The Doctor

Emily set her cup in her saucer and stared at her. ‘You found the collar? I thought Amit found it?’

‘No, I found it just outside our back door. Amit returned it to you.’

‘It wasn’t in the road then?’

‘No. Didn’t Amit explain?’

‘Yes, but I’m sure he said he’d found it in the road.’

‘You must have misunderstood. It was outside our back door. I was putting out some rubbish and found it by the bin.’

‘I see,’ Emily said thoughtfully. ‘I don’t suppose it matters.’

‘No,’ Alisha agreed.

But it did matter.

‘Why would Amit lie about where and who found Tibs’ collar?’ Emily asked Ben that evening. She had told him she’d seen Alisha briefly when she’d taken a parcel there.

‘I don’t suppose he lied on purpose,’ Ben said with a small sigh. ‘It was probably just a mistake. The bloke got home knackered from work and his wife started going on about the cat collar and that he had to return it. So he quickly scribbles a note and pushes it through our letter box, then you rush round and cross-examine him. He says he found it in the road, which is the most likely place if a cat has been run over. It was a mistake, that’s all. No evil intent.’

‘But Alisha never goes out as far as the road. How could he make that mistake?’ Emily persisted.

‘What are you talking about, Em?’ Ben said testily. ‘She came here once, didn’t she? Of course she goes out sometimes. Just not very far as she’s ill.’

She looked at him and realized how ridiculous it must sound if you didn’t know the full story – that Alisha couldn’t go out, not so much because of her illness but because she had a severely disabled daughter whom she couldn’t leave. There was no doubt in Emily’s mind that Alisha’s version of events was true and, for whatever reason, Amit Burman had lied, but she knew she needed to let it go. She was starting to sound obsessive, and Ben’s comment about Amit arriving home from work knackered and his wife going on at him about the cat collar was surely a dig at her.

‘Sorry, I won’t mention it again.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘Tell me about your day at work.’

Chapter Eighteen (#ulink_94c1a4b6-aba6-5a89-b284-8e78d39c8aba)

It mattered, Alisha also thought that evening, and it had worried her since Emily had left. It had plagued and dominated her thoughts. She’d done her best to hide her surprise and concern when Emily had told her what Amit had said about Tibs’ collar, but after Emily had gone she’d found it impossible to think of anything else. She felt unsettled, anxious and couldn’t understand why Amit had lied to Emily. Without doubt he had known he wasn’t the one who’d found the cat collar, and she’d told him exactly where she’d found it. So why had he told Emily he’d found it in the road? Had he forgotten what she’d said? Unlikely. He rarely forgot anything and he’d taken the collar round straight away; there hadn’t been time to forget. ‘I’ll return it,’ he’d said, snatching it from her and placing it in an envelope.

Alisha liked Emily a lot, she acknowledged. She seemed a genuine sort of person who could be relied upon, and she trusted her not to tell anyone – even Ben – about Eva. She was pleased they were becoming friends; indeed, Emily was the only friend she had now. Amit had seen to that, telling her old friends she was too ill to meet them or come to the phone, so eventually they’d stopped calling. But now she had Emily, and it felt safe having her telephone number and knowing she was just next door. She’d enjoyed Emily and Robbie’s visit and now she was confident in working the CCTV and could switch it off and on they could visit any time and Amit would never know. She’d already made a date for their next visit. Yes, she liked Emily and wanted to do right by her.

Alisha was suddenly jolted into the present by something she’d just thought. The CCTV. Now she was competent at using it why didn’t she rewind it to the day she’d found the collar? It might give a clue as to how it had got there, even to where Tibs was, then she could tell Emily. She’d be so pleased to know, even if it was bad news. Emily had said it was the not knowing what had happened to Tibs that was the worst. There was a camera pointing down the sideway that covered the back door. Amit was in his lab for the evening and wouldn’t reappear for hours.