Oh, I just walked out from my job. I’ve spent half of the day going to places I shouldn’t have gone to and the rest of it hiding out of the way so I don’t have to tell you about my dismissal.
‘I got let out of work a little early on the proviso that I deliver some leaflets about the upcoming fundraising raffle. We’re hoping for a few donations for the Christmas fundraiser, you know, for the work to the garden at the home next year. I parked down the road so it’d be easier. I started from the bottom. Sorry, I should have messaged.’ The lie had spilled out far too easily.
He turned and walked into the lounge. Bella and Oliver were sitting at the table at the far end, doing their homework. ‘You should have messaged. You could have picked the kids up. They could have helped and it would have taken the pressure off me to rush.’
‘I did think that but I looked at the weather and didn’t want them to get a cold.’
‘Dad, can you help me with my homework?’ Bella beckoned him over.
He grabbed his glasses from the table and sat next to her before muttering something about what metaphors were and how they were different to similes. Today, she was in the clear but next Monday was another day. She was meant to be at work and she had no job to go to. Where she’d hide out then, that was something she’d have to think hard about.
As she placed her bag on the table, she pulled her phone from her pocket. There had been no more messages from the nursing home and no calls from Penny. She opened Facebook and clicked onto theWarwickshire Herald’s page and her body stiffened. Breath quickening, she loosened her coat and leaned against the wall sucking in air. The more she inhaled the woozier she felt. She spotted the miniature in her bag, her fingers ever itching for a swig of its contents but she couldn’t, not with Christian being in the next room. She wouldn’t. She’d been a fool to buy it and an even bigger fool to take another sip. As soon as she had a moment, she’d hide it away. Out of sight, out of mind, like the other one she had as a backup.
Alex’s face stared back at her from the screen and she wondered if her dinner party buddies had seen or read the news of his murder. Her phone beeped. It was a message from Marcus.
Have you seen the news? Keep calling Penny. I knew she had something on her mind when she was picking a fight. She must have seen this before me. Keep trying to call her. Marcus.
‘You alright?’ Christian walked over to her.
She deleted her messages and turned her phone off. She nodded as she removed her coat, burying her vodka-drenched sleeve under the rest of the material. ‘I’m fine. It’s just been a long day and I’m pooped.’
‘I’m sorry I was so miserable when you came home. I should have asked more gently instead of charging straight in there.’
As he leaned in and hugged her, she spotted the woman who lived opposite with her little ghost and devil in tow. She fought the need to cry and roll up into a ball and hide under the kitchen table. All the running in the world wouldn’t fix her problems, not with them flowing ever closer.
Some things should never be found and some secrets should never be told.
Chapter Twenty
Gina leaned back in her chair and gazed at the four missing men on her screen and not one of them looked like their victim, not in any shape or form. She clicked the shutdown tab and waited for her computer to eventually go off before grabbing her coat from the back of the door.
Briggs entered as she was about to leave. ‘Everything okay, sir?’
He nodded. ‘I think so. Just watch yourself. The press are all over the car park. This one really has rattled them. They keep quoting people who think that they’ve seen ghosts of the killer farmhand in the woods. That’s all we need, ghost hunters turning up all over the scene. They sure know how to scupper our efforts.’
She had to agree. So far, she’d ended three calls abruptly from reporters that had managed to obtain her direct number. ‘We could do with them all going away and letting us get on with our job.’ She grabbed her laptop.
‘Are you doing anything later? Maybe we could get some food and go over the case?’ He’d loosened his tie and his hair had kinked a little on the one side. They were all tired, that was a definite.
‘I think I just need to go home, have a shower and get some sleep. Something tells me that this case isn’t going to be solved without a few sleepless nights. I’m going to plan out what’s next, in my head at least, then I’m turning in.’ She saw the disappointment creeping across his face as his smile dropped a little. He was trying to get too close again. She saw the letter sticking out from under her pile of work. Now wasn’t the time. She had to think on it, try to work out who could have sent it.
‘Well, call me if you get a light-bulb moment.’
Gina waited until the sound of his footsteps had disappeared down the corridor before she headed out to the car park.
The hustle and bustle of news vans and reporters greeted her instantly and one face stood out amongst the many.
‘DI Harte. How lovely to see you again.’
It was never a pleasure for Gina to be this close to Lyndsey Saunders. ‘I thought you’d moved on to bigger and better places.’ Gina dragged her laptop bag past the photographer and almost bumped into the news van. ‘You know, this constitutes an obstruction.’
The woman shrugged. ‘There are no double lines. It’s not near a junction or on the pavement and other vehicles can get past.’
Lyndsey was right. The only thing Lyndsey was obstructing was Gina’s movement through the car park. The reporter had changed since they’d last met. The same red lipstick reached each end of her full lips and the signage light from the station’s entrance showed off her coppery bronze curls. The new colour made her look far more radiant than Gina ever could be. Her rain mac and patterned scarf screamed quality. Lyndsey really had gone up in the world. Gina only wished she’d stayed at the top and sent one of her minions out to get the scoop.
‘DI Harte, do you have any suspects?’ A spectacled reporter leaned over Lyndsey’s shoulder.
‘A press release was issued earlier today. I have nothing more to say.’ She pushed Lyndsey out of the way causing her to wobble on her heels. ‘If you want to ask any questions, please contact Corporate Communications.’
