He pulls the card away, turns it over. It carries a message.
‘What is that?’ Webley asks.
‘Oh, shit.’
‘What?’
He hands the card to her. ‘Read that.’
She takes the card, stares at it. Reads it out loud. ‘A toe is nothing. This is real love xx.’
She meets Cody’s gaze. ‘Oh, my God. He’s trying to compete with you.’
30
Crazy in Love
– Beyoncé, featuring Jay-Z
When they arrive at Parker’s address, they find his car on the drive but the house in darkness.
The two detectives spend several minutes ringing the bell and banging on the door. They get no answer.
Webley squats and shouts through the letter box. ‘Parker! Open the door! It’s me – Megan!’
Still nothing.
‘Fuck this,’ Webley says. She reaches into her pocket and brings out a key.
‘What are you doing?’ Cody asks.
‘He gave me this key ages ago. I’m going in.’
‘On what basis?’
Webley glares at him. She doesn’t think this is a time for legal niceties. ‘On the basis that the man I was engaged to seems to have lost his mind, that he’s hacking pieces off himself, and that for all I know he’s lying on the floor in there bleeding to death.’
‘Fair enough.’
Webley opens up and enters the house, Cody following. She flicks on some lights and the pair go automatically into police search mode, checking every room of the house. Each time Webley confirms a room as unoccupied her heart sinks another inch. When she meets up with Cody again in the kitchen, she is on the edge of tears.
‘Where the hell has he gone?’ Webley says. ‘He hasn’t even taken his car. Why won’t he answer his damn phone?’
‘I don’t know,’ Cody answers. ‘He’s obviously not himself.’
‘To put it mildly.’ She looks around the room. It’s tidy. Everything washed and put away. ‘It doesn’t make any sense. Look at this place. It’s pristine. Not exactly what you’d expect of a maniac. What could have made him start acting so unhinged?’
‘Maybe he’s on something.’
Webley shakes her head. ‘I’ve never known Parker to take drugs. In fact, he strongly disapproved of it. Why would he start now?’
‘Okay, well, maybe… maybe it’s his last resort. Maybe he thinks he’s run out of options.’
‘Options for what?’
Cody pauses before answering. ‘For getting you back.’
It’s like a trigger has been pulled. The tears roll down Webley’s cheeks. Cody goes to her.
‘Hey. Don’t cry.’
‘Did I… did I do this to him? Was I too hard on him?’
‘No. You can’t think like that. You broke the engagement off with Parker because he showed a side of himself you’d never seen before. A dark, irrational side. Maybe this is more of the same. Could be you didn’t know him as well as you thought you did.’
She sniffs, nods. ‘You might be right. But he needs urgent help, Cody.’
‘I totally agree. Look, first thing in the morning we’ll report him as a missing person.’
She nods again. And then her eyes alight on something. On the breakfast bar is a framed photograph. It’s a picture of her with Parker, taken at Chester Zoo. They look so happy together.
She says, ‘Take me home, please.’
* * *
She says little on the drive back to her house. She is exhausted, but her mind is bursting with thoughts and images. Cody keeps asking her if she’s okay, and she just answers that she’s fine, but she’s not really. It’s like a deep hole has opened up inside her. She needs answers to fill it, and the reassurance that Parker isn’t on some unstoppable path to self-destruction.
Cody sees her into the house. She tells him there’s no need, but in truth she’s glad of his company.
