No Second Chances: A British police dog-handler mystery (Daniel Whelan #4)(15)

Zoe stared at her for a moment or two longer, then faced front again, slumping into her seat and gazing moodily ahead.

They let Leila out a few yards up the road from Hawkers Yard and Daniel turned the car for Abbots Farm.

‘That wasn’t a lot of help, was it? I’m sorry,’ he said, after a moment, when his companion showed no sign of speaking. ‘It seems like a bit of a dead end.’

‘Well, at least I know why he hasn’t answered my calls.’

‘Why hasn’t he called you, though? You would have thought he could find a way. I mean – borrow a phone or even use a landline. It sounds as though he’s bowing to family pressure.’

‘He wouldn’t do that!’ Zoe said with certainty. ‘Anyway, I doubt he knows my number. I wouldn’t know his if I didn’t have my mobile with me.’

‘What about email?’

‘We never have. We normally message each other, you know, Snapchat or something.’

‘Facebook?’

‘It’s not really his thing …’

‘Looks like you’re a bit stuck, then. What is it with you Myers women and your men?’

‘You’re not giving up?’ Zoe asked sharply. ‘You promised!’

‘That I did not,’ Daniel stated firmly. ‘I said I’d help if I could and I have tried, but you must see this makes it almost impossible to track him down. Besides which,’ he added, ‘he hasn’t got your money any more. According to Leila, he’s spent it.’

‘But I still need to find him. I can’t just leave it at that. I’ve got to get that money back somehow.’

‘I really think you’d do better to come clean to your mum. She might be cross to start with but I’m sure she’d lend you the money to get the jewellery back. After all, she wouldn’t want you to lose it, if it’s been in the family.’

‘No! I can’t do that! You mustn’t tell her – please, Daniel! She’d blame Shane.’

And rightly, Daniel thought but he didn’t reply. With her current worries, he didn’t relish the thought of giving Lorna another cause for anxiety but he would tell her about Zoe’s predicament, if he felt he had to.

Zoe fell silent, and after a couple of miles had swished by, Daniel glanced her way. She appeared to be deep in thought, which made him feel slightly uneasy but he didn’t disturb her.

They were approaching the driveway to her house when she spoke at last.

‘I’ll go and see Billy Driscoll,’ she said decisively. ‘I bet he knows where Shane’s gone. He must know why, at any rate.’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Daniel told her. ‘If he’s not happy that Shane’s been seeing you, he’s not likely to tell you where to find him, is he? He sounds like a pretty rough character, too.’

‘Well, I’ll have you to protect me, won’t I?’ she said sweetly.

‘I don’t remember offering to take you.’

‘If you won’t come, I’ll go on my own.’

‘And how will you get there?’

‘I could hitchhike. I’ve done it before.’

‘You,’ he said, ‘are a devious, manipulating little …’

‘Cow? Bitch? Minx?’ she supplied.

‘Well, I wasn’t going to say it, but quite frankly, yes. All of the above! I’m beginning to think Shane might have had the right idea in scarpering!’

‘That’s unkind,’ she said making a face. ‘When shall we go, then? Tomorrow?’

‘Maybe. It depends on work. I’ll have to let you know.’ If he was being railroaded into confronting Driscoll, Daniel wanted to find out all he could about the greyhound trainer before he went, being a firm believer that to be forewarned was to be forearmed.

‘I expect I could get a bus, or hitch,’ she mused.

‘If I find you’ve gone on your own, I’ll go to your mum and tell her everything,’ Daniel told her. ‘And that is a promise.’

‘You wouldn’t?’

‘Watch me. Be glad to wash my hands of it all.’

Zoe’s look turned mutinous.

‘Didn’t take you for a quitter,’ she muttered.

‘Well, now you know,’ he said serenely.





FOUR


‘Daniel?’

It was nine o’clock the next morning and Daniel had just made his second drop of the day. His phone had started ringing just as he was about to pull out onto the road again, and he stopped at the end of the farm track with the engine idling.

‘Hello?’

‘Daniel? Hi, it’s me, Lorna Myers.’

‘Hi, Lorna. Are you OK?’

‘Yes. I mean, no. I don’t know. I’ve just rung GS – Harvey’s work – and they say they don’t know where he is. He’s not in Hong Kong. He was only there a few days. They’re saying he flew back nearly ten days ago and he’s now on leave. Apparently he booked it before he went. They seemed surprised that he wasn’t with me.’ She paused. ‘Daniel …?’

‘Yes, I’m here. Sorry, go on.’

‘I don’t know what’s going on. He’s been missing nearly two weeks! What do I do now? If this was all planned then I was never meant to know. Where is he? And …’ She took a steadying breath. ‘And who’s he with?’