Creeping Ivy by Natasha Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

and now they don’t think it was a stranger who killed her. They think it was Nicky, don’t they?’
    ‘It may not be as bad as that,’ said Trish.
    ‘It nearly always is, though, isn’t it? When the children are as young as Charlotte,’ Antonia’s voice was quivering again, ‘and when they’ve been lost for this long?’
    Trish put both arms around her.

Chapter Four
    ‘Chief Inspector Blake?’ asked Robert Hithe as he came running lightly down the spiral staircase into the atrium. ‘What is all this? Didn’t Antonia tell you I was busy? Couldn’t you have waited until I was back at the house?’
    Blake suppressed a sigh.
    ‘Mr Hithe,’ he said patiently, ‘your stepdaughter has disappeared in exceedingly worrying circumstances. We have to find her. To do that we have to talk to everyone who saw her yesterday, however busy they may happen to be.’
    ‘But Antonia knows exactly what I was doing for the whole day, and so does Nicky Bagshot. Either of them could have told you. You didn’t need to come barging in here.’
    ‘It’s always better for us to hear evidence directly, sir. Is there somewhere we could talk?’
    Robert Hithe tossed his black hair away from his face and looked round the gleaming glass and steel hall. Then he glanced back at Blake, a malicious little smile tweaking at the edges of his mouth.
    ‘No gags that I can see, no scold’s bridles either; not even “No Talking” signs. What’s stopping you?’
    ‘There must be somewhere less public we could go, sir,’ said Blake, determined to take charge of the encounter.
    ‘What – tea and biscuits in the boardroom? Is that what you’re angling for?’
    ‘The boardroom sounds fine.’
    ‘Tough luck, old bean,’ Hithe said, slipping so easily into a parody of Bertie Wooster that Blake assumed it was one of his party tricks. He resumed his own voice to add irritably: ‘There’s a meeting going on up there. A fucking important one, too, which you dragged me out of.’
    ‘No meeting is more important than a missing child. Have you any idea what Charlotte could be suffering at this moment, sir? Would you like me to tell you what we’ve seen when we’ve finally tracked down abducted children in the past?’
    Robert Hithe shrugged, but Blake thought he could detect a hint of shame behind the casual gesture.
    ‘No, of course not. I know as well as you what may be happening. And it’s … hideous. But I don’t see what you think I can do about it. Still, if you’re determined to waste your time and mine asking questions, you’d better get on with it. What is it you’re so anxious to know?’
    ‘Could we sit down?’ DCI Blake gestured to the row of dark-green leather chairs ranged on the far side of the pool that took up an expensive amount of space in the middle of the atrium.
    ‘No, we could not. There isn’t time. Ask your damned questions and let me get back to work.’
    He looked very nervous, Blake thought, but that could have been because of the meeting, whatever it was. His long fingers were constantly twitching, either adjusting his cuffs or smoothing the lapels of his jacket or else pushing back his dark hair. When you looked carefully at him, you could see his face was weaselly, but because of the flamboyance of his hair and the whiteness of his dazzling smile, as much as the in-your-face self-importance you didn’t notice at first.
    ‘Very well, sir. Could you run through everything that happened yesterday until you left your stepdaughter alone with her nanny.’
    ‘I wish you wouldn’t call her that. It’s so laden with fairy-tale nastiness. I refuse to be anyone’s wicked stepfather. She’s my lover’s daughter. Nothing to do with me.’
    Blake could not think of a much more inappropriate tone for Robert Hithe to be taking in the circumstances, and he wondered what it was supposed to conceal. Well, he’d just have to find out. He hid his revulsion behind a polite smile and set about it.
    ‘Very well,