This could be the daftest idea I've had but hey, here goes.
Tuesday
"I don't remember," she says.
"You don't remember what?"
Her eyebrows raise with irritation.
"Okay, stupid question, I admit." Dimitri considers for a moment before ploughing on.
"Put it this way what makes you so sure that there's something you should remember?"
She sighs.
"Because there is…"
"I'm not sure that argument would stand up in court, Ruth."
"Me neither."
A silence sits between them for a few minutes.
"Do you think you were, what...drugged, maybe?"
She does not hesitate.
"Yes, I think I was."
"Do you have any idea why, or who by?'
She breaths deeply.
"I think it could be something to do with Harry."
It had started this morning when she got up. A nagging feeling that she couldn't quite place. A feeling that something had happened, that she'd been somewhere, done something, that things were different and yet they weren't. She tried to put it down to that slightly perplexing feeling that sometimes comes from a vivid dream or a nightmare.
But then she had seen Harry and the feeling came back and instead of perplexing it was deeply disconcerting.
She found herself looking at him and trying to see something that wasn't there.
"Are you okay, Ruth?" he had asked gently.
She nodded.
"Sure?'
"Harry, did I….." she didn't know what she was asking so she stopped.
"Did, you what?"
"Nothing. Sorry."
She had returned to her desk and watched him from there, chewing on the end of her pencil, trying to place the unplaceable, trying to pin down the intangible.
"Harry! Why, Harry?" exclaimed Dimitri.
"I caught him looking at me."
"That's not so unusual, Ruth."
She glares at him.
"Sorry," he mutters.
"He looked the way he does when something's worrying him, something he's done, praying on his mind. Something he regrets."
"Well, he's hardly likely to look anything else but with the Inquiry hanging over him."
"No," she says and knows it is true.
"But…?"
"But, oh, I don't know it's just a feeling and everytime I have this niggling feeling that something's not right it usually goes horribly wrong."
"Then talk to him."
"It sounds so simple."
"It is, just talk to him, Ruth."
"Harry."
"Could you make it quick, Ruth."
"Sorry are you going out?"
"I have some things I need to prepare for the Inquiry."
"Oh, yes, right."
She stood by the edge of his desk as he gathered his coat from one of the chairs before crossing back and grabbing a manilla folder that lay on his desk.
The intangible was suddenly less so and she felt she could almost reach out and touch a memory. What the memory was she didn't know.
But the smell of him she knew.
She knew the mix of soap and aftershave, she knew the warm, comforting scent. She knew it but not why she knew it.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Your aftershave," she said knowing she had to say something.
"Oh," he looked slightly worried, "do you not like it?"
"No. I mean, yes, I mean it just smells familiar."
"Maybe Dimitri's got the same one," he added and shrugged on his coat.
"Yes, perhaps."
"Obviously got better taste than I'd give him credit for," he smiled.
"Or you're paying him too much."
He laughed.
"Anything else, Ruth?"
He stood before her.
"No," she said absentmindedly as her fingers reached out and smoothed down his lapel.
His eyes flicked to her hand.
She realised as if waking from a dream what she was doing.
"Oh, sorry," the hand was withdrawn and she stepped back, daring to glance up at him expecting to see hope or expectation.
There was only sadness in his face.
"Bye, Ruth," he turned and walked away.
"So did you talk to him?"
"Yes."
"And…?"
"And I have no idea. I think I must be certifiable."
"Did you ask him if he'd done something to you?"
Ruth opens her mouth but has no idea how to answer that particular question.
"I mean drug you?"
"Oh, hi Harry, just wondered if you'd slipped some barbiturate or other into my tea yesterday?"
"You won't know till you ask," he says patiently.
"Dimitri, do you not think that all sounds a little ridiculous?"
"I'm only going with your gut feeling!"
"Yes, well, then I'm being a little ridiculous. Actually I'm being totally ridiculous."
"Okay, Evershed, final question."
She raises her eyebrows.
"What's the last thing you remember from yesterday?"
She takes a deep breath and concentrates. She can remember the bus.
"Going home."
"Is that it?"
She can remember the bus... twice.
"No, actually I think I went out again."
"Where?"
"I don't remember."
"Try."
She tries.
"It was raining, I was scared."
"Why?"
"I don't remember!" she snaps suddenly.
"Okay," Dimitri says calmly, "and this morning, what do you remember from this morning?"
"So much for the last question," she mutters.
"Evershed!"
"I might have been dreaming and then I woke up."
"Anything else, anything unusual?"
"I felt happy."
He looks at her.
"And that's unusual?"
"Yes, Dimitri, it is."
