Falling.
Into silence.
CHAPTER TWENTY
MADIGAN
I glaredat the two phones in my hand for the millionth fucking time. Horror memories of Kettleworth flashed through my brain. The waiting. The worrying. Not hearing from him. Not knowing what was going on. Not knowing if he was even alive.
Why the fuck hadn’t I realised it was Nick’s phone I was holding when I got out of the car? For that matter, why hadn’t he?
Together. We were in this together.
What a fucking joke.
And as for Nick being good at this stuff? Yeah, about that.
At least we had Samuel on our side. I hadn’t been at all sure he would follow through with his promises after chewing me out for fucking with his day, dragging him into another pile of stinking legal manure, and refusing to give up our highly contentious source. Samuel had promised to kick said source like a tin can into the Manukau Harbour the second he found out who they were. And hewouldfind out, he assured me. When he finally ran out of steam, he agreed to see if he could dig up some probable cause for a search warrant, but not to hold my breath.
Wright had been a harder nut to crack. Even after hearing about Austin’s debt to the Crow brothers, the possible repercussions of that, his potential drug dealing, the lies about his job, and why Austin might have seen Chloe as a solution to his many problems, Wright offered about the same amount of encouragement that Samuel had. Without evidence from a legitimate source, there wasn’t much he could do unless Chloe was found to answer some questions.
Then Wright surprised me by adding that Austin hadn’t lied to them about his job. He’d been honest. And just because Austin’s accounts were running low and he wasrumouredto be carrying some risky debt, didn’t mean he was involved in Chloe’s disappearance. He had no police record and his story held up with her GP and neighbours. Not to mention we’d only known Chloe for two days. He’d need more than rumour to get a search warrant for the man’s financials at this stage.
All of which I knew. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t mad as hell. Nick’s mother was out there somewhere, freezing and in trouble, and the man Nick and I were sure was responsible was cosying up to the police and playing an admirable role as the concerned caregiver.
I checked my watch... again. It was almost four. I should’ve heard from Nick by now. He’d surely have found some way to get in touch, knowing what this would be doing to me. Driving me fucking crazy.
“You’ll wear a hole in the concrete at the rate you’re going.” Detective Wright made his way up the townhouse driveway toward me. He’d been down at search HQ to check on progress. By the look on his face, the news wasn’t good.
I strode toward him. “Still nothing?”
He shook his head. “They’re talking about expanding the search area along the river in both directions. I take it you’ve not heard from Nick either?”
A scowl settled on my brow and I snapped, “What do you think?”
Wright held my stare. “I think you’re angry with us and withme, and I think you’re worried out of your mind about Nick and his mother.”
“Of course I’m bloody worried.” Panicked was closer to the mark. “Wow, you really are a detective. Who knew?”
Wright blinked, clearly taken aback.
Shame coloured my cheeks, but I was past apologising. The man was pissing me off big time. “Why aren’t you doing something? You could at least send a car to look.”
Wright sighed. “And go where? I already checked with hospital security.”
That shut me up. “And?”
“There are limited cameras inside the hospital itself for obvious reasons,” Wright explained. “The ones they have mostly target the public waiting areas, stairwells, and lifts, et cetera. They did catch Austin dropping Belinda off at the main entrance, and your rental car was seen following Austin in and out of the car park, but that’s it. We don’t know where Belinda currently is or even if she is still at the hospital. They paged her but she didn’t answer. Security said that if you’re staff, it’s easy to come and go unseen if you know which doors to use. This isn’t some big city hospital with all the security bells and whistles.”
“But why did Austin leave her there? Where did he go?” I pressed. “I thought he was taking her there because he was worried about her state of mind.”
Wright shrugged. “They were planning to canvass some of the places Chloe liked to go, so maybe they decided to divide and conquer. Austin went on his own while Belinda was at the hospital?”
“Then why aren’t they answering their phones?” I snapped. “Either of them? They said they’d be an hour or so, not three.You told them to keep their phones close in case you found Chloe. Come on, Jonothon, this stinks, and you know it.”
Wright’s mouth set in a grim line. “Okay, yes, I’m not happy about it. But that’s hardly enough to divert people away from the search for Chloe just to follow up on your boyfriend’s ill-conceived amateur detective hour.”
I blinked. “Now just back the fuck up. How dare you.”
