Tonight was about giving people tips on security, as well as making sure that the rumour mill wasn’t about to drive itself into meltdown.
Liv tapped the microphone. A high pitched shriek echoed round the room, yanking out a painful groan from everyone apart from Morris, who’d announced that he’d forgotten his hearing aids.
He didn’t need a microphone for everyone to hear that.
“Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, pub owners and cats,” Liv said, scanning the audience. “Can I ask that everyone has their phones on vibrate, silent or off, as it’s really annoying when one rings half way through.”
There was a brief scuffle while people checked, including Romy.
“It’s on airplane mode.” She put it away again. “We won’t be long here. Even Liv can’t talk about security for more than half an hour.”
Liv could and did. She talked through the basics, locking doors and windows, what to do if you were going on holiday, security systems and what was recommended and how not to get scammed.
Then she went through what they’d pieced together of the Thursday night and Friday morning when Cara disappeared, trying to jog more memories. There’d been a sighting of her getting into a vehicle that wasn’t recognised, some more details were given of that, and there was talk about how Cara had been behaving in the couple of days before.
Mavis put her hand up. “Should we be worried that whoever broke into the houses will break into more? We can amass our own police force to patrol at night.” Mavis looked at Morris as if she expected him and his walking frame to lead this from the front.
“We don’t expect any further break-ins. We believe that the person who broke in was looking for something specific. If Cara was a regular visitor to your house we wouldn’t mind speaking with you. With regard to starting your own patrols, that isn’t necessary. We have regular police patrols throughout the night, so you can focus on your beauty sleep.” Liv sounded confident and self-assured.
Mavis wasn’t finished. “Olivia Truman, I remember when you were the scallywag causing trouble at night. Don’t forget I found you up a lamppost once, young lady.”
Liv didn’t flinch in the slightest.
“Having lived a rather tame criminal life in my youth, I have a good insight into the brain of most scallywags, Mavis. It’s one of my most desirable skills. Anyway, we recommend extra vigilance. Securing your own home is something we suggest anyway, especially as the town is growing which means more people are being drawn here - ”
“Because of the best pub on the island!” There was a whoop from the back that was definitely from Gulliver Holland, followed by hushes from his brothers.
“I pity whoever taught Gully,” I whispered to Romy.
“I bet they’re very proud now. He’s just won another award for his books.” Romy glanced around and waved at him.
I felt my jaw clench. That was jealousy, and not a common feeling. Gully was good looking, famous and successful. I’d be surprised if Romy hadn’t noticed that, despite what Liv had said yesterday.
“Probably.” It was as much as I could muster.
Romy laughed and elbowed me. “I’m not interested in Gully, in case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t, but good to know.” Like I’d said to Mia, sometimes a lie was okay. Liv was wrapping up the talk, letting everyone know that the police would be around for the next while, answering any questions or if anyone had any more information they wanted to share. “Do you still want to get some food?” I had a table booked at a restaurant that Reagan had recommended.
“Definitely. I’ll just check in first and make sure they’re all okay and the girls are getting ready for bed.” She took her phone out of her bag and changed the mode.
It began to vibrate furiously.
“Everything okay?”
She shook her head, colour draining from her face. “Joel’s mum’s sent text messages and there are alerts from the security system.” She searched for Liv, who was being accosted by Mavis. “We need to get back to the house.”
FIFTEEN
Romy
Iknew it was panic that was making me feel as if I couldn’t catch my breath, not the running although I wished it had been the running. Cassian was with me, Liv speeding off in her car knowing we’d get there about the same time. The rest of the town were upended, some people following behind us, although the other officers were calling them back, telling them to leave it to the police in the main.
The message from Joel’s mum had been what elevated everything. It wasn’t finished, there was no punctuation, and this was from a woman who usually sent the most grammatically correct text messages in both English and Welsh.
Someone try break in call polic
It’d been sent ten minutes before I’d turned my phone back on. I knew that the security crew would be round already, that there would be video footage because of the cameras Roe had set up. But I didn’t know that they were okay.
