Missing Read online

  Sadler’s eyebrows were rising high. ‘And I’m to take your word for that, am I?’ he said.

  ‘You could, but I’m sure you won’t. I’m simply trying to tell you that until the day my wife vanished Vivienne and I had had no contact for over two years.’

  ‘Not even about your son?’

  ‘No.’

  Sadler couldn’t have looked more cynical if he’d tried. ‘Yes, well, I’d still appreciate knowing where you were on the morning of the 29th, Ms Kane. You too, Mr Avery.’

  ‘I was here, in Devon,’ Miles told him. ‘I’m sure my housekeeper will bear me out.’ At that moment his mobile started to ring. Glancing down to see who it was, he said, ‘My daughter. If you’ll excuse me,’ and he clicked on.

  ‘Dad! Where are you?’ Kelsey cried at the other end. ‘That horrible woman’s in the house. She said you invited her, but—’

  ‘Just a minute,’ Miles cut in, ‘what are you doing there? You’re supposed to be at school.’

  ‘I know, but I didn’t want to go back and have everyone keep asking me where Mum is …’

  ‘But you can’t just stay away …’

  ‘Well I have, and I don’t want that woman in our house. You have to make her go.’

  Glancing at Sadler, he said, ‘Darling, I’m in the middle of something right—’

  ‘I don’t care,’ Kelsey shrieked. ‘If you don’t come home now I’m going to tell her to fuck off. Or I’ll call the police …’

  ‘Kelsey, just go to your room if you don’t want to speak to her.’

  ‘Why should I? This is my house, not hers. I didn’t ask her to come, so tell her to go away. Or to get lost back to London. We don’t want her here.’

  Miles took a breath and looked at the inspector. ‘All right, I’m on my way,’ he said, and ringing off he glanced at Vivienne before saying to Sadler, ‘I’m sorry, I need to go home.’

  Sadler nodded affably. The yelling at the other end hadn’t been lost on him. This was a man under a lot of strain, a teenage daughter, a missing wife, a police inquiry, and now Sadler was about to add to the load. ‘We can talk again tomorrow,’ he said, nodding to Joy to open the door. ‘We’ll be bringing a TAG team with us. You’re aware, I’m sure, of what that means?’

  Miles’s eyes came harshly to his.

  Sadler met the hostility.

  ‘What does it mean?’ Vivienne asked, watching the stand-off.

  DC Joy spoke for the first time. ‘A tactical aid team will be searching the grounds as well as the house,’ she said, ‘including the surrounding woodlands – and police divers will be dragging the lake.’

  A cold fist closed around Vivienne’s heart as she looked at Miles. He’d been here before, suspected of a crime he hadn’t committed.

  Miles’s eyes remained on Sadler until, with a brief nod, he walked to the door.

  Vivienne’s insides were clenched in fear as they moved from Sadler to Joy and back again. ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong,’ she told them after Miles had gone. ‘I know him. He just wouldn’t.’

  DC Joy only looked at her.

  ‘Please keep us in touch with your movements,’ Sadler said, starting to leave. ‘And don’t forget about August 29th.’

  She watched them go to the door, still trying to resist the enormity of what was happening, until with a sudden panic shaking her voice she said, ‘Inspector, about my son.’

  Sadler turned round.

  ‘I swear to you, Miles didn’t know anything about him until tonight,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t tell him. I was always afraid of what his wife might do. I still am, if she finds out.’

  Sadler’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s starting to look increasingly less likely,’ he told her bluntly, ‘but if you’re asking that we don’t go public about him, the only assurance I can give you is that no one from the media will learn of his existence from us.’

  ‘Where the hell are you?’

  Recognising the Critch’s dulcet growl, Justine said, ‘Actually, I’m in the sitting room of Miles Avery’s country home,’ and she gleaned a moment’s satisfaction from picturing his piggy eyes widening with surprise.

  ‘Mm,’ he grunted, which was about as much as she was likely to get by way of approval. ‘Is he there?’

  ‘Not right at this instant.’

  ‘So you can talk?’

