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‘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…’
