‘Peter knew that short-cut behind the college inside out – he used to walk there after lectures to unwind – there’s no way… ’ she said fiercely. ‘They say it was a mugger – an unprovoked attack.’
Dan picked up his coffee mug and studied the surface of the liquid. ‘Sarah, I know this may sound a bit weird in the circumstances but was Peter working longer hours or perhaps on days when he was usually at home?’ he asked, taking a tentative sip of the hot drink.
‘Not that I know of – we only talked occasionally. He used to get so wrapped up in his research and lectures, it was just impossible sometimes.’ She folded her hands under her chin, leaning her elbows on her knees, lost in thought. After a while, she looked straight at Dan. ‘Why should I trust you?’
‘Because I’m a friend of Peter’s – we went to university together but lost touch for a few years until he phoned me from Berlin last week. He sounded really excited, something about a discovery. Then, a few days ago, he phoned again – from Paris. I wasn’t in, so he left a message on my phone. He seemed in a hurry, the message was really garbled – something about a package he was sending you and wanted to make sure it arrived safely. He sounded afraid – he even said that he thought his life was in danger.’
Dan jumped as a log on the fire popped loudly in the heat. He swallowed and waited for his heart rate to calm down. He glanced into the flames, then back at Sarah. ‘He wanted me to make sure you were okay. I tried to phone him back the day after he left the message but I couldn’t get through. I left messages for him but he never returned my calls. Then I read in the local newspaper this morning he’s been killed. I’d like to know why. I don’t know what he was up to but I think it got him in to a hell of a lot of trouble.’
He broke off and looked down at his hands.
‘And now you’re here,’ said Sarah.
‘Yes.’
She reached out for her coffee mug, raised it to her lips, then seemed to change her mind. She placed it back on the low table and looked at him.
‘Stay here.’
Dan watched her leave the room. He could hear her walking down the hallway towards the rear of the house. He stood up and wandered over to a desk in the corner. The computer screen was blank, the machine switched off. He glanced up to check Sarah was still out of the room and then lifted up some of the documents on her desk. All the paperwork related to her work at the newspaper – nothing that appeared to have been sent by Peter. Moving over to the patio windows, Dan gazed out at the small garden. He wondered what Peter could have known that would threaten his life. He turned as Sarah came back into the room.
‘I think you should have this,’ she said as she handed him a large padded envelope.
‘What’s inside?’
‘Take a look. It’s addressed to you.’ She sat back down on the sofa and took a gulp of her coffee before staring at Dan. ‘Well, what are you waiting for? Open it.’
Dan sat on the sofa and inspected the package. It was a white A4-sized padded envelope with Sarah’s address scrawled across the front in a hasty script. He turned the package over in his hands and raised an eyebrow, looking at Sarah.
‘It’s already been opened,’ he said, pointing to the tape stuck to the back of the envelope.
Sarah smiled faintly. ‘I’m a journalist – what did you expect? How was I to know you’d actually turn up?’
Dan shrugged, conceding the point. He tore open the package, noticing the airmail label and foreign stamps. He reached inside and pulled out the contents – a bundle of documents, and Peter’s handwritten notes. He flicked through the loose research papers, turning photographs over, reading the transcriptions on the back and inspected the newspaper cuttings and hastily-drawn diagrams.
‘How come you haven’t done anything with this stuff?’
Sarah shrugged. ‘To be honest, I didn’t know what to make of half of it.’ She gestured to the laptop set up in the corner. ‘I’d made a start, but there was part of me that wanted to know if you’d actually turn up.’ She sighed. ‘I know me and Peter didn’t always see eye to eye, but I remembered him saying a couple of years ago he wondered if he could count on you in an emergency. After you came back from the Middle East, he was really worried about you but you never returned his calls.’ She smiled. ‘I figured I’d give you a couple of days and if you didn’t turn up, I’d take some time off work and find out for myself what was going on.’
Dan turned the document he was holding towards Sarah. ‘Well, if I’m going to be able to find out what’s going on, I’m going to need someone who can help me translate this god-awful handwriting of his.’
Sarah smiled. ‘It didn’t improve with age then?’
‘You’ve got to be joking. This just reminds me why I could never rely on stealing Peter’s notes for assignments at university.’
He looked across the coffee table at Sarah. ‘What are you thinking?’
She held his gaze, and smiled. ‘That we should find out what’s going on. I’ll phone Gus, my editor, and get that time off. Then tomorrow, I’ll go over to Peter’s house and see what else I can find there.’
Oxford, England
Sarah vigorously attacked the layer of ice on her car windscreen with her credit card. Every winter she swore she’d buy a proper ice scraper, and every winter she managed to forget.
She cursed as her thumbnail tore, then wiped the plastic card free of ice and began on the side windows. She stamped her feet while she worked, trying to get some warmth into her toes as she methodically worked round the car.
Finally, it was done and she jumped into the driver’s seat. As she pulled the door shut, she turned up the heating, relishing the warm, cocooned space. She turned up the radio while she waited for the circulation to return to her numb fingers.