'After she… after she was gone… I just couldn't stand it, Niall. I couldn't bear seeing her room like that. It was like she was going to be coming home, but she never did.'
'What's that got to do with her being there last night?'
'She was upstairs. She was in her old room.'
'I don't understand.'
'Barry's been working from home a lot. We'd converted it to an office for him. We had decorators in to do it.'
'What about Alex's stuff, her things? She was going on about wanting her own things around her.'
'I gave them away, Niall.' Katherine sniffed down the phone. 'I gave them to charity. I couldn't bear to keep them.' She was crying down the phone now. I could hear her snuffling and making small noises of distress.
'But then… Oh God, Katherine. What have you done?'
'It wasn't my fault,' she sniffled. 'If you hadn't kept it all from me then I'd have held on to them for her. I'd have looked after them.'
'But she's only been gone, what, a few weeks?'
'You didn't have to walk past it every day! You didn't have to see it every time you crossed the hall. You have no idea, Niall.'
I could hear Katherine snuffling and sniffling down the phone.
'I've got to go,' I said. 'She may come back to you — there's just a chance — if she does, try and make it look like you want her back. I'll try and call you tomorrow.' I dropped the call without giving Katherine chance to answer.
'That wasn't very kind, was it? The woman is clearly upset,' said Blackbird.
'Oh she's upset all right. She knows full well what happened. Alex came back and found she'd been moved out. What's the girl supposed to think?'
'I don't think she meant it like that.'
'You think it matters to Alex how she meant it? For all Katherine knew, Alex was barely cold in her grave, and she redecorates! She even has a man in to do it for her!'
'You don't know that, Niall. You're leaping to conclusions on precious little evidence.'
'I know Katherine.'
'Perhaps not as well as you think. It wasn't you having to walk past Alex's room every day, and you've had the comfort of knowing she was alive, even if you couldn't find her. Katherine hasn't had that luxury.'
'Yeah, well. I bet it wasn't long before she was getting quotes for the job, picking out furnishings…'
'You're assuming the worst.'
'Maybe.'
'Either way, it doesn't help you find Alex.'
'I know how to find her. I've done it before and I'll do it again.'
I turned back to the mirror and placed my hand on it. 'Alex? Where are you?'
Alex woke with the thought that there was someone in the room with her. She blinked against the harsh daylight spilling in through the tall bedroom windows but kept still, listening. She went back through her actions the night before. She was sure she'd put the chain across the door before she'd gone to bed. Surely she hadn't slept through them breaking in?
Under the city noise and hotel air-conditioning hum there was another sound, out of place. She lifted her head slowly and found the room undisturbed. She slid sideways from the quilt onto the deep-pile cream carpet and pulled her bra and top from the chair, slipping them on quickly. She crept to the door, scanning the sitting room beyond. It was empty. She went back, intending to slip into her knickers and skirt.
'Alex? Are you there?'
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of her father's voice. It was coming from inside the bedroom. She retreated, scanning the room, looking for the source. Above the dresser, the mirror was misted in the centre.
'Alex, I need to talk to you.'
It was definitely her father, and his voice was coming through the mirror. How was he doing that? Come to that, how did he know she was here? Then she remembered, when she had first been at Porton Down she had heard his disembodied voice. With all the drugs and the treatment she had thought it was a dream, but maybe not.
She reached forward with a tentative finger to touch the mirror.
'I know you're there. Answer me.'
She jumped back. There he went again, treating her like a two year-old, telling her what to do and how to think. No one told her what to do, not since Porton Down, not even him. She frowned at the mirror and its surface rippled under her gaze, but still his voice came through, jumpy and broken but intelligible.
'Alex? Speak to me! Where are you?'
She grabbed her bag and pulled out the red lipstick she had stolen the day before. She wrote 'NO' on the rippled surface of the mirror. It was a crude warding, but it sufficed. Her father's voice ceased.
'Alex, what are you doing? Answer me this instant!' His voice was coming from the sitting room now. She dashed through, searching for the mirror. The sound was coming through the full length mirror near the door. She scribbled 'NO' on that one too and then went through the apartment, writing 'NO' on every mirror, every picture, every window, until the room echoed with the word.
Finally there was silence. She looked around. The room looked like it had been vandalised, the word 'NO' repeated like some blood red deranged message all around the room. She dropped the lipstick like it was hot and it rolled across the carpet.
'I'm not crazy. I'm not!' She was breathless.
She ran into the bedroom and pulled on the discarded clothes from last night, stuffing her feet into her boots. She grabbed her bag and pulled on her cardie. As she ran back through the sitting room she stepped on the lipstick and it smeared across the carpet.
'Shit!'
She stared at the red smear across the cream pile, her hands bunched into tight fists. Her breathing came faster, she couldn't take her eyes off the streak of red. She screwed her eyes shut, biting her lip.
Then she ran for the exit, wrenched back the chain and threw open the door. She almost crashed into the trolley the chamber maid was wheeling down the corridor. The door to the suite slammed behind her and she flew down the stairs and out through the fire exit, banging the door open in front of startled pedestrians and swerving to avoid the car that swept past.
She kept running, taking random turns left and right until she was lost in the back streets with no idea which way to run next.
'She locked me out! How could she do that?' I stared at the silent mirror, no longer responding to my touch.
'If you paid more attention to our sessions and actually practiced what I taught you, you'd know,' said Blackbird.
'No, I don't mean that. I'm her father. She's not supposed to… hang up on me?'
'What, you're still going into the bathroom with her, tying her shoe laces, helping her dress?'
'No, obviously not.'
'So she does have some privacy.'
'This isn't a matter of privacy, it's…'
'What? I think she let you know in no uncertain terms that she wanted some space, some time to think things through,' said Blackbird. 'She's growing up fast, if you would let her.'
'But she's only fourteen.'
'Fifteen, Niall.'
'Fifteen, then. It's no age for a girl to be out on her own all night.'
Blackbird smiled. 'On the contrary, she seems to be managing extraordinarily well. She's certainly given you the brush off.'
'This isn't funny, Blackbird.'
'No, I don't suppose it is, but you're only going to make matters worse if you pursue her. I didn't help that
