Chapter 49

49

H e woke up early knowing there was probably no surveillance job to go to that day once everything had been released.

He was checking the maps app on his phone to see where he'd have to go on that side of the Thames to get some cornetti that would end up being some British reinterpretation of croissants. He was partial to GAIL's—it was the closest, and he was a semi-regular at the Islington branch. But a text message from Sanjay about his mate at the Metropolitan Police broke Luke's train of thought.

"Fuck!" he growled, not even trying to keep quiet. "Sol, you need to wake up."

She groaned, turning over so that her back was to him, ignoring Luke and covering her head with a pillow.

"Sol, you need to wake up," he insisted.

"?Por qué?" she managed to utter. She sounded half unconscious, with notes of early morning grumpiness. Under normal circumstances, he'd never force her awake, or he'd proceed with extreme care and coax her in some pleasurable way. But there was no time.

"The police are on their way," he told her as commandingly as he could, considering he was a bit afraid for his life. Sol didn't look like someone who woke up with a smile.

"What?" She sat up on the bed, trying to open her eyes and not being completely successful.

"The police are on their way. They want to talk to you about your possible involvement in the Meshflixx case."

"Let me call my lawyer," she said.

Of course, Sol already had a solicitor on call. The woman never ceased to amaze him with her deliberate preparedness for every single situation.

…

Twenty-five minutes later, Sol and Luke were fully dressed and sitting around Sol's kitchen table. Two detective sergeants from the Met were also there, and Sol had even offered them tea and leftover cookies from the previous night. Sol's solicitor, Victoria Sifuentes, was on speakerphone and currently talking through Sol's mobile phone.

"I'm sorry I can't be there in person, but it was impossible to get to the South Bank on such short notice. I live in Mayfair," Victoria said, and Luke almost chuckled. He could see Sol rolling her eyes at the lawyer's words. Mayfair wasn't even that far from there, but it was across the river. "But tell me, to what do we owe the pleasure of a visit from the Met?"

"We just want to chat with Ms. Novo about her involvement in the Meshflixx case," DS Steve Fleming said—pronouncing Sol's last name with long vowels and a fricative "v" sound that Luke knew she didn't use.

Detective Sergeant Fleming was in his fifties and wore an ill-fitting suit that made Greg Knight's attire look almost fashionably acceptable in comparison. Luke immediately took a liking to him.

"Can you be more specific when you refer to the Meshflixx case?" Victoria went on while Sol sipped her tea. The lawyer had told the stringer to let her do the talking, and Sol seemed to follow the directions with perfect self-control.

"I'm sure you've heard about the theft of the script from the pirate show at Meshflixx," the detective continued.

"My client has read about it in the press. And that's the extent of her involvement," Victoria said.

"I'm sure you've read the Voyeur article that maintains it was her who took the script?" Fleming continued.

"Is the Metropolitan Police basing their investigations on non-researched online posts that get published regardless of their factual content? We're suing Voyeur for defamation."

There was a brief, almost unnoticeable glance between the two police detectives when they heard Victoria say they were going to sue Voyeur . Luke wasn't sure if Sol had perceived the gesture, but he sure had.

"There's also the private detectives' agency saying she's the culprit," Fleming added. That was Luke's cue.

"As a junior detective at Thompson Sol took professional counsel that diligently—one last time and hung up. Once Sol and Luke were alone again, the stringer was finally able to speak freely.

"Please tell me what just happened."

"I guess you're feeling as clueless as I normally do when dealing with matters pertaining to your profession," he said.

"I'm sorry if this is how you normally feel, because I'm totally lost. Why are they talking to me now? I mean, I understand the whole Voyeur thing, but Meshflixx never reported the case?"

"It never hurts to get involved in a popular case. If you can't solve it, no one will care, but if you do…"

"Fame and glory." He smiled at her. "Now tell me, what is this thing you referred to about T&T's quote no longer standing?"

"I may have sent a press release using T&T's PR agency to state that you're not, after all, the script thief and that our investigation has cleared you of any wrongdoing."

"Why would you do such a thing?"

Her reaction wasn't exactly what he'd envisioned. Especially considering that up until the previous day and only after Divya had talked to Sol and came to the same conclusions he had, Luke hadn't been confident enough in his belief in Sol's innocence.

"I wanted to clear your name," he said, a bit uneasy.

"But you're already doing that by investigating who actually did it. Once that gets out, my name will be clean. There's no fucking need for you to put your job on the line!"

"I have to say, this is not the reaction I was expecting from you," he told her with a tone a tad harder than he'd anticipated.

"No, eh? What did I tell you a few nights ago? Don't you get all protective on me! And you went and did it again."

"I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't need any help!"

"Oh, there you're wrong!" she said, and by then they were both yelling at each other. "I do need help. I need you and Divya to crack this case. What I don't need is you going behind your managers' backs to send a press release and losing your job because of me."

They remained perfectly still at Sol's entryway for a few more seconds, looking at each other cautiously, her last words reverberating in the air.

"I think I get it," he told her then, his voice suddenly serene, and he did. He'd just figured out the bizarre logic behind her words and feelings. "You're going through a tough moment because you lost your job, and you don't want me to go through the same."

She stared at him in silence, as if trying to figure out the next words to yell at him but not managing to find them.

"Sol, I wasn't trying to be protective. I was trying to right a wrong." For once, he was happy that she was speechless because he wasn't quite sure that he'd made his argument with her yet. "I've been unhappy at my job for months now. I was troubled about the agency's methods long before I met you or I realized that I was, quite simply, mad about you. And then all of this happened, and you were in the middle of it… So forgive me for reacting the way I did."

"You're mad about me?"

"I think it's pretty obvious."

She was silent again, her eyes focused on him, her expression stunned. She looked as if she was going to say something a couple of times, only to remain quiet yet again.

"Sol, you're freaking me out. You're never this quiet." He feared the whole thing had been too much, too soon. "Please yell at me or something."

"The part of me that's been through two divorces and a lot of disappointments and rejection in life wants to pretend like you didn't say anything, tell you to go home, ask you to put the brakes on whatever this is, and take a break," she said. Luke could feel his heart as if it was going to beat out of his chest. "But you've managed to remind me of another Sol these past few days. Someone I like a lot but who I had neglected for a long time. And you've done it even if this bloody case keeps getting in the way."

"It does get in the way," he said, drawing nearer to her, not touching her but close enough that he could feel her warmth.

"Do solve it soon because, as hot as it is sometimes, I'm getting tired of fighting with you over nonsense."

"Can I kiss you now?"

"Please."