‘That must have been very challenging.’ The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as Amina spoke again.
‘In more ways than I could have imagined. I loved it there, though.’ Thea looked almost as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying, but she shot him a grin and Lucas relaxed.
‘I hope that you return, then.’
‘Thank you. I hope so too.’ There was a touch of defiance in Thea’s eyes. She might be afraid, and uncertain, but she was fighting back now.
* * *
His father waited until that evening, when everyone had gone, to ask. Lucas had known for some time that the question was coming.
‘I didn’t realise that Thea had gone to Bangladesh.’
‘No. Neither did I until about a month ago.’
His father nodded thoughtfully. ‘Anything to do with you?’
Lucas sighed. He’d resolved that if Thea could talk about it then so could he, but it still wasn’t easy. ‘Yeah, I think so. She had a bad time and I wasn’t there to help her.’
His father walked over to the sideboard, picking up the brandy decanter and pouring a measure into two glasses. Something about his demeanour reminded Lucas of all the times he’d measured ice cream into a bowl for Ava. ‘What sort of bad time?’
Lucas took the brandy and swirled it in the glass. ‘Thea helped a fifteen-year-old girl who was pregnant and had been beaten by her husband. And instead of giving her a medal for that, the police locked her up on a trumped-up kidnapping charge.’
‘How long did they hold her for?’
‘Two weeks. Thea wouldn’t say where the girl was, even when they threatened her with a long prison sentence.’
‘Brave girl.’ His father took a mouthful of brandy, seeming to decide that the details could wait until another time. ‘I always liked Thea. Never understood why you two didn’t get married.’
‘Things happened, Dad. You know that.’
‘Life goes on as well.’
‘I was the one at fault when we broke up and she suffered for it. I won’t do that to her again.’
‘Then don’t.’
‘I don’t intend to.’ His father had much too high an opinion of him. Lucas didn’t trust himself around Thea. He’d messed up once, and the best way to avoid doing so again was to let her be.
Week Ten
Just as she was about to leave work, Thea’s mobile rang. ‘Where are you?’
She raised her eyebrows at the peremptory question. ‘At the hospital. Why?’
‘Good. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes to pick you up. See you then?’ It sounded as if Lucas was in his car.
‘Yes, if you like.’
‘Great.’ The call was abruptly cut off.
Maybe he’d just driven into a black spot. Or maybe that was all he’d had to say for himself. Thea had hardly seen Lucas all week. She’d been busy and his involvement at the hospital was dwindling anyway. There were other cases, other people that needed his time.
She decided to wait for him at the main gate and sent off a text to let him know. Almost exactly fifteen minutes later, his car swung into the entrance, and she saw him.
Why did she have to smile like that? Thea had been coming to terms with the fact that Lucas wasn’t a permanent fixture in her life. They’d been thrown together by work, a red dress and a young woman named Safiya. On a day-to-day basis, Lucas had other things on his mind.
‘What’s up?’ She got into the car next to him.
‘I think we’ve got our source.’ He swung the car around and drove back the way he’d just come.
‘Really? Who?’
‘It’s not a who. It’s a where.’ He grinned smugly.
‘And we’re going to the where. Wherever that happens to be.’
‘If I’m right, it’ll make an interesting addition to your paper. And don’t you want to be in on it if this turns out to be what wraps up the whole investigation?’
The end of their work together. Suddenly the trip to the conference in India seemed like a good thing. While it was still in her future, there was still a reason to look forward to seeing him again.
‘Okay. This isn’t a quiz show. You don’t need to keep the suspense up.’
He chuckled. ‘Don’t you love it?’
‘No, I don’t.’
He shrugged. ‘We’re going to the library. I’ve got a hunch that it’s where Derek Thompson came into contact with Mariam.’
‘They both used the same library? Even if they did meet there somehow, it’s not really enough exposure to pass a TB infection on.’
