Missing Read online

  ‘Right now, plastered in Play-Doh and about to have a bath.’

  He sighed in a way that told her how stressed he was feeling. ‘I’m sorry about all this,’ he said. ‘Not being there for you and Rufus, Jacqueline turning up the way she did—’

  ‘Miles, there’s nothing to apologise for,’ she interrupted. ‘All that matters is that they find her before she tries celebrating her birthday the way we’re afraid of.’

  At his end, after assuring Vivienne he’d call again if there was any news, Miles rang off and went upstairs to check on Kelsey. ‘Did you text Mum?’ he asked, going in through her open bedroom door.

  She nodded, and held out her mobile for him to take. ‘She’s just texted back.’

  As he read the message he felt a cold fist closing round his heart.

  Thank you. 40 is a milestone, so is 16. Did you remember it’s Sam’s birthday too?

  ‘Have you answered?’ he wanted to know.

  ‘Yeah. I told her I did remember, and asked if she was celebrating tonight.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Nothing, but I only sent it a couple of minutes ago.’ Looking up at him she said, ‘Who do you think her friend is, the one she said was waiting to give her a lift home? Do you think she’s met someone? Would you mind, if she had?’

  ‘Actually,’ he said gently, ‘the friend was Vivienne,’ and he was about to add that Vivienne hadn’t been waiting outside, when he cut the words off. She didn’t need to hear that right now.

  ‘Vivienne?’ she echoed, looking flustered and angry again. ‘I don’t understand how she can go from hating someone so much one minute, to behaving like she’s her best friend the next.’

  As he started to answer her mobile bleeped with a message, and hoping it was Jacqueline he waited as she clicked it open to read.

  When she’d finished she passed the phone over. ‘It doesn’t sound as though she’s having a rave-up,’ she commented.

  Just a quiet night. Lots to think about. Glad we talked today.

  Having no idea whether he could take comfort from that, or if he should feel more worried than ever, he handed the phone back and went downstairs to speak to the police again. Still no report back from the officers who’d gone to the address Jacqueline had given.

  An hour later they all knew that Jacqueline had provided a false address. ‘The people there have heard of her,’ the policeman told him, ‘but through the news, not because she’s living there, or anywhere close, according to the residents I spoke to. No one remembers seeing her.’

  ‘I’ve told you what today is,’ Miles reminded him, ‘so we have to find her.’

  ‘Of course. We’re mounting a house-to-house search of the area, starting right now. The problem is, it’s Saturday, so a lot of people are out, or away for the weekend, but that’s no reason not to try. We’ll get back to you as soon as there’s any news.’

  After ringing off Miles closed his study door and tried Jacqueline’s number again. Finding himself diverted to voicemail, he resorted to texting instead.

  We know address you gave is false. Police are looking for you. Imperative you call as soon as you get this.

  When the message had gone, he ran back upstairs to find out if Kelsey had received any more texts.

  ‘You’re starting to spook me now,’ Kelsey accused. ‘Why are you so keen to keep hearing from her?’

  She had to know, but for the moment he was prepared to play along with the denial. ‘I need to speak to her,’ he replied, ‘and she’s not taking my calls. Send a message asking her to ring you, then you can pass the phone to me.’

  Feigning irritation, Kelsey pressed in a text, then in an attempt not to look bothered as they waited for a response she began flipping through a magazine.

  Five long minutes later the phone signalled an incoming message.

  Battery low, but promise to call in morning. Goodnight. Tell Dad not to worry, will contact police.

  Handing the phone back, Miles returned to his study to call the police, then Vivienne.

  ‘The trouble is,’ he said, after updating Vivienne on what had happened since they’d last spoken, ‘I don’t know whether to believe her or not. On the one hand I can’t see her being so cruel as to tell Kelsey she’ll call tomorrow, if she knows Kelsey’s going to receive some entirely different news, but on the other we have no reason to trust her – particularly given the date.’

  ‘You say the police are doing a house-to-house.’

