The phone had awakened them both before six in the morning. Bill called to tell them he was at the Black Dog and there was no news of Annie.
Alex stood in the kitchen, watching Tony make coffee. He had put bread in the toaster, pulled butter from the refrigerator and placed a carton of milk on the table. Neither of them had started a conversation since they came downstairs.
She poured some of the milk into a jug and set a knife on the counter.
All business, habit, to avoid talking about what really mattered.
Tony took travel mugs from a cupboard and poured coffee. ‘Sit down while I do this, Alex. I’ll get the toast, too. Do you want marmalade?’
Ordinary. Or trying to be ordinary when they were both so worried about what the day would bring – and enmeshed in their decision of the night before.
He poured coffee for them both. And ducked to kiss her cheek before putting the pot back. ‘We’re ready, Alex. Bill has let us know what they’re doing. If we don’t hear anything else very soon, I think we should contact some folks when we get to the Black Dog and let them know what we’re planning for the day. Or at least for the morning. Hugh deserves that, too. He’s as worried as we are. What I want most is to hear they’ve found Annie.’
‘Tony,’ she said, ‘why doesn’t she just show up? She’s been gone all night. I don’t know what we’ll do if they haven’t heard from her.’
‘They hadn’t when Bill phoned,’ Tony pointed out. ‘I don’t expect him to be there when we arrive but we’ll hear as soon as they get news, though.’
Carrying toast and coffee, they took the dogs and left for the Black Dog. Driving down the hill in Tony’s Land Rover, Alex felt tighter and tighter. The sun rose, promising a clear, bright day but she felt a deep turbulence, a sickening premonition that the best of this day was behind them.
Tony pulled out his mobile and gave it to her. ‘Could you get Radhika on the phone, please? No clinic this morning but she’ll be there.’ He picked up his coffee. ‘She’s got the house fire to deal with. I haven’t done enough to help.’
When Radhika answered, Alex handed over the mobile and stared out the window, inhaling the scent of her coffee rather than drinking from the mug. She recalled asking Bill what he thought about finding people who were missing within a certain number of hours? Twenty-four and the chances of a good outcome got slimmer?
Sonia Quillam hadn’t been seen in days, despite media appeals and search efforts. What about her car? If she had driven away intending to lose herself, she would surely have been noticed somewhere by now. Alex knew that a rental car had not shown up, or she hadn’t heard about it if it had.
‘That woman is something else,’ Tony said, breaking into Alex’s racing thoughts. ‘Radhika takes things in her stride, some things that would stop a lot of people in their tracks.’
‘I know.’
‘Are you trying to fall asleep on me?’
She caught his little smile and patted his thigh. ‘No. Afraid not. We’re going to have another body show up, aren’t we? Sonia Quillam isn’t coming back.’
‘I understand why you say that. It’s impossible not to think the worst. But we must try to be hopeful – or, it would be easier if we could.’
‘It would. So we get squared away in Folly and then start driving to every place we’re aware of Annie going with Elyan. I keep hoping the police will find her Mini on CCTV from the day before yesterday. I tried to ask Bill about it but he cut me off.’
‘We’ll ask again,’ Tony said, turning at the driveway to the Black Dog car park. ‘A tow truck’s coming out,’ he said and backed onto the road again, parked to one side.
‘Who would call a tow truck?’ Alex said. She opened her door and jumped out. ‘That’s not even a tow truck. They’ve lifted it onto a flatbed.’
Her waving arms stopped the truck and she ran to the driver’s window. ‘What are you doing?’ she cried. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘Talk to the man inside,’ he told her, indicating the pub. ‘This is official business.’
And he drove on, carefully turning the vehicle onto the High Street.
Tony joined Alex and they watched, stunned, as Annie’s Mini was hauled away.
Breakfast was served as usual at the Black Dog. Bill had almost decided to go to his flat in Gloucester the night before, but he had wanted to see Radhika and remain at the center of what was unfolding in Folly-on-Weir. He still had to think most of the answers were here.
