Finding Katie

Chapter 32

Ben

I left the firm afterwards. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on work. What little focus I had left I'd used to tell my boss the whole story, including Katie's real identity, and frankly, I didn't want to be around when Robert talked to Dave.

Liam promised to keep me updated on Robert's actions, and to call me if another delivery arrived for me.

I halted in the middle of the pavement outside the building and dragged in a breath, barely noticing the annoyed glances from the busy pedestrians who had to veer around me.

There wouldn't be another delivery. I knew that now. The ticket to Cambodia had been a decoy, but not only so Katie could deliver the letter and the flash drive. There were so many other airports than Heathrow she could have travelled from that it would be impossible for James to have contacts in all of them, and make it a time-consuming undertaking for anyone trying to track her.

By now she would be on the other side of the world and have found some way of hiding from the ramifications of Dave's exposure and his unveiling of her, in an obscure country no one had ever heard of and where not even the most zealous journalist would be able to find her.

Katie wasn't coming back. She'd known what she risked by entrusting me with the truth of her identity and the recording, she had done so with open eyes, and meant for me to use them to bring Dave to a long overdue justice. Though it meant she could never return to Britain. Or to me.

I started walking towards Canary Wharf. I couldn't face the enclosed Tube. I needed to move. Otherwise I'd start clutching at my hair again.

The problem with Dave had been lifted off my shoulders. It had been easier than I'd thought to tell Robert all, and my boss had promised that he would take the information about Dave's former employer and true identity to the right people and let them deal with him.

But I desperately wanted to see Katie. Or just hear her voice. I couldn't stop thinking about her. Where she was. If she was alone. If she was safe.

I would have been just as furious if she had told me the truth on Monday, but all it would have taken was the sentence she had started her letter with to make me stop sneering and listen to her.

My name is Vanessa Abingdon.

Those five words would have ensured that the idea of her cheating on me with Dave would never have entered my head. It was that, the image of Katie and Dave together, that had made me so furious that I'd refused to listen to her. Because I wasn't sure what I would have done if she'd confirmed their relationship.

Now, I'd be grateful for just the chance to let her know that I missed her.

Crossing the street, I almost stumbled when my phone pinged in my pocket, and I almost dropped it in my haste to take it out. A text from Liam flashed on the screen.

Police are here. Dave's been arrested.

I stared at the screen without blinking. Without breathing.

Liam replied the instant I called him, his voice hushed. "They've just left with him."

"What happened?"

"Hang on." A babble of agitated voices could be heard in the background, then the snap of a door and sudden silence, and then Liam came back, his voice unsteady. "After you left, Robert called Dave into his office. The door had only just closed when five police officers turned up, armed, wanting to see Dave. They handcuffed him, read him his rights and took him away. One of them is talking to Robert now."