Missing by Susan Lewis Read Free Book Online Page A

come Miles Avery’s way.
    ‘So what did you make of all that, Detective Constable?’ he asked, accelerating carefully over a humpback bridge to start heading down the tree-lined arc of the drive.
    Pleased to be asked, Joy inhaled thoughtfully. ‘Well, if we’re to believe all we were told,’ she began, ‘I’d say Mrs Avery sounds like a pretty mixed-up sort of woman. Kind of sad though, I think, rather than mad. I can’t make up my mind whether he cares about her or not. On the one hand he seems quite defensive where she’s concerned, but three weeks is a long time for someone you love to be missing and not report it, even if she does have a history of taking off on her own.’
    Sadler was nodding.
    ‘Also,’ Joy continued, ‘did you notice how he spoke about her in the past tense when he said, “She didn’t have a wide circle of friends”?’
    Impressed, Sadler said, ‘Yes, I did. A slip of the tongue? Or something more sinister?’
    Joy glanced at him.
    ‘The daughter’s bothering me,’ he said, hooting the horn to send a family of pheasants scuttling out of the way. ‘I think she’s probably even more mixed up than the mother. And lonely.’
    Joy’s eyes widened in surprise. Sadler didn’t have much of a reputation for being the touchy-feely type, but on the other hand, he did have three girls of his own.
    ‘I don’t think being a part of that family has been easy,’ he expanded, as they juddered over a cattle grid before turning out of the gates into the country lane.
    In complete agreement with that, Joy remarked, ‘It’ll be interesting to hear what the psychiatrist has to say.’
    ‘Mmm, won’t it just.’
    Joy turned to rub a circle in the steamy passenger window. ‘I definitely got the impression he was holding something back,’ she went on.
    ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt of it. In fact the daughter told us as much.’
    ‘You mean when she said about what made her mother all screwed up?’
    He nodded. ‘And the fact that no one’s allowed to mention it. It’s going to be interesting to find out what our trusty team has dug up on the Averys while we’ve been away.’
    Joy took out her mobile to check if there were any messages from the officers they’d left trawling old records, but finding none she tucked it away again and stayed thoughtfully silent as she gazed out at the passing hedgerows and small glimpses of rolling fields beyond. They were travelling away from the moor now, but having been born and brought up in these parts she never failed to feel its presence whether it was visible or not. ‘So what next, sir?’ she finally asked.
    ‘That depends on the CCTV. If it’s not showing Jacqueline Avery getting onto a train I’ll recommend contacting the local media. Maybe someone will remember seeing her at the station either getting into a taxi, or being picked up by someone else after her husband drove away.’
    ‘And if it does show her getting on a train?’
    ‘We’ll liaise with the transport police, and the Met at Kensington and Chelsea.’ He made a soft tutting sound as he thought. ‘What time did the housekeeper tell the response team Mr and Mrs Avery left the house?’ he asked.
    ‘Twenty past nine, and he was back an hour and a half later. That could work, even with the stop-off at Sainsbury’s she mentioned.’
    ‘Mmm,’ was all Sadler said.
    ‘Are you going to recommend a search?’
    ‘Not immediately. We can’t just go blundering in without any solid reason to.’
    ‘But three weeks, sir. No one lets their wife go missing for that long without reporting it.’
    Sadler cast her a glance. ‘And there was me thinking he had you all suckered in and eating out of his hand,’ he teased.
    Joy flushed. ‘I’m not going to deny he’s attractive,’ she retorted, ‘and powerful and charming and seriously rich … Which reminds me, do you think we should check out his finances?’
    ‘I most certainly do.’
    ‘And this Vivienne woman? It