Chapter 9

"Do you find your line of work hard Matt?" she asked as their session entered its second hour. Jo was a gorgeous blonde with perfect teeth and skin and the most ever ready smile Matt had ever seen. She didn't fit the mould of a psychologist. But then he didn't fit the mould of a detective either did he?

He was sure she was qualified and professional, but he could tell that even she was now grappling at anything she could to get him to open up. The first hour had been as silent as the entire first session they had shared the week previous, and something needed to give.

"Hard?" he repeated, locking eyes with her.

She nodded, waiting for his answer.

"No," he mused. "I don't find it hard. Just…testing." Testing was exactly the right word and he was glad he had thought of it. He could never find a job he loved this much hard, but it was definitely testing, even at the best of times, and it had been especially this year. It was something he constantly struggled with.

Jo looked at Matt and seemed about to continue down the vein of his work but decided to detour at the last second. "What's happened since I last saw you? What's really bothering you?" She seemed so desperate for answers.

Matt sighed loudly and put a hand up to rub his eyes tiredly. "Two of my colleagues have gone undercover," he admitted under sufferance. "I haven't seen them for days."

"Are you worried about them?" Jo probed.

Matt nodded whole heartedly. "And frustrated at being kept in the dark. I thought Jen and I were better friends than that…" he trailed off.

"Is your friendship with Jen not what it used to be?"

Was it?

"Not since Nick came along," was all Matt would provide.

"And Nick is also undercover right now?" Jo asked, reading his mind.

Matt nodded unhappily.

"They think that I haven't noticed what's been happening," Matt whispered furiously. "That I won't suspect anything when they leave the office at the same time, or disappear undercover for god knows how long." He sat up straighter in his chair and leant his elbows on the tops of his thighs. "But I do Jo," he insisted earnestly to her, even though she didn't need convincing. "I saw the way they would share a mug of coffee without even realising they were passing it backwards and forwards between each other as we talked about a case. I saw the way they immediately buddied up when this case started. I saw the way they would talk with their heads bent close in the kitchen and then stop whenever anyone walked into the room." His voice suddenly lowered as his mind flashed back to the night Jen had returned from counter terrorism.

Emma pulled up the doona just long enough to slip herself underneath the dark abyss and in close to Matt. He smiled adoringly at her, reaching an arm around her shoulders as they settled back against the pillows.

"Have Jen and Nick met before?" she asked as she got comfortable against the pillows.

Matt frowned and shook hi s head. "I don't think so…why?"

Emma shrugged in return. "I dunno," she pondered. "Just the look on her face when he came over tonight. She said she'd never met him, but I dunno…" she shook her head as if trying to lighten the weight of her confusion over the nights events. "What she said and the look on her face were two totally different things."

"I should've connected the dots," he muttered more to himself than to Jo. "It was so obvious all along. It's only now that I've realised it."