Missing by Susan Lewis Read Free Book Online

Ms Kane to ask if she’d heard from your wife suggests to me that you’re concerned for her.’
    ‘I’ve called a lot of people to find out if my wife has been in touch.’
    ‘But presumably they’re not all ex-lovers.’ Sadler’s eyebrows went up.
    Miles’s hostility was starting to show, but he said nothing to that, and in the end the inspector allowed himself to be stared down.
    ‘So, we’re agreed,’ Sadler began pedantically, ‘that your wife could not only present a risk to others, but to herself?’
    ‘If you must put it that way, but as—’
    ‘I think I’d be failing in my duty if I didn’t.’
    ‘As I said,’ Miles persisted, ‘she’s a very private woman.’
    ‘Which precludes nothing.’
    Miles didn’t argue.
    Getting to his feet, Sadler muttered something to Joy as she stood too. Then, referring to the report from the response team, she said, ‘We’re getting in touch with the phone companies, terrestrial and mobile … I see you’ve already been asked about credit cards and bank statements.’ She looked up expectantly.
    ‘My wife spends most of her time in London, so all her papers are there,’ Miles told her. ‘Obviously I’ve looked through them already, but I’ll do so again when I go back in a couple of days.’
    Joy nodded and returned to the report. ‘OK, DNA samples were taken yesterday. Doctor and dentist also in London. Can I just check that the personal details we have are correct? She is forty years old …’
    ‘She will be in a few weeks.’
    Checking the date the response team had taken, Joy nodded and continued. ‘She has blonde, collar-length hair, brown eyes, pale complexion, no distinguishing moles or birthmarks. She’s five foot seven, slim, and when you last saw her she was wearing a black knee-length coat over a skirt, not trousers, low-heeled black shoes, and she was carrying a dark-coloured bag with a beige design that could belong to a designer …’
    ‘It’s Fendi,’ Kelsey informed her.
    Joy smiled her thanks.
    ‘Is anything missing from her wardrobe?’ Sadler asked. ‘Anything to suggest a prolonged stay away? Has she taken her passport?’
    ‘I’ll check again to see if anything’s missing,’ Miles replied. ‘As for the passport, it’s more likely to be in London.’
    ‘The response officers asked for some photographs,’ Joy reminded him.
    ‘Of course,’ and going to a small table between the two sash windows Miles took out an envelope and passed it over. ‘They’re reasonably recent,’ he said, as Sadler shook them out and Joy came to look over his shoulder.
    Sadler and Joy gazed down at the shots of a softer, slightly more engaging woman than either of them had expected to see. Yet there was something about her eyes, Joy was thinking, that seemed to set her at a distance, in spite of the pleasant smile on her lips. However, this was just one captured moment in amongst many, so one could tell nothing of what was really happening in her mind, much less her life, on that day.
    After sliding them back into the envelope, Sadler said, ‘I’m sure you’ll let us know if she does get in touch, or if anything else comes to mind that you think might be helpful.’
    ‘Of course,’ Miles said, and standing aside he let Sadler lead the way to the door.
    A few minutes later Sadler was circling his mud-spattered Ford Focus around the gravelled courtyard, while peering out at the rain-misted gardens to where a stream cut a gully alongside the drive before snaking off to join the lake. With such a profusion of game roaming freely around the place, pheasants, partridge, deer, rabbits, it almost wasn’t necessary to ask if Miles Avery owned a gun, but Sadler would ask, if it became relevant. He wondered how much he’d like to live in a place like this. He guessed quite a lot, but since his grandfather had not been chairman of a big oil company, nor his father a canny investor, he was never going to inherit the fortune that had evidently