Chapter 12
My chest tightened and dreading what I might be about to hear, I stood up. Moving down the hall, with every step my feet felt like lead. I took a deep breath and reaching for the handle opened the door.
Whoever had hammered had his back to me, but seeing he wasn’t in uniform, my whole body relaxed and I could breathe again. Evening callers would usually garner suspicion, but in that instance, I’d never been so happy to find a random stranger at Mum’s door.
He spun round to face me. ‘Hi. Is my son here?’
My jaw dropped.
‘Is everything okay?’ he asked.
Face-to-face with a Henry Cavill lookalike, I slowly nodded. It was as if some fairy godmother had read my mind earlier and waved her magic wand. I glanced behind him. With no mode of transport and being a mile from civilisation, he’d certainly strayed off the beaten track.
Henry’s lookalike smiled. ‘Shall we start again?’
My chin dipped up and down once more.
‘Hi, I’m Theo.’
While I stood there in total stupefaction, Theo spoke through perfect teeth and full luscious lips.
His high cheekbones chiselled his face to perfection and he had the most mesmerising clear blue eyes.
His wavy brown hair was pushed back from his ever so handsome face.
My gaze drew lower to his black woollen coat which did nothing to disguise his broad shoulders, and lower still to his blue jeans and pair of thick-soled walking boots.
As pleasant as it would have been, I refused to let my imagination run away with itself and snapping myself back into reality, assumed Theo had mistaken Mum’s house for a bed and breakfast. Under any other circumstance I’d have fluttered my eyelashes and been happy to help this damoiseau in distress.
However, thanks to Mum I had more important things to think about than where Theo and his son were sleeping that night.
‘Sorry, you have the wrong address. Now if you don’t mind I… ’
‘What about Maeve?’ he asked.
The use of Mum’s name grabbed my attention and with the door half closed, I opened it again.
‘She’s okay, isn’t she?’ Theo indicated Graham’s vehicle. ‘It’s just I saw the police car and…’
My eyes narrowed. ‘How do you know my mother?’
Graham appeared at my side. ‘Is everything all right?’ he asked.
‘I’m looking for my son,’ Theo said. ‘I assumed he’d be here. He usually is.’
Realisation dawned. ‘You’re Jackson’s dad?’
My question appeared to amuse him. ‘Yes. Who else would I be?’
I failed to see what was funny and immediately went off the man. Although now he’d said it, the resemblance was obvious. With their dimpled chins, distinct lack of social manners and need to knock on Mum’s door whenever they felt like it, the two of them really were father and son.
‘Close, are they?’ Graham asked.
‘No,’ I said while Theo simultaneously claimed they were.
‘You’d better come in.’ Without my permission Graham guided Theo into the house and down the hall to the kitchen.
‘Don’t mind me,’ I said as I shut the door. The two of them were already seated, with Theo’s coat hung on the back of a chair by the time I joined them.
‘When did you last see your son?’ Graham asked.
‘This morning. Before work,’ Theo said. ‘When I nipped back for lunch he wasn’t in. He could have come home this afternoon and gone out again though. Why? What’s going on?’
Graham consulted the form on his clipboard. ‘Well, that’s that then.’ He pulled the paper free and tore it in half.
My brow furrowed and back straightened. ‘What are you doing?’ As far as I was concerned, Theo’s arrival changed nothing. Mum was still AWOL.
‘I’d have thought that was obvious. There’s no point filling in a missing person report when there’s no one actually missing.’
‘You mean Maeve’s gone walkabout too?’ Theo asked.
‘The two of them are obviously together,’ Graham continued. ‘They’re probably late-night Christmas shopping. Or enjoying an impromptu cinema trip.’
‘He’s got a point,’ Theo said.
I looked from one man to the other and unable to believe what I was hearing, their lack of concern was cause for alarm. It wasn’t as if Mum or Jackson had left a note and even if they had waltzed off into the festive moonlight, none of us knew exactly where they’d gone or why.
‘It’s a Wonderful Life is going down a treat at Settledown Picture House,’ Graham said. ‘And what woman doesn’t love a dose of James Stewart?’
‘I’m a bit partial myself,’ Theo said with a glint in his eye.
My jaw slackened. We had two missing people to find, and I seemed to be the only one who cared.
Graham got up from his seat. ‘You’d be surprised at how many people get waylaid because they’re too busy having fun and forget to ring home.’
‘You can’t just leave,’ I said. ‘What about Mum? She could be lying in the road with a broken hip for all we know. She could have been kidnapped.’ I glared at Theo and folded my arms. ‘Jackson could have taken her.’
‘Who’s to say it’s not the other way around?’ Mirroring my action, Theo crossed his muscular arms over his chest.
‘Please.’ I’d never heard anything so ridiculous.
‘We’re talking about a frail old woman, not a strapping teenage boy.
Besides, what could she hope to gain? And how do you think she managed it?
’ I indicated Mum’s latest knitting project that sat in the fruit bowl on the table.
‘Did she march him off at needle point?’
‘I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Erin,’ Graham said. ‘No one has been kidnapped.’
‘And you know this how?’
‘Because serious crimes don’t happen here in Settledown.’
I let out a laugh. I’d seen too many small-town murder documentaries to know they probably did.
‘Although there was an issue with crowd control back in April.’ Graham turned to Theo.
‘That Patrick Grant off the telly’s Sewing Bee did a book signing down at Leaf and Spine.
Talk about hardbacks at dawn. It was bedlam.
’ Graham shook his head. ‘I never thought I’d say it because she’s a lovely woman, but I was glad when Janice didn’t come back from Cornwall and the place shut down. No one wants to experience that again.’
I scowled as I listened, wondering what Patrick Grant had to with Mum’s disappearance.
Clocking my frustration, Graham glanced around. ‘Well, is there any sign of a struggle?’
‘No, not exactly,’ I replied.
He looked to Theo. ‘What about next door?’
Theo chuckled and shook his head. ‘Not that I noticed.’
‘Then it’s like I said. They’re simply out and about.
’ Moving to leave, Graham paused. ‘Look, if it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll keep my eyes open.
’ He checked his watch. ‘I’ll even pop into the cinema.
’ He gathered his things. ‘If I were you two, I’d just wait it out.
I mean, it’s only half past ten and they’re not babies.
Trust me, they’ll be back safe and sound before you know it.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m already late for my refs.
’ He put a hand up. ‘Stay where you are. I can see myself out.’
Lost for words, I leaned back in my seat and watched him head down the hall. Mum was seventy-nine years old. An elderly woman out goodness knew where on a cold December night. I might not have known much about policing but there had to be protocols and procedures to follow in cases like this.
‘Merry Christmas,’ he called back as he exited the house.
I heard Graham’s vehicle start and the sound of its engine fade as he drove off down the hill. ‘I hope his car breaks down,’ I said.