“Okay. Listen. We need to be practical. We split into teams. No one wanders off alone. If you find anything, or see anything, you come straight back to the terrace.”
Izzy stood up with her arms crossed, coffee in hand, looking at me like she’d been waiting for someone to take charge.
Lucas raised a hand. “What can I do?”
“You,” I said, pointing, “are with Sophie. You take the front gardens and carpark and driveway.”
He perked up, then immediately tripped over a chair leg. Sophie grabbed his arm before he face-planted into a platter of croissants.
Izzy took a sip of coffee. “That’s the spirit. Start the search with a concussion.”
Before I could go on, Izzy lifted her chin. “Put me with them. If a car’s gone or someone’s fiddled with the locks, I’ll notice it faster than these two…” she gestured vaguely at Lucas and Sophie.
“Fine,” I said. “Izzy, go.”
She gave me a quick, efficient nod, already halfway to the door, already in get-it-done mode.
I pointed at one of the security staff. “You take two people and sweep the property border and side access roads.”
“Noah, you and I will check the vineyards and walking paths behind the guest wing.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him nod, jaw tight. He was watching James.
Everyone was watching James.
He stood in the middle of the room like someone had unplugged him. His eyes were unfocused, his phone limp in his hand like he’d forgotten what it did.
“James,” I said gently. “You should come with us.”
He blinked, like he was coming back from somewhere very far away. “Right. Yes. Of course. I should help. I need to help.”
Behind him, Margaret was spiralling while her husband tried to hold on to her elbow.
“Caroline would never do this to me,” she cried. “To us. To our family. Do you think she has been taken? Do you think she fell? Do you think she was pushed?”
Lady Victoria Beaumont regarded her daughter with the calm of someone observing an irritating stage performance.
“Margaret, lower your voice.”
“Lower my voice?” Margaret shrieked. “My daughter is missing, and you are concerned about my volume?”
“These young people are the only ones behaving sensibly,” Lady Victoria replied. “Perhaps take notes.”
I jumped down from the chair. “Right. Staff, please stay in common spaces, keep an eye on the doors, and if Caroline returns on her own, no one crowds her or asks questions. You come and get me or Noah.”
Noah moved to James’s side, his clapped James’s shoulder.
“Come on,” he said. “We will start with the back path. She likes the view there.”
James gave a jerky nod.
We stepped out into the pale morning light, the air cool and damp from the ocean breeze that rolled in across the vines. My heels clicked on the flagstones as we crossed the terrace. Behindus, the estate broke into scattered motion, like someone had knocked over a very expensive anthill.
Lucas jogged out across the lawn at full speed, one arm in the air.
“Caroline?” he shouted. “If you can hear me, give us a sign.”
Sophie caught up to him, tugging at his sleeve. “Lucas, can you not shout? You’re… startling things.” She glanced up at the trees as if expecting something to fall out of them.
