Feeling impatient at the man’s lack of urgency, Luke repeated to Detective Sergeant Myers what he’d already told the officer at the front desk: that Anna had surfaced and been in touch with Claire. He bit back his agitation as Myers raised his eyebrows in surprise. What? Did he think he was lying? Or that Claire was?
‘The evidence will be on her phone,’ he pointed out, praying that Claire hadn’t deleted the text. But then the police had ways of retrieving deleted messages, didn’t they? He was sure they could request data, including calls and text messages, from the service provider. Curtailing his frustration, he waited while the guy wrote down the information he’d given him, irritatingly slowly.
‘And this was yesterday?’ Myers asked, his expression now openly suspicious as he glanced up at Luke.
‘I think so, yes,’ Luke confirmed, trying to quieten the panic that had been churning in his gut ever since the police officers who’d come to Anna’s apartment had invited him to accompany them to the station, where DS Myers had as good as accused him of being violent towards her, if not worse. ‘People don’t just disappear, Mr Elliot,’ he’d said. His expression had been bland, but the look in his eyes had been one of quiet contempt. He’d clearly thought Luke capable of being physically abusive, particularly when Luke hadn’t helped his case by losing his temper when they’d suggested a feasible scenario. She’d been winding him up, they’d implied, pressing his buttons. ‘You hit her, maybe in the heat of the moment. That’s understandable. Panicked when she lost consciousness. Why don’t you help yourself now by helping us, Luke?’
‘Ask your wife to come to the station. We’ll need a statement,’ Myers said now. Luke noted the weary look on his face, as if he might even be disappointed that he hadn’t got a juicy murder case on his hands.
‘She can’t.’ He attempted to keep his tone calm. ‘She’s away.’
Myers raised his eyebrows again. ‘Away where?’
Luke sighed inside. Half of him wanted Anna to reappear, the other half dreaded it, because he knew there was no way she wouldn’t claim he’d been violent. ‘I’m not sure,’ he admitted with a disconsolate shrug. Why, he wondered, had Claire chosen now of all times to go away? And why hadn’t she told him where she was? He had no idea where this woman who was claiming to be her half-sister lived. He hoped to God she wasn’t getting too involved with her. Christ, he needed to speak to her.
‘Another missing person then?’ Myers commented drily.
His agitation rising rapidly, Luke erred on the side of caution and said nothing.
‘And her mobile number is?’ His pen poised, Myers looked at him dispassionately. ‘I’m assuming you know that much?’
Luke tugged in a terse breath and reeled off Claire’s number.
‘We’ll need the number of the sender of the text. Perhaps you could let your wife know, assuming you can communicate with her?’ Luke didn’t miss the sarcasm in the man’s voice.
‘What about if it’s a pay-as-you-go phone?’ he asked. He was guessing it was, since the number he had for Anna was no longer in service.
‘Providing we have the number, even without the phone itself, we can apply for data from the service provider: details of calls made and received, texts sent and received and voicemail messages,’ Myers confirmed. ‘We can also possibly identify when and where the phone was first activated or used, which may provide us with additional evidence as to the identity of the user.’
Luke blew out a sigh of considerable relief. ‘I’ll let Claire know.’
‘Let’s hope she’s not too pissed off with you, hey?’ Myers said, shooting him yet another unimpressed look as he got to his feet to walk past Luke to the interview room door. The same interview room he’d been questioned in for hours, after being cautioned and booked in, fingerprinted and stripped of his belongings: the clothes he was wearing, his phone. He’d been cautioned again once they’d brought him in here; told he could be kept for up to thirty-six hours, longer if they applied to the magistrates’ court for an extension, which the seriousness of the suspected crime might warrant. His solicitor had confirmed they could actually do that. It had been a living nightmare. With no evidence, and no mention of him by name in the call they’d received reporting the domestic, they weren’t charging him yet, they’d said, but Luke had been terrified. With no clue how far Anna might take this, he was still terrified.
‘You do realise that until we’ve proved the text exists, we’ll still be treating Anna Checkley’s disappearance as suspicious?’ Myers said as Luke heaved himself to his feet and followed him. He’d obviously taken up enough of his valuable time.
Luke answered with a tired nod. ‘Have you spoken to the ex-boyfriend yet?’
‘We have,’ Myers supplied. ‘He’s not her ex. Denies having seen her either before or after the incident at the nightclub. His story checks out. He’s in the armed forces; has been posted abroad since the morning after the alleged incident took place.’
‘Alleged?’ Luke stared at him, incredulous. ‘There was a stand-up argument between them. He was well out of order. There must be CCTV footage, surely?’
‘We’ve been through it,’ Myers informed him, with forced patience. ‘It’s clear an incident took place. The thing is, it doesn’t give us any more than you and him arguing. There’s nothing to tell us who instigated the argument, or what it was about.’
‘Great.’ Luke swallowed back a sick taste in his mouth as he realised the implication: that it could have been him who’d started it. ‘What about witness statements?’ he asked, his hope fading fast.
‘Likewise. Witnesses corroborate there was an argument, but they can’t provide sufficient detail to back up your story.’ Myers looked almost apologetic as he banged another nail into Luke’s coffin.
‘And the guy who owns the apartment she was living in; have you established whether she’s been in touch with him?’ Luke asked wearily. He wasn’t sure what difference it would make now, but he needed to know more about the woman he’d become so disastrously involved with. She wasn’t renting the apartment, it had turned out. One of the other coppers had told Luke they’d made some enquiries and the neighbours had said she was flat-sitting while the owner was working away. It made sense. Luke had wondered how she could afford to live there. He’d doubted her wage from working behind a bar would have covered the rent on a city-centre apartment, albeit a small one.
‘Not yet, no,’ Myers supplied. ‘He’s working on some water and sanitation project in deepest Ghana, apparently. We’re still trying to track him down.’
Track him down? Luke squinted at the detective quizzically. He was in Africa, not on Mars. The man had to have a contact number, surely?
Myers clearly noted the look. ‘We’ll keep you posted. We’re as keen to locate Anna as you are,’ he said as he nodded Luke towards the corridor. ‘Establish that she’s okay after finding evidence that she might have been injured,’ he added with an acerbic smile.
‘Right. Thanks.’ Luke smiled flatly back. For nothing. Averting his unimpressed gaze, he strode angrily towards the exit. He very much doubted they were as keen to locate Anna as he was – to establish why the fuck she would want to ruin his life.