‘Come on.’ Jodie tugged at her arm. ‘Let’s get back to the car. The quicker we’re on the road the better.’
The drive back to the village took them longer than expected due to an accident involving two cars on the A390. As Jodie found an alternative but longer route to get around the holdup, Cat used the time to try to process what had happened. A girlfriend? How? Where from? She’d been with Luke all throughthe summer. Spent nights in his cottage; a place where there was absolutely no evidence of another female ever having been there. This simply didn’t make sense. Could the custody sergeant have been mistaken? Of course not. Someone had picked him up, but who? And where had they taken him? She had already tried Luke’s mobile, which wasn’t responding, probably because after his stint in custody the battery was flat. It left her feeling even more frustrated.
‘I’ll drive to the cottage first,’ Jodie announced once they were clear of the holdup. ‘He’s bound to be there, isn’t he? Don’t worry, Cat,’ she said, stretching out a reassuring hand, ‘I’m sure there’s a logical explanation to all this.’
Luke watched the countryside flash by in a blur.
‘We do have speed limits down here, you know,’ he reminded his companion, her long, purple, acrylic-tipped fingers gripping the leather steering wheel of the BMW.
‘Relax, Luke. C’mon, smile,’ she said with a little sideways smirk and a toss of her dark chin-length hair. ‘Anyone would think you weren’t pleased to see me, after all the effort I’ve made to find you.’
Ignoring her comment he turned his attention to the road ahead. Tanya. She was the last person he expected … or wanted to see. As Liam had disappeared to the toilets it was the desk sergeant who had leaned over and told him his girlfriend was waiting for him outside. He was so keen to see Cat he’d not waited for the solicitor’s return. Instead, he’d dashed out of the building only to find Tanya leaning against her black BMW. So why was she here now, after what had happened in Bali? And how did she know he was about to be released? More to the point, how did she know he was there at all? He cursed under his breath. He should have gone back into the station and spoken to Liam first. Instead he’d panicked, desperate to deal with thisunwanted surprise. A secret he shouldn’t have held onto. One which when Cat found out … he didn’t even want to think about the consequences. But had there been any reason to tell Cat about her? It wasn’t exactly a relationship. One night was all they’d spent together and in the morning she’d gone. Now the past had caught up with him and he knew when he saw Cat again he would have some explaining to do. He prayed she’d understand.
Looking at Tanya out of the corner of his eye he knew he needed answers, but he’d held off during their journey back to the cottage. He wanted somewhere away from the village where he could collect his thoughts, talk to her properly and settle this once and for all. After a quick shower and a change of clothes to rid himself of the smell of incarceration, they’d headed out to find somewhere for lunch. Finding his phone battery flat, he’d put it on charge and borrowed Tanya’s to make contact with Cat to reassure her everything was okay. Now they were back on the road and travelling north, and his thoughts strayed back to Bali.
Tanya was one of three girls who had joined the group he’d been hanging around with while staying at Balian Beach. While two of them left for Flores after a week she decided to stay on. She settled in well and soon became ‘one of the boys’. A couple of days before he was due to fly home they’d all been out drinking. It was well after midnight when he decided it was time to turn in. On an intoxication scale of one to ten he reckoned he was currently hovering around seven. Any more and he’d be totally hammered and he wanted to avoid waking up the next morning with the mother of all hangovers. Turning down an invitation from the others to visit another bar, he headed back to their rented bungalow. Making his way along the beach he was surprised to find Tanya slipping into step beside him. She, too, had had enough to drink for one evening, she told him. They made their way slowly back, stopping for a moment to watch thefull moon cast its silver light over the sea. The air was warm, the sound of music and laughter echoing across the beach. Maybe it was the magic of the moment, the realisation that their time in this beautiful paradise was coming to an end, or the alcohol he’d consumed. Or a combination of all three. All he remembered was looking at Tanya and feeling a sudden need to wrap his arms around her; to feel the softness of her mouth against his. Sensing his mood she melted against him, eager arms slipping around his neck as their lips met in a hot and intense kiss.
