It was Thursday afternoon when Daniella Curry made contact with Olivia.
Suffering the effects of another restless night, Olivia had had to force herself into work and was struggling to keep her eyes open as she tried to focus.
Roger was on a day off and Jeremy was out on a viewing, so it was just her and Esther in the office and they hadn’t seen a customer all day.
She had called Adam Somerville’s mobile while on her lunchbreak, but there had been no answer, so she had left a rambling message. She wasn’t sure if he would call her back, so when her phone vibrated, she had snatched it up, expecting it to be either him or Noah finally calling to apologise.
It was an unknown number, and given that she had already stored Adam’s in her phone, so would know if it was him calling, she let it go to voicemail, annoyed when the caller didn’t leave a message.
A few seconds later though, a text flashed up from the same number.
Olivia, this is Daniella, Noah’s partner. I need to speak with you. Can you call me? Thanks.
She stared at the message, her heart racing. Had something happened to Noah? Although she had resolved not to talk to him if he made contact, she hadn’t counted on Daniella getting in touch.
Daniella would have been involved in the investigation commissioned by Adam Somerville. While Olivia resented her for that, she also wanted to know why she was calling, knew she wouldn’t be able to settle if she didn’t speak with her.
Esther was peering over her glasses in her direction.
Olivia held up her phone. ‘Missed call from the police. I need to ring them back.’
There wasn’t much Esther could say to that and it wasn’t like she was Olivia’s boss. She also wasn’t a snitch like Jeremy. Wanting privacy, Olivia got up from her desk, took her phone through to the back corridor and stepped into the tiny kitchen. She hit ‘call’ on Daniella’s text message, her insides twisting, anxious to know what the woman wanted.
Daniella answered almost immediately. ‘Olivia, hi. Thanks for calling me back.’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Is Noah with you?’
Olivia hadn’t expected that question. ‘No, um… we had a fight. We’re actually no longer together.’
There was silence on the line for a moment. ‘So he didn’t come to meet you after work last night?’
‘No.’ Had he been planning to meet me after work? ‘I haven’t seen him or heard anything from him since yesterday morning.’
Another pause. ‘Okay, well I was supposed to pick him up this morning to meet a client and he wasn’t home. I assumed he was with you.’
‘Nope, he’s not with me.’ Although Olivia tried to keep her tone casual, a sliver of fear licked her belly. She had left him locked out of his house in the bitter cold, wearing just a pair of jeans. Was he okay? ‘When did you last see him?’ she asked, not liking the guilt that was now creeping its way in.
‘Yesterday. He called me after your fight. I have his spare key. We had a job then I left him around lunchtime. He’s not answering his phone; his car isn’t here. That’s why I figured you had made up. He said he was going to talk to you last night.’
Okay, well that is at least something. Olivia’s guilt eased slightly knowing she wasn’t responsible for him dying of hypothermia. And he had planned on coming to see her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Would she have been calm enough to listen to what he had to say? Daniella obviously knew about the investigation, seemed to think Olivia might have forgiven him. Would she be able to give her some answers? And where the hell was Noah? She shouldn’t care. He was no longer any of her concern, but still the news from Daniella was making her more than a little anxious. ‘I haven’t heard anything from him.’ Olivia paused. ‘Are you at his house right now?’
‘I am. It looks like he might have been looking into the fires and Fern’s disappearance before he vanished.’
‘Fern is missing?’
Another longer pause. ‘Where are you now? At work?’
‘Yes. What’s going on, Daniella? Why was Noah investigating me?’
‘Can you come over to his house? I think it’s time we had a talk.’
Olivia told Esther that the police needed to speak with her in person and fled work early. As she drove into Noah’s street, memories surfaced of the last time she was here, and the hurt she had felt at his betrayal.
For a second it crossed her mind that this might be a trap. What if Noah was home and had persuaded Daniella to help lure her over so he could talk to her.
It was an elaborate ruse though and Olivia didn’t think Daniella had faked her concern on the phone.
She didn’t need to ring the bell. Daniella had seen her arrival and already had the door open. As Olivia stepped into the house after her, it felt weird that it wasn’t Noah letting her in.
‘I’ll put the kettle on.’
Olivia nodded, followed her through to the kitchen, hovering by the door frame. She wasn’t patient enough to wait for the kettle to boil. ‘Why was he investigating me?’
Opening the cupboard, Daniella pulled out two mugs. ‘We were hired by a man called Adam Somerville.’
‘I know that, but why?’
Daniella seemed to be purposely taking her time to answer. Olivia wasn’t sure if it was because she was searching for the right words or delaying telling her the truth.
She watched as the woman spooned coffee into the mugs, and shook her head when asked about milk and sugar. Daniella had been another of Noah’s secrets and she really was very pretty. She had a key to his house, knew her way around and looked perfectly at home here. Were they more than just work partners?
A pang of jealousy gnawed in her gut and annoyed, she tried to push it down. It was no longer any of her concern if Noah and Daniella were involved.
‘Adam was the fiancé of Rachel Colton. I believe you knew her as Rachel Williams.’
Olivia already knew about Adam and Rachel, but she kept quiet. She just wanted to get to the truth. ‘Go on.’
‘Rachel died in an accident last year. Or rather what was considered an accident. Adam wasn’t so sure. He wasn’t happy when the police closed the case. Rachel had still been in touch with Kelly Dearborn and he found it too big a coincidence that they were both killed in fires just six weeks apart.’
‘What has that got to do with wanting me investigated, though?’
