TOYL

fell and hit his head on the floor – fractured his skull. He died on the spot and the other guy was charged with manslaughter. It can be as easy as that. A trivial thing, but you catch a person in a wrong place, or they fall and bang their head in a certain way, and they end up in hospital or dead. What if that happened, for whatever reason, and Dan just panicked? You wouldn’t blame him, would you? And maybe now he’s hiding out, knowing that he should give himself in, but scared of what might happen to him. It would be completely understandable, and it wouldn’t make Dan a bad person.’
    Lizzy waited nervously for a response, while Emma mulled over what Lizzy had just said. Part of her hated Lizzy for even suggesting that Dan might be responsible, while another part loved her friend for daring to risk their relationship by exploring all the options, no matter how painful.
    ‘I can see where you’re coming from,’ Emma acknowledged, picking up the photo of Dan from the coffee table. ‘And if we’d been talking about anyone else except Richard then I might believe it could be true. But,’ she said, looking across to Lizzy, ‘I just can’t believe that Dan would ever fight with his brother. Not after what he’s told me about their relationship – and not after what I’ve seen when they’re together. They’re not just brothers, Lizzy, they’re best friends.’
    ‘Even best friends can fall out,’ Lizzy responded.
    ‘Yes,’ Emma said. ‘But not those two – Dan told me once how when they were on a family holiday – Dan was about eight and Richard was six – Richard got taken to hospital with viral meningitis. Dan was so upset that he wouldn’t leave the hospital – he stayed and slept at his bedside for about two days solid. I know that was a long time ago, Lizzy, but I don’t think things have changed – Dan would be the same now as then. That’s one reason why I need to go to see Richard as much as possible. Because I know that Dan would be there day and night if he could be.’
    ‘But doesn’t the fact that the photos are missing put any doubt in your mind?’
    ‘It makes me more convinced that it wasn’t him. Okay, say Dan did attack Richard, and he decided to run away. Why would he take the trouble to grab the photos above anything else? I’ve looked around the flat, and he hasn’t taken anything else of his – clothes, bags. But of anything, those are the things that he would need if he were going on the run – not a couple of photos. Whatever way you look at it, it doesn’t make sense for him to have done that.’
    ‘Okay,’ Lizzy smiled, holding her hands up, ‘I’m convinced. I just think you need to explore all the options.’
    ‘I know, Lizzy, and I do appreciate it. I don’t want to just delude myself, but on this I’m so sure.’
    ‘So we still have the mystery of the missing photos,’ Lizzy announced. ‘Are you going to tell the police about them?’
    ‘I will. But not right now.’
    Again there was a silence, this time interrupted by Lizzy’s mobile phone. As Lizzy answered the call, wandering into the hall clutching the phone to her ear, Emma climbed off the sofa and moved across to the window. She looked down at the busy high street below – business people strode past at London pace, while tourists ambled by, moving in and out of shop fronts. Then, for a horrible second, she thought she saw him, peering up at her from across the road, a camera dangling from his neck.
    It couldn’t be him, could it?
    Instinctively she twisted out of view. And for a few seconds she just stood there, flattened against the wall, her heart racing. She could hear Lizzy talking in the kitchen but it seemed so far away. Thoughts ran through her head, of a time when she’d never felt safe, of a time that she’d tried her best to forget. But then she scolded herself for being so silly. Breathless, she edged out from behind the wall and gazed out of the window. Where she thought he’d been standing was a middle-aged man in a smart suit reading a newspaper.
    It was just her imagination, playing tricks again.
    Then she did see someone she recognised. Mr Henderson had exited the apartment and was walking off down the street pulling a shopping trolley. She watched him as he paused at a bus stop, just seconds before a double-decker arrived. By the time the bus had left, Mr Henderson had gone, probably on his way into the centre.
    ‘Emma,’ Lizzy said, approaching from