  ‘Apparently, and they’re working with the phone company to try and trace where the texts are coming from, but no word on that yet. I just wish to God there was something I could do, but I can’t leave Kelsey, and I sure as hell don’t want to worry her any more than she is already.’

  Acutely aware of how painful this must be for him, another search in the very same area as the one that had been mounted for his son, Vivienne was about to respond when he said, ‘Hang on, someone’s trying to get through. I’ll call you back,’ and after switching lines, ‘Hello. Miles Avery speaking.’

  ‘Mr Avery, it’s DC Ball. I thought you might like to know that your wife has just rung in to the station.’

  Miles’s surprise was so profound that he actually stopped breathing.

  ‘I spoke to her myself, and she admitted the address she gave you was incorrect, but she’s saying she wants to keep her whereabouts secret for the time being.’

  ‘And you just accepted that?’

  ‘She assured me she’s not intending to harm herself in any way.’

  ‘But she won’t tell you where she is. Doesn’t that sound just a little bit suspicious to you?’ Frustration was making him unreasonable, but for God’s sake, they couldn’t just accept her word for it. ‘Is anyone still out there looking?’ he demanded.

  ‘Of course. I’m just letting you know that she’s made contact.’

  Biting back an angry retort, since it was hardly the detective’s fault Jacqueline was playing games, Miles thanked him and after abruptly cutting the call he dialled Jacqueline’s number again. To his amazement she answered.

  ‘Miles, you’re making a fuss about nothing,’ she informed him. ‘I’ve spoken to the police, I’ve told Kelsey I’ll call tomorrow, what more do you want?’

  ‘How about your address?’ he snapped back.

  ‘You’ll have it when I’m ready. For the time being, I want to be left alone.’

  ‘I’ve no intention of visiting you.’

  ‘Kelsey has, but there are things I still have to sort out. Meanwhile, I’ll speak to her, and send texts.’

  ‘That’s not good enough.’

  ‘All right, if it makes you happy I’ll text her my address,’ and without saying goodbye she ended the call.

  ‘Actually, I don’t feel quite as worried now I’ve spoken to her,’ he admitted, when he got through to Vivienne again, ‘but I still don’t like what she’s doing, and I can’t imagine I’m going to get much sleep tonight.’

  Vivienne said, ‘I wonder what things she has to sort out.’ Then, in a slightly different tone, ‘Actually, I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I’ve just remembered something she asked me when I was driving her to Kensington earlier: she wanted to know if you’d told me about someone called Elizabeth Barrett.’

  Miles’s eyes closed in dismay. ‘Please don’t tell me that woman’s been in touch with her,’ he groaned.

  ‘If she has she didn’t say so. Why? Who is she?’

  ‘Believe me, you really don’t want to know.’

  ‘Maybe I do.’

  ‘Another time,’ he told her, hearing Kelsey coming down the stairs. ‘Give my son a goodnight kiss from me. I’ll call tomorrow before we set off for Devon, and hopefully after Kelsey or I have spoken to Jacqueline.’

  Chapter Twenty-one

  ‘SIR, I’VE JUST heard from the guys in Richmond again,’ DC Joy said as Sadler walked into CID on Monday morning. ‘Still no word on Mrs Avery’s whereabouts. They want to know if they should go
on looking.’

  Sadler glanced at his watch.

  ‘She called her daughter three times yesterday,’ Joy reminded him, ‘so we know she’s still with us.’

  Sighing, he said, ‘Then I don’t suppose we can go on using up valuable police resources. Any word yet from the estate agents about letting out a house or a flat?’

  Joy shook her head. ‘She might have answered an ad in the paper,’ she suggested.

  ‘If she did then it could prove almost impossible to find her.’ Throwing up his hands in frustration, he said, ‘Why doesn’t she give her daughter the damned address, the way she promised? Is that so hard to do?’

  ‘No, but she’s within her rights to keep—’

  ‘I don’t care. And frankly, until I clap eyes on that woman, or at least speak to her myself, I’m not going to sleep easy at night.’

  ‘And we really can’t have that, sir.’

  ‘No, Elaine, we can’t. So, now we have to ask ourselves, has the daughter been persuaded to keep the address a secret, or does she really not have it?’

