Missing (22 page)

‘I suppose one of you was intending to tell us about Rufus Avery at some point,’ Sadler said amicably, moving aside for DC Joy to close the door behind her.

Vivienne’s eyes shot back to Miles, but his only reaction to learning she’d given their son his name was to flick a glance at her before returning his attention to Sadler.

‘Well, were you?’ Sadler prompted. The cider press seemed ludicrously overcrowded now, unable to support so much intrusion.

Sadler turned to Vivienne. ‘Withholding information in a missing-person case isn’t clever, Ms Kane. In fact, it could be considered a crime.’

‘She did it for a good reason,’ Miles said darkly.

Vivienne’s eyes went to him.

‘And since you know my family history,’ he continued, still focused on Sadler, ‘I don’t imagine you’ve had any trouble working out that reason.’

‘No, I haven’t,’ Sadler agreed, ‘but I’m sure you understand, Mr Avery, what an awkward position that now puts you in.’

‘But he’s only just—’ Vivienne began.

Cutting across her, Miles said, ‘I understand perfectly, but it still doesn’t mean I know what’s happened to my wife.’

Sadler’s eyebrows rose. ‘You will admit, though, that the existence of your son provides you with a strong motive for wanting to … put an end to your marriage?’

‘Of course I admit it. I’d be a fool not to, but even if he didn’t exist I’d want to end it.’

‘And of course you, Ms Kane,’ Sadler said, turning to her, ‘would also welcome an end to that marriage.’

Vivienne’s eyes widened with astonishment. ‘If you’re insinuating what I think you are …’ she began fiercely.

‘Go on,’ Sadler prompted.

‘Well, of course I want my son to be with his father, but if you think I – or Miles – had anything to do with Jacqueline’s disappearance, you need to think again. Neither of us has any idea where she is.’

Sadler allowed his scepticism to linger for a while, then returned his scrutiny to Miles. ‘I’m sure Mr Avery can speak for himself,’ he said mildly.

‘Inspector, I can assure you, if I knew where my wife was I wouldn’t be wasting your time.’

Sadler’s lower lip jutted outwards as he digested the words. ‘Well, that’s good to hear,’ he commented. Then, after a pause, he raised his head. Unexpectedly, he asked, ‘Do you happen to own a gun, sir?’

Vivienne gaped at him incredulously as Miles frowned with annoyance. ‘I do,’ he replied.

‘For which you have a licence?’

‘Of course.’

‘And would we find that gun at Moorlands, if we were to go there now?’

‘It’s in a locked cabinet in my study. The key is in the safe.’

Appearing impressed by the security, Sadler enquired, ‘Has it been fired recently, by any chance? It’s the shooting season.’

‘No, it hasn’t,’ Miles said shortly.

‘You wouldn’t mind if we checked that?’

‘Of course not.’

‘This is outrageous!’ Vivienne cried. ‘You can’t seriously think he’s harmed her. For God’s sake, you know who he is—’

‘Status doesn’t exempt him,’ Sadler cut in. ‘Now, Ms Kane, would you like to tell us what you were doing on the morning of August 29th this year?’

Vivienne’s jaw dropped in amazement. She looked at Miles, who appeared equally as confused, until, registering the significance of the date, he said, ‘It’s when Jacqueline withdrew the money from the bank.’

Vivienne blinked as she turned back to Sadler. ‘Please tell me I’m not reading this correctly,’ she challenged incredulously.

He waited.

‘You’re actually asking me …’ She stopped, still too stunned to continue.

‘Where you were on the morning of August 29th,’ Sadler repeated affably.

Vivienne looked at Miles as she dashed a hand through her hair. Then, sensing DC Joy’s piercing scrutiny, she said, ‘I’ll have to check my diary, but I imagine I was at my office.’

‘It would help if you could be certain,’ Sadler told her. ‘Better still would be if someone could confirm it.’

Vivienne was starting to feel dizzy. ‘You can’t
seriously
think I withdrew that money,’ she protested. ‘I have no access to Jacqueline’s accounts.’

‘No, but Mr Avery does, and someone, a woman, collected the money. We’re trying to establish whether or not it was Mrs Avery herself, or someone passing themselves off as her.’

Vivienne’s eyes went back to Miles.

‘I understand you have a job to do, Inspector,’ Miles said, sounding oddly much calmer now, ‘but you could save yourself a lot of time if you removed Ms Kane from your inquiries. She has no idea where my wife is, nor did she collect the money from the bank. Nor, I should add, has she colluded with me on any level to effect my wife’s disappearance.’

