No Second Chances: A British police dog-handler mystery (Daniel Whelan #4)(10)

‘So if you’re so sure he’ll be back, why are you enlisting my help to find him?’ Daniel asked. ‘That was what you were going to do, wasn’t it?’

Zoe nodded miserably.

‘It’s the pawnbroker. We only borrowed the money for a month because it was cheaper, and if we’re late, he’ll sell the rings.’

‘How long have you got left?’

‘Two weeks. Well – ten days,’ Zoe amended. ‘Please, can you help me? If Mum finds out she’ll go absolutely crazy! Especially now, on top of this stuff with Dad.’

Daniel favoured her with a long look, under which she coloured a little and took a sip of her cappuccino.

‘When did you last see Shane?’

‘Last week. He has Monday off work, so we spent the day together.’

‘When you should have been at school.’

‘It’s just one day,’ Zoe protested. ‘Didn’t you ever bunk off school as a kid? You won’t tell Mum, will you?’

‘I ought to,’ Daniel said, dodging the question. ‘So you haven’t heard from him since then?’

‘He messaged me on Tuesday but that was the last time.’

‘So, it’s not been that long.’

‘For us it is,’ she said. ‘Normally we’re in touch all the time, messaging and that. Now he won’t even answer his phone and his sister hasn’t been at school, either.’

‘You think she’s gone too? You don’t think it’s possible the family have just moved on somewhere for a bit?’

Zoe shook her head.

‘No! Well, I don’t know, do I? They’re Travellers … Leila’s often off school for no reason. But Shane wouldn’t go without telling me, especially not with my money; he knows how important it is for me to get the rings back.’

Daniel regarded her for a long moment, trying to decide how much of what he was hearing was the truth.

‘Give me one good reason why I should help,’ he said at length. ‘You’re the daughter of someone I deliver animal feed to. I only met you yesterday. You could be lying through your teeth.’

‘I thought … I mean, you were hugging my mum, so I thought you were friends,’ Zoe said helplessly.

‘She was upset,’ Daniel said. ‘What was I supposed to do? Drive off? And come to that, how do you know you can trust me? You know nothing about me.’

‘Mum obviously trusts you,’ Zoe said. ‘And you were in the police.’

Daniel uttered a short, humourless laugh. ‘Some of the biggest villains uncaught are in the police force, I can tell you that for nothing,’ he said. ‘OK. Say I did agree to help you – just what exactly do you expect me to do?’

‘Well, help me find out what’s happened to Shane,’ she said as if she was asking him to get something from the shops for her. ‘I’d do it myself but I can’t because I haven’t any transport and, well, I don’t much like going into the Traveller village on my own.’

‘Well, thank God you’ve got that much sense, at least,’ Daniel commented with feeling. ‘So Shane lives in a settlement, does he? That’s one thing to be grateful for. I don’t fancy chasing a bunch of caravans all over England!’

Zoe, who’d flushed darkly at Daniel’s first words, now looked up at him with guarded hope in her eyes.

‘So you’ll do it? You’ll help me?’

‘Against my better judgement; I’ll see what I can do but I’m making no promises. I still think you’d be better making a clean breast of it to your mum but I agree the timing could be better. I take it she hasn’t been in touch with Harvey yet.’

Zoe shook her head, frowning. ‘No. What’s going on there? I mean Mum’s trying to pretend there’s nothing the matter but I can see she’s seriously stressed.’

‘I’m sorry, but you’ll have to ask her. It’s not for me to say.’

‘I have asked, but she won’t tell me. She just says she needs to speak to Harvey about something. I mean, I don’t get why it’s so urgent.’

‘Yeah, well look, I have a dog in the car who’s gagging for a walk, so I’d better go.’ He finished his coffee and pushed his chair back.

Zoe opened her eyes wide.

‘You said you’d help me!’

‘I will, but not right now.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I need time to think,’ Daniel told her. ‘Now, I need to know where Shane lives and anything else you can tell me about him. Come on, I’ll give you a lift home and you can fill me in on the way.’

‘I don’t want Mum to know I’ve been talking to you.’

‘Then I’ll drop you at the top of your drive or you can tell her you missed the bus and I saw you walking. Come on, shake a leg …’

The next evening found Daniel once again in the company of Zoe Myers. In the intervening time he had slept, done a day’s driving and found out as much as he could about the local Traveller settlement, which was on a site known as Hawkers Yard near the rural hamlet of Ottersmoor. There was plenty of news coverage about it in the archives of the regional papers but it was mainly in the shape of letters of complaint from other local residents and articles from a couple of years previously, when the idea of making an illegal site permanent had first reared its unpopular head.