  ‘Mr Avery says she’s keener than anyone to find out where her mother’s actually living.’

  Sadler shook his head impatiently. ‘They’re back in Devon, are they? Father and daughter.’

  Joy nodded. ‘He’s taking the daughter back to school this morning.’

  ‘OK. Call Richmond and let them off the hook, but I want you to keep on it, Elaine. It could be not all the agents have been contacted yet, and the press are all over it again, so someone might come up with something. I think we’d all sleep a lot easier if we actually knew where that woman was staying.’

  ‘When we get there,’ Miles was saying to Kelsey as he indicated to join the main road that cut across the north-east corner of the moor, ‘we’re going straight in to see the headmistress.’

  Kelsey turned to look at him. ‘What for?’ she demanded.

  ‘Do I need to remind you that you ran away last week while you were under her care? If nothing else you owe her an apology. Whether she hands out a punishment will be up to her.’

  Kelsey looked mutinous. ‘I wish I wasn’t going back now,’ she said sulkily. ‘I mean, I’m supposed to be traumatised and upset, so putting me in detention is really going to help, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’m sure she won’t do that once we’ve had a chat with her, but you still owe her an apology.’

  Kelsey turned to stare out of the window.

  After a while Miles reached out a hand, and when hers eventually slid into it he glanced over and gave her a smile. ‘I’m sure you’ve told everyone by now that you’ve met Theo Kenwood-South,’ he teased. ‘So everyone’s going to be waiting to see you.’

  Blushing and rolling her eyes, she said, ‘That was really cool, going to the recording and going to the green room after.’ Then, after a beat, ‘He’s really nice, isn’t he? Like, down to earth, and normal.’ Smiling, she brought his hand to her cheek to rest against it. ‘Yesterday was really cool too,’ she told him, ‘just me and you, you know, making lunch together and going for a walk. It was like we always used to.’

  Having enjoyed their day together too, he gave her hand a squeeze before easing his own free to change down as they approached a slow-moving tour bus. They’d spent a lot of time talking about Jacqueline during the past thirty-six hours, going over what had been said and how Kelsey was feeling about it now. For the moment she seemed to be handling things reasonably well, but he knew that could change at any moment, particularly if Jacqueline went on ignoring her promise to give Kelsey her address.

  Still, at least she’d been in touch, three times yesterday and once already this morning, so, thank God, she hadn’t marked her and Sam’s birthday the way he’d dreaded. He’d prefer to know where she was, however, or exactly what she was up to, but for the time being he could breathe a little more easily. Kelsey, too, seemed noticeably more relaxed, and her new crush on Theo was something of a godsend, not only for the limelight it was going to afford her at school, but for Theo’s connection to Vivienne.

  In fact, the subject of Vivienne and Rufus was about the only one he and Kelsey hadn’t touched on during their long talk yesterday, and when he’d tried to broach it last night she’d disappeared to run a bath. Since he wanted to discuss it before she came home again on Thursday, he’d decided to take advantage of their drive back to school to attempt this. The question now was how to bring it up in a way that wasn’t going to make her feel threatened, or pushed into a situation over which she had no control.

  In the end, daring to hope that Jacqueline’s change of heart over Vivienne might have had a positive effect on Kelsey, he said, ‘We’ve been talking quite a lot since Saturday about Theo and his role in the slave auction … Well, obviously you know who’s behind it all, so it stands to reason that Vivienne will be coming back to Devon this week. Yes?’

  Kelsey turned to stare out at the passing scenery.

  Not quite sure what that meant, he said, very gently, ‘While she’s here I would like you to meet Rufus. I know right now you’d rather not think of him as your brother, but that’s who he is, and he’s just a baby, darling. He can’t hurt you, and he certainly can’t ever take your place in my heart, because that’s always going to be yours.’ He held his breath, waiting for the explosion, but Kelsey only kept her head averted.

  Choosing to feel encouraged by her silence, he pressed on carefully. ‘I was hoping,’ he said, starting to tense now, ‘to invite Vivienne and Rufus to stay at Moorlands when they come to Devon on Wednesday.’

