blame the other woman. Why should a young girl like that respect Jeff’s wedding vows if he doesn’t? No, Jeff’s the bad guy here. He’s the liar.
A small voice inside her dared to remind her that she’d been lying too. But Tracy snuffed it out.
Hold on to the anger, she told herself. Don’t let go.
She couldn’t barge into Gunther’s house and seek comfort there. She couldn’t go home. Some wild, irrational part of her wanted to knock on Alan McBride’s door. He always made her feel so safe. But Dr McBride had his own family, his own life. She knew she shouldn’t intrude.
I’m on my own, thought Tracy. Then, reaching down to stroke her barely swelling belly, she edited the thought.
‘Sorry, sweetheart,’ she said aloud. ‘I meant we’re on our own. But you mustn’t worry. Mommy will take care of you. Mommy will always take care of you.’
*
JEFF WOKE THE NEXT MORNING FEELING like he’d been hit by a truck.
Rebecca had left right after Tracy
‘I can stay if you want,’ she’d offered hopefully.
‘No. Go back to your apartment,’ Jeff told her. ‘And go back to work tomorrow. If anyone’s leaving the museum, it’s me, not you.’
She’d done as she was asked, for now. Jeff knew he would have to deal with the situation eventually. But one crisis at a time.
He tried Tracy’s mobile. Turned off, of course. Then he tried her friends, acquaintances, contacts from the old days. After twelve hours he had made no progress. No one had seen or heard from her, not even Gunther.
‘I’m worried.’ Jeff poured himself a third tumbler of Laphroaig from Gunther’s decanter. He couldn’t face the thought of sleeping at Eaton Square – Tracy wouldn’t be back anytime soon, and their bedroom had become the scene of the crime, and Gunther had offered him a bed. Secretly Jeff hoped that eventually Tracy might also turn up on Gunther’s doorstep and Gunther could act as referee while they worked things out. Because they would work things out. The alternative was unthinkable.
‘What if something’s happened to her?’
‘Tracy can take care of herself,’ said Gunther. ‘Besides, something has happened to her. She’s walked in on her hubby in bed with another woman.’
‘We weren’t in bed.’
‘Near enough. Who is this ghastly strumpet anyway?’
‘She’s not ghastly and she’s not a strumpet,’ said Jeff. ‘Her name’s Rebecca, but she’s not important here.’
Gunther arched a dubious eyebrow. ‘Apparently that isn’t Tracy’s take on things.’
‘Jesus, Gunther, not you too? I told you, Tracy’s the one who’s been having an affair, okay? Not me.’
‘Hmm.’ Gunther frowned. ‘Yes. You did say that.’
He found it terribly hard to believe that Tracy would cheat on Jeff. On the other hand, perhaps this was only because he deeply, desperately didn’t want to believe it. Gunther Hartog was old and wise enough to know that every human being is capable of infidelity. Rationally, one must assume that professional con artists like Tracy and Jeff were more capable than most. And Tracy had been depressed lately, not at all herself.
‘She’s been lying to me for months,’ said Jeff. ‘Yesterday I saw hard evidence with my own eyes. It’s all on video, Gunther. CCTV. I’m not making this up. It was only after I saw the truth in black and white that I…I slipped, with Rebecca.’
‘You’ve never slept with her before?’
‘Never! I might have been tempted,’ Jeff admitted. ‘But I never touched her.’
‘Would you have slept with her,’ Gunther asked, ‘…if Tracy hadn’t walked in?’
‘Probably,’ said Jeff. ‘Yes. I would. Tracy broke my heart, for God’s sake! Not that any of that matters now anyway, because Tracy’s taken off into the night.’ He ran a hand despairingly through his thick, dark hair. ‘It’s a mess.’
‘You really think she’s been sleeping with this doctor chappie?’
‘I know she has,’ Jeff said grimly.
‘But you still want her back?’
‘Of course I do. She’s my wife and I love her. I’m pretty sure she loves me too, despite everything. This baby stuff has thrown us both for a loop.’
‘Well…’ The old man smiled. ‘That being the case, you will find her. Try not to panic, old boy. Tracy will turn up.’
TRACY DIDN’T TURN UP.
Not that day, not that week, not the next week.
Jeff took a leave of absence from the museum. He knocked on every door of every contact of Tracy’s, however tenuous. Fences and appraisers and restorers whom they’d worked with in the past. Staff at the various prisoners’ charities to which Tracy gave money. Even her personal trainer got a call from a distraught and red-eyed Jeff.
‘If I’d seen her, I’d tell you, honest.’ Karen, a bubbly bottle blonde from Essex, couldn’t imagine what would possess any woman to run out on a bloke as fit as Jeff Stevens. Even a beauty like Tracy couldn’t hope to do better than that, surely? ‘But she ain’t been ’ere. Not for weeks.’
Finally Jeff stormed into 77 Harley Street.
‘I want to see Dr Alan McBride. The bastard’s been screwing my wife.’
All the women in the waiting room put down their copies of Country Life and stared at him, shocked. At least Jeff assumed they were shocked. Most of them were in their forties, hence the trip to the fertility clinic, and had had far too much Botox injected around their eyes to be able to register more than mild surprise.
‘They’ve been having an affair and now my wife’s gone missing,’ Jeff ranted at the hapless receptionist. ‘I want to know what McBride knows.’
‘I can see you’re upset, sir.’
‘That’s very observant of you.’
‘But I’m afraid Dr McBride’s—’
‘Busy? Yes, I’ll bet he is.’ Ignoring the receptionist’s protests, he barged his way into the doctor’s office.
The room was empty. Or so Jeff thought, until he heard voices, a man and a woman’s. They were coming from behind a green curtain that had been drawn around an examination table at the back of the room. Marching over, Jeff ripped back the curtain.
He saw three things in quick succession.
The first was a woman’s vagina.
The second was the same woman’s face, propped up on a pillow, her expression slowly transitioning from surprise to embarrassment to outrage.
And the third was a doctor.
The doctor was about sixty-five, heavyset and, Jeff guessed, Persian. He did not look happy. More importantly, he was not Dr Alan McBride.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said smoothly. ‘Wrong room.’
Back in the waiting room, the receptionist glared at him.
‘As I was saying, I’m afraid Dr McBride’s on holiday.’
‘Where?’
‘I don’t think that’s any of your business.’
‘WHERE?’ Jeff bellowed.
The girl crumbled. ‘Morocco. With his family.’
So he has a family, does he? Bastard.