A Place of Execution by Val McDermid Read Free Book Online

for a moment, then shook her head. ‘Nowt.’ She shrugged. ‘She were just the same as usual. Just…Alison. She said cheerio and walked off up the path to the manor. Last I saw of her she was walking through the door, shouting hello to her mum.’
    ‘Did you see any strangers about? Either on the road or up at the lane end?’
    ‘I never noticed anybody.’
    ‘I believe you went round the village with Mrs Hawkin?’ Clough asked.
    ‘I wasn’t going to leave her on her own, was I?’ Kathy demanded belligerently.
    ‘How did you come to know Alison was missing?’
    ‘It was our Derek. He’s not been doing as well as he should have been at school, so I took it on myself to make sure he was doing his homework properly. Instead of letting him go off with Alison and their cousin Janet when they got home from school, I’ve been keeping him in.’
    ‘She makes him sit at the kitchen table and do all the work his teachers have set him before she’ll let him loose with the girls. Waste of bloody time, if you ask me. The lad’s only going to be a farmer like me,’ Mike Lomas interrupted, his voice a low rumble.
    ‘Not if I have anything to do with it,’ Kathy said grimly. ‘I tell you what’s a waste of time. It’s that record player Phil Hawkin bought Alison. Derek and Janet are never away from there, listening to the latest records. Derek was desperate to get over to Alison’s tonight. She’s just got the new Beatles number one, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.
    But it was after tea before I let him out. It must have been just before seven. He came back within five minutes, saying Alison had gone out with Shep and hadn’t come home. Of course, I went straight over to see what was what.
    ‘Ruth was up to high doh. I told her she should check with everybody in the village, just in case Alison had popped in to see somebody and lost track of the time. She’s always sitting with old Ma Lomas, her and her cousin Charlie keeping the old witch company, listening to her memories of the old days. Once Ma gets going, you could sit all night. She’s some storyteller, Ma, and our Alison loves her tales.’ She settled herself more comfortably against the range. Clough could see she was on a roll, and he decided just to let her run and see where her story took them. He nodded. ‘Go on, Mrs Lomas.’
    ‘Well, we were just about to set off when Phil came in. He said he’d been in his darkroom, messing about with his photographs, and he’d only just noticed the time. He was going on about where was his tea and where was Alison? I told him there were more important things to think about than his belly, but Ruth dished him up a plate of the hotpot she’d had cooking. Then we left him to it and went knocking doors.’ She came to a sudden halt.
    ‘So you never saw Alison again after she got out of the car coming back from school?’
    ‘Land Rover,’ Mike Lomas growled.
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘It were a Land Rover, not a car. Nobody has cars down here,’ he said contemptuously.
    ‘No, I’ve not seen her since she walked in the kitchen door,’ Kathy said. ‘But you’re going to find her, aren’t you? I mean, that’s your job. You are going to find her?’
    ‘We’re doing our best.’ It was Cragg who trotted out the formulaic placebo.
    Before she could utter the angry retort Tommy Clough could see coming, he spoke quickly. ‘What about your lad, Mrs Lomas? Is he where he should be?’
    Her mouth dropped open in shock. ‘Derek? Why wouldn’t he be?’
    ‘Maybe the same reason Alison’s not where she should be.’
    ‘You can’t say that!’ Mike Lomas jumped to his feet, his cheeks flaming scarlet, his eyes tight with anger.
    Clough smiled, spreading his hands in a conciliatory gesture. ‘Nay, don’t 34 take me wrong. All I meant was, you should check in case something’s happened to him an’ all.’
    By the time George got over the stile, the lights from the tracker team’s torches were no more than a hazy