Chapter 25
CHAPTER 25
MONDAY MORNING ARRIVED, and it was a relief when Luke went back to work. Breakfast had been an awkward affair, a mix of politeness and avoidance. Hardly surprising after his confession the night before—he’d told me he loved me, and I didn’t say it back. Normally, lies came easily, but the words stuck in my throat. I’d never told anyone I loved them. How could I start now, in a relationship built on a foundation of half-truths and hope?
I’d kissed him instead, but it was no consolation. When I’d pulled back, his eyes filled with hurt and disappointment, and as he walked away, the pit of dread in my stomach grew ever deeper.How could I repair things? I’d never had this problem in my deep and meaningful relationship with my Walther P88.
We’d reached mid-February now, and each day got a little lighter. I’d taken to running in the early mornings as soon as Luke left then heading to the gym until lunchtime. For the last few days, I’d borrowed Majesty in the afternoons and gone for a ride. Apart from a small difference of opinion over a pheasant, we were getting along famously.
When we’d been chatting, Tia had told me more of his history.
“I saw a video on the internet and fell in love with him, back when he lived in Qatar and his name was Majnoon. Luke bought him for my birthday.”
“You know majnoon is Arabic for crazy, right?”
A blank look. “Is it?”
I tried to stop laughing, unsuccessfully. “The guy who sold him to you must have been laughing his head off.”
“He seemed so nice in the emails.”
I gave her shoulders a squeeze. “A lot of pricks do. Majesty’s not a bad horse, though. We’ll sort him out.”
Yes, it had started as another routine week in the life of Luke, Ash, and Tia. Quiet, easy, kind of dull.
Things changed on Wednesday evening when a feeling absent for months made a reappearance. A prickle. A tingle in the base of my spine and a tension that spread across my shoulders. I’d relied heavily on my instincts over the last couple of decades, and they were usually bang on the money. Something wasn’t right.
My mind cycled through the possibilities before settling on the problem. Where was Tia?
She’d gone to Arabella’s house after school, but when she called me at lunchtime, she said she’d be home for dinner. My version of macaroni and cheese might have been crude, but she still claimed to like it.
And right now, it was going crispy around the edges. I glanced at my watch—she’d been due at half past six, and the clock said five to seven.
I tried calling her. Voicemail.
“It’s Ash. Just checking you’ve remembered dinner. Can you call me?” I kept my tone light, not wanting to scare her if everything was fine. I sent a text message saying the same thing. No reply.
Had her battery run out?
I dug Arabella’s number out of Luke’s computer, and she answered almost instantly.
“It’s Ash. Could you give Tia a shove out the door? Dinner’s nearly ready.”
“She left ages ago.” A pause. “Maybe an hour?” Another pause. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m sure it’s fine. Honestly, don’t worry. I had the music on loud so I bet she’s snuck up to her room.”
I didn’t want to panic Arabella, but I knew full well Tia wasn’t in the house. I may have been rusty, but I wasn’t dead.And that meant I wanted to check the route myself before calling Luke. A bit of the real me stirred deep in my soul, and I ran upstairs to change. Dark colours were the order of the day—a navy blue jacket, dark red jeans, and brown boots.
Why didn’t I wear black? Because I wasn’t a ninja, that’s why. Sure, it went with everything, but if you’re skulking around in the dark dressed in black from head to foot, you might as well tattoo “burglar” across your forehead.
Before I left, I slipped a knife into my pocket. When Luke wasn’t around, I’d got back into the habit of carrying a little something, and thanks to a dude in the pub, I had my weapon of choice. Over the years, I’d become so familiar with carrying an Emerson CQC-7, it was like an extension of my hand. I’d worked the mechanism on this one until it was smooth as Sean Connery.
Right, time to go. I set the alarm on my way out the door, although it wouldn’t stop someone like me. It’d barely even slow me down.
The streetlight between Luke’s home and Arabella’s was out, the lane pitch black. Coincidence? I checked underneath—no broken glass. Keeping to the shadows, I traced Tia’s usual route. On the plus side, I didn’t find her lying in a ditch. The not so good news? I didn’t find any sign of her at all. On the way back, I slowed down and used my torch.