  ‘I would if I had something to say.’

  ‘Very clever. I’ve just heard the police are going to start an official search of the place tomorrow.’

  It was her turn for surprise. ‘You mean Moorlands? Why? What’s happened?’

  ‘You’re the one on the ground, and you’re asking me?’

  ‘This is the first I’ve heard of it, and I don’t think Miles would have brought me here if he knew, so my guess is something’s broken.’

  ‘I’m not interested in your guesses. I want facts – on my front page. You’ve already lost out once to the Mail, when the police questioned Vivienne Kane. How the hell could you not have found that out? I got to tell you, Justine, you’re not using your second chance well, so make damned sure you stick close to Avery from now on. I want to know everything that’s happening down there, and I want some exclusives. Remember what they are?’

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to drop dead, or worse, but stringing him along, letting him think she was still helping to shape his revenge was going to make her own all the sweeter when it came. ‘Got to go now,’ she said abruptly. ‘Someone’s coming.’

  As she clicked off the line she walked over to the fire, continuing to smart at the way he’d spoken to her, and still not yet over the outrageous reception she’d received from Miles’s lippy offspring.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ the kid had demanded rudely.

  ‘I’m your father’s guest,’ Justine had told her.

  ‘So where is he?’

  For two pins she might have told her that he was somewhere with Vivienne Kane, since that was almost guaranteed to upset the hormonal cluster. On the other hand, it would upset Miles too, so in the end she’d said, ‘He’s on his way. He had someone to see, so I came on ahead in a taxi.’

  At that the girl had turned around and walked away, leaving Justine to find her own way to the sitting room. God only knew where she was now, probably squeezing her teenage spots in a bathroom somewhere, or practising vampire kisses on a nasty collection of dolls.

  Realising she should be making notes on what she’d seen and heard at the pub this evening, she took out her PDA to start jotting down the salient points. A few minutes later she closed it up, and began mulling the idea of making a few calls about this search. She didn’t doubt the Critch’s word that it was due to happen, he never got anything like that wrong, but apparently he had no more idea than she did about what had happened to make the police call in the TAG boys now. Actually, at this stage of the game, that information could probably only have come from the police themselves, or Miles, so how lucky was she that she happened to be right here in the thick of it, while her esteemed colleagues were camped out around the gates. Or she guessed they would be by tomorrow morning. Right now it was raining hard, so they’d obviously cleared off for the night, believing Miles still to be in London.

  Ten minutes later her pale eyes were sparking with anger. ‘Are you serious?’ she shouted at Miles, who was busying himself with turning on more lamps. ‘I’ve just got here, and now you’re telling me to leave? Apart from anything else, have you seen what the weather’s like out there?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Things have changed in the last couple of hours.’

  She waited, smouldering with fury at finding herself about to be ejected just as events were really hotting up. ‘Is that it?’ she exploded. ‘Surely I deserve a better explanation than that?’

  ‘Probably,’ he responded, ‘but I’m afraid I can’t give you one. I just need you to leave. I’ll take you to the station and pay for your ticket back to London, naturally.’

 
She glared at him, speechless with frustration, but absolutely no way was she allowing herself to be turfed out now.

  ‘Justine, I know what’s going through your mind,’ he told her, stooping to put another log on the fire, ‘so please don’t waste your time trying to change my mind. I apologise for bringing you all this way. I tried to tell you in London that I was having second thoughts—’

  ‘But the Critch isn’t,’ she cut in forcefully. ‘He’s going to crucify you, given half a chance, so nothing’s changed there. You still need me on your side, so for God’s sake tell me what’s going on?’

  Standing up, he brushed the dust from his hands and turned around. ‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ he informed her.

  At that she almost screamed with outrage. ‘What? I’m going to read about it in the papers?’ she spat. ‘Well, thank you very much. I came here as a favour to you and now, because it apparently doesn’t suit you any more, I’ve got to just up and go. Well, I’m sorry, Miles, it doesn’t work that way. I already know they’re going to start searching the place tomorrow, so I’m not leaving here until you tell me why, and what they’re expecting to find?’

