Page 59 of Dead to Me

‘The young woman you knew as Aria,’ Reid agreed.‘Her real name is Anna Sousa.’

James gave a slow nod.‘Is she police?’he asked.

Reid tried not to show that he was taken aback by this.He’d expected James to either be surprised that she had a double identity, or pretend to be.But instead, James had reacted as though this wasn’t news to him at all.

‘She’s… a civilian,’ Reid said.‘You don’t seem surprised that she had another name.’

James gave a shrug.‘She was trying to work out who killed Holly.I knew she probably wasn’t who she said she was.I was… glad she was doing something about it, at first.But then it didn’t seem to go anywhere…’

Reid scrutinised James’s face for a few moments.If he’d known about Anna, that would have given him a possible motive to wish her harm.‘So you were aware of what she was doing before she went missing?’

‘Yes,’ James said.‘It took me a while to work out.But the questions she was asking and the way she suddenly appeared…’ He sighed.‘I got there in the end.’

‘What makes you think she didn’t uncover anything?’Reid asked.

‘Some things she said at the May Ball,’ James replied.‘She said she was sorry for letting me down.And I got the impression she was saying goodbye to us all.’

Reid felt a flash of something at that.If Anna had acted like she was going somewhere, maybe she’d left of her own volition.Or had she realised something bad was coming her way?

If she said any of that at all,he thought, watching James’s face.It was hard to read anything there except worry, and James had plenty of innocent reasons for that.

‘Can you think of anyone who might have found that behaviour a threat?’

There was a pause, and James said, ‘Yeah, well… whoever killed Holly might have done.’He swallowed, looking slightly sick.‘But I don’t think anyone got to Anna.I hope not.I think she meant to go wherever she’s gone.She left with someone.’

It sounded true.But then, James was supposedly a decent actor, wasn’t he?Though there was a big difference between student Shakespeare on stage, and lying under pressure.

‘You’re sure?’he asked.

‘Yes,’ James said.Reid saw his eyes going back to the badge in Reid’s hand and wondered if hewaslying after all.Was that little tell because he was afraid of saying something false to an officer of the law?

‘Can you describe them?’

James looked into the distance, and Reid watched intently.It seemed as though the young man was genuinely trying to recall something.‘Definitely a guy.Older than we are, I thought, but I was seeing him from the back.I think her height in heels, maybe?’

‘Hair colour?’

James let out a huff of air.‘It was pretty hard to… Light brown?Cut quite short?’

‘And what time did you say they left?’

‘Straight after the fireworks,’ he said, immediately.‘So that’s… just before eleven?’

Reid pulled his iPad out and, opening up notepad rather than an official form, wrote all that down.

‘The trouble I have, see, James,’ he said as he was finishing up, ‘is that I’ve been sent the CCTV at the exit and Anna doesn’t appear anywhere on it at around eleven.We’ve checked right up until the survivors’ photo, and nothing.’

He looked up at James and gave him a very flat smile.

For the first time James’s certainty seemed to slide.‘I… well, I don’t know how… That’s weird,’ he said.And then he added, ‘Look, I… I don’t know.But she’s a really nice person, even if she had to lie to us.I hope she’s OK.’

‘So do I,’ Reid said, quietly.

James rose to open the door, and Reid noticed that his hands were shaking on the latch.A shake that ran right the way through him.

23.Anna

It’s taken me a while to come back to this.It… wasn’t the most comfortable thing, telling you about Kit Frankland, and I felt like I wanted to stop right after I started.

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