I’d almost got back to Luke’s when I saw something that made my chest seize. A few scuffs, barely visible at the edge of the kerb. A fresh tyre track marked the dirt in the gutter, its tread distinct. I flipped a coin next to it for scale and took a photo with my phone.
It might be nothing, but my intuition wasn’t convinced.
Luke turned into the driveway as I got back. He’d taken his SUV today, grumbling about the salty roads. A Porsche Cayenne the same as my husband used to drive, except Luke’s was red instead of black and it didn’t have the souped-up engine. Right now, the sight of it felt like an omen.
As Luke pulled into the garage, I let myself in through the front door. By the time he came through the internal door, I was waiting.
“Have you heard from Tia?”
“Why would I? She always calls you.”
“She hasn’t come home, and she left Arabella’s over an hour ago.”
He shrugged. “Maybe she went to see Mother? She mentioned picking up some art stuff. Or she could be visiting another friend. She always used to sneak out in the evenings.”
Once, possibly, but not now. “Could you give your mother a call and check?”
Luke’s sigh told me I was overreacting, but he humoured me and pulled out his phone. He wandered upstairs to change while he made the call.
A few minutes later, he came back, looking marginally more concerned.“Mother hasn’t seen her for over a week. She can’t remember exactly when.”
Figured.
I called Arabella back. “Turns out Luke and Tia had a bust up. She’s run off, and I need to track her down. Can you give me the numbers of her friends? I don’t know if she’s got money on her for a taxi back.”
Luke looked peeved when I ended the call. “We didn’t have a bust up.”
“I know that, but I don’t want to worry more people than necessary.”
“Are you worried?”
I was when I got off the phone to her friends. Nobody had seen Tia since school that afternoon.
“I’m calling the police,” Luke said.
I could hardly tell him not to, but inwardly I groaned. My cover was on thin ice. He paced the lounge as he muttered into the phone then hung up with a frown.
“Graham says nobody’s reported any accidents, and if she hasn’t turned up by morning, he’ll stop by and take a report.”
“Graham? Is that the prick we met in the pub the other day?”
Luke nodded. Marvellous. Graham, the local constable, had struggled to detect his own vehicle in the car park at the end of the evening. Finding a missing person was well beyond his abilities.Now what? If harm had come to Tia, I wasn’t averse to getting the chief constable out of bed, but I wanted to rule out other possibilities first.
“I’m calling the hospitals. I don’t trust Graham,” I said.
“I’ll go out in the car. She might have gone to the stables. Or the shop.” A note of desperation crept into Luke’s voice. “Or the pub.”
I drew a blank on the phone and set out on foot again. A more thorough check wouldn’t hurt, although I had a sinking feeling I knew what had happened. I’d been involved in plenty of child abduction cases, although never from such an early stage. And never somebody I was close to.
I tramped down the road and checked each footpath leading off it. As I rooted around in the undergrowth, I thought over the scenarios.
If Tia had been taken, why? Was it because of Luke, me, or Tia herself?
Luke was the obvious answer. Because of his money, Tia would make a great target for a hefty ransom. Then there was the business angle—had Luke had problems with any competitors lately? Revenge was so often a motivator.
Then there was the possibility Tia had been abducted by a whack job who simply wanted a pretty young girl. Perhaps they had a long-running infatuation or saw an easy opportunity? I was inclined to discount the first option because if she’d been receiving unwanted attention, surely she’d have told me? The latter was a very real possibility, though.
The plus point of those scenarios was that Tia would still be alive, most likely, and she’d remain that way until the kidnapper achieved their goal.
What worried me most was the slim chance she’d been taken because of me. What if one of my associates had started looking into my husband’s murder and trodden on someone’s toes? Had I been traced here? I thought I’d taken enough precautions to stay hidden, but what if I’d screwed up? The people who took out my husband had access to heavy weapons and didn’t hesitate to kill. If they had Tia and she was still alive, she wouldn’t have long.
That thought was at the forefront of my mind as I walked back to the house. Luke was pacing the hallway as I came through the door.
“Anything?” he asked.
“No. You?”
“Nothing.”