  Though his voice was perfectly calm, there was no mistaking the edge to it as he said, ‘You’ll have to ask the police those questions, Justine, or the person who’s leaking the information. For my part, I’m not prepared to discuss it any further. Again I apologise for allowing you to think—’

  ‘To hell with your apology. You walk back in here like a thundercloud about to explode after being with Vivienne Kane and suddenly I have to go. Now why would that be, Miles? Let me see. They’re searching your house tomorrow, definitely not something to put you in the best of moods, but then I have to ask myself why would that upset you so much if you’ve got nothing to hide? And then I say, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the child your girlfriend’s been hiding at her mother’s place, could it? The little boy that’s obviously yours, who you clearly don’t want the rest of the world to know about?’

  His face had turned deathly white. ‘How the hell do you know about that?’ he demanded, in a tone that chilled the heat of her fury.

  ‘What does it matter how I—’ She stepped back as he came towards her.

  ‘This isn’t a game, Justine,’ he said, his voice dangerously low. ‘I want to know how you found out, and who you’ve told.’

  Her eyes flashed. ‘So you’re not in such a hurry to get rid of me now,’ she sneered.

  Grabbing her arm, he wrenched it up between them and twisted it hard. ‘How do you know?’ he growled into her face.

  Unnerved enough not to push him any further, she said, ‘I had her followed.’

  ‘When? Why? What prompted you?’

  ‘I’ve always kept tabs on her, ever since you two broke up. I knew it wouldn’t be the end between you, that something—’

  ‘If you’ve known about Rufus all this time, why have you never said anything before? It’s a headline-grabbing story, especially now, so why haven’t you run with it?’

  Trapped by her own lie she had to think fast, then suddenly realising how she could win back his favour, she said, ‘Believe it or not, I kept it to myself out of loyalty to you. I’m not going to be the one to slap that child’s existence all over the front page. You want to protect him, and I understand that.’

  His expression was loaded with cynicism, but he said no more, only pushed her away and turned back towards the fire.

  Rubbing her wrist she watched him, quietly thrilled by the confirmation she’d just received that he really was the father.

  ‘OK, so where do we go from here?’ she asked finally.

  He glanced up. ‘I thought I’d made myself plain. You have to leave.’

  Her eyes rounded with amazement. ‘Even knowing what I do, you’re still—’

  His scowl was suddenly terrible again. ‘If you’re about to embark on an attempt at blackmail your career really will be over,’ he warned.

  ‘Nothing so crude,’ she retorted, though of course he’d read her correctly.

  He flicked her a glance, then checked his watch. ‘There’s a train leaving in just under an hour.’

  ‘Forget it. I’m not going anywhere.’

  ‘I’m afraid you are. I’ll just—’

  ‘But it’s pouring down, and you’ve got this great big house …’

  ‘I didn’t realise Kelsey was going to be here, and she still holds you partly responsible for what happened the last time her mother came back.’

  Justine flushed with guilt, but her mettle held firm. ‘Does this mean I’m to believe Jacqueline’s going to stage another return?’ she dared to challenge. Then, quickly realising that she’d gone too far, she added, ‘How was I supposed to know she’d pull a stunt like that?’

  ‘None of us did, but it happened,’ he growled, ‘so perhaps you can understand why you need to leave now.’

  With a certain amount of bravado she said, ‘If you can find me a number for the Nobody Inn, I’ll try to book in there for the night.’ Then, when it looked as though he was about to object, ‘For God’s sake Miles, I’m hardly going back to London now, when so much is happening here. I’ve got a job to do, and like it or not, I’m going to do it, even if it means camping out on your doorstep along with everyone else.’

  Looking daggers, he crossed to the dining-room dresser and took out a well-thumbed contact book. After giving her the number, he dropped the book back in the drawer, and waited for her to make the call.

  ‘Please tell me,’ he said when finally he took her out to the car, ‘that I can rely on you to keep Rufus’s existence to yourself, at least until we know what’s happened to Jacqueline.’

