A uniformed policeman wakes me up; the man in the blue boiler suit is gone. I’m taken back to another room for another interview. DC Gallagher and DC Taylor are there and this time, they are going to record everything. So again, I repeat everything. Careful not to leave anything out.
‘We have read the message on the photograph,’ DC Gallagher says.
I wait for her to go on.
‘I knew something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly. We are looking through more things, but soon, the case will be closed.’
‘And Davian is cleared?’
‘Davian’s name will be cleared,’ she said. ‘As for you, I need to see how to deal with this. Withholding evidence from the police is a crime, and what you did has wasted police time.’
‘So I’m going to be charged.’
‘I’ll see what I can do, but no promises.’
I won’t forget her; Lottie will never be far away from my thoughts. I’ll never get to see her again. I will never see her face, her smile, the glow in her eyes. I will never get to hold her hand, feel the softness of her skin. Without her, there will always be an emptiness in my life. I will never be the same. She let the most stunning thing she had ever seen be the centre of her universe. She let her obsession break her and destroy her utterly and completely. It cost her life and we are suffering from the wreckage she has created. I look at the stone.
Lottie, you’ll be loved always.
I hold the bouquet in my hand. If only she knew how I felt about her. What if I’d told her? Would she have reconsidered? She hated Davian so much she wanted to ruin his life, but I was supposed to be her friend. I loved her. Those questions, those what-ifs, will never be answered. She nearly took me down along with her. I wasn’t charged for withholding evidence from the police, but I had to pay a hefty fine. Davian doesn’t work for Giselle anymore, although she apologised and offered him back his position he politely declined. He and Melissa had reconciled and he moved to Japan. He’s working on his photography book and soon he’ll have an exhibition over there. I wish him well. As for me, well, I no longer work for Giselle either. I can’t stand to walk in the corridors Lottie has walked, to see the cubical where she once sat being occupied by someone else. I haven’t figured out what to do, but I’m not worried. I glance at her grave once more and toss the bouquet of flowers in the bed of grass.
‘I hope you’re happy now, bitch. I hope it was all worth it.’
The End