‘Well, the library is in the same building as an amateur theatre. And before Christmas Mariam spent a lot of time there in the evenings, revising for her mock exams. Derek Thompson was in the storeroom at the theatre, painting scenery.’
‘Is that all you’ve got? That they were in the same building at the same time. That doesn’t even resemble contact.’
‘But there are common services to both the theatre and the library. Heating, water, ventilation…’
‘It’s not going to travel through the ventilation system. Good ventilation disperses airborne particles and decreases the risk of infection.’
‘Yeah, but this is an old building. There have been a number of cases where airborne infections have travelled through faulty ventilation systems. And I contacted the local authority, and it seems that they don’t have any documents for the annual check last year. Which means it probably wasn’t carried out.’
He drummed his fingers against the steering-wheel as he waited for the traffic lights to change. ‘Look, I know it’s circumstantial, but it’s worth a look, isn’t it? I’ve got a feeling…’
One of Lucas’s feelings. Perhaps he was on the right track. ‘It does fit in with everything that we know.’
‘Exactly.’ He accelerated away from the lights as soon as they turned green. ‘The more I thought about it, the more I reckoned you were exactly right. That somehow Derek Thompson had some direct contact with Mariam. And this is the only thing I can come up with.’
He’d been thinking about her. Not about her exactly, but she’d had some part of his thoughts. And Thea could never resist Lucas’s enthusiasm. ‘Okay, then. Let’s have a look.’
* * *
The library was closed on Wednesday evenings but a caretaker, who was obviously expecting Lucas, let them in.
‘You have a separate quiet room.’
‘Over here.’ The caretaker marched them towards a high, panelled door.
‘You keep this door closed in the winter?’
‘Yes, mostly. It gets too cold in there otherwise to sit for very long. Are we in trouble here?’
Lucas shook his head. ‘Not as far as I know. We just need to know what happened.’ He walked into the study room and smiled. ‘See that? Mariam says that she always sat in the same seat, over there.’ He pointed to a large polished wood table, which stood beneath a ventilation grille.
‘So far so good for your theory. Let’s go and see the other end of it.’
* * *
Lucas had left her in the messy back room of the theatre, which was stacked high with painted scenery boards and boxes of props. Her phone rang.
‘Nothing yet.’ She sniffed the air.
‘I’ve only just lit the incense sticks. When I closed the door, the smoke went straight up towards the ventilator.’
‘I don’t smell anything.’ Thea sniffed the air. Maybe… ‘Patchouli!’
Lucas’s delighted chuckle reached down the phone. ‘Right in one!’
By the time he’d navigated the maze of corridors that led from the library to the props room, the smell of patchouli hung heavy in the air.
‘Good grief. There’s no mistaking it, is there?’ He looked speculatively up at the ventilation grille in the wall.
‘Looks as if you were right.’ Thea grinned up at him.
‘Only because you were.’ He returned the smile. ‘I’ve got the master keys from the caretaker
. Let’s see where else we can smell it.’
They toured the library and the theatre together, opening doors and trying to catch the unmistakeable scent. The library was completely clear, unless you stood right by the door of the study room, and so was the theatre, apart from a couple of box rooms adjoining the props room.
‘At least there’s nothing in here.’ Lucas had switched on the lights in the auditorium of the theatre and they meandered down past the seating to the foot of the stage. ‘That was what was worrying me most. Derek’s wife said there was a kids’ pantomime on here before Christmas.’
The thought made Thea shudder. ‘You’ll need to do some further testing of the system, though, surely?’
‘Yes, we will. I’ll be commissioning an urgent inspection first thing in the morning. But this is a first indication.’ He climbed up onto the stage and Thea gave a round of applause from the auditorium. Lucas bowed deeply.
‘I reckon if I go up into the loft…I bet I can work it out if I can see the ducting for the ventilation.’
‘It’s probably filthy up there. And you don’t know anything about ventilation systems.’
‘Don’t you want to know?’