I hadn’t truly been expecting any other answer.
“Luke, I need to talk to you,” I started, but the ping of an incoming text message interrupted me.
Luke snatched his phone out of his pocket. “Thank goodness, it’s from Tia. She probably wants me to pick her up from somewhere.”
“Where is she?”
Time slowed as the colour drained out of his face.
“Luke, what does it say?”
His hand shook as he passed the phone over. Tia filled the screen, bound and gagged, lying on a grubby floor. Her eyes were closed, and the words underneath left no room for interpretation.
Unknown: You and the girlfriend keep your mouths shut. No police or she dies. We’re watching. Further instructions will follow.
The strong man I knew disintegrated in front of me, tearing at his hair.
“Someone’s taken her! What on earth do we do?”
I didn’t share Luke’s surprise. For the last hour, I’d kind of been expecting the news. And in fact, there were plus points to the message—it confirmed she’d been abducted, and it wasn’t a random sex crime. They also said she was alive, although I couldn’t be certain from the photo.
The bit that bothered me was the reference to Luke’s girlfriend. Whoever took Tia knew of my existence, so there was still a possibility I was connected.
And now I was about to make Luke’s evening worse with the most uncomfortable conversation of my life.
“We wait,” I said.
“That’s it? That’s your answer?”
He paced up and down the hallway, and I itched to join him. Pacing was a bad habit of mine.
“The other options are going to the police or looking for her ourselves.”
“We’re not going to the police. Oh no, do you think they know I called Graham? What if he stirs something up?”
“He won’t. If you don’t call him back, he’ll forget all about it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I agreed with avoiding the police, at least for the moment. They couldn’t do much with a scuff and a tyre print in any case. Little traffic went down the lane, and none of the neighbours had CCTV. It was one reason I liked the place so much.
“How about calling a private investigation firm?” I suggested.
“That’s as bad as the police.”
“They’re more discreet.”
He paused, eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare.”
We’ll see.
“Uh, I need to speak to you about something.”
“Is it about Tia?”
“Not totally.”
“Then can’t it wait?”
“No.”
“You sure know how to pick your moments. Fine, say it so we can get back to the things that matter. Like my little sister.”
I took a deep breath. “I know you’re going to hate me, and I accept that. Please just understand that right now all I want to do is get Tia back, the same as you do.”
“Why do I get the feeling I won’t like this?”
Because if Tia disappearing broke your world, now I’m going to shatter it.
“I’m not who you think I am. I told you I came here to get away from my cheating fiancé, but that’s not exactly true.”
“Go on.”
Fantastic, he sounded cross already. Good start, Ash. Or whatever my name was.
“I had a run-in with a guy, and I was struggling to deal with it. So much happened three months ago.” I closed my eyes for a second. “He threatened my friends if I didn’t keep out of his way, so I ran. I ran here. A few lies at the beginning spiralled out of control, and I couldn’t find a way to tell you the truth. I’m not proud of what I did, and I’m so, so sorry.”
“So what is the truth?”
I turned away, because it hurt to look at him. At the fury on his face.
“I can’t tell you everything. I don’t want to put you in danger as well.”
It only took seconds for Luke to put two and two together and come up with my greatest fear. “You think Tia’s been kidnapped because of something you’ve done?”
He looked like he was about to punch me, and I deserved it.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. There are more plausible reasons for her being abducted.”
“But it’s possible?”
“Yes, it’s possible.”
He stood toe-to-toe with me, his voice hard, his eyes unforgiving. I’d never seen this side of him, but he’d only seen a tiny piece of me so I had no right to complain.
“Get out.”
“I can help you if I stay. I know what I’m doing in situations like this.”
“Just get out!”
He shoved me towards the front door. Yes, I could have stopped him, but there was no point in making him angrier. I covered my ears as he carried on shouting.
“You came into my life and made me and my sister care about you, and all the time we were in danger. You selfish cow! Tia could die because of you.”
How could I argue with the truth?
I let him push me outside, and the door slammed shut behind me. My last glimpse of Luke was as a broken man, fear and anger and hurt etched on his usually handsome face.
The lock clicked.
So, that went well.