Inspector Rames

Chapter 22

When I lifted the remains over my head and brought them down again, everything fell apart. I stamped on the pieces, and they crunched beneath my boots. Finally, when it was nothing, I stopped and caught my breath.

My palms stung. The plastic shards I was holding onto were covered in blood, and I dropped them, turning around to the sink. Everything else in the kitchen was tidy and undisturbed. Not even my punch bag swayed.

I washed the blood off my hands, then grabbed my jacket. I dug out my tabphone and sent my father an Xplora message on my way to the bathroom.

Taking a shower didn't wash my anger away, but it weighed my limbs down until I was too heavy to hold the energy. By the time I was dry and I'd swapped my contact lenses for glasses, I felt calmer.

I dragged myself into my bedroom and slowly turned my attention to what on earth I was going to wear for Alex. This wasn't a date. It was anything but a date. And yet I agonised over my choices, for once unable to bring myself to just turn up in jeans.

Eventually, I settled on a wine-coloured jumper dress, dark tights, and over the knee boots. The dress was a decent length, the tights were a respectable shade, and the boots hid most of my legs. I shrugged my leather jacket back on, tidied up my short hair, and strode into the hallway.

I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. I was forgetting something.

The window and Mitzy. That was it.

Striding back into my kitchen, I retrieved a sachet of wet cat food and waited for Mitzy to arrive. She always knew when I opened the cupboard.

But she didn't come.

"Mitzy!" I called. Maybe she was asleep. "Dinner time!"

No quiet feet thudded through the flat.

"Mitzy?"

I checked the hallway. I checked my bedroom. I checked the bathroom. Nothing.

I looked in the living room. The curtains were flapping in the chilly breeze, and I went to the open window. My flat was facing a courtyard of bins at the back of the building, and a tall, spindly tree stood between the rubbish. Mitzy must have gone through the window and climbed down, trying to keep out of my way while I'd been breaking things.

What now? I couldn't go out and leave the window open, but if I shut it, she wouldn't be able to get back in. And she was very much a house cat.

"Oh, fuck it." I shut the window. "Mitzy, you'll have to go feral for a couple of hours."

***

Alex lived a five-minute walk away, in the same block of flats I'd escorted him to on his first day. When I reached number eleven, I rang the doorbell, and the camera surfaced instantly.

"May I come in?" I asked.

"Let me ask Alex."

I stared at myself while I waited, wondering if I should have put mascara on.

The camera suddenly vanished, and the door opened smoothly. Alex was standing right behind it, his jacket and tie off and his shirt sleeves rolled away from his forearms. "Hello. I was just about to call and ask if you wanted me to fetch you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Fetch me?"

"In case things like Clyde were lurking in the dark." His gaze drifted to my bloodied knuckles.

"Oh, Clyde's already been. He was outside my flat when I got there."

Alex met my eyes. "Are you all right?"