  She gave him a smile as he pulled open the passenger door for her to get in. ‘Of course you can rely on me,’ she assured him, ‘but only because it’s you. Were it anyone else, it might be a different story,’ and with a playful wink she sank gratefully into the car.

  Upstairs in her bedroom Kelsey was sitting in the window seat watching her father’s car disappearing down the drive, red tail lights glowing through the trees in the darkness, like the eyes of a deer. It was raining again, slanting like tiny pins through the lights around the lake. The surface rippled and plumed, while the giant gunneras surrounding it rose and swooped as though peering down into the murky depths.

  She’d been crying so hard that her chest hurt and her ribs ached. She wanted it to be over; she didn’t want all this horribleness any more. Her mother should come back now. It was just stupid and spiteful staying away like this, making everyone worried and afraid. Not that she cared where she was, but Kelsey had sent more than a hundred text messages since Jacqueline had disappeared, and still she hadn’t had a reply and that was just mean.

  She pushed a fist to her mouth to force back another swell of emotion. It was all wrong. Everything was spiralling out of control and she didn’t know how to stop it. Her friends wanted her to meet boys she didn’t like, or they kept asking about her mum, and she was feeling such a freak because she was so different to everyone else. She hated them, and herself, and she wanted her dad to make them go away. Or he should go out and find her mum, not bring people like Justine James into the house when what had happened before was her fault.

  Taking a breath, she dragged her hands over her face, stretching the skin and pressing in the bones. Then, wiping her fingers on her jeans, she hugged her knees to her chest and stared down at the lake. Her dad should have come up to see her before he left, but he hadn’t, and anyway what did she care? He was going to be mad about her not going back to school, and they’d end up rowing and he’d wish he’d never had her, and she’d wish she’d never been born …

  Catching a movement on the lake she watched one of the Muscovys come gliding out of the reeds, then climb up onto the platform of the duckhouse that her dad and the gardener had built especially for nesting. It was more than two years now since a flock of Canada geese had come along and turfed out all the o
ther birds to make a nest for themselves. The eggs already laid had been destroyed, except one, as it turned out, which no one knew about until eventually it hatched along with all the snowy-white young of the Canada geese. Kelsey had named the little rogue gosling Henrietta. Though she was brown and dull and nothing like the others she was taken into the family anyway, a small bundle of dingy feathers, skimming happily about the lake with her parents and siblings until one day her world had turned into a frightening and lonely place.

  More tears rolled onto Kelsey’s cheeks as she remembered Henrietta’s distress as her mother had swooped around and around the lake, trying to coax her small ugly goose to fly. But Henrietta couldn’t. She was only able to paddle or waddle along helplessly, frantically, squawking and flapping her wings, desperate not to be left behind. In the end, Henrietta’s father had come to put his neck gently over hers, stroking her softly, until turning to the rest of his family he’d led the long run down the lawn and they’d soared off into the blue beyond. Watching from the bank, Kelsey had been inconsolable. She’d sobbed and sobbed, unable to bear poor Henrietta’s confusion and heartbreak. Nothing in her life had ever felt so terrible as watching the plain little goose being left alone on a lake that had always been such a happy and safe place to be. Vivienne had been with Kelsey that day, and had put her arms around her, holding her tight. Henrietta’s tragedy was the only moment of closeness she and Vivienne had ever shared, but Kelsey had broken away quickly, before Vivienne could let go first.

  If it weren’t for Vivienne her mum and dad would work things out and they’d be a family again. It was all Vivienne’s fault. Her throat seemed to close over then, because there was such a horrible mix of weird things going on in her head. Like she remembered when her mum had come back, and how much relief and happiness she’d felt because she hadn’t left her after all. Then her mother had tried to kill them both, which was OK, actually, because it had meant she’d intended to take Kelsey with her. It had felt nice for her mother to want her, for once. The anger and bitterness had only come later, when Kelsey had finally realised that her mother was still looking through her, instead of at her. All she really wanted was Sam, and somehow Kelsey was in the way.