Almost Love by Christina James Read Free Book Online

would be impossible to do my job without it.”
    “So you had it with you last night?”
    “Certainly.”
    “In that case, why did you use the landline? If I were in someone else’s house, even someone I knew quite well, I wouldn’t use their phone without their permission unless I had no alternative.”
    Again the shrug. “Force of habit, I guess. I never use the mobile when I’m at home myself. I suppose it’s a kind of hangover from the days when calls on the mobile were much more expensive. Nowadays, of course, they tend to be cheaper than ordinary calls, but one doesn’t always think clearly, especially in trying circumstances; one’s habits tend to become a little ingrained. Besides, my aunt wouldn’t have minded.”
    He made himself sound like a pensioner, thought Tim, when he was probably fifty at the outside.
    “After you made the call, did you just sit and wait until Superintendent Little rang you back? Or did you do something else for however many minutes it was?”
    “I just waited. I sat quietly in one of the armchairs. To be honest, I was beginning to feel the effects of all I’d been through up until that point. A kind of dizziness came over me, so I needed to rest. I also wanted to get some instructions about what I should do next,” he added virtuously. “I didn’t want to do anything that would destroy evidence that might help to find my aunt.”
    “And after Superintendent Little spoke to you?”
    “I remained seated for a while, and then I decided to look in the kitchen. Roy Little said that I should touch as little as possible, but he didn’t forbid me from touching anything at all, so I thought it would probably be all right. I must admit to being a bit apprehensive about what I might find in there, and I loitered outside the door for a few seconds before I could pluck up courage to turn the handle. But it was – is – fine. Some of the usual clutter that my aunt creates, but nothing to suggest a struggle.”
    “And no body lying on the floor?” said Tim, with a hint of satire.
    Guy Maichment looked affronted.
    “That’s in very poor taste, if I may say so. And quite unnecessary. If there had been a body, obviously we wouldn’t all be standing here, thinking about what might have become of my aunt. Would we?”
    It was on the tip of Tim’s tongue to retort that that would depend on whose body it was. He thought better of it, however, in part because he was more interested in the car which he could now hear approaching. He turned to face the track at the same moment as the first glimpse of a small white van appeared through the trees. He recognised it immediately as the vehicle used by Patti Gardner and her team of SOCOs.

Chapter Four
    Alex sustained her veneer of jauntiness as she entered the conference room, though her heart was still quailing at the prospect of the day ahead. She saw that Oliver was already waiting for her. He was sitting at a table near to the podium with his back to her, his long legs stuck out to one side of the table, his fingers absent-mindedly playing with what looked like a piece of plastic. The tables had been arranged ‘cabaret style’, as the events manager of the hotel had suggested: a break with tradition that had at once appealed to Alex and filled her with alarm when she considered the reaction that it might provoke amongst the old guard.
    Oliver turned to look at her as the swing door banged behind her and rose to his feet. He was sucking a sweet. He held out the packet.
    “Love hearts,” he said, brandishing the twist of transparent paper with which he had been toying. “Why is it that hotels seem to think that conference delegates have suddenly regressed to late toddlerhood and need fortifying with the sort of sweets that one saw on the pocket-money counter of the corner shop, circa 1960? Or is it just the pernicious creeping American influence, do you think, of trivialising everything? Want one?” he added, taking another himself. He