Sadler’s eyebrows were rising high. ‘And I’m to take your word for that, am I?’ he said.

‘You could, but I’m sure you won’t. I’m simply trying to tell you that until the day my wife vanished Vivienne and I had had no contact for over two years.’

‘Not even about your son?’

‘No.’

Sadler couldn’t have looked more cynical if he’d tried. ‘Yes, well, I’d still appreciate knowing where you were on the morning of the 29th, Ms Kane. You too, Mr Avery.’

‘I was here, in Devon,’ Miles told him. ‘I’m sure my housekeeper will bear me out.’ At that moment his mobile started to ring. Glancing down to see who it was, he said, ‘My daughter. If you’ll excuse me,’ and he clicked on.

‘Dad! Where are you?’ Kelsey cried at the other end. ‘That horrible woman’s in the house. She said you invited her, but—’

‘Just a minute,’ Miles cut in, ‘what are you doing there? You’re supposed to be at school.’

‘I know, but I didn’t want to go back and have everyone keep asking me where Mum is …’

‘But you can’t just stay away …’

‘Well I have, and I don’t want that woman in our house. You have to make her go.’

Glancing at Sadler, he said, ‘Darling, I’m in the middle of something right—’

‘I don’t care,’ Kelsey shrieked. ‘If you don’t come home now I’m going to tell her to fuck off. Or I’ll call the police …’

‘Kelsey, just go to your room if you don’t want to speak to her.’

‘Why should I? This is my house, not hers. I didn’t ask her to come, so tell her to go away. Or to get lost back to London. We don’t want her here.’

Miles took a breath and looked at the inspector. ‘All right, I’m on my way,’ he said, and ringing off he glanced at Vivienne before saying to Sadler, ‘I’m sorry, I need to go home.’

Sadler nodded affably. The yelling at the other end hadn’t been lost on him. This was a man under a lot of strain, a teenage daughter, a missing wife, a police inquiry, and now Sadler was about to add to the load. ‘We can talk again tomorrow,’ he said, nodding to Joy to open the door. ‘We’ll be bringing a TAG team with us. You’re aware, I’m sure, of what that means?’

Miles’s eyes came harshly to his.

Sadler met the hostility.

‘What does it mean?’ Vivienne asked, watching the stand-off.

DC Joy spoke for the first time. ‘A tactical aid team will be searching the grounds as well as the house,’ she
said,
‘including the surrounding woodlands – and police divers will be dragging the lake.’

A cold fist closed around Vivienne’s heart as she looked at Miles. He’d been here before, suspected of a crime he hadn’t committed.

Miles’s eyes remained on Sadler until, with a brief nod, he walked to the door.

Vivienne’s insides were clenched in fear as they moved from Sadler to Joy and back again. ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong,’ she told them after Miles had gone. ‘I know him. He just wouldn’t.’

DC Joy only looked at her.

‘Please keep us in touch with your movements,’ Sadler said, starting to leave. ‘And don’t forget about August 29th.’

She watched them go to the door, still trying to resist the enormity of what was happening, until with a sudden panic shaking her voice she said, ‘Inspector, about my son.’

Sadler turned round.

‘I swear to you, Miles didn’t know anything about him until tonight,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t tell him. I was always afraid of what his wife might do. I still am, if she finds out.’

Sadler’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s starting to look increasingly less likely,’ he told her bluntly, ‘but if you’re asking that we don’t go public about him, the only assurance I can give you is that no one from the media will learn of his existence from us.’

‘Where the hell are you?’

Recognising the Critch’s dulcet growl, Justine said, ‘Actually, I’m in the sitting room of Miles Avery’s country home,’ and she gleaned a moment’s
satisfaction
from picturing his piggy eyes widening with surprise.

‘Mm,’ he grunted, which was about as much as she was likely to get by way of approval. ‘Is he there?’

‘Not right at this instant.’

‘So you can talk?’

‘I would if I had something to say.’

‘Very clever. I’ve just heard the police are going to start an official search of the place tomorrow.’

It was her turn for surprise. ‘You mean Moorlands? Why? What’s happened?’

‘You’re the one on the ground, and
you’re
asking
me
?’

‘This is the first I’ve heard of it, and I don’t think Miles would have brought me here if he knew, so my guess is something’s broken.’

