CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
My head was spinning in confusion.
Could two men have decided to have the same image tattooed on them in exactly the same place on their bodies?
Even I was forced to admit that this was too far-fetched to be true.
Slumping back on the bench, I tossed the newspaper aside and stared ahead at nothing.
What was Xander’s photo doing here, in connection with the raid on the jeweller’s shop? It had to be a mistake.
Feeling sick with dread, I picked up the paper and scanned the story. Apparently, there had been three men involved in the robbery, two of whom had already been caught.
But a third man had evaded capture – and the police were hoping that the public would be able to identify their suspect from the image of him caught on CCTV...
I could see an alleyway and bins in the background of the photo, so he must have been emerging from the back door of the jeweller’s – and he’d been caught just as he was pulling off a black balaclava, so his face was visible.
Except that he was turned away from the camera so he could be seen only in profile.
But one thing that was clearly visible – to me, at any rate – was that tattoo.
It was in that exact position on Xander’s neck, a few centimetres below the tip of his right earlobe. I’d kissed him there, so I knew!
I tried to call Lyndsay again, and this time, she answered.
She was speaking in hushed tones this time, presumably because she was in the garden centre now and didn’t want anyone to hear what she was talking about.
‘Anika! It’s him, isn’t it? Xander?’
‘Oh, Lyndsay, I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean? It looks exactly like him in profile. And that tattoo!’
‘I know.’ I groaned miserably. ‘I suppose I just don’t want to believe it, Lyndsay. I mean, come on! Xander a jewellery robber? It just doesn’t make sense.’
‘But the evidence is there. In a photo!’ She sighed.
‘If it wasn’t for the balaclava, I’d probably be like you, wanting to think that it was all just a big mistake and they’d used the wrong photo with the story.
But the fact he’s wearing that black balaclava !
Just like the others did in the raid! Honestly, it gives me the creeps. ’
‘How do you think I feel?’ I wailed. ‘I was falling for him, Lyndsay! I mean, falling really hard. And now I just don’t know what to think.’
‘Oh, Anika.’ She sighed. ‘Look, can you come over to the garden centre and we can talk about what we’re going to do about it?’
‘I start work at twelve today but I could probably get over there...’ I began.
Then it dawned on me what she was saying and I felt my stomach drop.
‘Hang on. Do you mean we have to decide whether to go to the police and report that we know it’s Xander ?
’ I felt chilled to the bone at the very idea.
‘Well, what else can we do? Pretend we don’t recognise him and just carry on as normal?’
‘I know. But can’t I at least talk to Xander myself and see what he has to say? I mean, what if we tell the police it’s him and we’re wrong? Xander would never speak to me again!’
‘Anika, we’re not wrong,’ she said gently. ‘I know you want to believe that it’s not, but it’s definitely Xander. And there will be others apart from us who’ll see the photo and recognise him.’
‘That’s true. So... why do we have to be in such a rush to go to the police? If other people will be reporting him?’ I knew I was on shaky ground but I had to hear what Xander had to say first...
She hesitated and I heard her sigh. ‘Look, okay, we won’t do anything about it today, all right?
We’ll sleep on it. But I’m really not sure you should even be talking to Xander about this.
If he can be involved in a robbery, we clearly don’t know him like we thought we did.
What if you tell him you’ve seen the photo and he gets nasty with you? ’
‘But he wouldn’t !’
She paused. ‘Anika, you don’t know that. You’ve only really been getting to know Xander in the last couple of weeks. He could be dangerous. I’d never forgive myself if we didn’t go to the police and then something awful happened to you...’
*****
I had to see Xander.
Even if I was still refusing to believe it was him in the photo, I knew there would be other people – including Lyndsay – who were sure it was Xander and would be calling the police.
What if Xander hadn’t seen the newspaper yet?
I needed to let him know about the photo that had gone public. And more importantly, I needed him to tell me that the man in the photo wasn’t him...
I knew he’d be at work by now, at the company’s offices in Guildford. It was still early. So if I got the train from Sunnybrook, I’d hopefully be able to talk to him and put my mind at rest. Because if I didn’t find out for certain, I was going to drive myself mad wondering...
Getting up from the bench, I folded the newspaper and shoved it angrily into my bag.
The whole thing was so upsetting and life felt so bloody unfair.
Xander and I had been getting on so well – I’d even begun thinking I might be in love with him! – and now this had to happen.
Was I jinxed when it came to romance?