  To his amazement there was still no response.

  ‘Of course that means,’ he went on, bravely, ‘that they’ll be there when you come home on Thursday.’

  By now her silence was starting to unnerve him.

  ‘Will you have a problem with that?’ he probed gently.

  Turning to stare straight ahead, she said tartly, ‘It’s your house. You can do what you like.’

  He was about to remind her that it was her house too, when he realised that her answer could, possibly, be construed as a breakthrough of sorts. Deciding to leave it there for now, he allowed a few minutes to pass before glancing in the rear-view mirror and saying, ‘Luckily, no sign of the press following us.’

  The tension in the car immediately evaporated as Kelsey sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘That was so annoying, the way they were waiting when we left the house this morning,’ she declared. ‘What do they think we’re going to do, stop the car and have a chat like they were our relatives, or something? I hate being in the papers about something like this, it’s embarrassing.’

  ‘But the upside is that one of them might find out where Mum is,’ he pointed out, ‘if he or she does their job well, especially now the police have called off the door-to-door search.’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ she said, turning to look at him. ‘And it’s not like they haven’t got a clue where to start any more, because we know she’s in Richmond. So why don’t you ask someone to do it? Not that Justine James, though,’ she added quickly. ‘I can’t stand her.’

  ‘I don’t think anyone’s going to need asking,’ he remarked dryly.

  Realising the truth of that, she sat quietly for a moment, then said, ‘Actually, I forgot to tell you this, but you know the day they discovered Mum’s bag and stuff on the moor?’

  ‘Mm,’ he responded, wondering where this could be going.

  ‘Well, I found Justine James in your study.’

  He glanced over at her in surprise.

  ‘She said you’d given her permission to use your computer.’

  Knowing full well he never had, Miles frowned.

  ‘She was lying, wasn’t she?’ Kelsey prompted.

  He nodded. ‘Yes, she was. Did she say anything else?’

  ‘Not really,’ she answered, in a way that left him wondering if she were being completely truthful. However, he couldn’t imagine her covering up to protect Justine, so guessing she and Justine ha
d had words he turned his mind to what Justine might have found, or planted, on his computer. A few suggestions started presenting themselves, and already he could feel himself growing cold at the thought of how she might use them.

  A weak mid-morning sun was slanting into the untidy garden where Justine James was standing, staring curiously down at what lay at her feet. The soil was viscous and dark, specked with grit and leaves, and bound by a hairy tangle of old roots. The hole was no more than a foot deep, scooped from beneath a hedge where wild mushrooms clustered and weeds sprouted with limited hope. The bones inside were like small sticks, lying quietly, unobtrusively, in their hollowed niche, inert tokens of a small body that had once lived and breathed, a lively spirit that had infused its magic into flesh and blood.

  Beside her, Elizabeth Barrett, a short, homely woman of around sixty, waited patiently, respectfully; no sighs or shifting of weight, not even a question or comment.

  As she took it all in, Justine was hearing the Critch’s voice before she’d left. ‘We don’t want any screw-ups with this,’ he’d growled. ‘If the woman turns out to be a fruitcake you’d better find out now, or it’ll be your funeral we’re going to, not Avery’s, and neither of us wants that, now do we?’

  His grin had made her itch to slap his face, but she’d merely seethed behind her smile, knowing she’d already discovered much more about Mrs Barrett than she was prepared to reveal – at least for now.

  ‘Would you like to go in again?’ Elizabeth Barrett asked.

  Justine inhaled sharply, then started back down a narrow path that had been trodden into the grass, gazing, as she had on the way out, at an old swing that hung crookedly from a rusty frame, the seat planks rotten, the chains ready to snap.

  Once back inside the bungalow’s narrow kitchen where the smell of old gravy mingled with polish and mould, she turned to look into Elizabeth Barrett’s cautious eyes.

  ‘Would you like some more tea?’ Mrs Barrett offered.

  ‘That would be nice,’ Justine replied, having to cough the scratchiness from her throat.