Double by Jenny Valentine Page A

Hackney.”
    “Have you been in London all this time?”
    Had I? Had he? “Yes,” I said.
    “Did you go straight there, when you left?”
    “I got the train,” I said. “Yes.”
    “Strange,” he said, picking up the bottle again, pouring himself another glass.
    “What is?” Edie said, so I didn’t have to. I thought for a moment that I’d said something wrong, that Frank knew something different. I thought for a second that this was going to unravel.
    “Strange that we’ve been in the same city, all this time, you and I.”
    “It’s a big place,” I said. “A lot of people are there at the same time.”
    He nodded, slowly, thoughtfully. “Seven million,” he said, “and counting. But still, two of them were you . . .”
    Frank pointed, and I thought he’d finished. I thought he knew there were two Cassiel Roadnights. I felt hot. I burned under the spotlight. Then he turned his finger on himself and said, “. . . and me.”
    “I like that,” Helen said. “It’s as if you’ve been together.”
    “Hardly,” said Edie.
    Frank said, “It gives you comfort, though, doesn’t it? Cassiel and I have been close by all along.”
    “Just like old times,” Edie muttered, and there was something in her voice, something bitter about the way she said it.
    Frank smiled and raised his glass to me. I tried to smile back. I was rigid with the fear of being uncovered. My face didn’t want to move.
    “Like your room?” he said.
    “My room’s great.”
    Edie said, “He wants to know what you did with all his stuff.”
    Helen lit a cigarette.
    “Did you lose something?” Frank said. “Are there things missing?”
    “Bits and pieces,” I said.
    “Nothing specific?”
    “It just feels a bit light in there,” I said. “A bit empty.”
    Frank leaned back and put his feet up on the table, one ankle over the other. His shoes were black and highly polished. Expensive leather brogues. The soles were scratched and discolored from use, soft cream turned to pavement.
    “We searched it, Cass,” he said. “We did, and the police did. We had to. You don’t mind.”
    “We were looking for you,” Helen said.
    “Did you find much?” I said. I don’t know why I asked. I was being overconfident. It was reckless of me to turn the questions on him. I saw myself wading out into dark water, not knowing the way back.
    “No.”
    “And then you moved,” I said. “I suppose things get thrown out when that happens.”
    “Exactly.”
    “What about my computer?” I asked. “Did you wipe that clean? Did the police do that?”
    Frank frowned. “No,” he said, putting his feet back down, moving one long leg and then the other, sitting forward with his elbows on the table. “You did that, didn’t you, Cass? I thought you did that.”
    “Oh,” I said, my winning streak dropping out from underneath me. What a mistake to make. “Oh, yeah.”
    “We thought you did it so we couldn’t find you,” Frank said. “That’s what the police said. Were they wrong?”
    I didn’t say anything.
    Frank looked at Edie. “What did they say, Edie? You remember, don’t you?”
    Edie looked at Frank and then at me. “They said it was an indication that you had planned to leave. They said we should take it as proof that you hadn’t met with an accident or something, that it was a premeditated act.”
    I counted to ten. It was Cassiel’s turn to speak, I knew that. It was up to him to say something.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry I let you all down.”
    The lights from a car swept the front of the house and went out. I hadn’t realized it was starting to get dark until then. I hadn’t had any idea of time passing.
    “Who’s that?” Edie said.
    My face tightened. I was suddenly aware of the skin on my arms and my neck.
    “I don’t know,” Helen said. “Are we expecting anybody?”
    Frank got up. “No,” he said, looking at me, smiling. “We’re all here, remember?”
    I didn’t like the way he