‘Rachel had a conversation with Kelly about a week before she died. I say conversation, Adam described it as a blazing row. They were in the garden at Rachel’s house and he said he was keeping his distance, staying indoors, but that it was impossible not to hear what they were talking about with all the windows open. Rachel was agitated because she didn’t want Kelly to tell her therapist about something. Adam overheard her saying that the truth could never get out, that Olivia Blake must never find out what really happened with the fire.’
‘What did happen?’ Olivia asked quietly, her mind working overtime. ‘What didn’t they want me to find out about?’
‘Kelly stormed out,’ Daniella continued, ignoring the question. ‘And Adam tried to talk to Rachel about the fight, but she was really cagey. Then Kelly died and when he pushed the subject again, Rachel was tight-lipped, refused to say a word. A while after she was killed, he was sorting through her stuff and came across a letter she had started to write. It was addressed to you at your mother’s restaurant.’
‘What did it say?’
‘Not much. She had only written the first few lines, saying that you probably didn’t remember her. She mentioned Kelly had died and said she had something she had to talk to you about. She never finished the letter. Adam was convinced you were key to finding out what had happened.’
‘So why didn’t he approach me himself? He had my mum’s address. I could have saved him the effort of hiring bloody private investigators. I have nothing to hide!’ Olivia was aware she was getting a little high-pitched, but honestly she couldn’t help it. The man had hired people to look into her based on an overheard conversation and a part-written letter. It was ridiculous.
Daniella seemed unbothered by Olivia’s outburst. She took a leisurely sip of her coffee before she continued. ‘Adam Somerville is very particular. He has a lot of money and he prefers to get other people to do things for him. He wanted us to discreetly find out what your connection to Kelly and Rachel was, work out if you had any involvement in what had happened to them.’
‘He thought I might have killed them?’
‘Well, he never actually came out and said those words.’ A brief smile crossed Daniella’s face. ‘But yes, I think he convinced himself you had.’
‘I wouldn’t even know what they looked like now. We were just kids.’ Olivia shook her head, finding it all hard to take in. ‘So that was why Noah showed up in my mum’s restaurant, because he was investigating me?’
‘It was. We had looked into you. Couldn’t find a connection to Kelly and Rachel. I have to say your mother did a good job at keeping your name out of the press after your accident. We were going to call it quits, tell Adam Somerville he had it wrong, then Noah realised he had seen your brother – Jamie, isn’t it? – in the gym. He didn’t know him well, but figured he could change that, somehow get introduced to you, try to get to know you a bit.’
He had certainly bloody well done that. Daniella’s words opened a fresh wound. ‘He used me.’
‘He did.’ Daniella’s bluntness stung. ‘But only at first. Getting involved with you was never part of the plan. When he realised he had feelings for you, he wanted to call it quits on the job. We argued about it and I told him he was being unprofessional. He didn’t listen to me though. He never bloody does. He called off the job. Adam, I tell you, that man was not happy. I got an earful over that. Noah didn’t charge him. Told him you were clean and to go away. I was bloody livid about working for free.’
She eyed Olivia with a half-smile again, a challenging flash in her dark eyes. While Olivia was quite sure Daniella hadn’t liked working for free, she got the impression that she hadn’t really been that mad about it.
Was the woman being honest with her though? She found herself wavering, part of her thawing towards Noah, but she was still mad that he had befriended her under false circumstances. ‘Why didn’t he come clean and tell me the truth?’
‘Exactly because of this. He feared you would react this way.’
‘And he kept you a secret.’
‘Because he was scared if you met me you might find out the truth.’
‘So our relationship was built on a lie.’ Olivia set her mug down. She had barely touched the coffee which was now cold. She had heard enough.
‘I know you hate him, but he has genuinely fallen for you. None of that was a lie and he put a halt on the investigation before he let himself become involved with you.’
‘But you said he was looking into the fires, into Fern’s disappearance.’
‘Because of you. Adam Somerville is no longer our client. Noah’s interest in the fires is now purely personal. He just wants to keep you safe.’
It was a lot to take in. Had she been too hard on Noah? Daniella had answered all her questions, had no reason to deceive her. But even if she had been truthful, it didn’t change the fact that her relationship had been built on a lie.
‘Has he been in contact with Fern?’
Olivia saw the flicker of wariness on Daniella’s face. She had just done a pretty good job of defending him, so obviously didn’t want to throw him under a bus. She took her time answering, clearly wanting to get her words right. ‘We were both at her house yesterday,’ she admitted. ‘My idea. I felt we needed to talk to her, but she wasn’t there. Her bag, phone and suitcase were, though, as well as her car, and the French doors were open. Today is the anniversary, right, of Margaret’s death? Noah has been worried that today it ends, that you are in danger. With Fern gone, that just leaves you.’
‘But I didn’t do anything. I still don’t understand why I am being targeted.’
‘I think at this stage we need to accept we’re dealing with someone who is clearly deranged. For whatever reason, you are in their crosshairs. Noah was conscious of that, which is part of the reason why he planned to meet you after work last night. He didn’t want you being alone. That’s why I’m worried as hell about him right now. He wouldn’t just disappear like this. It’s not his style.’
No, it wasn’t. Olivia was in complete agreement over that. And while she wasn’t ready to forgive him, wasn’t sure if a relationship that started so deviously could be saved, she still cared enough about him to want him to be safe. She was involved whether she wanted to be or not. ‘Okay, so what do we do now?’
