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unbiased. She had shared with me her life philosophies and loved that I never ridiculed her. When I hadn’t agreed with her, I had told her so and presented my counter-arguments to her flawed reasoning, sometimes resulting in a fun intellectual debate.
    Now she told me that she trusted me. What was I supposed to do with her trust? Phillip trusted me to do my job, but until six months ago I had never had anyone trust me with their emotions or personal well-being. How did normal people deal with this on a daily basis? From my raised heart rate and shaky breathing, I knew that I was challenged with more than I could handle.
    I grabbed my handbag and walked to the door. “I have to go.”
    “Why?” Colin asked.
    “Because I have to go. I can’t stay here.”
    “But you promised that you’d stay with me,” Francine said.
    “I promised that I would stay until you felt safe.” I took a moment to study her body language. “You’re feeling safe. I’m leaving.”
    “You’re a coward, Jenny.” Colin shook his head. “One of the bravest people I know, but a total coward.”
    “That doesn’t make sense at all. I’m leaving.”
    It wouldn’t take much for me to agree that Colin was right. I was a coward. Admitting to it didn’t make me stay in Francine’s room though. In reality, it made me leave Francine’s room without another word and hasten my steps out of the hospital.
    I walked into a cold, sunny day to realise that I had no transport home. There was no rational reasoning that could get me to go back into the hospital asking Colin for a ride home. A shudder went through me at the thought of using a taxi. People thought taxis were cleaner than other public transport, but that was generally not true.
    This once I would ignore my germ-anxiety and get into one of the taxis parked in front of the hospital. I wanted to get home. Away from reappearing thieves and friendship proclamations. This emotional overload had me desperate for something normal. It had been three days since I last scrubbed the bathrooms and it would be the perfect therapeutic action to deal with this.
    As I gingerly got into a taxi I thought about the implications of Colin’s return into my life. And Vinnie and Francine. What else were they bringing with them into my safe world? I wanted to not think about this. I wanted the simplicity of cleaning my apartment and the predictability of going to work tomorrow. The thought of a new case perked me up. If only for a few minutes.

 
    Chapter THREE
     
     
     
    “This is the new case?” I lifted one of the thick files from my desk. If it weren’t so heavy and full of loose bits of paper, I would’ve shaken it at Phillip in annoyance. Instead I put it on top of the others and rested my hand on it. “Five files this size and you told me it could wait? Is this a cold case?”
    “Good morning, Genevieve.” Phillip walked into my viewing room and pulled a chair closer. “How are you this morning? I see that you’ve found the files.”
    When I had stepped into my office ten minutes ago, these files had been waiting for me on my long desk. Above the desk, my ten top-of-the-range computer monitors, arranged in a wide semi-circle, were dark. Apart from placing my coffee mug on its designated coaster and glancing at the files, there hadn’t been time for much else. Phillip’s presence in my viewing room indicated that he had requested to be informed as soon as I stepped into the building. He only ever did that when he was concerned about me.
    I turned away from the files and watched Phillip place the chair at a comfortable distance from me. He understood and respected my need for personal space. “Were you being sarcastic?”
    The risorius muscle pulled at the corner of his mouth. He was fighting a smile. “Yes and no. But I don’t want to argue with you on this beautiful Tuesday morning. Let’s talk about Francine. How is she?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “What do you mean you don’t