‘We do know. The patchouli went straight to the props room from where Mariam was sitting.’
‘Yes, but we don’t know how.’
Thea rolled her eyes. ‘Come on, then. If you’re going up there, I’m coming too. You need someone to keep you out of trouble.’
* * *
It seemed that he’d come prepared, because he had torches, face masks and heavy-duty gloves in the boot of his car. They found the caretaker, who showed them through to some back steps that led up to the roof area, and unlocked the door at the top for them.
‘No one ever comes up here. Not since we had a problem with the water tank two years ago.’
‘That’s good to know.’ Lucas handed a mask to Thea and walked into the loft area.
It was hot up there, and the air smelled musty. Lucas shone the beam of his torch along the ventilation ducts, which criss-crossed the space.
‘I can’t see anything wrong with these. And I don’t smell any patchouli.’
They walked carefully across the boarded floor, looking for any signs of something that was out of place.
‘Nothing.’ Thea was suddenly disappointed. Someone else would find the final clue that they’d been searching for all these weeks.
‘There must be more than this.’ Lucas checked the plans of the building. ‘Yeah, look. The loft’s divided into two sections. This part we’re in here is over the library, and there’s a second half over the theatre.’
They found a doorway in the brick wall at the far end and opened it. Another space, equal in size to the first.
‘I reckon that the loft over the props room is through there.’ He indicated an access hatch in the wall at the far end. ‘The roof dips right down at that end of the building so it’s probably just crawl space through there.’
He walked over to the hatch, bending down. ‘I smell something.’ He tugged at the hatch and it didn’t budge.
‘Want a hand?’
‘That’s okay. Hold the torch, will you?’ Lucas squared up to the hatchway and pulled hard. When it gave he almost fell backwards, and the distinct smell of patchouli started to leak through the opening.
His mouth was obscured by the mask, but in the torchlight his eyes were smiling. ‘We’re getting warmer.’
He angled the beam of the torch through the hole. Beyond it, Thea could see the underside of the roof, sloping downwards. ‘There’s the extract vent.’
‘Yeah, and it looks pretty filthy. See those slipped slates? I reckon that the air’s being extracted from the building and then leaking back inside through that hole.’
‘That’s one half of the puzzle.’ Thea bent down beside him, shining her torch beam over the rest of the space, and suddenly recoiled. ‘Ugh!’
‘What?’ He steadied her, putting himself in between her and the access hatch.
‘I think it’s a rat’s nest.’ Thea shivered, looking around in case anything was headed towards her.
‘All right.’ He kicked the hatch closed, his hand finding hers. ‘We’re going back now.’
It was clear what Lucas had on his mind. Darkness and rats. He knew they reminded her of that police cell in Bangladesh.
‘Don’t you want to see?’
‘I’ll come back up later.’ He was holding tightly onto her hand, pulling her back, away from the one thing that she knew he was desperate to see.
‘Thinking of taking the credit all for yourself, are you?’ There was no point in telling him not to come back—telling Lucas not to do anything was like a red rag to a bull. And he wasn’t going into that crawl space on his own.
He turned slowly. In the silence she could hear a scrabbling sound coming from somewhere. ‘You don’t have to do this, Thea.’
She took a step towards him. Just having him close gave her courage. ‘I do, actually.’
He nodded. ‘Okay. Stay here, then.’ He left her a few paces away from the hatch and bent to open it then crawled through. Thea shuddered, keeping her torch beam on the opening.
Something darted out of the hatchway, a small shadow running along the bottom of the wall and off into some dark corner. Thea heard herself whimper but she didn’t run. She wasn’t alone here.
She could see the torch beam inside the cramped space, and finally Lucas emerged, his face thankfully not bitten off by rats. ‘We’ve done it, Thea.’
‘Good. Come away from there now. Shut the hatch.’
For once he did as he was told. ‘Rats gnaw everything. The sealed intake vent for the props room is through there, and it’s got a hole as big as my fist in it.’
