Page 103 of Breaking the Dark

“Amber,” she says. “I need Sebastian’s number. I need it right now.”

“Oh wait, I can’t give you that.”

“Why not?”

“Because then he’ll know that I hired you to investigate him. He’ll never forgive me.”

“Amber, Sebastian has a girlfriend he didn’t tell you about. I think that makes you even, yes?”

She hears Amber sigh. “I suppose. But please, don’t mention it was me that gave you his number. Tell him it was the police or something, okay?”

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.”

She takes Sebastian’s number, then checks the time in the UK. It’s late over there, pushing ten o’clock, but she doesn’t have time for politeness.

Sebastian picks up on the fourth ring. “Hello?”

“Sebastian, this is Jessica Jones, I met you last week at your house under the name Jessica Allan?”

“Ah yes, Jessica! Hello! I’ve been thinking about you.”

“You have?”

“Yes. The timing of your visit to the UK, the mentions in the press of a private investigator from New York being involved with the arrests at the Old Farmhouse. Et cetera, et cetera. I had a feeling that might have been you.”

He sounds slightly put out, almost hurt.

Jessica sighs. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to take advantage of your hospitality. And it was very kind of you to show me around your home.”

“Well, yes. You did it with the purest of intentions, it seems.”

“Yeah. But listen, there was something that was bugging me, after looking at your house. When I was down in the cellar, you told me that your girlfriend had a water pump installed down there for the upstairs showers?”

“That’s right.”

“But I didn’t see a water pump down there. There was nothing down there at all.”

“No, I can assure you that there is. It’s underground.”

“Underground?”

“Yes. They dug up the cellar floor and attached it underground.”

“Why?”

There’s a brief pause, and then Sebastian says, crisply, “I don’t really know. I’m not a plumbing expert. Are you?”

“No. I’m not. But I do know that it seems a bit excessive to bury a water pump under a load of cement. Listen, your girlfriend, what else can you tell me about her?”

“Why?”

“Well, where is she now, for example?”

“She’s away. On business.”

“What sort of business?”

“Interior design business…I suppose?”