‘I’m not interested in your guesses. I want facts – on my front page. You’ve already lost out once to the
Mail
, when the police questioned Vivienne Kane. How the hell could you not have found that out? I got to tell you, Justine, you’re not using your second chance well, so make damned sure you stick close to Avery from now on. I want to know everything that’s happening down there, and I want some exclusives. Remember what they are?’

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to drop dead, or worse, but stringing him along, letting him think she was still helping to shape his revenge was going to make her own all the sweeter when it came. ‘Got to go now,’ she said abruptly. ‘Someone’s coming.’

As she clicked off the line she walked over to the fire, continuing to smart at the way he’d spoken to her, and still not yet over the outrageous reception she’d received from Miles’s lippy offspring.

‘What are you doing here?’ the kid had demanded rudely.

‘I’m your father’s guest,’ Justine had told her.

‘So where is he?’

For two pins she might have told her that he was somewhere with Vivienne Kane, since that was almost guaranteed to upset the hormonal cluster. On the other hand, it would upset Miles too, so in the end she’d said, ‘He’s on his way. He had someone to see, so I came on ahead in a taxi.’

At that the girl had turned around and walked away, leaving Justine to find her own way to the sitting room. God only knew where she was now, probably squeezing her teenage spots in a bathroom somewhere, or practising vampire kisses on a nasty collection of dolls.

Realising she should be making notes on what she’d seen and heard at the pub this evening, she took out her PDA to start jotting down the salient points. A few minutes later she closed it up, and began mulling the idea of making a few calls about this search. She didn’t doubt the Critch’s word that it was due to happen, he never got anything like that wrong, but apparently he had no more idea than she did about what had happened to make the police call in the TAG boys now. Actually, at this stage of the game, that information could probably only have come from the police themselves, or Miles, so how lucky was she that she happened to be right here in the thick of it, while her esteemed colleagues were camped out around the gates. Or she guessed they would be by tomorrow morning. Right now it was raining hard, so they’d obviously cleared off for the night, believing Miles still to be in London.

Ten minutes later her pale eyes were sparking with anger. ‘Are you serious?’ she shouted at Miles, who was busying himself with turning on more lamps. ‘I’ve just got here, and now you’re telling me to leave? Apart from anything else, have you seen what the weather’s like out there?’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Things have changed in the last couple of hours.’

She waited, smouldering with fury at finding herself about to be ejected just as events were really hotting up. ‘Is that it?’ she exploded. ‘Surely I deserve a better explanation than that?’

‘Probably,’ he responded, ‘but I’m afraid I can’t give you one. I just need you to leave. I’ll take you to the station and pay for your ticket back to London, naturally.’

She glared at him, speechless with frustration, but absolutely no way was she allowing herself to be turfed out now.

‘Justine, I know what’s going through your mind,’ he told her, stooping to put another log on the fire, ‘so please don’t waste your time trying to change my mind. I apologise for bringing you all this way. I tried to tell you in London that I was having second thoughts—’

‘But the Critch
isn’t
,’ she cut in forcefully. ‘He’s going to crucify you, given half a chance, so nothing’s changed there. You still need me on your side, so for God’s sake tell me what’s going on?’

Standing up, he brushed the dust from his hands and turned around. ‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ he informed her.

At that she almost screamed with outrage. ‘What? I’m going to read about it in the papers?’ she spat.
‘Well,
thank you very much. I came here as a favour to you and now, because it apparently doesn’t suit you any more, I’ve got to just up and go. Well, I’m sorry, Miles, it doesn’t work that way. I already know they’re going to start searching the place tomorrow, so I’m not leaving here until you tell me
why
, and what they’re expecting to find?’

Though his voice was perfectly calm, there was no mistaking the edge to it as he said, ‘You’ll have to ask the police those questions, Justine, or the person who’s leaking the information. For my part, I’m not prepared to discuss it any further. Again I apologise for allowing you to think—’

‘To hell with your apology. You walk back in here like a thundercloud about to explode after being with Vivienne Kane and suddenly I have to go. Now why would that be, Miles? Let me see. They’re searching your house tomorrow, definitely not something to put you in the best of moods, but then I have to ask myself why would that upset you so much if you’ve got nothing to hide? And then I say, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the child your girlfriend’s been hiding at her mother’s place, could it? The little boy that’s obviously yours, who you clearly don’t want the rest of the world to know about?’