Gone Astray by Michelle Davies Read Free Book Online

have a look too. Good, thought
Maggie. It might be only his second case as an FLO but it appeared as though Belmar already understood the visual shorthand FLOs needed to employ when it wasn’t possible or wise to talk
freely in front of a family. He clearly got that there was an issue with Rosie’s bedroom but was smart enough not to ask with Lesley and Sarah present.
    ‘Anything to report down here?’ she asked him.
    ‘Nothing that can’t wait,’ he said, glancing at Sarah, which Maggie took to mean there was something but he’d tell her later when they were alone.
    ‘I’ll speak to DCI Umpire now. He must be outside,’ said Maggie. ‘Can you wait here with Mrs Kinnock?’
    Before he could answer, Lesley butted in.
    ‘You can cut through to the garden from here . . . oh.’ She stared across the room at the French doors. ‘Someone’s pulled the curtains.’
    Belmar half raised his hand. As he did, the sleeve of his suit and shirt cuff drew back to reveal a stainless-steel Citizen watch encircling his wrist. Taking in the expensive-looking pinstripe
suit and the shiny black shoes that narrowed to a point and were fastened by the thinnest of laces, Maggie concluded Belmar was probably the best-dressed police officer she’d ever worked
with.
    ‘I closed them,’ he said. ‘The sun’s getting lower and the light was blinding us.’
    Maggie suspected he was lying and knew why. He’d shut the curtains to block out the sight of the forensic team combing the back garden to find any fathomable reason as to why Rosie
Kinnock’s blood appeared to have been spilled across it. It seemed a bit pointless to her now, as Lesley already knew who was in her garden and why.
    ‘Leave them shut,’ Lesley nodded. ‘Too much sun gives me a headache.’
    As Maggie closed the dining-room door behind her, the prospect of facing Umpire made her weak with unease. When she’d arrived at Angel’s Reach, the patrol officer
in charge of the security log that kept track of everyone coming in and out of the crime scene said he was in the back garden. She should have gone straight out to see him, but Belmar was waiting
by the front door to meet her and when he told her he’d already spoken to Umpire and been briefed about what Mrs Kinnock had said so far – mainly a rundown of her and Rosie’s
movements before she went shopping – Maggie said their priority should be to introduce themselves as the family liaison. If her new partner was surprised she didn’t want to speak to the
SIO herself, he didn’t show it.
    She hadn’t seen the DCI for four months, not since the day the Megan Fowler case was wrapped up and he’d found out what she’d done. The look of disgust Umpire had given her as
he walked away that day still haunted her.
    Withdrawing his complaint was baffling enough – she’d read the wording of it and he had made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wanted her punished – but she was even more
unsettled he’d requested her for FL duty the moment her suspension was lifted, when they hadn’t even had a conversation about it. There were plenty of other FLOs on Gant’s roster
he could’ve chosen.
    Maggie stopped in the middle of the hall to steel herself, using the pause to take in her surroundings. The parquet floor beneath her feet shone like the surface of an ice rink and she could see
herself clearly reflected in it. The walls below the dado rail were papered with burgundy and dusky pink stripes, while above it the wallpaper was cream and patterned with large roses in the same
pink. The only furniture in the entire space was a dark wood console table flush against the wall next to the dining-room door and it was bare except for a cordless phone in its stand and a framed
photograph of the Kinnocks in which Lesley was almost unrecognizable. She’d lost a lot of weight since it was taken. Maggie decided that as impressive as the hall was, it still looked more
like the reception area of a