Human Remains

my work clothes, and went downstairs. Irene was in the kitchen cooking a fried breakfast. The cat, who’d settled in far more readily than I would ever have expected, wound herself around my legs affectionately.
    ‘Don’t mind her, she’s been fed,’ Irene said when I came in. ‘Scrambled egg and bacon?’
    It smelt good, but I wasn’t hungry. However, experience had taught me already that Irene had trouble hearing the word ‘no’ and so it was easier just to give in. ‘Thanks. Maybe just a little bit?’
    There was tea in the pot on the table and I poured a mugful and tasted it. It was black, stewed, but it would do me.
    They’d let me out of hospital on the understanding that I had someone to keep an eye on me, and Sam had taken it upon himself to be that person. It had only been supposed to be for a few days, but then we’d gone back to my house to get some clothes and my spare key was missing. I kept it on the bookcase and it was definitely not there. After that I hadn’t really felt like going back home, even after we’d got the locks changed at vast expense. As things stood, it looked as if I was going to be staying with the Everetts for a while.
    ‘You were late getting back on Friday night,’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear you come in.’
    ‘I was at work,’ I said.
    ‘Till that late? Are you sure that’s a good idea, Annabel?’
    ‘I was fine. I needed to get some things finished, that’s all. And they’re giving me some overtime so I’m going to go in this morning as well.’
    Irene made a noise that might have been disapproval. ‘Better get a good breakfast inside you, then,’ she said, and loaded my plate with eggs and bacon. The cat started kneading my socked feet, keeping her claws tactfully retracted. She was purring wetly and probably dribbling on me too. I reached down under the table and she nestled her head in my cupped hand.
    ‘Where’s Sam?’ I asked. At that moment the back door opened and Sam came in, wiping his trainers on the mat and breathing hard. ‘I didn’t know you ran,’ I said.
    ‘First one… for ages… really hard,’ he said. ‘Any tea in there?’
    I poured him a cup and he sat opposite me at the kitchen table. Irene shovelled food on to his plate too and he added a squirt of ketchup to it.
    ‘Sort of defeats the object,’ he said, around a mouthful of food, ‘going for a run and then stuffing my face afterwards.’
    ‘I guess so.’
    The cat had transferred her affections smoothly to Sam, tiptoeing around his legs, her tail twisted into a flirtatious question mark. He paused to slip her a covert morsel of bacon when Irene had turned back to the sink.
    ‘I think that cat’s forgotten we used to live together,’ I said.
    ‘Don’t be silly,’ Sam said. ‘She’s happy because she knows you’re OK here, that you feel safe and you’re getting better, that’s all.’
    She’s happy as long as someone gives her bacon and a scratch round the ear
, I thought. But who could blame her for being cross with me? I’d ignored her for days. She must have felt completely abandoned. It was a wonder she’d stayed around at all.
    ‘So where are you off to?’
    Nice as it was to have somewhere to stay, with kind people who cared about where I was and what time I got in, cooked me meals and made me drink tea, I was starting to feel like a teenager.
    ‘Just work,’ I said, eating some bacon to try to bypass the need for conversation.
    ‘Oh?’ Sam’s posture had gone from slouched to alert in a second, scenting a story above the salty tang of breakfast- with-ketchup . ‘You’re going to work on a Sunday?’
    I took a deep breath in. How could I make this sound less exciting? ‘Not really. Just overtime. Updating some spreadsheets. Catching up with things. As I’ll be going back in a bit.’
    ‘If they’re giving you overtime, something’s definitely going on. I know for a fact that they have no money for overtime at all. What’s happened? Is it the investigation? Have they found another one?’
    ‘Sam,’ Irene said, ‘stop pestering her. Annabel, tell him to mind his own business if he’s bothering you.’
    ‘He’s a journalist,’ I said. ‘My business is his business. Unfortunately.’
    ‘I’ll drive you in,’ he said. ‘And you can ring me when you’re done. I’m going into town anyway.’
    ‘I might be ages,’ I said, not wanting the responsibility of him sitting waiting for me. ‘I can drive myself.’
    But he was quick