‘Come on,’ she said as she pulled away from him, breathless from a moment of passion he felt hadn’t lasted long enough, ‘the others won’t be back for ages.’ He smiled as she reached for his hand and led him along the cool sand.
Waking the next morning to find bright sunlight filtering through the window blind, he stretched and rolled over only to discover her side of the bed empty. Cool sheets told him she’d been gone for some time. Pulling on his boxers, he went in search of her, wondering whether she was busy organising breakfast. The living area was quiet and empty. From the other bedrooms he could hear the sound of his friends sleeping off their night’s excesses. Returning to his room he searched for his shorts, intending to go and look for her. It was then he noticed the folded note with his name on it. He opened it and read the words ‘Bye, Luke, and thanks for everything.’ That was it. No explanation. Nothing. For some reason which no one else appeared to know about Tanya had decided it was time to leave.
And now here she was, smiling at him just as she’d done five months ago when they had shared happier moments. But she couldn’t be here. She was part of another place and time that no longer had any meaning in his life. His future was with Cat; something he was going to have to make very clear to Tanya.
When Cat and Jodie reached the cottage they found it shuttered and silent. Peering through the downstairs window, Cat couldn’t see any sign of life.
‘He’s gone.’
Cat and Jodie both turned to see Nessa Sharpe standing in the middle of the pathway resting a box of fresh vegetables on her hip.
‘Gone where?’ Cat asked. She looked back at the house and then at Nessa.
‘No idea. All I know is I saw him as I was on my way down to the greengrocer. He was locking the front door. He looked, I don’t know … preoccupied.’
‘Was anyone with him?’
‘Not sure. There was a young woman in her twenties, dark chin-length hair, just getting into a black BMW at the end of the road. He could have been with her. But, no, that doesn’t make any sense, does it? Weren’t you supposed to be picking him up?’
‘We were, and no it doesn’t,’ Cat said irritably. What the hell was going on?
‘When we turned up at Truro to pick him up, someone had beaten us to it,’ Jodie began to explain. ‘We were told he left with a woman, so it’s probably the same one. We thought we might catch him up but goodness knows where he’s gone now.’
‘Well, he did stop for a brief word with Davy Penneck. He was on his way to The Smugglers when they passed each other. You could try him; he might know something.’
‘Thanks, Nessa,’ Jodie said, and tugging on Cat’s sleeve she guided her along the cobbled pathway towards the lane leading to the pub.
When they entered the place was full of its normal lunchtime drinkers clustered around the bar, and a smattering of tourists having lunch in the small restaurant area. Davy wassitting in the corner with his pint and a newspaper in front of him.
‘Just passed the time of day with him,’ he said with a shrug. ‘He said he’d been released on bail. Looked to be in a bit of a rush.’
They both thanked him and were about to leave when Jed Burrows, the landlord, called out to them.
‘A woman was in here earlier,’ he said as he finished pulling a pint for one of the fishermen. ‘Mid-twenties, dark hair. Kinda pretty. Seems she’d heard Luke had been arrested. Wanted to know where they’d taken him. I told her she could find him at Truro Police Station. She didn’t say who she was,’ he added, ‘s’pose I should have asked. If she comes back shall I …’
‘No, that’s fine, Jed, you’ve been very helpful,’ Jodie thanked him, pulling a despondent Cat towards the door.
Leaving the pub they moved on down the High Street, stopping at the mini-mart, once more drawing blanks. As they were making their way back to the car, Cat’s mobile rang and she stopped to pull it from her bag.
‘Who’s this?’ She frowned at the number on the screen before taking the call. ‘Hello? Luke?’ She gave Jodie a relieved smile. ‘Where’ve you been? I’ve been so worried. Jodie and I came to collect you but …’ Her voice trailed away as she listened to what he was saying.