‘Ugh. So we were breathing patchouli oil and rat droppings in there.’
‘Yeah. And Derek was breathing airborne tuberculosis infection. Probably for hours every evening for a couple of weeks.’
Thea shivered. ‘That’s really gross.’
‘Yeah, this place is going to be jumping tomorrow. Pest-control officers, ventilation engineers.’ His eyes were shining and she couldn’t help but smile. ‘There’s our answer, though.’
‘You did it, Lucas.’
‘No. We did it.’
Thea stayed close to him as they made their way back to the door at the head of the stairs, and as soon as she was back through it she heaved a sigh of relief. They shed their gloves and masks, found the caretaker, and told him he could lock up for the night.
‘I suppose we’ll be following through on any potential risks here and doing some more testing.’
‘Yep. Although the testing will probably be at the London City Hospital. They serve this area.’
He had the boot of his car open, putting the gloves and torches back, and Thea was glad that he couldn’t see the disappointment that must be written all over her face. There was no we about this really. Her job remained in one place, at the hospital. Lucas worked wherever he was needed. Just as surely as they’d been thrown together, they were being pulled back apart, like small boats bobbing on the waves.
‘Have you eaten yet?’
‘No. But I’m really tired and I’ve got some things to do tonight. If you could just drop me home?’ Suddenly, this wasn’t the happy ending she’d thought it would be. It was just another ending between her and Lucas, and she didn’t want to drag it out over dinner.
‘Yes, of course. Another night maybe?’
Thea gave the brightest smile she could muster. ‘Yes. Maybe.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THERE WAS STILL MUMBAI. Thea wasn’t sure about how she felt about it on any level, going with Lucas, delivering a paper that she was sure wasn’t good enough, or stepping out of the warm safety of home and going back to Asia. All of it was too much to think about. But in amongst all of the dread she was excited as well.
She went up into the loft and took down the box of clothes she’d brought back fr
om Bangladesh. Some of them were old and worn, but others delighted her unexpectedly. Loose, comfortable trousers and bright tops. Thea washed and ironed them carefully, and put them along with the clothes she’d bought for the trip.
Lucas was tanned and relaxed from his holiday in the South of France with Ava. They were travelling together, and from the moment he picked her up at her house to the moment that the porter opened the door of her hotel room, he never left her side. Not that he’d crowded her, but he was always there. And Lucas had always been good company and a great travelling companion.
At the evening reception he complimented her on her dress and somehow managed to keep a respectable distance at the same time as never quite being out of sight. It was odd. Not at all like Lucas to be half there, he never did anything by halves.
When she woke up alone in the large hotel bedroom, which could have been practically anywhere in the world, she felt a strange sense of longing. She’d promised herself that nothing was going to happen with Lucas on this trip, and it appeared that it was going to be easier to keep that promise than she’d anticipated. It had been almost a shock when he’d bidden her goodnight and turned away without even a glance behind him.
At breakfast, she found out why. The chatter at the tables was about the conference, the people there and the medical issues that were to be discussed. And who had slept with whom last night.
‘It’s always the same.’ Lucas grinned at her as they were finishing their coffee. ‘Most people come to a conference to learn something and make contacts who’ll help them in their work. But there’s always the odd one or two who reckon that it’s a good opportunity for some extra-curricular activities.’
And those were the one or two who were gossiped about relentlessly. ‘But that’s not you, is it?’
‘Nope.’
‘Or me.’
He leaned across the table towards her. ‘Definitely not. The only opinion anyone’s going to be voicing about you is how great your paper is.’
And that was the end of it. They fell into a warm companionship, working together, eating together and snatching as many moments as they could to leave the hotel and see a little of Mumbai. It didn’t even seem to matter that it was driving her crazy, being so close to him and yet unable to touch him at night, because Thea could sense that it was driving him crazy, too.
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