Chapter 4.
“You accepted, I take it?”
“Yeah, well like, of course I did. You know, what else could I do, though it looked like it was bad news, didn’t it, but I had to know. So, yeah, of course…”
“And, just a detail, but this friend of yours, Joshua, he didn’t ask about the whereabouts of your girlfriend?”
“My girlfriend?”
“This glamorous lady that seems to have caused you so much bother. What was she called, Terri, I think?”
“Oh… I told you, she’s not my girlfriend.”
Strange wave his hand impatiently. “No, of course. Indulge me. My question was not whether she was your girlfriend or not. My question was whether he enquired about her…Or, more specifically, did he ask if you were free? Might he not have assumed that you would be spending the evening with her, rather than be free to see him?”
“No! he didn’t! why, do you think that’s relevant?”
Strange smiled. “It’s all potentially relevant. I’m just surmising that perhaps, he knew that you weren’t seeing her. Perhaps he knew more than he was admitting to, or maybe, possibly even, he lied. Perhaps he was even involved in what happened to her.” Strange let the thought float in the air.
Nat was quiet for a second. “I think you may be right, you know. Hang on – you don’t think… no, it couldn’t have been. Jesus… maybe it was… God. That would explain why… hang on. But…”
Strange had a quiet presence and it showed now, as Nat went quiet, looking at him, with his hands knotted together and his pensive smile.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves” Strange whispered. “The only real conclusions are based in fact, not conjecture, and certainly not emotion. You understand me, Nathanial?”
“Erm, yeah, sure.”
“We need to understand the facts. Rest assured that I am listening carefully, making notes of what you said, forming connections where you may think none exist. Or where you may not even notice them. That is why you need to remember the details. What people said, how they acted, things that they did that may seem strange. Not even strange, just slightly unusual. And also remember, what’s not said or done is sometimes just as important as what is. For instance, Joshua’s failure to ask if you were seeing Terri. Did that suggest that he wasn’t expecting you to see her – or even more, did it suggest that he knew you weren’t. In which case, of course, we have to entertain the conjecture that he may have known where she was – or indeed, what had happened to her. Because of course, we need to remember it’s clear that something has happened to her. Tell me – when he spoke to you, did he seem nervous?”
“Erm. Well, yeah, I guess. I guess he did. I didn’t really notice it earlier, but when we met… you know, normally, or at least when I’d met him just before, you know, he was like one of those guys that is just, easy I guess. You know, relaxed, confident, but not with trying or anything, you know, he was able to be, you know what I mean? God, I felt jealous of people like that. I remember him from school, and he was just the same, there, you know, people used to hang round with him, just to be near him. I don’t know what it is, why some people are like that, maybe if I did, I could be…”
Strange coughed slightly. “Shall we stick to the point, maybe. We can analyse your personality traits later, if there is anything interesting to analyse.” He talked without a hint of sarcasm; it wasn’t even certain that Nat had noticed, in any case.
“Sorry…I don’t know, it just makes me … upset… when I think of it… but, yeah, sorry, I know, back to…”
“Yes, exactly. Back to your story.”