The Lake House by Helen Phifer Read Free Book Online Page B

finished work last night – in case there are any jobs that need following up on – and then we’ll go out on mobile patrol.’
    Annie’s radio began to ring.
    ‘Oh and can you bring me back some dinner? I ate my packed lunch before I’d had chance to log on to the computer this morning. Cheers.’
    ‘Yes, boss.’
    George was smiling at her. ‘She seems okay then for a big boss.’
    ‘Yes, she is as long as you’re behaving…no, she is. She’s great and has been brilliant with me since I moved up here.’
    She stopped herself again from giving him the rundown on her life. She didn’t know the man at all so until she did the less said the better. Her radio crackled and the voice on the other end called her number.
    ‘Can you attend Beckett House on Windermere Road, please. It’s a grade two. Elderly woman reporting the man who came to unblock her drains has come to some harm. She thinks he has disappeared in her cellar and may have come to some harm down there. She can’t go down to see if he’s okay because she’s not good on her legs.’
    ‘Roger, I’m on my way. Can you show me in seven zero and I also have…’ – she tilted her head to read the epaulettes on his shoulders – ‘…I also have 7993 with me.’
    She stood up and George followed her as she strode outside to the van.
    ‘What’s a grade two again?’
    ‘It means it’s important but not as important as a grade one, which is an emergency response. There’s two-hour time limit on getting to the job.’
    ‘Oh, so no blue lights and sirens this time?’
    ‘No, sorry. Not this time. Anyway be thankful – it’s not very good driving through the twisty back roads around here at top speed, and it’s dangerous.’
    ‘Yes, it must be. I just wondered what it was like, you know.’
    She did know. When she first joined she’d loved it when Jake had been her tutor and would answer emergency calls, then drive like a maniac to get to the job first so they could deal with it. It was an adrenaline rush like no other, but as the years passed she began to realise that most of the jobs were the same people with the same problems, which weren’t really that much of an emergency. The excitement had slowly passed and the dread of being stuck in custody all night with the same idiots took its place.
    She decided that George wasn’t so bad and she would do her best not to give him a hard time.
    She turned into the overgrown drive at Beckett House. She had been here to do inquiries when there was a missing man a few months back and all the sheds and outhouses had to be searched. The grey slate house, with its huge black and white painted windows and doors, would have been lovely in its day and George began to mumble about how the other half lived. The elderly woman who lived there was waiting for them on the front step and she looked distraught. Annie jumped out of the van.
    ‘Hello, Miss Beckett, what’s the problem?’
    ‘Hello, dear, I’m afraid I have some very bad news and it’s entirely my fault. I should have stopped him from going down there on his own. I knew all along it was a very bad idea.’
    Annie gently took hold of her arm to guide her back inside and George followed behind. The old woman led them to the kitchen, which smelt of home-made shortbread and stewed tea.
    ‘Why don’t you sit down, Miss Beckett, and I’ll make us a fresh pot of tea, then you can tell me all about it?’
    ‘Would you, dear, or would you rather go and search the cellar first? Although I think it’s far too late for him.’
    George was looking at Annie, inquiring whether Miss Beckett was as mad as a box of frogs or just delusional, and she shook her head.
    ‘I need you to tell me from the beginning what’s happened. This is George. It’s his first day as a special constable and he’s going to make the tea, aren’t you, George?’
    ‘Yes, yes, of course I will.’
    He picked the still-warm teapot up from the centre of the table and tipped the