Maggie was mean enough to confiscate the gin, but not to ban me from the pub. In fact, she insisted on playing chaperone, but only at a respectable hour. I managed to fill in the afternoon with an obscene amount of housework. Maybe I was more like my mother than I liked to admit.
Another more difficult chore involved the telephone. There was something I had to do and I wasn’t at all sure how it would go down. I picked up the handset and tapped in the number I’d written down, then, as the phone started to ring, I had to stop the urge to hang up. My innards felt like they were about to betray me again. I was seriously considering a trip to the loo when someone picked up.
‘Hello.’ The voice was quiet and familiar.
‘Lockie. Hi, it’s Sam.’
‘Sam, what’s happening? Do you have some news?’ He sounded almost eager, and I felt even worse about what I was going to tell him.
‘No, nothing like that. It’s just, well … I wanted you to hear it from me first.’
‘Hear what?’
I took a very deep breath. ‘They’ve thrown me off the case and suspended me.’ I spat the words out quickly before my nerve deserted me. ‘I’m a suspect, Lockie.’
There was deathly silence from the other end of the phone.
‘I promise you, Lockie, I had nothing to do with Gaby’s death. I’m only a suspect because of our past … you know, relationship.’ It sounded so awkward, but I had to try to explain. I was going to say something more when he interrupted.
‘Is that it?’
‘Well, yes, I just wanted you to hear it from me.’
‘You shouldn’t be talking to me, then.’
I flinched at the click, and then listened for a while to the series of regular beeps before I hung up.
I decided I did need that trip to the toilet, after all.