The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison (epub e ink reader .TXT) 📕

continued. ‘I know you think I’m reckless, but I don’t deliberately set out to get myself into these situations.’ I’d had plenty of time to think overnight, and it was true that I had just wanted to help Sasha, to begin with. I’d only found myself getting carried away when I became sure that there was something else going on.

He rubbed his chin. ‘Maybe you need to leave these things to us,’ he replied. ‘Sometimes when you try and help someone, they’re not telling you the full story.’

I frowned. Was he talking about Sasha?

‘What do you know that I don’t?’ I asked him.

He grimaced. ‘You know I’m not meant to talk to you about these things. It’s an ongoing investigation.’

‘Oh for God’s sake, Rav. You can’t just make these cryptic comments then suddenly decide you’re not going to say anything else. It’s not fair.’

He still looked torn, so I put my hand on his arm.

‘Please, Rav. Tell me what’s going on.’

‘Okay, you make a good point,’ he agreed. ‘Let’s just say, we’ve had access to Lukas Nowak’s phone for the purposes of the investigation, and there’s one number that appears far more than any other.’

‘Whose?’

‘Sasha Thomas’s.’

‘She’s his social worker, of course he called her,’ I replied, brushing it off. ‘Surely that’s nothing particularly interesting?’

‘We have the texts between them, Paige. They’re not exactly professional.’

I paused, taking in what he was saying. ‘They were having an affair?’ I asked, incredulous.

He raised his eyebrows again. I knew he wasn’t going to say anything else, but he’d said enough. I felt like someone had smacked me in the face. How could that have been going on right under my nose? After everything I’d believed about Lukas being completely devoted to Nadia, I felt like a complete idiot.

‘How long for?’ I asked, my voice sounding hollow.

‘A few months.’

‘No wonder she was so desperate for my help to get him out of jail,’ I said. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t work it out. I’ve been so bloody stupid!’

Singh shook his head. ‘Don’t blame yourself. People who are having affairs are good at hiding it.’

‘But she pushed me so much to help her prove he was innocent, then as soon as he was released she didn’t seem to be that bothered about the evidence or anything else I had found out. This is obviously why, because her main concern was to have him back with her.’ I smacked my hand down on the bed next to me. ‘I should have seen it.’ I thought back to the way Caroline had looked at Sasha when she was telling us how Lukas couldn’t resist flirting with other women. Had she known?

‘Hey, you trusted her – there’s nothing wrong with that,’ he said.

‘I’m gullible,’ I muttered.

He laughed and shook his head.

‘Wait, text messages,’ I said, and he raised an eyebrow. ‘You must have seen the text that Lukas got, on the night of the fire. The one threatening him, saying that was his only warning.’

Singh nodded. ‘We did. Why?’

‘Sasha insisted it proved Lukas’s innocence. He could hardly have sent it to himself.’

‘No, but he could have asked someone else to send it, in order to give him an alibi.’ Singh shook his head. ‘We couldn’t trace it. It was an unregistered pay-as-you-go SIM, bought with cash. If we find the phone on a suspect, then maybe the text can be used as evidence, but as it is there’s no way of knowing if it’s genuine or not.’

At that moment, a nurse walked in with my discharge letter. Once all the paperwork was handed over, I gathered my things in the bag Anna had brought that morning and followed Singh to his car. I had planned to drive myself home, but I was so tired I was glad I didn’t have to navigate the busy roads and could just leave it to him.

When we got to my flat I invited him in, expecting him to refuse, but he didn’t. He could see how tired I was, so in the end he made us both a cup of tea while I curled up on the sofa. I was glad Anna had brought me a change of clothes and that I’d been able to have a shower that morning, so I didn’t feel too unattractive in front of him.

‘I’ve been thinking about something,’ I told him, and I could see him take a deep breath in anticipation of what I was going to say. ‘Hear me out for a minute. I have a theory.’

Singh let out the breath he’d been holding and visibly relaxed, and I realised he’d been expecting me to say something about the kiss.

‘Okay, I’ll humour you, as you’ve had a bang on the head,’ he said, with a wry smile.

‘I’m serious. What if whoever murdered Nadia didn’t set fire to the house?’

I was expecting Singh to roll his eyes and tell me I was being ridiculous, but he nodded.

‘That’s certainly something we’ve been considering.’

‘Really?’ I couldn’t conceal my surprise. ‘So you think I’m right?’

‘I don’t know if you’re right, because we haven’t got all the details clear just yet, but the evidence is pointing in that direction.’

I sat back and thought for a moment. I had been expecting to have to work to convince Singh of my theory, but it turned out that the police were thinking the same thing as me. I knew I should trust him to do his job, and I did, but I also wanted to know what they were investigating.

‘Is that all?’ he asked, leaning forward, his hands clasped round his cup of tea.

‘Well, no. I wondered if Mariusz might have set the fire.’

‘Why would he have done that?’ Singh’s expression was unreadable, and I wondered if he’d been practising his poker face.

‘Okay, what if Caroline killed Nadia?’ I said. ‘She obviously held a grudge against her, and her attempts to get Nadia sacked had failed, so what if she took things too far? If Mariusz knew about it, he might have set