“Good idea.” Ash tapped away and sighed. “Not that either.”
“Fair enough. Sorry, I’ll carry on thinking.”
Arthur tried to picture the man’s office. What else had been in there that showed Graham’s interests? But there had been nothing to give any clues about the man’s life, apart from the fact he was clearly single, unhealthy and unhappy.
“Oh my God, that’s it!”
Arthur looked over to see the teenager’s face alight.
“Did you do it?”
“No,youdid it. Blazeofglory1965, his favorite Jon Bon Jovi song and his year of birth. Arthur, we’re in!”
Ash angled the laptop round so they could both see the screen. There was only one file in the folder, labeled “27.06.24.” He double-clicked on it and Arthur held his breath as he waited for the file to open.
“The Wi-Fi speed is ridiculously slow here,” Ash said. “It should be any second.”
A moment later, the screen was filled with a large color photo of a very ordinary-looking terraced cottage. There was something vaguely familiar about it and Arthur stared at the image, trying to place where he’d seen it before, but Ash was already scrolling down to the next one. This photo showed the door of the house open but not the person inside. Ash flicked on and a figure emerged in slow motion. Their head was tilted down so Arthur couldn’t see their face, but there was no mistaking who it was.
“Oh shit!” Ash whispered next to him.
He scrolled on and the two of them watched in horrified silence as Phyllis emerged from her house with Craddock on his lead, shut her front door and walked down her path onto the pavement. It was clear she had no idea she was being photographed as she didn’t look at the camera once.
“Why the hell was the private investigator taking photos of Phyllis?” Ash said.
“I have no idea. But it must mean Cynthia was…” Arthur stopped as something occurred to him, and he let out a gasp. “Oh my God, we’ve been such idiots!”
“What?”
“All along, we’ve assumed Cynthia was the one who’d hired Graham to investigate Michael. But what if this had nothing to do with Cynthia? What if Michael was the one who hired the PI?”
“Oh no!” Ash said, his face suddenly pale. “The file’s not named Michael because it’sabouthim. It’s because he’s the client who paid for the photos.”
“But why would Michael want photos of Phyllis? She never mentioned that she knew him.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment, and Arthur could sense Ash’s brain was whirring like his own. Then the teenager jumped in his seat, grabbing Arthur’s arm.
“What if Michael’s some creepy stalker who’s got it in for Phyllis? And now she and Nova are driving straight into his hands?”
“We need to get in touch with them.” Arthur reached into his pocket and fumbled for his phone. His hands were trembling as he flicked to Nova’s number and pressed dial.
“Damn, it’s gone straight to voicemail,” he said as he heard Nova’s cheery voice. He waited for the bleep. “Nova, this is Arthur. You need to turn around and come back now. It’s too complicated to explain, but we think Michael might have bad intentions for Phyllis. Please, call me as soon as you get this.”
“Do you have a number for Phyllis?” Ash asked as he hung up.
Arthur shook his head. “What if they’re already there, Ash? What if Michael has deliberately lured them into a trap?”
“There’s more photos of Phyllis on here,” Ash said, nodding at his laptop screen. “Graham followed her into the village and around the shops. There are even photos of her going into the community center.”
“I’ll try calling again,” Arthur said, but it still went straight tovoicemail. “We need to go after them. Do you know anyone who can drive us?”
“My dad’s away for work with the car so I can’t ask my parents. And none of my mates have driving licenses yet.”
“A cab would cost a fortune, I can’t afford one on my pension. Oh, I wish I still had a car.” Arthur wracked his brains for someone, anyone, they could ask, but most of his friends had given up driving long ago.
Then a thought occurred to him, and Arthur found himself smiling for the first time since they opened the computer file.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