Because I now had to face up to the idea that the man I was falling for might actually be a crook!
Determined to talk to Xander, I marched into the station to buy my ticket to Guildford. The next train was due to leave in ten minutes, which was perfect, but as I was standing in the short queue, I heard a familiar voice say, ‘Anika? Where are you off to?’
I spun round and there he was.
Xander.
‘Hi!’ Shocked, I tried to smile at him but it didn’t feel natural. And then it was my turn in the queue and the woman behind the counter was asking me where I wanted to go, which was when it dawned on me that I didn’t need to buy a ticket because I could talk to Xander right there.
I apologised and stepped out of the queue to join Xander.
‘Hey, you.’ He was smiling broadly at me and my heart sank because it was clear he had no idea about the storm that was surely going to land on him later in the day.
‘Hi.’ I swallowed. ‘Off to work?’
He nodded. ‘I’m a bit later going in today. I was making some phone calls at home first.’
‘Right.’
He frowned. ‘Are you okay? Is something wrong?’
‘No, no.’ I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. But I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. In less than ten minutes he’d be boarding a train to Guildford. But I needed to know before he left. So I pulled out the newspaper, looked him silently in the eye and showed him the front page.
‘What’s this? The local paper?’ He gave me a puzzled look. ‘Thanks, but I don’t usually bother with it. I usually watch the news on the TV.’
‘But Xander, look .’ In despair, I thrust the paper back in front of his eyes and I watched the smile drop from his face.
Taking it from me, he stared at the photo, as all the colour drained from his face.
‘Is that you?’ I whispered, feeling sick.
He didn’t reply at first. He just carried on looking at the photo.
‘Xander?’
He blinked a few times. Then he looked at me as if he was working out what to tell me.
‘Is it you?’
He swallowed. ‘No. Of course it’s not me,’ he said softly.
I nodded, wanting to believe him so much. ‘Sorry, it’s just... well, you must admit it does look a lot like you,’ I began carefully. ‘And Lyndsay thought so, too, because she phoned me as soon as she saw it.’
He turned to me with a frown. ‘You’ve been gossiping about me? You and Lyndsay?’
I swallowed. ‘No! I mean, we’d never ... But it was the tattoo that made us wonder.’ I pointed at the iris. ‘It’s your tattoo, isn’t it?’
He pressed his lips together and looked away. ‘It might look like it,’ he said in a tone that was ultra-soft and strangely disturbing. ‘But how can it be me when I was nowhere near that jeweller’s shop that day?’
‘Okay.’ I nodded, wanting to pacify him, although more wild thoughts were rushing through my head now.
Could the photo be fake? Created with AI technology? Because that could be done so easily these days, couldn’t it?
Xander sounded calm but I could sense the anger simmering below the surface, and there was a desperate vulnerability in his eyes as they flicked over me that I hadn’t seen before. He was avoiding my eye, which was odd, because normally he was so open and transparent.
I shivered. Maybe Lyndsay was right and a week wasn’t long to get to know Xander properly... to know the different sides of his character...
But I still couldn’t believe he was guilty of what the police seemed to think he was.
‘You don’t really think I could do something like this, do you, Anika?’ he asked me, staring at a point over my right shoulder.
‘No... no, of course not,’ I replied. But he must have seen the doubt in my eyes because his face closed up and he looked away.
‘So you’ve made up your mind about me, then,’ he murmured, glancing down. ‘Will you and Lyndsay be going to the police?’
‘What? No!’
‘You so obviously believe I’m guilty, so why not?’
‘But I don’t think you’re guilty. Really, Xander, I don’t!’
He shook his head sadly and thrust the newspaper back at me. ‘Yes, you do. It’s written all over your face.’
All I could do was shake my head.
‘Look, if you don’t trust me, Anika,’ he said, ‘I can’t have you in my life, okay? Because I’ve had it up to here with people getting the wrong idea about me.’ Frustrated, he made a brief cutting gesture at the air above his head.
Confused, I could only look back at him with tears in my eyes.
He gave me a sad little smile. Then he shrugged as if he didn’t care anymore. ‘Okay, I admit it.’ For the first time since I’d challenged him, he looked me directly in the eye. ‘It’s me in the photo. Is that what you want to hear?’
I stared at him, bewildered. ‘I don’t know what you mean, Xander. Are you saying you were involved in the robbery?’
The Guildford train announcement came over the Tannoy at that moment.
Xander looked at me in disgust and walked off.