The Therapist by B.A. Paris

Thirty-Five

The hotel is lovely, the room beautifully decorated in subtle shades of grey, with a grey marble bathroom and white fluffy towels. Relief washes through me. For the first time in weeks, I feel safe.

So that Ginny and Eve won’t worry, I message them to say I’m going away for a few days and that I’ll be back at the house on Thursday. I ask Ginny not to tell Leo and she promises she won’t. If Leo knows I’m not there, he might move back in.

I toss and turn all night, and in the morning, I feel so empty that all I want to do is hibernate until I check out on Thursday morning. I’d intended to carry on working from the hotel but I don’t want to think about anything, not my translation, not my parents or my sister, not Leo and his lies, not Nina’s murder. All I want is to lie in the dark, with the curtains drawn, and switch off from everything.

For the next two days, I sleep, listen to podcasts, take long baths and order food from room service, telling the lovely girl who brings it that I’m feeling under the weather. At one point I find myself thinking about Thomas, and remembering that I haven’t told him about the murder in France, I call him.

‘Both women had their hair cut off,’ I say once I’ve told him about Marion Cartaux. ‘Do you think the two murders could be linked?’

‘They could be,’ he says. ‘But it’s more likely to be two murders committed by two different people with the same fetish. It’s infuriating to think that nobody on my team – or me, for that matter – thought to look abroad. You’d make a very good investigator, Alice.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, pleased.

‘I’ll get my people to do a bit of digging and get back to you.’ I sense him hesitate. ‘Maybe I could come by tomorrow afternoon and let you know what I find? Or Friday, if you prefer.’

‘Tomorrow is better for me.’

‘Two o’clock?’

‘Perfect.’

I hang up. I could have chosen to see him Friday, because I’ll be back at the house by then. But it seemed too long to wait.

The next day, I walk back to the house at the end of the morning, feeling bad that I’m looking forward to seeing Thomas when Leo and I have only just split up. But at this moment in time, he’s one of the few people I can trust.

It’s a crisp October day and apart from a handful of parents and children in the play area, the square is almost deserted. I glance over at Tamsin’s house, wondering what her plans are for the morning, and see someone standing at one of the upstairs windows. I’m unable to make out if it’s her or Connor but I lift my hand in a wave, knowing that whoever it is can see me.

‘Alice!’

Turning, I see Will running to catch up with me, a brightly coloured scarf around his neck.

‘Hi, Will,’ I say cheerfully, hoping he didn’t see me coming out of the hotel. If I didn’t want anyone to know I was staying there, I should have chosen one further away from The Circle. ‘Have you been shopping?’

‘No, just for a walk. I’m reading through a new script and I needed a break. Are you back already? Eve said you’d gone away.’

Too late, I remember that I was meant to be away until tomorrow. ‘Yes, I just got back,’ I tell him.

He nods distractedly. ‘Eve really enjoyed the Orangery the other day.’

‘Me too. I don’t know about Eve, but I ate far too much.’

‘I just wanted to say – Eve told me that there’s been a couple of occasions when you’ve thought there was someone in the house at night?’

‘It was probably my imagination,’ I say, wondering why he’s mentioning it.

He gives me a quick look. ‘I don’t want to worry you but I think Eve told you that Nina thought the same thing.’

‘Yes, she did.’

‘Then – are you sure you’re happy staying there on your own? If Leo isn’t coming back yet, you’re welcome to stay with us.’

‘That’s lovely of you but honestly, I’m fine.’

He turns his blue eyes on me. ‘I’m sorry, Alice, I don’t understand why you’re willing to risk it, especially after what happened to Nina.’

‘But if Oliver killed Nina, how can I be at risk?’

‘What if he didn’t?’

I stop walking. ‘What are you saying, Will?’

He shoves his hands in his pockets. ‘Just that I’ve never been entirely happy with the theory that he killed her. I didn’t know Oliver well, we’d only been neighbours for five months, but I knew him well enough to be as shocked as everyone else when he was accused of murdering Nina. But when they said his suicide proved his guilt – that I couldn’t believe. I didn’t say anything because as I said, everyone knew him better than me, so I thought there was something about him that I’d missed. Then you arrived and began questioning things, and now, I don’t know. What if the real killer is still living among us, hiding in plain sight?’

He seems so genuine, so completely genuine. But at the back of my mind, there’s a voice telling me that he’s an actor, an incredibly good actor. If Eve told him of the conversation we had in the Orangery, did she also tell him what I said last week, that I no longer think there’s a mystery to solve? Has Will just laid a trap for me?

‘I’m really sorry if I’ve made you question what happened,’ I say, walking on, because I want this conversation to end as quickly as possible. ‘I didn’t have all the facts at the beginning but now that I do, I honestly believe that Oliver killed Nina over the affair she was having. And if the police didn’t think there was anything further to investigate, I’m not quite sure why I did.’ I give a self-conscious laugh, because I can act too. ‘Sometimes I wonder if it was just to make myself more interesting than I actually am – you know, to try and make my mark here in The Circle.’

‘Oh. Well, in that case, I guess I’ll have to accept it too,’ he says, and I can’t work out if he’s disappointed or relieved.

We reach the gate opposite our houses.

‘Good luck with the script,’ I say, heading towards my drive.

‘Thanks, Alice. And remember, if you need anything, I’m just next door.’

I give an involuntary shiver. It should have sounded comforting. But somehow it had felt like a threat.