No Second Chances: A British police dog-handler mystery (Daniel Whelan #4)(9)

‘What about his dad? Wouldn’t he lend him the money?’

‘But if he did, Shane wouldn’t win the van, would he? It would be his dad’s.’

‘As a plan it has one glaring weakness,’ he pointed out. ‘Has it ever occurred to either of you that this horse might just not win the race?’

‘Well, of course, it’s not a hundred per cent certain but Shane says she’s the best he’s ever seen.’

Daniel suspected there might be more to the story than Shane was letting on even to Zoe, but he let it go. ‘OK. So where do you come in?’

Zoe’s gaze dropped and she began to push bits of cake round her plate with her fork.

‘Well, obviously, I haven’t got much money, myself, and I couldn’t ask Mum without telling her what it was for …’

‘And your father? Harvey, I mean.’

Zoe looked guarded. ‘I did kind of ask him, but he said he hadn’t got that kind of money in cash.’

‘Didn’t he want to know what it was for?’ Daniel was surprised if Harvey had even considered it, unless he was trying to win brownie points with his stepdaughter. He wasn’t sure what kind of a relationship they had.

‘Well, yeah, kind of …’

‘And he was OK with it? Has he actually met your boyfriend?’

‘Once. By accident, really. I was out with Shane and we bumped into him.’

Daniel was finding it difficult to imagine a social situation where a Traveller lad and a high-flying businessman might have ‘bumped into’ one another. ‘And he approved?’ he asked sceptically.

Zoe gave a sulky shrug. ‘He seemed cool with it. Anyway, he couldn’t say a lot.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Oh, nothing. Forget it.’

‘Was he with someone?’

‘Someone …?’

‘A woman?’

‘Oh, no, nothing like that.’

Daniel took a long sip of his coffee and regarded Zoe over the rim of the cup. She looked uncomfortable.

‘Just out of interest,’ he said, putting the cup down. ‘What sort of money are we talking about?’

After a moment’s hesitation, Zoe mentioned a sum in the mid four-figures, and seeing Daniel’s eyes open wide, hurried to justify it.

‘It’s not a lot, really – compared with what some people spend. Some of my mum’s horses cost three times that much.’

Daniel didn’t feel that the comparison was a fair one. He knew that two at least of Lorna’s stable had the potential to be Grand Prix dressage horses.

‘It may be a silly question, but wouldn’t it be better just to spend the money on a caravan in the first place?’ he asked. ‘Not that I think it’s a good idea at your age, but you’re clearly very determined and it would cut out the chance element.’

‘I think the really nice vans cost a lot more than that, besides, Shane wouldn’t let me pay. Traveller men are very proud, you know. Personally, I wouldn’t mind what the van was like but Shane says he wants the best for me and he wants to pay for it. He calls me his princess.’

‘But he’s happy for you to buy this horse he wants?’

‘But that’s just borrowing,’ she explained as to one who was being slow on the uptake. ‘Until he wins the race, and then the horse will be worth loads more and he can sell it again.’

‘All right. I’m assuming you’re not about to ask me to lend you the money, because even if I wanted to, I haven’t got that kind of money lying around. So why did you want to talk to me? I hope you’re not expecting me to plead with your mum for you. Even if I knew her well enough to interfere – and I don’t – I wouldn’t do it.’

‘No, I know that. Anyway, I’ve got the money, now – at least, I did have …’ She toyed with the last bits of her cake, her long dark lashes hiding her eyes.

‘So where did you get it, in the end?’

‘It was left to me by my gran.’

Daniel looked at her through narrowed eyes.

‘Is that the truth?’

Zoe took refuge in her coffee cup, but under Daniel’s continuing scrutiny she all but squirmed.

‘Yes, it’s the truth! Well, in a manner of speaking. My granny left me her jewellery.’

‘Jewellery isn’t cash,’ Daniel pointed out. ‘Please tell me you haven’t sold it.’

‘No! I wouldn’t do that. I pawned it. It’s still mine. I mean, it’s just like borrowing. I can get it back any time.’

Daniel gave her a hard look.

‘You didn’t pawn it with any reputable broker. You’re too young.’

‘Shane did it for me.’

Daniel suppressed a groan, but she saw the look on his face and hurried to her boyfriend’s defence.

‘I trust him. The Travellers are very honourable people.’

Among their own kind, maybe, Daniel thought, but said, instead, ‘OK. So if everything’s good, what’s the problem?’

‘He’s gone missing,’ Zoe admitted in a small voice. ‘Shane has. I don’t know where he is.’





THREE


‘It’s not what you think!’ was Zoe’s predictable response to Daniel’s silently raised eyebrow. ‘Something must have happened to him. He would never just go off without telling me.’