Her Last Tomorrow by Adam Croft Read Free Book Online

becomes that Ellie will be found, I’ll only be left with one way to get her back.
    ‘Let me level with you, Nick,’ Brennan says, clearly attempting to play Good Cop to McKenna’s Bad. ‘I know you’re under a lot of stress with the situation. Trust me, I see it all the time. I don’t mean that to sound patronising. And I know people respond in different ways to stress. But the way you’re behaving and reacting to things... Well, it’s not doing you any favours, put it that way.’
    ‘What are you trying to say?’ I ask, partly grateful for his efforts to see things from my point of view and partly sceptical of his motives.
    ‘I’ve been doing this long enough to get an eye for a situation. I’ve got a pretty good copper’s nose. I know you didn’t do anything to harm Ellie, but the way you’ve been reacting to things, other people might see that otherwise. See what I’m saying?’
    I barely hear a word that comes out of his mouth after he says Ellie’s name. I’m stunned by the first mention of the possibility that this could have been some sort of deliberate ploy on my part. I can see why it’s crossed their minds; you see it all the time in books and on TV, the parents being unhinged and harming their own children and then reporting them missing.   The police have to consider everything. But the first time you hear that said about yourself, it’s like a ton of bricks landing on your head.
    Brennan must have noticed me standing there open-mouthed as he tries to backtrack. ‘I’m just anticipating how these things go, you know? Just trying to give you a bit of friendly advice. I’m pretty certain you’ll want to make sure we’re putting our efforts into finding Ellie and not worrying about what you’re going to do next. See what I mean?’
    ‘Yeah. Course.’
    ‘Only, according to Mr Francis, you said something about a computer. You were shouting out Ellie’s name and asking him something about an email. What was that all about?’
    ‘I dunno,’ I lie. ‘I’ve not been sleeping well. I’d been napping and I woke up confused. Lack of sleep does that to me sometimes and it’s not exactly easy to let your mind wind down when your five-year-old daughter’s missing.’
    ‘Perhaps you should see a doctor,’ he says.
    ‘Perhaps,’ I reply.
    The atmosphere is broken by the return of Tasha and McKenna, clutching their mugs and passing one to Brennan. It still doesn’t dawn on anyone that I’ve not been asked if I want anything. Or perhaps it does and it’s a deliberate ploy. The way my mind’s working right now, anything’s possible.
    ‘Now Nick, are you going to tell us what that was all about?’ McKenna says, getting straight to the point as always. I’ve got a million thoughts going through my head right now but the one that concerns me is that they seem to be more preoccupied with me and my actions than they are with finding Ellie.
    ‘Does it really matter? We should be out looking, not going over stuff which doesn’t matter,’ I say.
    ‘It does matter though, Nick. It matters that you forced your way into an elderly man’s house and ransacked it,’ McKenna replies.
    ‘I didn’t force my way in.’
    ‘You weren’t invited,’ she says.  
    I just shake my head and release a slight smile and a laugh.
    ‘Something funny?’
    ‘Only the fact that we’re wasting time here,’ I say. ‘Anyway, have you looked more carefully at Derek Francis? Everyone around here knows he’s not quite right. You’d do better to be questioning him than me.’
    ‘Questioning him about what?’ Brennan asks.
    ‘I don’t know,’ I say, eventually.
    McKenna paces towards the front window. ‘About Ellie’s disappearance, you mean?’
    ‘Why not? He had a full view of the driveway. He’s the only one who did. And he says he was stood at the window at the time Ellie went missing. Yet he still didn’t see anything. That’s a bit weird, don’t you think?’
    ‘Not particularly. It