‘Of course, dear. Give me a sec.’ She swivelled around on her office chair. ‘Dave, can you man the reception for five minutes while I show a lady round?’ A spotty lad of about nineteen or twenty came out clutching a can of cola.
As we walked, the receptionist, Mandy, pointed out the various gym equipment, a studio for group classes, and the ‘relaxation area’. Though how anybody could relax amidst the stench of sweaty trainers was beyond me. As we came out, I heard that voice again coming from around the corner where I’d spotted the free weights. It was pulling me to listen. ‘Chris, how are things?’ His tone suggested he was pleased to see ‘Chris’.
I pulled my phone out of my bag and pointed at it for Mandy’s benefit. ‘Excuse me, I just need to send a quick email.’ She nodded and indicated with her finger she’d be back in a minute.
Pretending to tap on my phone, I kept an ear in the conversation. It was all very well him being nice online when he was out to impress, but a candid snapshot of Andrew would help me decide if he really was a decent match for Megan. ‘Still no lucky lady?’ Chris asked him.
‘No, not yet.’ Andrew let out a shy laugh.
‘I can’t believe the most eligible bachelor in Cheshire hasn’t found himself a girl! In that bar last Saturday, all the women had eyes on you – I was a little bit jealous.’ Chris laughed at the end.
‘Ha-ha, I don’t think so – they’ll have been looking at you wondering if your T-shirt had shrunk in the wash. You do know they come in bigger sizes don’t you?’ I smiled at the humour in his voice.
‘I work hard for these guns!’
I was still smiling when Mandy re-emerged so straightened my face quickly, stuffing my phone back into my bag. ‘All done,’ I said, sorry to be tearing myself away from eavesdropping. At least Andrew did seem like a nice guy.
‘Great, let’s continue the tour.’ She led me to some of the other areas: cardio, refreshments, and so on, but there was no sign of Samantha anywhere and that was worrying. ‘Could I see the changing rooms?’ I asked, hoping for Sam’s sake she was in there.
When I got back to the car, I slumped into the seat for effect. ‘She’s not in there.’ Sam looked crestfallen and my chest ached for him. ‘Are you sure she was going straight to the gym? No plans to stop off at Budgen’s or somewhere on the way?’ I desperately wanted to find a rational explanation for Sam. With Megan, I was naive in thinking that if she found out, everything would be okay and though the weeks had passed, I was still uncertain as to whether or not I’d done the right thing.
He shook his head. ‘No, she was definitely going to the gym. She had on her gym gear and everything. She said she’d be about an hour and a half.’
An hour and a half didn’t seem long enough to have anything more than just a quickie if you factored in travel time and straightening one’s appearance. I didn’t see the point, myself.
‘So what now?’ I asked.
‘Just take me home.’
We drove back to Sam’s house in silence, and as we pulled up outside I turned to him. ‘It might not mean what you think. Perhaps her car broke down or she changed her mind on the way or something. There could be a perfectly rational explanation.’ His phone buzzed as I spoke and for a moment, Sam stared at the screen. ‘What is it?’ I asked. He turned the screen so I could see it.
Finished at the gym but going to pop into town for a bit. See you later. S x
***
The three of us had arranged to meet later that night at Megan’s house. In light of Sam’s mood, I’d considered calling it off, but Megan sent a message to the group saying she had wine and nibbles ready and I felt awful for leaving her alone.
‘I’m off to Megan’s house,’ I called out to James as I was leaving but got no reply. He had his head in case files as usual, I assumed.
When I arrived at Megan’s house, Sam was already there, and the pair of them were nibbling Pringles and drinking rosé. ‘We’re slumming it since Kate isn’t coming to snack-shame us,’ Megan had giggled as she answered the door. I shoved the San Nicasio crisps that I’d decided to treat us all to down into the bottom of my Mulberry tote and pulled out the wine bottle I had instead.
‘You’re like Mary Poppins,’ Megan joked, taking the wine from me.
‘How’s Sam?’ I asked, lowering my voice so he didn’t hear.
‘Seems fine. Why?’ Megan raised an eyebrow in surprise.
‘Didn’t he tell you? His wife wasn’t at the gym when we went to look for her; she’d lied to him,’ I whispered.
‘He hasn’t said a thing. We were just giggling at a dog on Britain’s Got Talent and that’s about it. I was even going to ask if you’d cancelled the whole thing.’
I shook my head. ‘No, he was quite upset earlier.’
Megan led me into the kitchen, where Sam was seated with a glass of wine in his hand, watching the small, wall-mounted flat screen above the dining table.
‘Hi, Sam,’ I said gently, sitting down next to him. ‘Did you speak to Samantha?’
‘She didn’t come home.’ Sam’s whole body was slumped in his seat.
‘Perhaps I just missed her in the gym, Sam – it’s quite big.’
Sam shrugged in reply. ‘I asked James about her visits to his office and he said she was helping out with a case. He didn’t think there was anything odd about it all.’
‘So, back to the drawing board?’
