliminating us both – and François – from the list of suspects the rest of the media insist on referring to whenever they write about the incident. A sort of rebalancing of the narrative.’

‘Have the police madeanyprogress in identifying who’s responsible?’

‘No.’

‘Did they recover the watches?’

‘No.’

‘And you’re absolutely sure that neither you, Carmen, nor François mentioned anything toanyoneabout his leaving early to catch the plane to the south of France that day?’

‘Well, I know I didn’t – apart from Adam – and both Carmen and François said the same when the police interviewed them. The three of us worked together for over five years; we were not just colleagues, we were best friends, and if they said they didn’t tell anyone, then I believe them. I mean, why would they lie? They were just as traumatised by the incident as I was. Even now, we’re all still struggling with residual feelings of guilt about what we did.’

‘You mean about letting François leave early?’ Nathan asked.

‘Yes, that, but also that we didn’t do anything to stop the robbery.’

‘But what could you have done?’

‘I…’

‘Surely the procedure in these situations is to do what bad guys tell you to do?’

‘It is, but—’

‘They had weapons. Didyouhave weapons?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Then you did exactly what you should have done. Why do you feel guilty about following an industry-standard protocol?’

‘Because allowing François to go earlywasagainst the rules.’

‘Okay, so if Françoishadbeen there, would there have been a different result?’

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