‘Just like that? You don’t want to think about it a little longer?’
I shake my head. ‘I’ll talk to them.’
‘Thank you, Ellen.’ His lips barely part when he says it, as if it’s been so long he’s forgotten how to form the words. ‘Thank you.’
‘How do I find them? How do I reach you, for that matter?’
‘You don’t.’ He shakes his head, the moment of gratitude vanished on the wind. ‘I’ll call you. As of now, that burner phone is done, finished. I never use the same one for more than a day or two.’
‘Give me your new number then, I can call you.’
‘And have you pass it straight to Gilbourne so he can track my every move? I don’t think so.’
I feel a prickle of annoyance push through the fear, his assumption that I will pass everything on to the police. Which is what Ishoulddo, I suppose. But I don’t want to challenge him again, not when he’s let his defences down for the first time.
‘So where is she?’ I say instead. ‘Where’s Mia?’
He glances over his shoulder, eyes scanning the rows of cars, before his hooded eyes come to rest on mine again.
‘About ten miles north of here there’s a village called Prestwood Ash. Right in the sticks, middle of nowhere.’
‘Near Little Missenden?’
He gives me a strange look but seems unsurprised that I know the name. ‘It’s about another three miles north of there, further into the Chilterns.’
He’s interrupted by a car engine revving hard in low gear, tyres squealing as it climbs the ramp onto the roof level. I look over and see a blue Nissan people carrier accelerating hard between the rows of parked cars, the driver clearly visible.
Tara. She has followed me after all.
She is sitting forward in the driver’s seat, her head turning this way and that as she searches for me. Our eyes meet and I shake my head –I’m OK,back off– but it’s too late. She guns the engine into the turn, accelerating up onto the ramp towards us and aiming the people carrier at Dominic. He’s seen my gesture and he’s already backing away towards the stairwell, a look of disappointment and disgust on his face.
‘Theone thingI asked you to do was come alone.’ He’s shaking his head. ‘I thought I could trust you.’
‘You can.’
‘I thought you wanted to help Mia, but you’ve got your own agenda just like all the rest.’
‘I will help, if you tell me where she is!’ I say to his retreating back. ‘The address! Please?’
He stalks away, pushing through the door to the stairwell, and then he’s gone.
42
DS Holt
The old woman wasn’t going to let him go upstairs.
He could tell, as soon as the first words were out of his mouth. As soon as he’d seen her face, blank, staring, shell-shocked with grief. Already numbed with the worst news that any parent could hear. Now she stood just inside her thickly carpeted hallway, staring at him, skinny arms slack against her sides, eyes red-rimmed with crying. He looked past her. There was a wide sweeping staircase against the far wall, curving up to the first floor. Mia was up there, Holt knew, up on the second floor in one of the six bedrooms. He’d already noted the security system beside the front door, reasonably old, a small black and white monitor displaying the camera feed from the gate intercom, a straight live feed without a recording facility. The dogs, thankfully, were locked away in a side room for the time being.
‘It’s just routine, madam.’ He still had his wallet open in his left hand, his warrant card there. He hadn’t actually anticipated the woman would be difficult about it, that she’d actually say no. It wouldn’t take him long to do what he needed to do. ‘It’s kind of a double-checking process that will assist us in the—’
‘I can’t cope with this, not today. We just need to be on our own together. I’m sorry.’
For a moment, Holt thought about telling her the real reason for his visit. Or he could try telling her they had no choice – that he had a warrant, or a court order or some other fictitious piece of paper – but he didn’t think she’d care. Not with the news they’d just received.
‘It’ll literally take a few minutes,’ Holt said. ‘Then I’ll be out of your hair.’
‘We’ve always dealt with Detective Inspector Gilbourne up to now,’ she said, her voice regaining some of its strength, some of its Merseyside lilt. ‘He’s been very good to us, very understanding. He advised us not to let anyone get close to her unless we knew them well and trusted them completely. And he said it would be Monday, not today.’