He had barely slept and appreciated solitary quiet in the restaurant, drinking the excellent coffee Lily had served and waiting for his full English.
He had no doubt that the parish hall was getting more frenetic by the hour and, no doubt either, fielding a stream of mostly useless tip-off calls.
He also knew he would hear the moment there was something useful. So far, nothing. What he wanted more than anything was word of Annie Bell.
He didn’t look forward to dealing with the superintendent about her disappearance while under police supervision, but it was the fate of the girl herself that troubled him more. Her Mini was to be taken in for forensic examination this morning. Bill couldn’t get his mind off the car being at Green Friday around the time Radhika’s house had been torched. If Hugh and Alex had followed up on what had to seem odd, at once, and informed him the moment they saw him … If? If a lot of things on this one.
Voices reached him from the direction of the bar – growing closer. And hurrying footsteps. Alex preceded Tony into the restaurant and Bill prepared for whatever was making her search for and find him at his corner table, with anger radiating from her every rapid gesture.
‘Did you arrange that?’ She pointed toward one of the front windows, then looked out at the forecourt. ‘It’s gone now. You know things you’re not telling us. That’s your right but not when we’re desperate to find Annie.’
Doc James, coffee carafe in hand, was an unexpected arrival. He took two cups from another table and poured for Tony and Alex.
Damn, he didn’t need more complications now, Bill thought. This time they needed to let him do his job, not distract him.
‘Sit and drink that.’ Doc wasn’t issuing an invitation. ‘And keep your voices down. Hugh’s using efficiency to pretend he’s not losing more control by the second, and Lily’s trying to appease everyone.’
Tony smiled at his father and Bill knew gratitude when he saw it, but Alex wasn’t smiling as she slid into a chair opposite Bill and leaned toward him. ‘OK, this is quiet now. Why has Annie’s car been taken away?’
‘I couldn’t say.’ As if that would buy him any space.
‘Breakfast,’ Lily said, carrying in two plates. ‘One for you, Bill, and doughnuts for the table.’ She dislodged a wad of serviettes from beneath an arm and set them down.
‘Can I keep this on topic, please, people?’ Alex took a bite out of a doughnut, rested her elbows on the table, chewed, and stared Bill in the eye. When she had swallowed, she added, ‘That wasn’t an answer and I’m not taking much more of this.’
The bacon was losing its appeal. ‘Alex, I cannot share that information with you.’
‘But—’
‘I can’t. We don’t have Annie yet. We’re going at her disappearance and at this case with everything we’ve got. I know you’re upset – and scared – but I also have a detective sergeant in the hospital and I need you behind me, not blocking my path.’
‘That’s awful,’ Alex said. ‘But what does that have to do with Annie?’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m letting you know I’ve got a lot on my plate.’
She put her face in her hands and mumbled, ‘Sorry.’
Tony stood behind her and squeezed her shoulder. ‘What can you tell us, Bill?’
What he wouldn’t and couldn’t tell them was that Annie Bell could move into the suspects’ circle, if she wasn’t already there.
All eyes were on him. No pressure here. ‘We have priorities – a plan with numbered bullet points. Joint top of the list: Sonia Quillam and Annie Bell.’ Not necessarily in that order. He looked at his congealing eggs and picked up a piece of toast.
Doc James refilled the coffee cups, and Lily turned to leave the restaurant. The atmosphere did not get any lighter, but Bill would take any break he could get from the questions he couldn’t answer, or not with what they wanted to hear.
His mobile, vibrating in his pocket, was a welcome diversion. ‘Lamb,’ he said when he answered. ‘Yes. One moment.’ He stood, holding up an apologetic hand to the rest of them, and withdrawing to stand by the reception desk. ‘Go on, Legs. What have you got for me?’
‘They’re going to feed the CCTV footage to you down there, guv,’ the detective constable said. ‘They say it’s not as good as they’d like it. They’re still working on it. Three sightings so far and one of them is promising. They think all three show the Mini.’