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sure of it,” she smiled.
    “What makes you so sure, Miss?”
    “Oh, call me Aimee. Well, I remember the date distinctly because the day after, the 5th, I had a big test. Worth a third of my mark for the year.”
    Grimble interrupted, “What does that have to do with Mr. Chamberlin and the night in question?”
    “Well, he helped me study the night before, the 4th. Lex used to go to Oxford, you see, and he’s been mentoring me since I started there in September.”
    “OK,” Grimble said, not convinced. “So, this was where, exactly?”
    “My apartment in Oxford,” she answered without hesitation.
    “And what time did Mr. Chamberlin leave?” Grimble asked, looking down at his notes.
    “He didn’t.”
    Grimble’s eyes shot up and glared at Aimee; she stared right back.
    Was he suspicious? Of course he was bloody suspicious; it was in his nature. You don’t get to be a detective without scrutinising everything and everyone, I thought.
    “I see. He was there till morning?”
    Aimee nodded.
    Harris leaned over and whispered into Grimble’s ear.
    “I think that’s quite enough, gentlemen. You got what you came for,” Archie said and stood up, forcing the other two men to do likewise.
    “Fair enough, Mr. Sanderson. If we have any more questions we know where to find you and your client. Miss.” Grimble nodded goodbye to Aimee.
    Archie led them out while I sat in stunned silence, facing Aimee on the sofa.
    “You shouldn’t have done that,” I said, when they were out of earshot. “You know damn well I didn’t arrive at yours till the early morning.”
    Her nose wrinkled and her eyes narrowed.
    Archie reappeared under the archway. “Miss, that was quite foolish, but I admire your loyalty to your family. Anyway, keep to your stories, and I’ll make sure that’s the end of it. If there’s nothing further, my boy, I’ll see myself out.”
    “Thanks for coming, Archie. I appreciate it,” I said and nodded a farewell to him.
    “Now. You owe me the truth,” Aimee said, pointing a finger at me.
    “What do you want to know?”
    “Everything. What happened with Adrianna?”
    I paused, composing myself before saying the words out loud to her.
    “Nothing… she’s accusing me of rape.”
    Suddenly Aimee’s hand arced high in the air, and her palm struck my cheek.
    Well, I suppose, one way or the other, I had that coming to me, I thought.
    Before another blow fell, I caught her wrist and pinned it to her side.
    “I haven’t been with anyone since you, Aimee. I didn’t do it.”
    “Really? The same way you didn’t force yourself onto Phoebe?”
    Fuck. Where had that come from? How long had she’d kept that little titbit of information tucked away?
    “I never touched her. I may have played along with her futile attempts at entrapment, but I never laid a finger on her. Phoebe’s had it in for me the moment you told her about us.”
    “I had to tell someone!”
    “Fat lot of good it’s done! Are you blind? Can’t you see this is what she wants? She doesn’t think I’m good enough for you. But I swear, Aimee, I didn’t touch her.”
    “She said you were naked… and hard.”
    I sighed. “I promised I would never lie to you. I was naked.” Aimee shot up from the sofa and stalked away.
    “Let me explain!” I shouted at her back.
    “I don’t want to hear it, Lex. I can’t look at you right now.”
    With monotonous steps she collected her few belongings from the bedroom and called for Steve to pick her up.
    Ever fibre in my body screamed for me to stop her. To make her stay. But if she couldn’t wait long enough to listen, to hear my side of the story, then perhaps we weren’t worth saving.
    I stood at the bottom of the stairs as she proceeded back down.
    “You know I’m telling the truth,” I said, my words floating in the air as she passed me by without stopping to say farewell.
    The door slammed in its frame, and I reached for the nearest crystal vase that sat clustered in the middle